CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FROM J. D. -Adams Cornell University Library DK 41.M84 History of Russia from the birth of Pete 3 1924 028 567 711 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028567711 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA A HISTORY OF RUSSIA FROM THE BIRTH OF PETER THE GREAT TO THE DEATH OF ALEXANDER II. W. R. MORFILL, M.A. PROFESSOR OF RUSSIAN AND OF THE OTHER SLAVONIC LANGUAGES IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD ; CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ROYAL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY OF BOHEMIA WITH TWELVE MAPS AND PLANS METHUEN & CO. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON 1902 PREFACE '"PHE present little work has been undertaken with the view *• of furnishing the general reader with a succinct account of the chief events of Russian history from the birth of Peter the Great to our own times. I have mostly drawn from Russian sources, and have freely availed myself of the material furnished, not only by the leading historians of the country, but also of what is contained in the historical reviews and the transactions of Russian learned societies. A great deal of valuable matter has been recently published, which has been up to the present time only partially utilised in our country. This information I have further illustrated by ex- tracts from the chief memoirs and diaries which have been published. From these many anecdotes have been gleaned which will enable us to understand persons and events more accurately than in the dignified pages of the historian. Plutarch has fully acknowledged this truth in the intro- duction to one of his realistic Lives. Some account has been given of the chief Russian authors ; it seems now universally acknowledged that we must know something of the literary and social development of a nation and not confine ourselves to battles and conquests. Towards the close of the work attention has been paid to two questions which have great interest for English readers at the present time : the relations of Finland to Russia and the development of the Siberian railway. As some ignorance on the former point prevails in England, it seemed desirable to give a few facts, elucidating the condition of the country before its union with Russia. Some attention has also been paid to the Eastern question which, in spite of the devices of politicians, is always with us. At the risk of appearing to borrow without acknowledg- vi PREFACE merit, I have thought it undesirable to burden the pages of my book with a bristling array of the sources from which I have drawn. These minutim deter the ordinary reader for whom my book is planned. I am afraid that I have not been able to avoid an occasional inconsistency in spelling. So long as there is no recognised system of transliteration of Russian names we must expect these difficulties. Of course, I have my own system and have generally followed it ; but how are we to act with Slavonic words which are half domesticated among us, and where the Englishman has frequently chosen in the most haphazard way a Polish, German or French form? The names too often appear congested with un- necessary consonants ; and I have occasionally felt a pleasure in unloading them. When the combination ch is quite familiar to us, why do we write tsch, and why has the sound of/ sometimes been metamorphosed into dsch ? There is much work still for the phonetician. W. R. Morfill Oxford, Nov. 27, 1901. CONTENTS PREFACE ...... CHAP. I. THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER II. THE REIGN OF PETER — continued. III. the REIGN OF PETER — continued . IV. THE REIGNS OF CATHERINE I. AND PETER II. V. THE REIGN OF ANNE VI. THE REIGN OF ANNE — continued . VII. THE REIGNS OF IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH VIII. THE REIGNS OF PETER III. AND CATHERINE II, IX. THE REIGN OF CATHERINE II. — continued X. THE REIGN OF PAUL XI. THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. XII. THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. — continued XIII. THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. XIV. THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 27 63 no 120 139 'S3 190 202 255 276 34* 358 424 V1I1 CONTENTS CHAP. 'AGE XV. SUMMARY OF THE REIGNS OF ALEXANDER III. AND NICHOLAS II., 1881-1899 .... XVI. THE SPREAD OF THE RUSSIAN DOMINION IN ASIA. GENEALOGICAL TABLES . INDEX 457 467 473 475 MAPS AND PLANS I. MAP TO ILLUSTRATE THE INVASIONS OF CHARLES XII. AND NAPOLEON 2. BATTLE OF NARVA, 170O 3. BATTLE OF POLTAVA, 1709 . 4. BATTLE OF THE RIVER PRUTH, 17H . 5. BATTLE OF ZORNDORF, 1758 . 6. BATTLE OF KUNERSDORF, 1759 7. BATTLE OF CHESME, 1770 8. SUVOROV's PASSAGE OF THE ALPS, 1 799 9. BATTLE OF BORODINO, l8l2 . 10. BATTLE OF MALOYAROSLAVETZ, l8l2 11. BATTLE OF NAVARINO, 1827 12. MAP OF THE SIBERIAN RAILWAY . frontispiece 3° 49 59 180 181 224 268 297 320 635 facing page 467 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA CHAPTER I THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER "DETER the son of the Tsar Alexis, by his second wife, -*■ Natalia Narishkin, was born at Moscow on nth June 1672. Among the anecdotes collected by Staehlin, who held various appointments in Russia and was well acquainted with the country, is one related to him by the Countess Maria Rumiantsov, who was grand-daughter of the boyar Artemon Matveov, the friend and foreign-minister of Alexis. This was a much more important post than it had been in earlier reigns, for Alexis was perhaps the first Tsar who had what would now be called a foreign policy. After the death of his first wife, who was of the family of the Miloslavskis, Alexis would not infrequently visit Matveov at the latter's own house, thereby somewhat departing from the rigours of court eti- quette. Upon one occasion when he had gone to the house without attendants (for the patriarchal habits of the period permitted of simple fashions) he saw supper ready and ex- pressed his desire to share his friend's meal ; provided that the good boyar would consent not to make any alteration in his arrangements. When the Tsar had seated himself, the wife of Matveov made her appearance, followed by her son and a young girl. It should be remembered that these were the days when the Russian women lived almost exclusively in their terems, as their apartments were called, and were but seldom seen by those who were not members of the house- hold. Like the Bulgarian women at the present day, who A 2 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1672 are not yet free from the fetters of Turkish custom, the Russians were then still under the influence of Mongolian tradition. The Tsar regarded the young lady with great attention and said to -his host : " I thought you had only a son, but now I perceive that you have also a daughter. How is it that I have never seen her before ? " " Your Majesty is right," rejoined Matveov, " it is quite true that I have only a son : this girl is the daughter of one of my relatives, Cyril Narishkin ; my wife has undertaken to bring her up." " You do a good work," replied the Tsar. When supper was over, the family retired, but the Tsar remained in conversation with his minister. "That young lady," said the former, " has a gentle appear- ance and you ought to think of finding a suitable marriage for her." To this Matveov replied that he was afraid it would be difficult for him to bring it about, for although she was a clever and amiable girl she had no dowry. " Well, then," said the Tsar, " you must find her a husband who does not care about money, but will be content to take her for her merits." Matveov replied that he did not think the age in which they lived likely to produce many suitors of that sort. " Well," said the Tsar in reply, " let us see if we cannot find one." Some days afterwards the Tsar again came to the house and after conversing for some time with his minister on foreign affairs, asked him if he had found a suitable husband for Natalia, as' the young lady was called. " No, I have not," replied the boyar. " I see many young men in my house, but none talk of matrimony." " Well," said the Tsar, " I think I know of a suitor who has no need of a fortune with his wife," and thereupon declared that he wished to marry her himself. And so it came about that the mother of Peter the Great was Tsaritsa. She 1672] THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER 3 had been chosen from among many Court beauties, and indeed was herself possessed of considerable personal attrac- tions, as can be seen by her portrait ; and her son inherited his share of her good looks. Indeed, Peter was in every way a man of striking appearance, being about six feet seven inches in height, and, though slender, of muscular build. The Tsar Alexis seems to have been a tender-hearted and conscientious man ; he was greatly given to religious obser- vances ; and the account of his fasting, furnished by Collins, for nine years his physician, is calculated to astonish the modern reader. In the controversy which he had with the Patriarch Nikon, who was perhaps, after Peter himself, the greatest man Russia has ever produced, there was a con- siderable probability that the pious Tsar would yield; and the overthrow of Nikon was, in reality, due to the boyars. He had arrayed himself against the power of the Tsar in spiritual affairs, as Beckett did against Henry II. Alexis, ever anxious to be a just and merciful ruler, had reserved a particular place in the Kremlin, where petitions to him were to be presented. He is recorded to have said to some of his officials, who sought to punish a soldier for cowardice, that they ought to be merciful, since God had not given all men courage alike: Matveov's predecessor, as diplomatist and minister, had been the excellent and incor- ruptible Ordin Nastchokin, and in him Alexis had a loyal, able, and indefatigable adviser. Already progress had begun, and Russia was looking to the west. In 1649 had appeared the Ulozhenie, a code of laws which, though retrogressive in that it made the peasant legally adscriptus glebm, was in many ways beneficial; before a kind of custom had sprung up which dated, however, only from the conclusion of the previous century. Alexis also made efforts to introduce a more disciplined system among his soldiers, who then took the field clad in the loose garments and displaying the irregular energy of barbarian troops. In his efforts to reform his army, he was greatly helped by three men ; Gordon, destined afterwards 4 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1676 to become the favourite captain of his son Peter; Leslie, whose permission to enter the Russian service is still pre- served among the archives of Exeter Cathedral, and who founded a family still existing in Russia; and the Scot Dalziel, afterwards notorious for his ' cruelty to the Cove- nanters, by whom he was called the Muscovy beast. Charles II. used to call him Old Tom of Muscovy; and he is sup- posed to have acquired his cruel tendencies while in the Russian service. Alexis also cherished plans for the forma- tion of a navy, and had taken into his pay some Dutch shipbuilders, of whom we shall hear more presently. At this time Russia had no ports, with the exception of Archangel. The same" idea of getting an outlet to' the sea had been formed a hundred years before by Ivan the Terrible. In 1676 Alexis died, at the age of forty-six. He was a corpulent, fair-haired man, to judge by the portraits of him, several of which have been preserved. There is a good contemporary likeness of him in the old editions of the traveller Olearius. Through the pages of Collins we seem to get as clear a personal knowledge of Alexis as we do of Ivan the Terrible from the picturesque diary of Horsey. Alexis left two sons and four daughters by his firsthand a son and daughter by his second, marriage. The proper successor to the throne was the eldest son Feodor, who was, however, as also was his next brother Ivan, of a very sickly constitution, and subject to epileptic fits. The second daughter, the Princess Sophia, was a woman of masculine character, and possessed both talents and energy. These qualities were the more remarkable, because, as has been previously said, the life of women in Russia under the old regime was one of seclusion. Sophia thus found herself, at her father's death, with two sickly brothers, and a step-brother (the future Peter I.), who was a child of little more than four years of age. She accordingly took upon herself to act as their guardian and to administer the Empire as Regent. She had hitherto only been known as a very dutiful daughter, who had nursed her father with much tenderness during his last illness at 1676] THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER 5 Kolomenskoe, his favourite residence near Moscow. As regards her personal appearance, if we may judge from such portraits of her as have come down to us, she was a mas- culine looking woman with strongly marked features. Some of thewriters of the eighteenth century, especially de Neuville, speak of her as coarse and ugly; but Perry, who was in Russia in the time of Peter, and, if he did not himself see her, must have heard people speak of her who had done so, calls her good-looking. Feodor had a short and un- eventful reign. The Zaporozhian Cossacks, who in 1652 had given their allegiance to Russia, showed a certain amount of wavering in their fidelity and seemed inclined to transfer their services to Turkey. The Cossacks, who often figure in Russian and Polish annals, were the descendants of Russians, Poles and Tatars, who being either outlaws or landless men, had betaken them- selves to the vast territories lying between Russia, Poland and the dominions of the Turks. No one has described these wild lands better than the Polish novelist Sienkiewicz, in his spirited tale, " With Fire and Sword." As regards the word Cossack, which is an adaptation of Kazak, it is of Tatar origin and signifies a robber. When we first hear of them we find them divided into two great families, settled respectively on the Don and the Dnieper. The Don Cossacks were subject to Russia certainly as early as the days of Ivan the Terrible. The Cossacks of the Dnieper were subject to the Poles, but their subjection was little more than a nomi- nal one. They lived upon plunder, and sallying forth from some fortified islands on the Dnieper, where they had estab- lished their setch, or encampment, they carried desolation to the very walls of Constantinople. Of these Polish Cossacks we first hear in the time of King Stephen Batory, who per- ceiving what valuable frontier men they would make, organised them into regiments. The first complete account of them, however, was given by Beauplan in his work on the Ukraine ("Description d'Ukraine," Paris, 1660). He was able to describe them from personal observation, having been em- 6 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1677 ployed among them by the Polish king, John Casimir, as an engineer. The next writer on the subject was Edward Brown, the English traveller. In a recent Russian work, by Mr Evarnitski, many interesting details are given, and the book is ornamented with pictures of some Cossack reliques which are still preserved. The Cossacks who dwelt on the Dnieper are sometimes called Zaporozhian because they lived beyond the porogi or waterfalls. However satisfactorily these bold marauders may have arranged matters with Stephen Batory, under the rule of Sigismund III. they could not very long endure the oppression of their Polish masters. To the other persecu- tions which they endured was now added the religious pro- paganda of the Jesuits, and especially Skarga, and thus they came to transfer their allegiance to the Russians in 1652. Doroshenko, the hetman as their chief was called, from the German hauptman, would not deliver up Chigirin and twice summoned aid from the Turks. Nor had the Poles finally surrendered their claims to the territory which had been ceded" by the treaty of Andruszowo on the right bank of the Dnieper (1667). Poland was now under the vigorous rule of John Sobieski. The Russian general Romodanovski drove the Mussulmans out of the southern part of Russia but not before they had ravaged the country in merciless fashion. Finally Doro- shenko was compelled to surrender the hetmanship to Samoilovich and died in obscurity in Russia. With him the glory of the Cossacks departed. Feodor refused to surrender the.points gained by the treaty of Andruszowo ; and Kiev, with part of the Ukraine, was for ever lost to the Poles. Kiev, one of the Russian mother cities, first becomes known in history about the beginning of the eighth century. It was the cradle of Russian Christianity, for here Vladimir, " the bright sun " of the Russian bilini, ruled and became a Christian. In 1240 it suffered greatly from the inroads of the Tatars, and in 1320 it was conquered by the Lithuanian Prince Gedymin, and when Lithuania was annexed to Poland by 1682] THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER 7 the marriage of Jagiello with Jadwiga it became a Polish city. In 1 68 1 peace was concluded between Russia and the Sultan. The most important event, however, of the reign of Feodor, was the destruction of the rozriadnia knigi or books of pedigrees. According to the institution of the mestni- stchestvo, no man could fill an office inferior to any which his forefathers had held, or would accept a lower position than any man who counted fewer ancestors than himself. The custom seems entirely Oriental. Thus we are told in a Russian work on Persia that people send to enquire below what others they will have to sit before they make their appearance at a banquet given by the minister. These continual questions of precedence weakened the country. Boris Godunov had, at the beginning of the century; formed plans for the abolition of the evil : but it was reserved for Feodor to put an end to it. He caused the books of pedigrees to be sent to him under the pretext of seeing if they were correct, and had them burned in his presence and that of the assembly. He died without issue in 1682 : at his death the country found itself in a somewhat critical state. The two chief factions of the court consisted of the Miloslavskis and the Narishkins, the relatives respectively of the first and second wife of Alexis. Besides these there was the powerful faction of the Golitsins. Ivan, the next in order of succession, was an even greater invalid than his brother, and the Narishkin party maintained that he ought to be altogether set aside and Peter crowned in his place. According to Perry, Feodor had bequeathed the succession to his younger brother Peter, because Ivan, by reason of the weakness of his eyes and the infirmity of his constitution, was unfit for the government. He was also said to be " skorbni glavoyu]" weak in the head. « This dispute furnished Sophia with her opportunity. Like other Russian women who were conspicuous during the early period in the realms of literature or politics, she succeeded in emancipating herself from the trammels of Oriental tradi- 8 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [wsa tion. Sophia, the wife of Ivan III., who was, originally, Zoe Palaeologa, does not seem to have felt her proud Byzantine spirit crushed in Russia. She ruled her husband Ivan, and persuaded him to cast off the Tatar yoke; and as we know from the correspondence (which has been published) she tried to make her daughter Helen adopt a like attitude towards her husband, Alexander, the King of Poland. What Sir George Macartney, the English Ambassador in the eighteenth century, said of the position of women in Russia, we shall see later on. Sophia was at this time only twenty-five years of age. She defied, however, all traditional usages, and made her first appearance in public at the funeral of Feodor. At this time there were some men at the Russian court who might be styled more or less men of letters, and these encouraged Sophia in her aspirations. Special mention may be made of Simeon Polotski, who had been educated at Kiev and summoned to Moscow by Alexis to be the tutor of his children, and had imbibed some of the learning of the west. He was a writer of religious plays, and also published a metrical version of the psalms. He dedicated his book, "The Crown of Faith," to Sophia. There seems, however, to be no justification for the assertion which has been made that Sophia translated the Malade Imaginaire of Moliere. There is no reason to believe that she was acquainted with any other language than her own. The first person who favoured French plays in the country was Natalia, a younger sister of Peter the Great, who died in 17 16. 1 Sophia now placed herself at the head of a revolt, nominally in favour of her brother, and fomented an outbreak of the Streltsi. These celebrated soldiers (the name is derived from striela, an arrow) were the praetorian cohorts of Russia. 1 In 1899 a work was published by Mr Shliapkin, entitled "Natalia Aleksievna and the theatre in her time," in which he prints some of the pieces acted at Natalia's theatre. Only the titles of these were known till the manuscript was found at Veliki Ustioug (see Mororov, " Istoria Russkago Theatra," vol. i. 197). 1682] THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER 9 Mayerberg, who wrote an interesting book of travels towards the close of the seventeenth century, says of them : " The Tsar has continually under arms 40,000 men for his guard, who are called Streltsi by the Muscovites : the third of these he keeps about his person and the rest are sent to the fortified places on the frontier. Their colonels and captains have for their pay certain revenues assigned on the property of the Tsar as a kind of life interest : besides this every year they receive clothes and money as presents." The rebellion broke out on the 15th of May 1682. To the number of twenty thousand (followed by a vast crowd) the malcontents came into the precincts of the Kremlin. The widowed Empress made her appearance on the famous Red Staircase, accompanied by Ivan and Peter. At first the mob showed signs of wavering. The infuriated soldiery were pacified by the speeches of Matveov, who had great influence owing to his connection with the Tsaritsa and by the exhor- tations of the Patriarch. It seemed as if the riot was at an end, and that the malicious designs of the Miloslavskis had been frustrated. Unfortunately Michael Dolgoruki, who was chief of the prikaz or office of the Streltsi, began abusing them for their seditious conduct. This infuriated them, and Dolgoruki was thrown upon the pikes of the rebels, at the foot of the Red Staircase. The Streltsi then amused them- selves with hunting down obnoxious persons amid cries of liubo It, i.e. "would you like to have them?" and on an answer being given in the affirmative, each miserable victim was quickly despatched. The riots lasted - three days. The Kremlin ran with the blood of some of the most illustrious houses in Russia. About seventy persons perished, including the benevolent Matveov, the great minister of Alexis and guardian of the Tsaritsa ; as did also her father Cyril and her brother Ivan. Seven days elapsed before the mutineers could be said to be completely pacified. How far Sophia was really privy to all this will probably never be known : certainly when the Streltsi showed signs of coming to their senses they sent a deputation to say that they wished to have two Tsars. At this io A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [less time it was even rumoured that the Tsar Feodor had been deprived of his life by the physicians at the instigation of some of the chief boyars ; and to, more thoroughly irritate the Streltsi it was said that a design had been formed to mix poison with the brandy and beer which were to be given them at the Tsar Feodor's funeral. Nothing of this sort of rule had been known in Russia, and the brothers were to sit upon a double throne. The proclama- tion was made by the victorious soldiers, May 26, 1682. Sophia really was to govern in the name of her brothers. Ivan, who was weak alike in mind and body, made no effort towards taking any part in the government, but left everything to his brother Peter, and died in 1696. Most of his time had been passed in the village of Izmaelovo, close by Moscow, which was his property. On January 21st, 1684, he had married Prascovia Saltikov, whose great grandfather, Michael Glebovich Saltikov, was a conspicuous figure in Russian history. In the Time of Troubles (Smutnoe Vremya), as it is called, he supported the cause of the Poles, and assisted Wladyslaw, the son of Sigismund, in his aspirations to the Russian throne. But he met; with no sympathy from the Russian people, and in the year 161 2, when the Polish cause seemed completely lost, betook himself with all his family to Poland. His grandson, Alexander, when Smolensk was captured by the Tsar Alexis, took the oath of allegiance to the latter, and returned to the property which had once belonged to his family. He was for some time Voievode of Yenisseisk, and thence was summoned by Sophia to be Voievode of Kiev. The family of the Saltikovs met with great favour from Sophia, as is evidenced by this appoint- ment, and it was probably she who arranged her brother's marriage, for in such an important matter he was hardly likely to have been able to act without advice. Ivan had five daughters, of whom only three survived their infancy: Catherine, born in 1692, -Anne, born in 1693, and Prascovia, born in 1694. Ivan enjoyed all the honours associated with his imperial 1696] THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER n rank, appearing to the people on triumphal occasions, and being present at the reception of foreign ambassadors. His name also figures with that of Peter in all State documents. So he continued till his sudden death, on February ioth, 1696. Peter, who was ruthless towards any one who opposed his will, was always gracious to those who showed compliance. He treated the widow of his brother with great kindness, and allowed her to continue to live in her village of Izmaelovo, and also provided her with an ample revenue. Besides Izmaelovo, she had estates in the government of Pskov Novgorod, and Nizhni - Novgorod, her property being managed for her by her brother Basil. The description which has been handed down to us of her large retinue of servants gives a curious picture of the life of the old-fashioned Russian boyar, and we may linger upon it, as it is a picture of a state of things which was more or less passing away even in the time of Peter. The widowed Empress was surrounded by conjurors, wise women, idiots, dwarfs, and the usual retinue. Tatistchev, the historian, visited her in her home at Izmaelovo, and said that it resembled an hospital built for cripples and imbeciles. A certain fanatic named Timothy Arkhipich had great influence with the Tsaritsa on account of his supposed gift of prophecy. Peter did not like the miscellaneous rabble who filled the house of his sister-in-law, and accordingly when he visited her they retired into concealment in various out- houses. However, as she had always showed herself duly submissive, he was purposely blind to a great deal which was displeasing to him. On the other hand, to oblige her brother, she not only visited the foreign quarter of Moscow, but allowed her daughters to appear there in " German " dresses, as they were called. Finally Peter induced her and other of his relatives to come to St Petersburg. There is but little more to be told about her, but two of her daughters were destined to occupy . prominent places in Russian history. Catherine married to the Duke of Mecklenburg, and Anne the Tsaritsa. The third daughter, Prascovia, died in 173 1. 12 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1696 According to some accounts she was privately married to the Senator Ivan Ilyich Dmitriev-Mamonov. Before long popular prejudice against the rule of a woman showed itself too strong to be resisted. Meanwhile Sophia's favourite, Basil Golitsin, had great influence over her, and is even said to have pretended to her hand. In 1686 the final arrangement with Poland was effected. From this time we hear of no more efforts to recover Kiev. But the city even so late as the nineteenth century retained many traces of its quondam Polish lords which perhaps were hardly obliterated till the reign of Nicholas. Thus there was a Polish theatre; and Poles are still to be found among the magnates of many of the surrounding governments. With Kiev there had also been lost to Poland Smolensk and Chernigov, the former a city of very great importance on account of its position on the Dnieper, one of the main arteries of Russia. In former times it had continually changed hands, oscillating between Poland and Russia ; but from this time onward it remains Russian. In 1687 the Russians sent an embassy to the court of France; the ambassadors are said to have comported them- selves very badly during their stay. Prosorovski was also sent as ambassador to England. Russia was rapidly getting into closer touch with the West. Scotch adventurers had swarmed thither from the days of Ivan the Terrible. The false Demetrius had a bodyguard of Scotchmen, and in the reign of Michael Romanov had arrived as a soldier of fortune that Learmont who was to be the progenitor of the second greatest Russian poet, Michael Lermontov. Patrick Gordon, destined to become the great fellow-worker with Peter, first made his appearance in Russia in the reign of Alexis. He was one of those younger sons who left their native country because there was no calling open to them ; any profession other than that of arms being held to be beneath the con- sideration of a gentleman. Gordon, the son of an Aberdeen- shire laird, was born in Scotland in 1635. We are able to follow his fortunes because he has left a valuable .diary ; but M98] THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER 13 as to the majority of his countrymen in the Russian service our information is of the scantiest. It is the doom of the mercenary soldier to be forgotten in his own country, and to be not very spontaneously mentioned in that of his adoption ; for it is not an acceptable thought to a people that their deeds of national glory should have been initiated or shared in by foreigners. After having been in both the Swedish and Polish services, and like a true Dugald Dalgetty, having freely transferred himself from one side to the other while they were fighting, Gordon arrived in Russia in 1661. Alexis, a worthy pre- decessor of Peter, was already looking ahead. The breath of regeneration was beginning to stir the country. Gordon had served in the Turkish war and had been raised to the rank of general by Feodor the brother of Peter, but the important crisis of his life presented itself when he threw in his lot with the great regenerator of Russia. Gordon trained and com- manded the new regiments which were formed. In 1676 arrived another man also destined to write his name in the annals of Russia, the Genevese Lefort. He was born at Geneva in 1656. He assisted Peter in training his little army and became one of his most trusted officers. Un- doubtedly he had great influence over the boy Tsar, who, clever as he was, would naturally work up to models. He was not destined, however, to live to see all the glories of his pupil. Lefort in fact may be considered Peter's chief tutor. He told the boy striking stories of the countries he had visited, and made him understand the importance of ships. This led to the building of miniature vessels with masts, sails and guns on the Pereislavski lake near Moscow, and it was with these that the future ruler of Russia diverted himself. Under his direction several sham fights took place, in which he commanded as captain. Thus a love of the sea was in- stilled in Peter although we are told that at first he had a dread of salt water. In 1687, while Peter, still a boy in years, was imbibing knowledge from every quarter, Basil Golitsin conducted a 14 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1696 campaign against the Tatars of the Crimea who were con- tinually harrying the southern Russian provinces. Of this expedition, Gordon, who was quartermaster, has left us a circumstantial account. It fell to his lot to find the means of transport, to reconnoitre the line of advance, to make the roads and bridges, and to determine where the camp should be pitched for the night. The route lay over the steppe where the Tatars had abundance of light horse, so that the Russians were obliged to march in dense columns flanked by rows of waggons, so as to break the charges of the enemy. By the middle of June the army had reached the lower steppes of the Dnieper. The grass, however, was set on fire either by the Tatars or (as was suspected) by the Cossack allies of the invading force, and the consequent dearth of forage for the horses compelled the Russians to retreat. The troops were soon afterwards disbanded, thanked, and sub- stantial rewards were bestowed ^upon the officers, Gordon being made general. But in consequence of the failure of the expedition Golitsin became very unpopular. Several attempts were made to assassinate him, and once, on the eve of his departure upon one of his campaigns, a coffin with his name upon it was found placed by the door of his house. Sophia also had become very unpopular in another way. Imbued with liberal ideas, as has been already mentioned, she had, among other things, favoured the changes which Nikon had introduced into the sacred books, and which had led to the great schism in the Russian Church. But the Streltsi were slaro-obriadtsi, and, not disposed to welcome such changes. They broke out into another rebellion, which this time, hpwever, was successfully checked, the ringleaders being executed. The fact was that Sophia was fortunate enough, to have secured the support of the new head of the Streltsi, Shakloviti. The more we read about this extra- ordinary woman the more struck we are with the vigour of her character and her bold efforts to escape from the monotony of an ordinary woman's life in Russia. She is one of the suppressed figures of history, one of the individuals 1696] THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER 15 against whom the fates were arrayed. Peter is said to have often expressed his admiration of her strong character. It was not until 1688 that Gordon became more intimately associated with Peter, whose name from that time begins to occur more often in his diary. Peter makes his appearance on occasions of political importance : thus, on January 25, 1688, Gordon notes that a privy council was held, at which the Princess Sophia and both the Tsars were present, the younger for the first time. Gordon had still a good many enemies ; the Patriarch had said openly that the Russian army could never prosper while they were led by a heretic. We constantly, however, read of more and more intercourse between Gordon and Peter ; the lessons learnt by the latter from him, and from Lefort, and from the Dutch carpenter Timmermann, were all to have their due effect. But Peter was more or less a self-educated man ; his early training had been of a superficial kind, and much of his work suffered accordingly. On the 20th of January 1689 Peter, now in his seven- teenth year, was married to Evdokia (Eudoxia) Feodorovna Lopukhin. This union was destined to be unhappy, for reasons which will manifest themselves more clearly later. According to Father Avril, about this time Peter was seized with an attack of the falling sickness, a disease which the worthy priest declares to have been hereditary in his family. Of the convulsive seizures of Peter we shall shortly hear more. Two children were the issue of the marriage : a son, the unfortunate Alexis, and a daughter, who died in infancy. If we may trust the portraits which have come down to us, Evdokia was not a woman of great personal attractions. The renewal of the war against the Tatars was now resolved upon, and in February Gordon was told to get matters in readiness. He was first required to furnish plans of the military lines of defence on the Dnieper, and to make certain other arrangements. Having discharged these duties to the great satisfaction of the court, he set out to join the army, acting, as before, in the capacity of quartermaster-general. 1 6 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1690 By the end of May he had conducted it as far as Perekop, when the expedition was declared to be too hazardous, and the army was ordered to return. Rewards were again dis- tributed among the officers, but not without strong opposition on the part of Peter. The latter treated Gordon with marked distinction, and gave him a glass of brandy with his own hands, which was considered one of the highest compliments which the sovereign could pay. On the 16th of August the wrath of the Streltsi broke out. At midnight Peter was told that orders had been issued from the Kremlin to march upon the village of Preobrazhenskoe, where he and his favourites used to reside, and to put certain persons to death. He instantly leaped from his bed, took the first horse he could find in the stables, and galloped into a wood, where he hid himself till joined by some of his attendants. He then rode in hot haste to the monastery of the Troitsa, about forty miles from Moscow, which he reached about six o'clock in the morning. Here he threw himself upon a bed, and sought the protection of the Igumen. The great duel between Peter and his ambitious sister was now to be fought out. Peter summoned the Streltsi and other troops to join him at the monastery of the Troitsa, but the princess issued counter orders. The Tsar thereupon addressed a written command to his foreign officers, in which he de- clared that there was a conspiracy against his life. Gordon undertook to show this paper to Golitsin, and to ask him what was to be done. The latter said he would consult the elder Tsar and the Princess Sophia. To which Gordon replied, that if he and his brother officers were to disobey, their heads would be in danger. Golitsin assured him that he should have an answer before night, and desired that Gordon's son-in-law, Colonel Strasburg, might be left behind to take it. Gordon now thoroughly realised the situation. He went home, and immediately began to prepare for marching. When the other officers arrived, he told them that whatever orders might come from the Kremlin he would set out for the monastery that night. They resolved to follow THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER 17 his example, and by the next day all had reached the monastery. The young Tsar was at his midday dinner when their arrival was announced. Gordon was at once admitted to his presence and ordered to keep by his side, while the other officers remained with their regiments outside the monastery. This conduct upon Gordon's part gained for him gratitude ; and the heretic general was destined to die in the arms of his august master, who mourned for him as his most faithful friend. Four days afterwards Peter entered Moscow in triumph, and the trial of the conspirators began. Shakloviti, the second favourite, as Gordon calls him, was tortured and beheaded, together with many others ; the Tsar's reluctance to shed blood having been overcome by the Patriarch. Golitsin owed his life to the intercession of a relative, being exiled with his son to Yarensk, in the Government of Vologda. His estates were confiscated, and he died in the Government of Archangel in 1 7 13. The Princess Sophia was sent to a convent, where she took the name of Susannah ; and there she died after a seclu- sion of fifteen years. Peter was now absolute master of the situation, as the weak-minded Ivan readily resigned all autho- rity into his hands. The revolution was in every way com- plete ; it had been triumphantly carried out by the energetic Scotch adventurer. Henceforward we find Gordon on the most cordial and intimate terms with the Tsar, and constantly dining with him. In 1690 he heads a deputation from the regiments to congratulate Peter on the birth of his son, the unfortunate Alexis ; and when Gordon's daughter, Mary, was married to Captain Daniel Crawford, Peter graced the nuptial ceremony with his presence. In 1695 war was declared against Turkey, and Gordon was ordered to march upon Azov. This place, once of great importance, has now re- lapsed into insignificance, owing in a great measure to the juxtaposition of Rostov. Peter was now beginning to entertain plans for getting an outlet to the sea. The cruel but astute Ivan the terrible had aimed at this when he endeavoured to get hold of Livonia. B 1 8 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1696 Without some ice-free port Russia could not develop her commerce, and was at the mercy of Pole, Swede, and Turk. Gordon reached Azov on the 27th of March, and two days afterwards was joined by the Tsar and Alexei She'in, the com- mander-in-chief. Menshikov, the celebrated favourite of Peter, and Sheremetiev, one of his most renowned generals, were also with him. Sheremetiev was despatched to the Dnieper with a separate foice, in order to draw off the Tatars from Azov, by threatening them with an attack in the Crimea. Sheremetiev laid siege to Kizi-Kermen (now Berislavl) July 6th, and forced it to surrender. Three other Turkish for- tresses capitulated without fighting. The Cossacks recon- noitered as far as Ochakov, and towards the middle of June Azov was invested. In July the besieged made a sally on Gordon's division, but were repulsed. During the following night a Dutchman or German, as he has been styled, named Jansen, went over to the Turks and betrayed to them the weak points of the Russian lines. The next sally was in con- sequence directed against Lefort's quarter, and was almost successful ; the division was saved from destruction only by the opportune interposition of Gordon. In August two other assaults were made, against the advice of Gordon, and were both repulsed. The siege had to be raised, and the Tsar with his generals returned to Moscow in October. This expedition of Sheremetiev, however, was not altogether fruitless, as it paved the way for another attack on Azov in the following year. Sheremetiev founded a new fortress on the island of Tavan, in the Dnieper. In 1696, the year in which Ivan died, Gordon was again marching upon Azov at the head of about 15,000 infantry. The second siege began in June, and Sheremetiev was again sent to the Dnieper to create a, division. The place was eventually taken the same year by Gordon's plan of filling up the ditch and making a huge rampart of earth in front of the town. The method of the siege has been described by Alex- ander Gordon, the son-in-law of Gordon, in his " History of 1697] THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER 19 Peter the Great " (Aberdeen, 1755). The renegade Dutchman was surrendered, although to save himself he had turned Mussulman. The victorious army returned in triumph to Moscow on the 9th of October. The Tsar made a gorgeous procession through the streets of the capital, and Jansen, who was carried, tied to a gallows, was immediately afterwards put to death. From the fall of Azov may be said to date the active interference of the Russians in Turkey. As a result of this policy, the rayahs felt their condition much improved, for hitherto none of the Christian powers had offered them any succour. Indeed, it had at one time seemed probable that all the Christian subjects of the Porte would be converted to Islam. In the succeeding year (1697) Peter set out on his travels in Western Europe. He had long been maturing the plan. The command of military affairs during his absence was left to Sheiin as general-in-chief, and Gordon was to act as his subordinate. Perry, Peter's engineer, in his book on Russia, tells us that the Tsar left 12,000 men to be quartered in the suburbs of Moscow under the care of General Gordon. The latter paid another visit to Azov with the view of strengthen- ing the fortifications. From Azov he proceeded to Taganrog," where the Tsar had, the year before, resolved to build a fortress. By his presence he put a stop to an attack on the cities of the Ukraine, which had been planned by the Tatars ; and then finding no further occupation for his arms, he returned to Moscow. Peter set out upon his journey practically incognito, under the name of Peter Mikhailov, and in the capacity of one of the suite of the three ambassadors, Lefort, Golovin, and Voznitsin. Such a step was, indeed, a great breaking with the past ; for among the earlier Russians to evince any desire for travel was to commit a crime. The party proceeded through Riga to Mittau ; at Konigsberg Peter had an inter- view with the Elector of Prussia. , He passed, however, rapidly through Berlin, and by degrees he reached Saardam, in Holland, being probably attracted to that country by its 20 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1697 celebrity as a maritime power. In Holland Peter worked at the dockyard under the name of Peter Baas, or Master Peter ; and here Menshikov laboured with him. This remarkable man after the deaths of Lefort and Gordon occupied the most prominent place at the Court of Peter, and became his chief favourite. There seems every reason to believe that the stories told about the origin of Menshikov are strictly true. He was a pastry-cook's boy, who sold pirozhki (little pies) about the streets of Moscow, carrying them on a tray, as may so often be seen there at the present time. He was introduced to the notice of Peter by Lefort, and attracted the attention of the former by his wit and sprightliness. When he afterwards attained great dignity attempts were made to derive his ancestry from a noble family — in this case Lithuanian. When Peter first saw Menshikov at the house of Lefort, who had made him his servant, the lad was 'fourteen years of age, having been born in 1672. From that time he was constantly in attendance" upon Peter, to whom by degrees he became indispensable, and by whom he was enrolled in his favourite corps called Potieshnie. Men- shikov seemed well fitted for almost everything he undertook. He was a good soldier, and when Peter went on any naval excursions Menshikov could pull a good oar and climb the masts of the vessels. He is also said to have revealed the conspiracy 'of Sokovnin and Tsikler, who intended to assassi- nate Peter, which was frustrated by the prompt energy of the Tsar. On this his first journey Menshikov shared in all his master's labours and amusement. Peter being a magnetic man, had a wonderful way of assimilating all the good material round him. Everywhere he displayed an insatiable curiosity. The certificate of efficiency in various handicrafts which Peter received from the head of the dockyard, one, Gerrit Claesz Pool, is still preserved. He next visited England, being, it is said, induced to do so by one John Fessing, an Englishman, whom he met. The young Tsar crossed the Channel in 1698. He had already met William III. at the Hague. 1698] THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER 21 Peter especially liked the society of the Marquis of Car- marthen, who at a later period became Duke of Leeds, on account of his nautical skill, " and would row and sail with him upon the water," adds Perry the engineer, "of which obligations and kindness of my Lord Marquis to him I have many times heard him speak with great affection." Peter always expressed admiration of England, He worked for a short time at Deptford, where the Government hired for him Sayes Court, the seat of the famous John Evelyn. The latter had previously let his premises to Captain Benbow (after- wards the admiral), who underlet them to the Government for the use of the Tsar. A bill of damages to the amount of ^350, 9s. 6d. was after- wards sent in to the Government by the owner; so much had the house suffered from its noisy tenants. Peter visited Oxford during his stay in our country, but unfortunately no records of the visit have been preserved. For our account of Peter's visit to England we are chiefly indebted to the English newspapers of the time, the Post- master, the Postman, and the Postboy, and some notices in private letters. There is a Russian book of good stories about him, compiled by one of his attendants named Nartov, which has been published in the Transactions of the Academy of St Petersburg. Unfortunately some of these tales seem to be copied from works like Staehlin's anecdotes. In London a large house was taken for Peter and his suite in York Buildings; these premises have been pulled down since. Peter, however, disliked all ceremony and kept himself retired as much as possible. Nothing seems to have annoyed him so much as to be stared at. Some Quakers, however, contrived to see him and had a con- versation with him through his interpreter. Peter put the practical question to them as to what use could be made in a country of people who declined to bear arms. It will be remembered that some Quakers paid Nicholas I. a visit just before the Crimean War, and were received by him very affably. Indeed, in the Molokani the Russians have the 22 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i«98 same sort of enthusiasts to deal with. When he was at Deptford William Perm also went to see him and had a long conversation with him. Peter is said to have had a great respect for the Quakers, and we are told that on more than one occasion he visited their meeting-house. The Tsar also went to the theatre, the representations at which, owing to his not being acquainted with English, must have been a mere spectacle and empty pageant to him; the play which he witnessed was the Rival Queens or Alexander the Great, by Nathaniel Lee. He is said, in company with Menshikov and some other persons of his suite, to have frequently visited a public-house on Tower Hill, where he could un- molested smoke and drink brandy, which, according to some accounts, he was fond of peppering. When he left England, the keeper of the tavern, proud of his imperial guest, had his portrait painted and hung up as the sign of the inn. Here it remained for a long time till, its existence becoming known to them, it was purchased as a curiosity by the Russian Government, and now ornaments the Public Library of St Petersburg. Although his visit to Oxford is so wanting in significance, it was in this city and in this year that the first Russian grammar was printed. It was written in Latin by a certain Henry Ludolf, nephew of Job Ludolf, the Ethiopic scholar. If Peter did not carry away from England any constitutional ideas, which indeed would have been a difficult study for him, he took with him those notions of curbing the authority of the Church, which he afterwards embodied in the Reglament. The impression created by Peter upon the English with whom he was brought into contact seems to have been varied. We are told that William III. admired Peter and was very fond of conversing with him, which he was able to do with tolerable freedom, as the Russian Tsar spoke Dutch. Burnet's opinion of him has often been quoted. The Bishop says : " He wants not capacity and has a larger knowledge than might be expected from his education." On the whole, Burnet had not much insight into the character of this 1698] THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER 23 remarkable man, and evidently had no idea of the great part he was about to play. At the request of William III. Sir Godfrey Kneller painted the portrait of Peter, which is now at Hampton Court. It is a very characteristic picture, and is said to be an excellent likeness. It shows a spirited, bright-looking young man with very expressive eyes. It may be taken undoubtedly as the most correct representation of Peter, as he never afterwards had his portrait painted by such an eminent and sympathetic hand. Perry says that Peter during his stay in England occupied himself chiefly with nautical matters. He often worked in Deptford Yard as he had done in Holland, so curious was he in everything mechanical that he even caused the model of an English coffin to be sent to Russia. When he visited William III.'s palace he paid no attention to the pictures, but only to an ingenious contrivance for ascertaining the direction of the wind. While he was in England, we are told, he used to dress himself after the English fashion, sometimes as a gentleman and sometimes as a seaman. To the Marquis of Carmarthen who had been very courteous to him in conducting him about, he gave- a duty of five shillings upon every hogshead of tobacco im- ported into Russia. The herb had previously been forbidden by the Patriarch. "To this day," adds Perry, "a priest will not come into any room where tobacco is smoked." William III. arranged a sham sea-fight at Spithead for the benefit of his visitor, and finally Peter departed from England taking with him many persons who were to enter the Russian service — engineers, mechanics, mathematicians, soldiers and sailors — many Englishmen and more Scots. The latter in many instances were destined to bequeath their names in forms more or less changed to Russian descendants. Peter's example as a traveller in search of information was followed by Sheremetiev, the boyar of ancient family who was destined to occupy such a prominent position during this reign. He was as much as his master smitten with a reforming zeal, and like him resolved to educate himself; 24 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [iras notwithstanding his high rank, and his forty-five years, his duties as blizhni boy arm, i.e. boyar in close attendance upon the Tsar, and his former high duties as General of the army, and minister, Sheremetiev volunteered to travel and learn the art of war. He went to study the naval armaments of the Maltese against the Ottomans and himself paid the expenses of his journey. In the same year as his Imperial master, May 1697, Sheremetiev left Moscow with a small suite. He took with him letters of recommendation from the Tsar. As a Russian nobleman he appeared at the audiences of the King of Poland, the Emperor Leopold, the Doge of Venice, Pope Innocent XI., the Duke of Tuscany, Cosmo III., and made them liberal presents of sables, arms and horses, and received rich gifts from them in return. He everywhere noted down what he thought remarkable. Among other things which greatly impressed him were St Peter's at Rome, and Vesuvius. From Sicily he sailed to Malta. Here the knights met him with great ceremony. He was decorated with a Maltese Cross set in diamonds, and, although married, made Knight of Malta. After an absence of two years, during which he served on board the Maltese fleet, he returned to Moscow and appeared before Peter dressed in a French coat with a Maltese Cross on his breast. His journey had cost him 20,000 roubles. The Tsar was in extasies with his trusty and dear Sheremetiev and from that time he became one of the chief favourites. On the occasion of his first journey in the West Peter did not visit France ; he had not been successful in his diplomatic efforts in Holland, one of which was to induce the States General to assist him in a war against the Turks. He turned, however, to Austria and was well received in Vienna. From there his original plan was to proceed to Venice that he might study some new forms of ship-building, but tidings reached him of the revolt of the Streltsi. A great insurrec- tion had broken out of the mutinous troops and others dis- affected to the new regime ; had it not been for the energy of Gordon the matter would have probably ended in the de- 1698] THE EARLY DAYS OF PETER 25 thronement of Peter. After various attempts had been made by the former to bring the mutineers to their senses, he directed his troops to fire and several were killed. The rest submitted and many prisoners were shut up in the monasteries. On being examined the ringleaders confessed that they had intended to march upop Moscow, to massacre certain of the boyars and to demand increase of pay and new regulations of service. Without waiting for Peter's return, Gordon began beheading and hanging, and in many cases had resort to torture. He records in his diary that, with few exceptions, those executed submitted to their fate with great indifference, crossing themselves in silence ; though some bade farewell to the bystanders. Peter reached Moscow by the 2nd of September, and Gordon's diary soon begins again to tell of executions and imprisonment. Great cruelties were inflicted upon the un- happy adherents of the old regime, who were hanged and beheaded in considerable numbers. The account published in 1700 by Korb, the secretary of the German Emperor, gave offence to the Russian court, and was suppressed. For a long time the reactionaries were silenced, but they were certainly not quelled, and we continue to hear of occasional outbreaks till the death of Peter. In the following year, 1699, Gordon died, at the age of sixty-four, and was honoured by the Tsar with a public-funeral. The body was conducted to the grave by twenty-eight colonels. His very interesting diary in six volumes, two of which have unfortunately been lost, has never been printed in its entirety, but is still preserved among the Archives of the Russian Foreign Office. Portions have appeared in German, edited by Dr Posselt, and selec- tions were published in English for the Spalding Club in 1859; these, however, are chiefly from those parts of the diary which relate to Scotland. Gordon was buried in the Roman Catholic Church in the Niemetskaya Sloboda in Moscow, which church he had himself been mainly instru- mental in building. The same year as Gordon, died also Lefort, who had accompanied Peter on his first journey in 26 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [less the capacity of chief ambassador. The remains of Lefort were buried in the Lutheran Church, also in the Niemetskaya Sloboda, but no trace of his tomb can now be found. He was some twenty years younger than Gordon, being only forty-three at the time of his death. Peter had still one of his old supporters left, viz., Prince Feodor Romadonovski, who was chief of the department (prikaz) connected with the Preobrazhenski regiment. Many curious letters written to him by Peter have been preserved. It would appear from these that the Tsar was given to ad- dressing him by all kinds of bombastic titles when he felt humorously inclined. i7oo] CHAPTER II THE REIGN OF PETER— continued HP HE great duel between Peter and the gallant but reckless ■*• Charles XII. was now to begin. Peter had thoroughly realised the need of an outlet to the sea. He had only par- tially succeeded at Azov, and was now to try his luck in the Baltic, which was at that time practically a Swedish lake. Sweden possessed in fact Finland, Ingermanland (or Ingria), Esthonia, Livonia, and Pomerania. Peter cast longing eyes upon the Baltic provinces, and was eager for an opportunity of carrying into effect the schemes which had been cherished by Ivan IV., and by his father Alexis. Such an opportunity was soon forthcoming. John Reinhold Patkul, who was destined subsequently to expiate, in so cruel a manner, his efforts in behalf of his native province, had been deputed by the Livonian nobles to carry a complaint to Charles XL, Jhe father of the celebrated Swedish king. The king affected to receive the petition with favour, but in a few days caused Patkul to be declared guilty of high treason, and condemned to death. Patkul, however, escaped, and thenceforward set himself to wreak vengeance upon the oppressor. He pro- posed to Augustus II. of Poland a plan by which Sweden should be simultaneously attacked on all sides. Poland was to take Livonia and Esthonia ; Russia, Ingria and Carelia ; and Denmark, Holstein. In 1697 Charles XL, who had ruled Sweden as an absolute monarch, died at the early age of forty-two. He left three children, the eldest of whom (born in 1682, and declared of age in 1699) succeeded him as Charles 28 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1700 XII. The character of this monarch is well known ; he seemed born for war. His army had been brought to a state of perfect discipline, and he could count upon many able and experienced generals. He now declared war against Peter. The Baltic campaign opened with the siege of Narva, in Ingria. This place was besieged by a force of 60,000 Russians, under the command of the Due de Croy, a foreigner who had entered the service of the Tsar. A battle took place on November 30, 1 700. The conduct of the Russian Tsar on this occasion has been the subject of much controversy. It is more than difficult to attribute cowardice to one who habi- tually showed such carelessness of his own life. One thing, however, is certain, he absented himself from the battle. It has been conjectured that he had gone in quest of additional troops. The army brought together in front of Narva was little more than a disorderly rabble, consisting of a few regular regiments, which were lost am%ng an overwhelming majority of Streltsi and other old-fashioned troops. Besides the Due de Croy, who had seen a good deal of service under the . German Emperor, there were among the Russian generals, Dolgoruki, Golovin, Buturlin, and Alexander, Prince of Imeretia. The Russian general Sheremetiev was also present at the beginning of the siege. Relying on his boldness, carefulness and skill, Peter at first appointed him to assist Prince Dol- goruki, the generalissimo, but afterwards gave him an inde- pendent command of cavalry, with which Sheremetiev was to watch the movements of Charles, and give the Russians notice of his entering the province. The Swedish king was then marching more rapidly than was supposed to the relief of Narva. On November roth Sheremetiev had a trifling victory at Purtsi, about nine miles from Narva, and gave information of the approach of the Swedes. The Tsar left the camp at Narva on November 29th, Sheremetiev being ordered to guard the passes in front of the town. The Russians had still to learn the art of war sufficiently to enable them to encounter disciplined troops. This first battle of Narva was to be a 1700] THE REIGN OF PETER 29 rude shock for them. Sheremetiev had shown much bravery in his battles with the Turks, but he dared not meet the terrible Swedes, the more so as he had been informed of the disorder in the Russian camp, where, in the absence of Peter, great want of discipline prevailed. The Due de Croy is said to have been a confirmed drunkard. On the first attack of the enemy, Sheremetiev left the passes and hastily came to the camp with his regiment. A military council was then held. Sheremetiev offered to leave the camp and to meet the Swedes in the field, where the superior numbers of the Russians might give them a chance of victory. But the others would not listen to him. The Swedes drew near. Everything was in a state of confusion. Foreseeing the fatal issue, Shere- metiev hastened to cross the river with his regiment. In doing so he lost many men, but finally reached Novgorod, where Peter was, and where he found Menshikov, who had left the camp together with the Tsar. Peter felt the reverse keenly, and thus writes about it in his journal : " And thus it is incontestable that the Swedes gained a victory over our troops, who were as yet only an undiscip- lined militia, for in this action there was only one old regiment, viz., that which was called Lefortovski (and which before that time had been called the Shepelevski regiment), two regiments of the Guards, who had only been to the two sieges of Azov, and had never fought in the open field, to say nothing of fighting with regulat troops. As regards the other regi- ments, with the exception of some colonels, the officers and soldiers were only recruits, as has been previously said. To this must be added the scarcity of provisions caused by the bad season which prevented them from being brought up, so that one may say that it was rather child's play than a serious affair where skill was employed. It is not therefore astonishing that veteran troops, who had been practised and tried in the art of war, should have got the upper hand over such as we represent ours to be. It is true, however, that this victory caused us a very sensible annoyance, and made us despair of better luck in the future. It was even looked upon 30 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1700 as a mark of the extreme wrath of God ; but when attempting to estimate the designs of Providence it may be seen that they were favourable to us ; for if we had then gained a victory over the Swedes, who were so well trained in the arts of war and politics, into what an abyss of prosperity might it not have dragged us afterwards ? On the other hand, this prosperity of the Swedes cost them very dear at Poltava, although they had such skill and reputation that the French used to call them the scourge of the Germans. We, after this terrible check, which was a true piece of good luck for us, were obliged to redouble I — I Swe&ea our activity, and to make every effort to compensate by watchfulness for the want of experience ; and it was thus that the war was continued." There would seem to be consider- able doubt as to the number of troops engaged at this famous battle. Peter says : " And thus there perished of our men from 5800 to 6000 in the siege, the trenches, the battlefield, and the river Narva." The irregular cavalry lost some men in folding the river. According to this statement of Peter, the Russian troops who reached Novgorod from Narva amounted to 22,967. The historians of the time, however, declare that the Tsar had before Narva an army of 80,000 men, and they make his loss amount to 10,000 at the least. According to 1701] THE REIGN OF PETER 31 Peter's journal, the Swedes had 18,000 men, but this is considered by many to be a gross exaggeration. Seeing that important sections of the army were allowed to leave the field of operations, we cannot wonder that the battle of Narva resulted in one of the most complete routs ever in- flicted on the Russians. They capitulated, but were allowed to carry off their arms, standards, and baggage ; the artillery being surrendered, with the exception of six guns. Besides those taken prisoners, the Russians lost 6000 men, and the Swedes 2000. Sheremetiev had been one of the earliest to bring Peter tidings of the disaster ; however, when the first outbursts of wrath and vexation were over, he was justified by the Tsar. The latter departed to Moscow, and left Sheremetiev in com- mand of the armies in Novgorod and Pskov, which guarded the Russian frontier. As one result of this great victory, the Swedes were enabled to occupy both Warsaw and Cracow, as they had done once before in the preceding century. Peter, as we have said, has been roundly accused of cowardice in connection with this battle, and of deserting his men on the eve of the conflict. But he may well have been in perplexity with such difficulties besetting him on every side. Certainly, if we study his character carefully, he would seem to have been careless of his own life, rather than of- a timid nature. The reader must judge for himself by the light of subsequent events. Be this as it may, we find Peter soon recovering his self-possession, carefully training himself and his army, and finally marching to victory. When he had strengthened his resources by fresh levies of troops, he arranged a new plan of campaign. Sheremetiev was ordered to defend Pskov, and to send Cossacks to devastate Livonia. The absence of the Swedish king in Courland, after the defeat of the Saxons on the Dvina, having left the province at Peter's mercy. Opera- tions were at once to be commenced against the Swedish troops, who had remained in Livonia, under the command of General Schlippenbach. Meanwhile Menshikov was employed in reorganising the 32 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1701 Russian military system, in providing artillery and military stores, and in putting the frontiers into a state of defence. This gave Menshikov his opportunity, and he profited by it. The Tsar in his letters calls him by the familiar name of Aleksasha, his dear friend, his brother, the son of his heart, and uses other equally tender expressions. In fact, he and Sheremietiev were now the Emperor's chief friends and advisers. Sheremetiev was in command of three regiments, in whom, however, he could place but little confidence. Two of these regiments suffered defeat at the hands of the Swedes, but the third, which was led by Michael, the son of Sheremetiev, defeated them at Rapino on September 16th. Three standards and eighty prisoners were taken. Peter was much encouraged by this first success of the Russian arms, though he heard with dissatisfaction that Sheremetiev had halted on the expedition. The Swedes had deservedly so great a reputation as soldiers that it cannot be wondered at if the raw untrained Russian levies were overawed by them. The Tsar renewed his orders to Sheremetiev to go on devastating the Swedish territory. " Do not have the impudence to refuse,'' wrote the Tsar, "and if you are still suffering from the fever caught at Narva, I can cure it. Go and carry out my orders." Sheremetiev, however, wanted soldiers and arms, and still hesitated. " Everything you want has been sent ; why do you delay and refuse to carry out my orders?" wrote the Tsar; "I am venturing myself not only into the claws but into the very jaws of the enemy, and yet I do not fear." At length — but not till the winter — Sheremetiev sallied forth from Pskov with 8000 cavalry, 5000 infantry, and 15 guns. On the 10th of January 1702 Schlippenbach with 7000 Swedes was defeated in a regular battle at Ehrestfer, near Dorpat. Of the Swedes 3000 were killed, so obstinately did they fight ; 350 were taken prisoners; 4 guns and 8 flags were captured. Sheremetiev burnt the suburbs of Dorpat, sent out his troops to devastate the surrounding country, and returned in the spring to Pskov. The joy of Peter at this success knew no bounds. " We beat 1702] *THE REIGN OF PETER 33 the Swedes," he said, "because we have just double the number of soldiers, but we will learn to beat them with equal numbers." The reward of the commander was the rank of field-marshal. The Tsar ordered him to bring the Swedish prisoners and the trophies to Moscow. Sheremetiev entered the capital in triumph amid universal rejoicings, and finally received the order of St Andrew. Having made arrangements for a fresh campaign on a large scale for the year 1702, the Tsar again ordered Sheremetiev to commence operations. He once more invaded Livonia, and destroyed the Swedish flotilla on Lake Peipus, obtaining possession of Sirensk. With 30,000 men, Sheremetiev attacked Schlippenbach who had only 7000, and was posted near Hummelsdorf. On the 29th the Swedes were again beaten, and lost 15 guns and 16 standards. The whole Swedish army was now scattered. Russian troops scoured the country in every direction ; they took Menzen, and compelled the strong fortress of Marienburg to surrender. Because the Swedes had not observed the con- ditions imposed, the town was given over to plunder. In the same way were treated Wenden, Wolmar, Helmet, Karkus, and Wesenberg. One cannot but shudder to think of the fate of the peasants on these occasions ; men of what are called inferior races — Finns and Letts — bandied about from conqueror to conqueror, but upon whom the real terrors of war rested far more heavily than upon the two heroes who were continuing to fight their duel. Everywhere might be seen the traces of conflagrations. Thousands of the inhabitants, we are told, were taken captive to Russia. For centuries these miserable people had suffered, as we know from the gloomy records of the times of Ivan IV. We have only to read the quaint memoirs of Prince Kurbski — one of the most interesting literary monuments of that century — to get a dreary cata- logue of massacres. We only hear of them because Kurbski is upbraiding his former master for his cruelties. The Swedes were now so disheartened that it was no easy matter to force them to a battle. One was at length c 34 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [170» fought almost under the walls of Riga. " Boris Petrovich," said Peter, "has had a good time of it in Livonia. He has taken two considerable cities and seven small ones, and also 12,000 prisoners." Sheremetiev's report after the surrender of Marienburg was to the effect that the Russians had plundered the environs of the city, had burnt 600 villages, and driven off 20,000 head of cattle. They consumed all the provisions they could, and what they could not carry away they destroyed. The miserable serfs, although owned by German masters, were quite as badly treated as the Polish peasants were. The booty of the Russians, we are told, was so great, that the troops of Sheremetiev did not cost the country more than 40,000 roubles. This is the Napoleonic principle of making war self-supporting carried to extremes. It was at Marien- burg that Martha Skavronskaya was found, the singular woman, whom the great Peter afterwards made his wife. She is variously said by some authorities to have been the widow of a Swedish officer, by others of a private soldier, and had been brought up by Gliick, a Protestant pastor. The Tsar after- wards met her at the house of Menshikov. In this way, while Charles XIL was fighting in Poland, the Russians drove the Swedes out of the Baltic provinces. Sheremetiev, who had returned to Pskov on 21st September, was now ordered by the Tsar to join him at Noteburg, whither the latter had gone from Archangel. This he did on 4th October, and Noteburg was occupied the same year. The island of Noteburg is situated on Lake Ladoga, out of which the Neva flows. It had originally been Slavonic, and had been taken by the Swedes. Peter changed the name of the place to Schliisselburg, as being the key to the Neva, and this name it has kept to the present day. After the taking of Noteburg Sheremetiev spent the winter at Pskov, and in the spring of the year 1 703 again moved towards the Neva. During his absence at Archangel Peter had left the manage- ment of affairs to Menshikov. The latter distinguished himself 1703] THE REIGN OF PETER 35 at Noteburg, and was accordingly appointed commandant of that important post. When Menshikov appeared to tender his thanks, " You have no reason to thank me," said the Tsar ; " it is a matter of public expediency. It was not my friendship for you that guided me in the choice; and if any other person had been more worthy than you, I would have chosen him." Menshikov's career of promotion, however, may be dated from that time. Peter expressed great satisfaction with what his favourite had done, and' the careful preparations he had made for the campaign of the ensuing year ; and in the year 1703 he asked the German Emperor to give his friend the title of count. Menshikov led the Preobrazhenski regiment at Nienshantz, and in the naval engagement on the Neva (May 19) he commanded a division of boats. Peter was present in person, and himself captured some Swedish ships. In consequence of this victory Admiral Golovin and Field- Marshal Sheremetiev bestowed on the Tsar and Menshikov the order of St Andrew. This was the first naval engagement between Russia and Sweden. Another of Peter's best generals who calls for mention was Prince Michael Golitsin. He was born of boyar parents at Moscow in 1675. He had been enrolled among the troops which Peter had trained when a youth, and when only twelve years of age had joined the Semeonovski regiment. He had also been with the Tsar before Azov, and in 1702 contributed conspicuously to the taking of Noteburg. He had also been present at the disastrous battle of Narva in 1700. For his bravery at Noteburg he was made major-general. Having returned to Pskov, Sheremetiev obtained posses- sion of Koperie and Yamburg, and went to Narva. There he renewed the terrible devastation which he had formerly committed in the Swedish territory. In the winter he was summoned by the Tsar to the grand festival at Moscow, and took part with the other heroes in a triumphal entry into the capital. In the following spring Peter ordered him to forth- with lay siege to Dorpat. Now, however, Sheremetiev ventured 36 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1704 to question the orders of his imperial master. Peter told him to begin at once, while he himself was superintending the siege of Narva. "Do not be making any contradictory remarks, or asking for any explanations. Carry out what I tell you, or you will be in the wrong." So wrote the Tsar. Sheremetiev accordingly set out from Pskov with 20,000 men, and took possession of the Swedish flotilla on Lake Peipus. He then began the siege of Dorpat on the 17th of June. The impatient Tsar, however, once more grew dissatisfied with the protracted siege, and came in person from the camp at Narva. " I found nothing going on here," wrote Peter ; " they have thrown 2000 bombs into the city to no purpose." Dorpat eventually surrendered after the assault of July 24th. It had formerly belonged to the republic of Novgorod. The name Dorpat or Derpt is Lettish. The cfty has in our owa days resumed its ancient name of Yuriev. Some time previously Peter had appointed Menshikov the governor-general of the city of St Petersburg, which was now rising amid the Finnish marshes. Menshikov had been with the Tsar when he laid the foundations of the fortress of Petropavlovski, and was now occupied with the building and settlement of the new city destined to be the capital of Russia. One of the bastions of the fortress of St Peters- burg was named after him. The building of the fortress of Kronshlot, to which provisions were brought across the frozen Gulf of Finland, together with the protection of St Petersburg from the Finns, kept Menshikov fully occupied. Peter seemed hardly to know how to show him sufficient gratitude, being greatly delighted with his paradise, as he called St Petersburg. In 1704 Menshikov showed con- spicuous bravery at the siege of Narva and Dorpat, and was in consequence promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general. Peter also rewarded him with money and estates, and addressed a further request to the German Emperor that his favourite should be made a prince. The Polish king, too, sent Menshikov the White Eagle, and made him commander of one_.of his Saxon regiments. When eventually he was 1705] THE REIGN OF PETER 37 appointed governor-general of Ingria Menshikov took his place among the ranks of the highest Russian nobles, and appeared as the Tsar's plenipotentiary. Although Peter lived himself in a modest house, he built a large one for Menshikov on the Vasilievski Ostrov, where now stands the building occupied by the first Cadet Corps. Here the recep- tions took place, and audience was given to ambassadors ; here foreigners were magnificently entertained, victories were feted, and many noisy festivities held. Numerous stories of the great drinking bouts have been told by those who visited the palace of Menshikov, which was resplendent with silver, gold, and rich furniture. He who had first attracted the notice of his master in such a humble capacity, thus came to be one of the foremost men in Russia. Sheremetiev meanwhile had moved his troops to Narva, and had his share in the taking of that memorable city, for the Russians had now wiped out their former disgrace. In the year 1705 Peter entered upon his personal struggle with Charles XIL, and moved his forces into Poland. Shere- metiev was awaiting the Tsar in Polotsk. Peter ordered him to move into Courland. The Russians now entered Mittau, but retreated on hearing that the Swedish general Lowenhaupt was hastening to its relief from Riga with 8000 men. Sheremetiev encountered him on the 27th of July at Gemauerthof, and in spite of the superiority of his numbers (there were more than 11,000 Russians and Poles included), he suffered defeat, and retired in disorder. The Russian generals were not yet a match for the Swedes. Peter, however, took these disasters as valuable lessons. " Do not despair,'' wrote the Tsar to his defeated general, " a success every day is ruinous to any man." Such an attitude serves well to emphasise the opposite natures of Peter and Charles : the former was prudent, and was engaged in forming a well- consolidated empire; the latter was reckless, and was en- gaged in destroying one. Sheremetiev hastened to get further 38 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1706 supplies from Wilno; Lowenhaupt retired into Riga. The Russians, with Mittau, occupied Courland, and approached Grodno and Tikochino. * An insurrection of the Streltsi in Astrakhan was now greatly disturbing Peter. Sheremetiev was despatched with full powers. After having tried in vain to get the rebels to submit, since he had no more than 3000 troops against 10,000 mutineers, Sheremetiev defeated the bands of the Streltsi near Astrakhan (March 24, 1706). Having quelled the mutiny, more by mercy, however, than by severity, he made his appearance before the Tsar at Kiev, where the latter was awaiting the invasion of the Swedes. Peter esteemed the services of Sheremetiev. at their proper value. " God will repay you, and we will not forget what you have done." It was thus he had written to him when he was at Astrakhan. On his arrival at Kiev Sheremetiev was made a count of the Russian Empire, being the first to receive that title. The form graf was adopted into Russian directly from the German. Indeed, there is no title in Russia of direct Slavonic origin. The only genuine Slavonic dignity which has come down is zupnik, from zupa, a division of the country. This is used in Serbian and Slovenish, but has never obtained a footing in Russian. In those countries it is used to signify a parish priest. As regards the word boyar, the best etymology, and that favoured by Miklosich, is from a Tatar word. Tsar is of course Caesar, and kral, king (Russian, korol), has been derived from the name of Charlemagne (Karl), the great king with whom the Slavs came into contact. From the time of Peter the Great the word boyar ceases to be used in Russia. Even the word Kniaz, Prince, which is sometimes translated Duke, as Veliki Kniaz, Grand Duke, is really the old high German Kunings. Charles XII. deferred his invasion of Russia, and moved his army into Poland. Under the leadership of the Tsar the Russians followed in pursuit. Soon, however, Peter departed, and Menshikov was left in command. Meantime Sheremetiev was covering him with the chief army in 1706] THE REIGN OF PETER 39 Lithuania and on the Volin. The Swedish king is said to have succeeded in shutting the Russians up in Grodno in consequence of the adoption of the plans of Ogleby, another of Peter's Scotch generals. Menshikov left his force and met the Tsar, who had hurried from Moscow, at Pinsk, and explained in detail the position of affairs. He then suggested some skilful manoeuvres by which the army was eventually saved. After this he was made commander-in-chief of the cavalry, and when Ogleby was removed, the command of the whole army was divided between him and Sheremetiev. In the autumn of 1707 Charles turned from Poland to Russia. The Tsar had the army of Sheremetiev moved to Minsk, and" went himself to St Petersburg. At this time Augustus II., who was supported iff Peter, and was a thoroughly worthless king, was secretly making overtures of peace to Charles, who had been the great supporter of his rival Stanislaus Leszczynski. Menshikov, however, proved of great service to his master in watching Augustus carefully, and virtually keeping him a prisoner. On October 30th, 1706, Menshikov fell on the troops of the Swedes at Kalisch, and completely defeated them ; 5000 of the enemy were killed ; 142 officers and 2500 soldiers were taken prisoners. The commander of the Swedes himself, General Mardefeldt, with 3 guns and 25 standards, were the trophies of the victors. The Tsar thanked his favourite for a brilliant success such as the Russian arms had never till then been able to boast. Menshikov was made a colonel of the Guards, and the baton of a field-marshal, set with brilliants, was his reward. He was now at the very height of his fortunes. Few careers in history have been more worthy of attention, or exhibited more striking alternations. Charles XII. thought to deceive the watchfulness of the Tsar by a decisive blow in the winter. He marched rapidly into Lithuania. Peter now quitted Grodno, and retreated into his own country. Some generals counselled him to fight on the Russian frontier, but he followed the 40 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1706 advice of Sheremetiev in the council of war which was held. Here we must pause for a moment to speak of the treaty of Altranstadt (1706). Charles had really carried everything before him in Poland. He had forced Augustus to sign this treaty. At this time, there seemed great probability of an alliance being formed between France and Sweden, as the former was looking for an ally after the humiliation she had recently undergone at the hands of Marlborough. By the treaty of Altranstadt Charles XII. compelled Augustus to surrender Patkul to him. How far 'Augustus was unwilling to give up the refugee is uncertain. The unfortunate Livonian was dragged about to different places by Charles, and finally broken on the wheel at Casimir (Kazmierz). A terrible account of his execution has been left by Lorens Hager the Protestant clergyman, who attended -him on the scaffold. It is said that Charles wrote out with his own hand the minute orders for his punishment, and was very angry with the Swedish officer present at the execution, for causing the agonies of Patkul to be too quickly brought to an end by decapitation. Charles really remained six years in Poland and had reduced Augustus to the position of a mere vassal, but his conduct in doing so was hardly politic, since he thereby left his rival with a free hand in the Baltic provinces. Charles now resolved to commence his invasion of Russia, and broke up his camp at Radoszkovice near Grodno. In their pursuit of the Russians, the Swedes reached Smorgony and there halted. The Tsar, drawn away by state affairs, again left the army. Sheremetiev, however, continued the plan of Peter when warlike operations were renewed in the month of May. The daring and experience of Charles con- fused Sheremetiev and Menshikov who were no match for so skilful a tactician. The Swedes were victorious in the battle of Golovchino (July 14) although Sheremetiev managed to retreat in good order. The policy of both generals was to continually 1708] THE REIGN OF PETER 41 devastate the country before the advancing host., When Lowenhaupt the Swedish general came out of Riga, the Tsar took the command himself leaving Sheremetiev to follow Charles into Malorussia, and to cut off his supplies. Charles now crossed the Berezina, afterwards destined to play so important a part in the wars of Napoleon, and had his first encounter with the Russians at Dobroe, south of Smolensk. Menshikov had this year been created a prince, with the title of Izhorski (the place from which he took his name Izhora) and most illustrious Svietlieshi. He was also appointed actual privy councillor. Menshikov was kept actively employed in several small engagements during the winter of 1708-9; and was left with Sheremetiev to operate in various districts when Peter was absent. Here he was -. ot always successful. Mazeppa, the hetman of the Ukraine was according to the plans arranged by the Russians to have joined them, but in reality he had been negotiating with Charles, and he now wasted a great deal of time in indecision. He had long been hesitating to which side he should attach himself, and only after a considerable interval joined Charles, when his nephew Voinarovski had brought him gloomy accounts of the treatment which the Cossacks might look to receive at the hands of Peter, Up to that time Mazeppa had affected to be in sympathy with the Tsar : he had joined him at the siege of Azov : and had sent Cossack regiments to Volhynia and Lithuania to assist Augustus of Poland : he had even lavishly con- tributed funds in support of his cause : and Peter was so convinced of his devotion that he handed over Kochubei and Iskra, two enemies of Mazeppa to be punished by him. They were both executed. Mazeppa, although now an elderly man, was enamoured of the daughter of Kochubei, and readers of Russian poetry will remember how Pushkin has interwoven this story with his spirited narrative and description of the battle of Poltava. The secret agreement between Stanislaus, the rival of Augustus, and Mazeppa was that on the entry of Charles into Russian territory all the Cossack regiments 42 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1708 should join him and should thenceforth remain tributary to Poland ; he himself was to receive Vitebsk and Polotsk, in which the Duke of Courland was to transfer to him all his rights. Peter, who knew nothing of this conspiracy, concluded that Charles would attack him from Livonia. He therefore concentrated all his forces on the banks of the Dwina, and in compliance with the views of the council of war which he convened, decided to adopt a strictly defensive attitude. He determined not to be drawn into a decisive engagement with the enemy ; he knew very well that his soldiers could not cope with the tried veterans of Charles. His tactics were very similar to those pursued towards the invaders who entered the country a little more than a hundred years later. He resolved to build a chain of fortresses in order to obstruct the enemy's marches ; to prevent his passage of the rivers ; to devastate the territory which he must traverse so as to prevent his getting supplies; and further, to harass him by a series of petty battles. With this view he ordered a line of ditches and ramparts to be constructed from Pskov to Briansk; he strengthened the fortifications of Smolensk, Pskov, Novgorod and even Moscow, and ordered the villagers on the first approach of the enemy to destroy all the crops and betake themselves to the fortresses. Mean- while he enlisted as soldiers all the available men of the country. It was, in fact, a levee en masse. Three routes lay open to Charles; through Novgorod, Smolensk and the Ukraine. If he chose the first route, he could unite with his generals Lowenhaupt and Liibecker, and thus act with his whole force. But in that case he must first take Novgorod, and traverse a region of forests and barren soil, where the Russians would be able to hamper him at every step. The second route by Smolensk was also unsuitable because it would not permit of his co-operating with Lowenhaupt; the third route separated him even further from the corps stationed in Livonia and Finland ; but this disadvantage was more than compensated by his being able to rely upon the assistance of Mazeppa and by the rising in Malorussia and in the region 1709] THE REIGN OF PETER 43 of the Don. Aid, too, had been promised by the Khan of the Crimea; perhaps even support might be coming from the Sultan of Turkey who was being urged by the Swedish king to declare war against the Russians. Mazeppa had accumulated large stores in the Ukraine, and in this way the Swedish army could march straight to Moscow through a district where grain could be had in abundance, and which was far more fitted for aggressive than defensive warfare. Charles accordingly chose the route through the Ukraine, a fertile part of the country, from motives similar to those which afterwards influenced Napoleon who hoped to effect his retirement from Russia by it, had his route not been diverted by the all-important battle of Maloyaroslavets. He was able to conceal his plans with great skill, so that Peter for a long time could form no idea as to the direction in which he might expect his appearance. Not to be persuaded by Menshikov that Charles would endeavour to enter the country by Little Russia, Peter had concentrated all his forces in the neighbourhood of Smolensk and therefore could not prevent the passage of the Swedes over the Druch at Golovchino or over the Dnieper at Mohilev. The king easily defeated the separated corps of the Russian army, and entered the Sieverski district. Here also had been the basis of operations of the False Demetrius when he entered Russia. At length, however, the direction which the invader was taking became evident. Peter at once changed his. plans; he moved up his soldiers, came on the flank of the enemy and marched parallel with him, harassing him on all sides, and cutting off stragglers especially at Dobroe. So completely were the neighbouring towns and villages burnt, that Charles only found uninhabitable ruins awaiting him. The weather was severe, and in his apprehension that his army would perish from hunger, he sent orders to Lowenhaupt who had come from Livonia with great quantities of provisions and military stores, to join the main army as soon as possible. 44 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1709 The Russian generals, having learnt this, determined to send some regiments to intercept Lowenhaupt. The guide, a Jew, who had been bribed by the Swedes, conducted them to Smolensk, assuring them that they would meet the enemy there ; while Lowenhaupt, following another route, was already in the neighbourhood of Mohilev, a few days' journey from the Swedish army. Fortunately, the Tsar discovered his mistake in time, and changing his route overtook the Swedish general not far from Proprisk at the village of Liesnoe on the river Sozh. There he forced him to fight, and in spite of the superiority of their numbers and the desperate bravery of the Swedes, completely defeated them (Oct. 10, 1708). Lowenhaupt lost more than half his men with all his baggage, and when he appeared in the camp of the king it was as a fugitive. The consequences of this battle were very important for both sides. The Russians remembered the defeat of Shere- metiev at Gemauersthof, and considered Lowenhaupt the best general whom Charles could boast. Peter, having shown them that it was possible to beat him and that with inferior numbers, inspired his troops with confidence both in their own powers and in the ability of their leaders. Thus he continued to educate his troops and create an empire ; while the hot-brained Charles was daily leading Sweden to her downfall. Sheremetiev rejoiced more than anyone : he thanked the Tsar by letter for his victory which had avenged the unsuccessful reconnaissance at Gemauersthof. Charles was now deprived of a considerable portion of his forces and of all his military stores and the supplies which were now so necessary for his exhausted army. Hunger and disease had by this time reduced the Swedish army to 18,000 men. Charles, however, still had hopes of releasing himself from his difficult position by reaching Malorussia, where Mazeppa had promised that all the Cossack regiments would join him, and where he would find ample stores accumulated in Baturin, Romna, Gudiach and other towns. But in this expectation he was again egregiously deceived. The hetman 1709] THE REIGN OF PETER 45 succeeded in effecting a junction with him on the banks of the Desna, but with only an insignificant section of his retainers, together with some thousand Cossacks, who had been brought by treachery into the Swedish camp. Charles certainly did not find in Malorussia what he had hoped for ; instead of a hearty welcome and magazines full of stores, he met with fortresses obstinately defended, and with half-burnt towns and villages. The Cossacks showed but little sympathy with Mazeppa, and this contributed to the Tsar's success quite as much as the excellent measures he had himself taken. He received news of the defection of Mazeppa on November 7, 1708, and immediately sent Menshikov into Little Russia to counteract the plans of the traitor before the king could make his appearance. Mazeppa had himself made overtures by which Peter would probably have been again misled. The Cossack hetman was playing a similar part to that played by Lord Lovat in the rebellion of 1745. But about this time the Tsar accidentally intercepted a letter addressed by Mazeppa to Stanislaus Leszczynski, who had been put forward as a rival king to Augustus II. The fate of the conspirator was thus sealed. Menshikov swiftly and skilfully carried out his master's orders. He met with but little resistance anywhere except in Baturin, the capital of the Cossacks which was occupied by Chechela and Konigseck, the hetman's confederates. He carried the town by assault on November 15, razed it to the ground and captured the chief rebels. He thus got posses- sion of Mazeppa's treasures, his artillery and stores. He also demolished the Setch, as the fortifications of the Cossack republic were called, and thu§ deprived the Swedes of all chance of revictualling. The blow inflicted was very opportune, and inspired with terror the secret confederates of Mazeppa, in the various districts. On the other hand those who had begun to waver in their inclinations towards Russia were confirmed in their fidelity. There was no chance now of a general rising of the Cossacks. It was no longer a kind of national movement but the hostility of a few individual chiefs. 46 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1709 The Cossacks whom Mazeppa had tried to lead into the Swedish camp deserted, and Malorussia met Charles in a hostile spirit. Everywhere in the Sieverski district he found ruined villages. Everywhere Menshikov displayed the greatest activity. Peter proceeded to depose Mazeppa from the hetmanship and caused Skoropadski to be elected in his place. The traitor was also solemnly excommunicated by the Metropolitan of Kiev. The winter of 1708 now came on and proved to be one of unusual severity : and here again the fortunes of Charles afford an exact parallel to those of Napoleon. Ustrialov, the Russian historian, even says that birds were frozen on the wing. The Swedes suffered severely, but Charles always shared the privations of his men. There was more than truth in Dr Johnson's well-known line : " And winter barricades the realms of frost," but the mad king kept on with his expedition. The only chance for him now would have been to retreat into Poland. He was still eager however to force his way to Moscow. The Tsar had remained the whole winter with his army. When he set out for Voronezhe and Azov in the spring of the year 1709 he again entrusted the command to Shere- metiev and Menshikov. Disagreements however among the Russian commanders disturbed the plan of campaign which had been mapped out by Peter. Charles was now approaching the Vorskla. Sheremetiev and Menshikov incautiously divided their forces. The Tsar heard of this and, foreseeing how fraught with danger such a disposition would be for the Russian army, wrote ordering them to unite as soon as possible. On the route of Charles lay the town of Poltava, a place which till then had been so obscure that there is considerable difficulty in ascertaining the early spelling of the name. It is situated on the river Vorskla, and was held by a strong garrison under the com- mand of Colonel Kellin. Charles anticipated no difficulty 1709] THE REIGN OF PETER 47 in capturing the town, but Kellin showed no sign of sur- rendering. Th Swedish king had not been accustomed to meet with obstacles, and proposed to himself to take the place forthwith. He, moreover, disposed his troops under the walls of Poltava the more willingly, because he hoped to draw Peter into an engagement and to wait till the negotiations into which he had entered with the Turks earlier in the year should be concluded. In reality the Sultan who had been approached by the Swedish agents, wished to have a rupture with Russia, and the Khan of the Crimea towards whom he stood in the relation of suzerain, had already commenced hostile measures. Peter, however, acted with his customary decision and genius; he collected a powerful flotilla at Voronezh. All the winter he had busied himself with ship-building, and as soon as the river was navigable he sailed down the Don to Taganrog and showed himself in the sea of Azov. This had a quieting effect upon "the Sultan who no longer evinced any desire to interfere in the war and forbade the Khan to do so. Meanwhile Poltava had not surrendered, and Kellin con- tinued to repulse the attacks of the Swedes. Occasionally the bombs of the enemy gave rise to fires in the town, the soldiers would then rush up to the walls and plant the Swedish flag. Kellin, commissioning the women and old men to quench the flames, proceeded himself to the en- counter, beat off the Swedes from the fortifications, and by lucky sorties threw the enemy's camp into disorder, capturing guns and taking prisoners. Menshikov had by this time arrived on the scene. The forces of the Tsar, stationed not far from Poltava on the other bank of the Vorskla, supported the brave garrison. Menshikov con- tinued to introduce supplies into the town which was now beginning to suffer. The siege lasted two months, during which time Charles was more and more exhausting his forces. Menshikov sent to urge the Tsar to come as speedily as he could. Meanwhile, in conjunction with Sheremetiev, he had successfully carried out the designs 48 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [no» of Peter during the latter's absence. Peter now left Azov and hastened across the steppes of the Don. He was present at the scene of action on June 18th. The lessons taught him by his former battles with the Swedes had not been thrown away, and he now had a more efficient army in place of the raw untrained men who had been so easily defeated at Narva. Having weakened his army by so many futile attacks, Charles was anxious to have the matter decided. He had received a wound in his foot and could neither walk nor ride but had to be carried about in a kind of litter. Peter began cautiously and approached the place gradually under cover of earthworks ; but, on learning that the besieged could hold out no longer, he resolved to risk a battle on July 7 th. The two hosts were led by their respective sovereigns : it was a veritable duel, and the first to fire was Charles. Sitting in his litter and surrounded by his guards he took his soldiers straight against the redoubts, built in front of the Russian camp. The Swedes rushed up to the very trenches, but were met with such a terrific cannonade that the men fled for shelter into a wood which lay in front of the Russian camp, and not without difficulty re-formed there in something approaching order. In the midst of this panic, the right wing under the command of Ross became separated from the rest of the army and was cut to pieces by Menshikov. Meanwhile, the Tsar brought his main body into action from the trenches, and moved them skilfully on the enemy. Going round the regiments he told the soldiers that the time had come which was to decide the fate of Russia, that they were fighting not for Peter but for the empire entrusted to Peter, for their families, their country and the Holy Orthodox Faith, that they must not allow themselves to be daunted by the sup- posed invincibility of the enemy. The engagement then began. Peter attacked the army of the invaders on both flanks, and at the end of two hours had gained a complete victory. During the stampede which ensued, Charles fell 1709] THE REIGN OF PETER 49 several times from the litter. Those who succeeded in escaping made for Turkish territory, but prisoners to the number of 2800 were taken including the principal Swedish officers and Count Piper, the king's minister. Sheremetiev had displayed conspicuous bravery during the engagement, and as a reward had two estates given to him by Peter at the feast which followed the battle. Menshikov who had not been uniformly successful in the smaller engagements during the absence of Peter, atoned for all former errors by his brilliant command of the cavalry. Two horses were ^OZ+EAXGi.. 1709. killed under him at the redoubts ; how he cut off a regiment of Swedes has been already told ; a third horse was killed under him in the final engagement. He was immediately after the battle raised to the rank of field-marshal by the grateful Tsar. The Guards at the battle of Poltava were commanded by Golitsin. After the battle Peter entertained the highest Swedish officers among the prisoners and thanked them for the instructions he had received at their hands in the art of war. Of the rank and file of the captives many were sent to Siberia, whence the majority never returned to their native country. A valuable work on Russia, and Siberia in particular, was written by one of them named Strahlenberg. 50 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [17» Peter at Poltava displayed the most reckless courage, which fact should have been sufficient to dispose of all theories of cowardice at Narva. He is recorded to have been every- where during the engagement, generally in the front of the battle, and while thus exposing himself, received a bullet in his hat which is still preserved in the Museum of the Hermitage. No man realised more thoroughly the great importance of Poltava. A letter of his is still preserved, written from the field of battle on the nth of July, at nine in the evening, to his favourite minister- and high admiral, Feodore Matveich Apraksin. In it the Tsar, after telling in a few words of the complete victory he had just gained and the entire rout of the Swedish army, winds up by saying: "I think we shall now remain masters of St Petersburg and its dependencies.'' Nor was Charles behind Peter in his contempt of death. In the retreat he was lifted on to a favourite old horse Brander, and with a handful of attendants made his way to Turkish soil. Besides Count Piper he had also left Field Marshal Rennskjold in the hands of the Russians. The Swedish army now ceased to exist as a hostile force. Half of it had fallen on the field of Poltava ; the other half in its flight had hoped to reach the Crimea but surrendered to Menshikov and Golitsin at Perevolochna on the banks of the Dnieper. Some other fugitives, and among them Charles himself, set off for the river Bug but were overtaken by the Russians who killed some and took others prisoners, Charles escaping with great difficulty. He crossed the Bug with Mazeppa hoping to find a place of refuge in the Turkish dominions. All his stores and artillery were in the hands of the conqueror. His career as a victor was at an end ; and for the next five years he was to be a hostage at the court of the Turkish Sultan, where he had some strange adventures. He could not consider himself safe until he had reached Bender, then in Turkey, but now in the Russian government of Bessarabia. Here Mazeppa died after a chequered career on March 31st, 17 10, and was buried at Galatz in Roumania also at that time Turkish territory. 1709] THE REIGN OF PETER 51 The rejoicings throughout Russia were great, and the generals were loaded with honours. The letter which Peter wrote to Catherine and which is still preserved among the St Petersburg archives, may be compared with that which Sobieski wrote to his wife on the defeat of the Turks before Vienna: "Good morning, Mamma, I write to tell you that God all merciful has been so good as to give me an inde- scribable victory over the enemy. To tell you briefly — all the forces of the enemy have been completely beaten, and you yourself shall hear about it from us ; and pray come here in person to congratulate me. — Peter." He signs his name in Dutch form in Latin letters as he frequently did when in a humorous mood. The battle of Poltava has always been reckoned one of the decisive battles of the world. It signified two things : first, the fall of Sweden from her purely accidental position as the leading power in Northern Europe, which she owed entirely to the genius of Gustavus Adolphus \ and secondly, the assumption of that place by Russia. Up to this time Peter had been regarded by the other Europeans with mingled feelings of astonishment and contempt ; now, however, there manifested itself a universal inclination to court him, especi- ally shown among the petty German potentates. But not only did Peter thus establish his position towards the other European powers, he also by this brilliant victory, so gratify- ing to Russian pride, reconciled his own subjects to the many reforms which had been introduced and the high- handed manner in which they had been carried out. At the beginning of his reign he was not- without moments of peril at the hands of the Streltsi who met with a large amount of support among the clergy and represented a faction which had never been entirely suppressed. The course of Peter's action had been throughout in direct opposition to the pre- judices of his countrymen, and now the disaffected ones began to group themselves round his divorced wife and rebellious son. It is easy to understand that they fancied, as we read in the contemporary Mini, that there was only a spurious Peter who 52 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [wo was ruling over them and that the real orthodox Russian Tsar had been spirited away to Stegoln (Stockholm) and was kept prisoner there. Perry the English engineer employed by Peter tells that papers were found about the streets threaten- ing his assassination. The immediate effect, however, of the victory of Poltava was that Peter received the homage of the neighbouring powers ; all were ready to make friends with him. Augustus II. of Poland now declared the treaty of Altranstadt to be inoperative and thus some expiation was made to the manes of the unfortunate Patkul. He had met Peter at Thorn on ioth October 1709, and now hastened to conclude an offensive and defensive alliance with Russia against Sweden. Stanis- laus Leszczynski who had been nominated King of Poland by Charles, and would have made an excellent king, was compelled to leave that country, and took refuge with his protector at Bender. Peter did not forget the injuries which had been done him by the Cossacks, and proceeded to chastise them with great severity. In fact this was the last outbreak which they indulged in. Mazeppa would certainly have been put to death had he survived, and hence it has been conjectured that he committed suicide. It does not seem altogether improbable, and would have been a dramati- cally suitable ending to his career of passion and turbulence. In the curious memoirs of the Polish noble Pasek we get some strange stories about him. After Poltava, Sheremetiev led the Russian forces to Rieshetilovka and thence marched to Riga (July 7, 1710). The Swedish garrison at Riga amounted to 12,000 men. In October, Sheremetiev began the blockade, and in November Peter, who had been journeying across the frontier, arrived in the camp of the besiegers, and opened the bombardment. On his departure Sheremetiev again changed the siege into a winter blockade, removed his superfluous troops to Courland, and went to Moscow to celebrate the military triumph of Poltava. The Tsar left to him the honour of the victory of Poltava only claiming for himself the credit of that at Liesnoe. 171«] THE REIGN OF PETER 53 Sheremetiev and Menshikov followed immediately behind the Tsar in the triumphal procession as generals of the Preobazhenski regiment. In the winter Sheremetiev returned to Riga, and at the beginning of December the bombardment was renewed and was continued till the whole Russian army had assembled. The city was now grievously hard pressed, suffering at once from sickness and the Russian shells, nevertheless it was not iintil the following July that Riga surrendered. Sheremetiev entered the city in triumph and received the oath of allegiance from the citizens. The Tsar gave him the keys of Riga to keep as an heirloom and they are still preserved among the treasures of the Sheremetievs. These keys are of gold and weigh about three pounds, and bear the following inscription : Rigae devictse obsequium a supremo totius Russia? campi prsefecto com. Boris Sheremeteff, Equite ordin. Malth., S. Apostol Andrese et alt. Anno Salutis MDCCX. die |f Julii. After the taking of Riga Sheremetiev led the Russian army into Volhynia. Soon after the battle of Poltava, the Danish king, Frederick IV., sent an ambassador to Peter, Just Juel, whose secretary has left us a very interesting account of his journey. The Tsar, we are told, received the ambassador in the most cordial manner, asking him to come and sit by him, and offering him a glass of wine with his own hand. This same writer has left us only too vivid a picture of some of the drinking bouts he witnessed at St Petersburg, for it was a hard drinking age. Prussia, Poland and Denmark were now eager for a close alliance with the conqueror. Before the end of 1 709, Sweden found herself attacked on all sides, so foolish and head- strong had been the policy of Charles. The country would have been lost but for the energy of General Magnus Stenbock, who had gone to the Ukraine with the king, but in consequence of ill health had returned to Sweden, where he heid the post of Governor of Skaania. He rapidly raised an army of 15,000 men, and succeeded in driving out the Danes who had invaded the country. The 54 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mo Russians, however, occupied Livonia, Esthonia and part of Finland. The other European powers who were then engaged in the contest with Louis XIV., were rather perplexed by the new development which matters were taking. Louis XIV. at once conceived the idea of entering into an alliance with Peter. As yet there had been but little intercourse between the countries. We first hear of ambassadors from France in the time of the Tsar Michael, and in the reign of Alexis some Russians had been sent to France to negotiate, but matters had not yet been arranged on a friendly footing. From the records which have come down, we see that the Embassy was attended with difficulties. The Russian ambassador and his suite had what nearly amounted to a fight, when the French custom-house officers proceeded to examine their luggage. The ambassador, however, as we read in the account which he sent home, witnessed the performance of Moliere's Amphitryon, the chief part being played no doubt by the great comedian himself. Peter does not seem to have been willing to commit himself to any definite alliance; he had his own plans of securing a footing on the Baltic, and was not unwilling to see the European powers engaged in another direction, so that he might be free to cany out his designs. Ah interview took place at Marienwerder between Peter and Frederick of Prussia. The latter is said to have proposed the partition of Poland, as did another member of his house in the days of Catherine II. On this occasion a marriage was negotiated between 'Frederick William, the young Duke of Courland, the nephew of the Prussian king, and Anne, daughter of Peter's brother Ivan, who afterwards become Empress. This marriage had in many ways a political significance. In the year 1710, an Embassy was sent by the Duke of Courland to Russia, and on the 22nd of July in that year a treaty was concluded, in which it was stipulated that the Tsarevna should have a church for herself and her Russian attendants according to the orthodox rite; if she had any daughters 1710] THE REIGN OF PETER 55 they were to be of the same religion as their mother, but the sons were to be brought up as Lutherans, like their father. On the marriage taking place, Anne was to have 200,000 roubles as a dowry, and if the Duke should die leaving no issue, his widow was to receive for her mainten- ance 400,000 roubles annually as well as a castle and estate for her residence during the rest of her life. In August of the same year, the bridegroom himself arrived in St Petersburg, accompanied by the Russian field-marshal Sheremetiev. The marriage took place on the nth of the following November at the residence of Prince Menshikov on the Vasilievski Ostrov. The rite was performed by the Archimandrite Theodosii Yanovski, who was metropolitan of Novgorod, and the concluding exhortation to the bridegroom pronounced in Latin. The marriage -was made the occasion for a series of uproarious festivals, which illustrate somewhat luridly the state of civilization in the country. Two dwarfs on one occasion were seen to come out of a pie when it was cut, and the marriage of a dwarf took place on the 26th of November. It should be remembered that even in England dwarfs were kept at Court till well past the middle of the seventeenth century, and some German princelings even kept them as late as the time of Peter. The marriage of Anne was, however, to have a melancholy ending. Before the newly-married couple could reach Mittau, when indeed they were only 40 versts from St Petersburg at a country house named Duderhof, the Duke died suddenly from the effects, it was said, of the great quantity of spirituous liquor with which the hospitality of his royal relatives had entertained him. For political reasons, Peter wished that his widowed niece should continue to live on the Courland estates of the late Duke, and he even desired to send her mother Prascovia there with her daughter, but was eventually induced to give up the idea. From this time forward, Courland became more or less a dependency of Russia. The adventurer Biren or Biihren, a favourite of Anne's, was afterwards made Duke, and in the 56 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mo time of Catherine II. the inhabitants voluntarily put them- selves under Russian protection. But a somewhat severe check was now to be given to Peter's triumphant progress by the outbreak of a war with Turkey. This Was brought about by the machinations of the fugitive Charles, who was still a captive at. Bender. During his absence from his dominions, Charles had occupied him- self continually with attempts to embroil Russia with Turkey. The Tsar had managed to enlist as a partisan the vizier Churluli, and Akmet III. had even agreed at the beginning of the year 17 10 to confirm the treaty of Constantinople, on condition that Charles should have a free passage through Russia into Sweden. The latter, however, declined to avail himself of this. His agents, the Polish Generals Poniatovski and Potocki, with the help of the French ambassador and the Khan of the Crimea, succeeded by one of these court intrigues so frequent in Turkish history, in overthrowing Churluli and getting Mehemet Pasha made vizier. Mean- while, Charles by his chivalrous bravery had gained for himself many friends among the Turks. In October 17 10 the Tsar sent an ultimatum to the Sultan, and soon after- wards the latter declared war on the ground that the Tsar had erected fortifications which threatened the Crimea, and had seized parts of Poland with the object of thence making an inroad into Turkish territory. A Turkish army of 300,000 men was placed under the command of the grand vizier, and was to cross the Danube into Russian territory. Peter entered upon the war most unwillingly because he had other matters to attend to ; his great desire being to consolidate his new northern acquisitions. Allies he had none, although he made overtures both to Venice and to Louis XIV. He endeavoured, however, to enter into relations with the Wallachians, Moldavians, and Serbs, all of whom were groaning under a yoke which they were eager to cast off. Brancovan the hospodar of Wallachia and Kantemir of Moldavia (father of the celebrated Antiokh, both Russian ambassador and poet) were eager to help him. These 1711] THE REIGN OF PETER 57 princes agreed to find supplies for the Russians and to put themselves under Peter's protection. It is in reality from the time of Peter the Great that the rayahs in Turkey begin to look to the Russians for protection. The success of the expedition depended upon Peter's being able to anticipate the enemy in reaching the Danube so as to get possession of Moldavia before the Turks ; and Peter hoped to accomplish his object by one decisive blow. Having collected about 40,000 of his best troops, mostly infantry, including some regiments of the guards, he put Sheremetiev in command, and ordered him to hasten at once into Moldavia. In March 171 1 he himself joined the army and expressed great dis- satisfaction with the way in which Sheremetiev had wasted his time. It had been arranged that he should push on with his regiments and reach the Dniester by the middle of May. He was then to hurry to the Danube so as to anticipate its passage by the Turks. Sheremetiev, harassed by the difficulties of his march in the summer heat, and the in- sufficiency of provisions, had lost two weeks in his journey to the Dniester. He also made a digression to Jassy at the request of the Hospodar of Moldavia, and thus further wasted time ; ■ considering, as he did, that the previous plan of the war was abandoned. He could not make up the time that had been lost when Peter came into Moldavia, and this was partly the cause of the disaster of the Pruth. Peter was accompanied by Catherine, and he had left Menshikov as governor of St Petersburg during his absence. The Russian Emperor was well received by the Polish magnates as he marched through Galicia, and at Yarowowo he signed the treaty of marriage of his son Alexis with the unfortunate princess Charlotte of Wolfenbuttel. The Turks, however, succeeded in reaching the Danube before the Russians. Peter got to the Pruth on July 5 th and had a meeting with Kantemir at Jassy ; this was then a poor town with a few mosques and so remained till the beginning of the nineteenth century : now however it is a very handsome city, conspicuous for its well-built churches ; and of the 58 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1711 quondam rule of the Turk not a vestige appears to be left. Peter now began to find that he could not rely much upon his supporters in Turkey. The time for the rising of the Christian population against their Ottoman masters had not yet come. We shall find, too, that it was premature even in the reign of Catherine II. ; all things, however, were tending to it, as indeed they always have been. Peter, as we have said, had not been eager for the war : on the other hand there is evidence that the Turks were also half-hearted, and when Peter was at Jassy the Sultan appears to have made offers of peace. The Tsar now fell into the serious error of dividing his army : one half he sent into Wallachia in the hope of raising the population, and went himself to the Pruth, with 30, or 40,000 men. Brancovan meanwhile showed signs of treachery, and soon afterwards openly made common cause with the Grand Vizier. The supplies which had been collected for the benefit of the Russians were now handed over to the Turks, while those which Kantemir had promised had been destroyed by locusts. These latter infect this particular part of Europe in large swarms : readers of the life of Pushkin will remember that the poet quarrelled with Prince Vorontsov because the latter had ordered him to report upon the damage which locusts had caused in Bessarabia. Besides Shererhetiev, Peter had with him Golitsin who had come recently from the Baltic provinces, where in conjunction with Admiral Apraksin he had distinguished himself at the siege of Viborg in 17 10 : we shall deal, however, later on with the northern conquests of the Tsar's generals. The Grand Vizier, whose troops greatly out-numbered the Russians, now attacked them, and although they defended themselves with great valour their position became untenable. Peter now sent a trumpeter into the Turkish camp offering terms. It is believed that the Grand Vizier had already heard of the taking of Braila by Ronne, one of Peter's generals. The Tsar employed Shavirov to manage the negotiations. He was ready to surrender all Turkish territory occupied by the Russians, and even to give up Livonia, but not the district 1711] THE REIGN OF PETER 59 upon which the newly founded city of St Petersburg was situated. Moreover Peter's terras included a vast bribe to the Vizier : and he would even have gone so far as to surrender Pskov, and acknowledge Stanislaus Leszczynski king of Poland. The Turks consented to allow the Tsar to escape from his dilemma, Azov was to be surrendered, and the fortifications of Taganzog destroyed. Peter was to cease to interfere in Polish affairs and to give liberty of passage through his Jt.IVHR JP/tUTlf. /rii. dominions to the King of Sweden. Shavirov and the sons of Sheremetiev were to remain with the Turks as hostages. The latter atoned by his bravery in the terrible crisis to which he had to a great extent contributed. Thus on one occasion seeing a wounded Russian soldier surrounded by Turks, he rushed to his rescue, thereby imperilling his own life. For this he was rebuked by Peter, who said that a general should not expose himself in such a reckless fashion. In case the Turks should refuse peace Sheremetiev avowed himself ready to fight to the last extremity f His son, who when peace had been concluded was sent off with Shafirov to Constantinople as a hostage, had already distinguished himself at Rapino in 60 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [nil 1 701. According to the account of Neculce, the Moldavian commander, Peter applied to him to smuggle Catherine and himself out of the Russian camp, thereby leaving the command to Sheremetiev. The letter which Peter is reported to have sent to the Senate, telling them that they were to pay no attention to any orders which he might give, if he were captured, is now generally considered a forgery. It is not mentioned by con- temporaries nor can any copy of it be found in the Russian archives at the present time. Bribes are said to have been given by Catherine to the Turkish officials. This, however, is considered improbable by M. Waliszewski, who looks upon the final treaty as proceeding from the dislike of the Turks to continue the campaign. It was thus that the Russian army was rescued. Azov was a great loss to Peter, because it was his outlet to the sea, and the scene of one of his earliest triumphs. The Russians did not again become possessed of it till 1774, as we shall see further on, when the grand schemes about the Black Sea were realised by Catherine II. The conditions of the treaty were carried out with con- siderable difficulty. Peter, much to his honour, refused to give up Kantemir at the request of the Sultan and thus saved the historian of Turkey from the bow-string. Charles was naturally indignant that his powerful enemy had been allowed to escape from the consequences of his indiscretion. He demanded that the treaty should be abrogated, and he refused to leave Turkey. He also persuaded the Sultan to dismiss the Vizier and to appoint Yusuf Pasha in his place. As some of the terms of the treaty were not carried out Peter refused to surrender Azov. He evidently was most un- willing to abandon this important position which had cost him so much labour and bloodshed. He even gave orders that when it was surrendered drawings should be made of the fortifications. The Porte was on the point of renewing the war on the ground that the terms of the treaty were not adhered to ; but Shavirov, who had been sent as a hostage to Constantinople, succeeded in persuading the Sultan by the 171*] THE REIGN OF PETER 61 help of the English and Dutch ambassadors that the Swedish king ought to leave Turkey before Azov was surrendered. It was, however, not long before the Turks, while seeming to ratify the treaty of the Pruth, again declared war against Russia on account of her interference in the affairs of Poland. The Tartars devastated the Ukraine and the Turks con- centrated their forces at Adrianople as a base from which to invade the Russian territory. The Sultan however became more disposed to peace when Azov was once surrendered, and made a treaty with Russia at Adrianople for twenty-five years on the lines of the treaty of the Pruth. Charles was now told that he must depart. He flatly refused, and when a regiment of janissaries appeared to carry him off he fortified the wooden house which he occupied, armed his retinue, and fought through a whole day till the Turks burned down his house. He then rushed out considerably injured with burns and holding a blood-stained sword in his hand ; he was caught, however, and taken to Demotica near Adrianople. Here he became very friendly with the new vizier, and nearly succeeded in a second time persuading the Porte to take arms against Peter. Finally feeling that all his efforts were vain, and hearing of the miserable condition in which his country was now placed, he left Turkey in a rage. He refused to receive any presents from the Sultan nor would he allow him to furnish him with any escort. With a solitary companion and under a feigned name, he traversed Wallachia, Transylvania, Hungary, Austria and Brunswick, and un- expectedly appeared at Stralsund ; the only possession remain- ing to the Swedes of the territories they had once occupied in Germany. Thus, like a house of cards, had tumbled to pieces the fabric of a north Scandinavian confederacy which the genius of Gustavus Adolphus had called into being. Sweden was to shrink to her natural limits, and the great north Germanic confederation was to wait for its realisation to the days of Bismarck. Of Charles's companion Stanislaus Leszczynski we shall 62 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1714 hear again in the course of our history. Charles gave him the little principality of Deux Ponts and he took up his abode there in 17 14, but when the Swedish king was killed in 17 18 he was obliged to quit his retreat and was allowed to retire to France. 1714] CHAPTER III THE REIGN OF PETER— continued O HEREMETIEV had been left in command of the forces ^ which occupied the country between the Dnieper and Kameniets, while the Malorussian soldiers were to guard the line of the Ukraine. Here Sheremetiev remained for three years till the winter of 17 14, for the Turks wavered in their conduct, at one time seeming disposed to carry out the treaty and at another to ignore it. His military labours and increas- ing years at length began to tell upon Sheremetiev; family troubles also assisted in breaking up his health. In 17 14 his eldest son died at Kiev on his return from Constantinople. Still Sheremetiev did not leave the service of the Tsar. The interests and activity of Peter were now more confined to the north,^where the appearance of Charles upon the scene was enough once more to kindle the flames of war. On the 7th of November 17 14, a certain Peder Frisk, as he called himself, made his appearance at Stralsund. He was shabbily dressed and covered with dirt, and wayworn. This was the mad Charles. He had parted with his oriental friends. Those who had assisted Peter in the new role he had assumed of Protector of the Christians in the Turkish Empire, were likely to become considerably embroiled with the Ottoman authorities. Kantemir escaped the vengeance of the Turks by removing into Russian territory. Brancovan and his son were seized by the officers of the Sultan at Bucharest, carried off to Constantinople and there executed. During the five years in which Charles had remained in Turkey, Sweden had lost Pomerania and Finland. Charles himself was to blame for the loss of the first. In 17 10, the naval powers — England and Holland — with the concurrence 63 64 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1715 of the German Empire had signed a treaty of neutrality at the Hague, which had the effect of removing the northern war from German territory. There was no wish on the part of the powers to embarrass the great alliance against Louis XIV. By this treaty Augustus II. was protected in Saxony; Denmark in Holstein, Schleswig and Jutland ; and Sweden in Pomerania. Charles, however, would hear of nothing of the kind, although the regency appointed in Stockholm accepted it. The Kings of Denmark and Poland hastened to seize Stralsund. Charles took command of the garrison and de- fended the place till the walls were blown up and the fortifica- tions reduced to ashes ; then in a small yacht he crossed the Baltic and landed safely in Skaania, although Tordenskjold, the famous admiral, the hero of the celebrated ballad, was scouring the seas to intercept him. The city of Stralsund was taken by the allied forces, including those of Russia, and Stettin, reduced to extremities by Menshikov, put itself under the protection of Frederick William of Prussia, who held it in force, till the Swedes should pay some of the money he had spent in saving the town. Charles definitely refused to recognise this claim, and the Prussian Kaag accordingly incorporated Stettin with his dominions. Menshikov had been sent by Peter to Courland and Pomerania, and re- mained in command of the troops in Holstein after the departure of the Tsar. Sheremetiev also went to Pomerania in 1715, he was detained in Poland by the tricks of Fleming the Polish minister. Peter on leaving the Pruth had gone to Warsaw, where a house is still shown as having been occupied by him. He ultimately went as far as Carlsbad that he might take the waters. On October 24th he arrived at Torgau in order to be present at the marriage of his son Alexis with the Princess Charlotte. He finally reached his new city of St Petersburg in 17 12. It was not long before he discovered that the trickster Augustus of Poland was endeavouring to negotiate a separate treaty with Charles; who, however, would never recognise him as king. Peter next paid a visit to Berlin and then joined his troops who 1713] THE REIGN OF PETER 65 were stationed at Mecklenburg. The year 17 12 was marked by the defeat which Stenbok the Swedish general inflicted on the Danish king, Frederick IV., who himself was on the point of falling into his hands. We next find the Tsar at Hanover, where he had an interview with the Elector, afterwards to be King of England. He then visited Berlin again. {lis old friend Frederick I. had died in 1713, a memorable sovereign in the annals of Prussia, as having secured- for himself the title of king, which was conceded to him by the treaty of Utrecht. With him may be said to have originated the distinct anti-Polish policy of Prussia. He was succeeded by his son Frederick William I. whom Carlyle has made celebrated for his stinginess and savage manners. All readers of history are acquainted with the penchant of this sovereign for giants. Peter was able to humour this fancy in a man who had many tastes in common with himself, and sent him eighty giants for his regiment of grenadiers. Later on, and in the reign of the same sovereign, we have the droll story told of Lomonosov the Russian author. He also was a man of gigantic stature, and owing to his talents had been sent by the Russian Government to be educated in Germany. Getting into difficulties he resolved to run away from the town in which he was studying — Marburg in Hesse — and on his way back, becoming intoxicated at Dusseldorf, he found himself on awaking clad in Prussian regimentals. Lomonosov was only saved from his embarrassing position by the inter- vention of the Russian ambassador. The aggressive designs of Peter were next directed against Finland. He must have perceived that it was too near to St Petersburg to be allowed to remain in foreign hands. The Russians felt this in the reign of Catherine II. when the naval battles took place, the cannonades of which shook the city. The skilful Swedish general, Lubecker, was then operating in Finland. In May 1 7 1 3 Peter appeared off Helsingfors, which the Swedes surrendered to him and he also got possession of Abo. Hereupon the Swedish Government removed Lubecker and put Armfeldt in his place. However in October 18th Armfeldt E 66 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1714 was defeated by the Russian admirals, Apraksin and Golitsin at the village of Nappo. At the same time the Tsar (17 14) obtained a great naval victory off Gangud (between Helsirigfors and Abo) and took prisoner Admiral Ehrenskiold with all his squadron. The conquest of the Aland islands was another result of this victory. Finally, when Nyschlot the last re- maining fortress was taken, the Swedish troops evacuated Finland, leaving the country completely in the hands of the Russians. We must now turn our attention for a while to Russia's internal affairs. In 1712 the Tsar, who had repudiated his wife Eudoxia, married Martha Skavronskaya, who became in the Greek Church, Catherine. She was crowned and made a lawful Russian sovereign. Her early history has already been described. In 1703 Peter had begun to build his new capital. Thousands of men were brought from all quarters to carry out this gigantic undertaking. Malorussians were compelled to assist in the erection of the city ; indeed Peter seems to have been anxious to break the spirits of that people which had never patiently submitted to the Russian yoke. Every effort was made by the Tsar to induce the Russian nobles to build houses for themselves in the new capital. It was there as previously mentioned that Menshikov had erected his splendid house. After he had brought back the Russian troops from the Swedish war, he was loaded with fresh honours. He was rewarded with the Prussian Black Eagle and the Danish Elephant. Foreign potentates vied with the Tsar in decorating him. This was the climax of his career. Promoted to the highest rank, and owning 50,000 peasants, he was also the lord of three towns, Oranienburg, Yamburg and Koporie. But he was not contented ; he could put no limit to his love of gain. The Tsar forgave his haughtiness, but had frequent occasions to rebuke him for his insatiable desire for wealth, and was displeased at the unscrupulous means he too often adopted to secure it. At length, by the wish of the Tsar, he was examined in a court of justice and he was obliged to refund some of his gains. 1715] THE REIGN OF PETER 67 In vain did the Tsar expect genuine repentance from his favourite. Fresh misdealings were discerned immediately afterwards. The Tsar now resolved to make an example of the offender, and to show as much severity in punishing him as he had previously found pleasure in rewarding him. From this fate, however, Menshikov was saved by the intervention of the Empress Catherine. She remembered that it was at the house of Menshikov that the Tsar had first met her. The Tsar again forgave him. He left him his rank and honours; nay. even, remembering his great services in the past, associated with him on the former terms. When some courtier asked him what he thought of the conduct of his favourite, when the latter had just been detected in some new peculation, Peter is reported to have answered, " I have nothing to say except that Menshikov always will be Menshikov." In 1 7 1 5 an English and Dutch fleet visited the Baltic, and Peter dined on board the flagship of Admiral Norris. He thus renewed acquaintance with his English naval friends. We have already quoted from Perry the complimentary remarks he was in the habit of making upon the English sailors, for whom he felt a genuine admiration. The follow- ing year his youngest sister Natalia, who seems to have been a woman of much culture, died. Thus the return of Charles, so far from allaying the dis- ordered state of Sweden, increased her troubles. Besides his three former enemies, he had now two more opponents in the King of Prussia and the Elector of Hanover. With the former he quarrelled about Stettin not being prepared, as we have seen, to recognise its hypothecation. His dispute with the latter was concerned with the Swedish towns of Werden and Bremen, of which the Elector wished to get possession, accord- ing to his treaty with the King of Denmark. Moreover, England and Holland at length resolved to take part in the northern war, from a feeling of dissatisfaction with Charles, who had allowed his privateers to seize neutral vessels. In this way there was an alliance of seven countries against 68 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mi Sweden, viz., Russia, Poland, Denmark, Hanover, Prussia, England and Holland. All this served Peter's purpose admirably. He felt that Sweden was his most important enemy, and wished to deal her a decisive blow, recog- nising that the command of the Baltic was necessary for the very existence of his new capital. But Charles, despite the fact that he had just lost Stralsund, would not enter- tain the idea of peace. His whole policy was based upon a radical misconception of the resources of Sweden and of the position she occupied in the European system. It is therefore impossible to consider him in any true sense a statesman, even if we allow ourselves to admire the fight- ing qualities of this berseker. In the same way towards the close of the century the inflated and theatrical Gustavus III. acted as if Sweden was one of the great powers, and had un- limited resources, and thus dragged the country into useless wars solely to gratify his own vanity and political ambition. The allies, however, soon ceased to work in harmony. The Danes especially seem to have had their suspicions of Peter. Augustus of Poland shuffled as usual. This want of unanimity among the allies could not escape the notice of the far-seeing minister Gortz, who enjoyed Charles's complete confidence. He excogitated a subtle plan based on an attempted recon- ciliation between Peter and the king. It certainly seemed impossible that such a. result could be brought about, because neither one nor the other was prepared to give up Livonia, Esthonia, and Ingria. At the suggestion of Gortz, however, Charles offered terms of peace, which were readily listened to by Peter, and negotiations were at once opened in the Aland islands between Gortz on the one side, and Bruce and Oster- mann on the other. These did not last long. Gortz had a personal interview with Peter when at the Hague during his second tour, of which we shall speak shortly. It seemed better to discuss 1 the relations with Sweden collectively. In the event Charles gave up to Russia Livonia, Esthonia, Ingria, Karelia, and the part of Finland in which Viborg is situated. Peter, on his part, promised to force Augustus of Poland to 1718] THE REIGN OF PETER 69 abdicate, and to forward the return of Stanislaus Leszczynski. He was also to send troops to assist Sweden in the war with Denmark and Hanover, and to help in conquering Norway. Besides this, Gortz, in conjunction with the intriguing Spanish minister Alberoni, had plans for driving the Elector of Hanover from the English throne, and restoring the Stuarts in the, person of the Pretender. With this view, a certain Thomas Gordon, governor of Cronstadt, a Scotchman in the service of Peter, entered into a correspondence with the Pretender. A Russian fleet was to make a descent upon the English coast. Thus the flames of a northern war seemed to be about to spread over all Europe, when a sudden end was put to all these plans. In the late autumn of 17 18, Charles had set out to conquer Norway, which then belonged to Denmark, and laid siege to the town of Frederikshald. The war was far from being popular among the Swedes : the siege was being carried on in a most severe winter ; it was like making trenches in a rock. But Charles shared all the fatigue with his men. Voltaire has described how the king used on the coldest nights to sleep in the open air with only a cloak thrown over him. Yet at this time many of his soldiers were frozen to death at their posts. About nine o'clock at night on the eleventh of December, he went to examine the trenches. He found the parallel not advanced enough and expressed his discontent. The angle of the rampart where the king was standing was commanded by the enemy's cannon. There were only two officers near him at the time, both Frenchmen : one was M. Signier, his aide-de-camp, who had attached himself to his service in Turkey, and the other an engineer named Megret. These two saw the king suddenly fall and heard him utter a sigh. When they ran up to him he was already dead. He had been struck by a ball in the right temple. However much the patriotism of the Swedes has occasionally attempted to conceal it, there can be no doubt that the shot had been fired by someone in the Swedish camp. This is proved 70 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1719 by the direction from which the ball came. The musket from which the ball was fired is said to be preserved in the house of a country gentleman in the Baltic provinces. The Swedes were in fact reduced to extremities and were tired of the mad pranks of the king. It has been con- jectured that he was shot by the engineer Megret at the instigation of his brother-in-law Prince Frederick of Hesse, husband of the Princess Ulrika the heiress to the throne. Charles was only thirty-six years of age. Extraordinary ac- counts have come down to us of the rudeness of his manners. It is difficult to see how such a man could have been in any way a patron of learning, as is asserted by some of his admirers. The prince at once ordered the arrest of Gortz. This unfortunate minister was made the victim of the indigna- tion universally felt at the miserable condition of Sweden, while Charles became and has ever since remained a national hero. Gortz was brought to Stockholm, and without any regular trial was sentenced by the queen to be executed. In this way the nobility exacted vengeance for the humilia- tions to which Charles had subjected them. The new queen resolved to carry on the war against Peter with all the resources at her disposal, and to make peace with all the other enemies of Sweden. To the Elector of Hanover she gave up Bremen and Werden ; to the King of Prussia, Stettin and Upper Pomerania; and to the King of Denmark, Schleswig. By abandoning these territories the queen hoped with the help of England to get back those which the Russians had conquered. Peter now fitted out a large fleet under the command of Admiral Apraksin and landed troops on the east coast of Sweden. These latter burned two towns and a great many villages in the neighbourhood of Stockholm. Ostermann was sent to Sweden to negotiate a peace, but he found all efforts in that direction useless. Ulrika entreated the King of England to hasten to her aid and a treaty was concluded between the two powers. As Elector of Hanover, George received the towns of Bremen and Werden upon payment 1721] THE REIGN OF PETER 71 of a million thalers, and a great fleet was to be sent to assist Sweden to maintain her supremacy in the Baltic. In 1720, Queen Ulrika, feeling the responsibilities of empire too heavy for her, with the consent of the States,, resigned her power into the hands of her husband, who was recognised thenceforth as King Frederick I. His long reign (1720-1750) was indeed a gloomy one for Sweden, which now had to make atonement for the indiscretions of the mad Charles. Russia without allies turned to Spain then governed by the capable Alberoni, the favourite minister of Elizabeth Farnese. But on the fall of the Cardinal these negotiations came to an end. In 1720, George I. willing to assist the new king, sent a considerable fleet under the command of Admiral Norris to the Gulf of Finland, and threatened St Petersburg. The English however were half-hearted, and there was a con- siderable party in opposition who thought that the com- mercial interests of the country would suffer by a war with Russia. Norris, thus handicapped, did as little in the Baltic as did Napier more than a century afterwards. In 1 72 1 Peter sent some ships under the command of Golitsin, one of his most capable men, to threaten Sweden, and a Swedish squadron was defeated near the island of Grengam, almost under the eyes of the English. Golitsin even brought four ships which he had taken to St Petersburg. George I. was obliged to tell the Swedish king how little sympathy the war had aroused in England. Meanwhile Golitsin continued his depredations on the coast of Sweden, and that unhappy country was still to pay the penalties of juxtaposition to its powerful and hostile neighbour. At length it was decided to hold a congress at Nystadt, a town in Finland, not far from Abo. The deliberations lasted some time, Russia being represented by Bruce and Ostermann, and Sweden by Lilienstedt and Stromfeldt. The chief subjects of contention were Livonia and Viborg. Peter even gave orders to Golitsin to attack Stockholm itself, with a view of putting ,an end to any further delay in the proceedings of the 72 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1717 congress. Finally matters were arranged by the celebrated treaty of Nystadt (September 10, 1721); Russia was to receive Livonia with the islands of Egel and Dago, Esthonia, Ingria, and a part of Finland with the town of Viborg, and undertook to pay Sweden two million dollars for Livonia. The news of the peace was received in Russia with great rejoicing: the Tsar ordered casks of brandy to be brought into the public squares and^ drank a bumper to the health of the people. Everywhere were fireworks and triumphal processions. The Tsar received from the Senate the title of Great Emperor (Imperator), Father of the Country. Hitherto we have followed events in Sweden in order not to disturb the sequence of our narrative; it is time to turn our attention to what had been occurring in the interval in other parts. Sheremetiev the boyar of the old school who had followed the fortunes of Peter in so many fields, was not destined to be present at his triumph on the 29th of February 17 19, having died at Kiev. He had left' orders by his will that he should be buried near his son in that city. The Tsar however had his remains removed to St Petersburg and gave him a grand public funeral. Space will not permit of our going much into details about his family, but one of his daughters has immortalised herself in the annals of female heroism. This was the famous Natalia who lived with her husband, Prince Ivan Dolgoruki, eleven years in Siberia amid the terrible snows of Berezov, a place also destined to be the scene of the exile of Menshikov. Of the fate of Ivan Dolgoruki we shall hear more during the reign of the Empress Anne. Natalia has left some interesting memoirs which do credit alike to her head and heart. On the death of her husband she became a nun and died at Kiev in 1771. While occupied with Swedish matters, Peter did not neglect the southern parts of his Empire and his Eastern policy. In 17 15 he sent Artemii Volinski as ambassador to the Shah of Persia, and in 1722 he seized Baku and opened for himself a route to the Caspian. In 1717 his second tour in Western Europe was under- 1717] THE REIGN OF PETER 73 taken. On his previous journey he had not visited France, but was now eager to do so as friendly relations had for some time existed between Russia and that country. Catherine was with him during some part of' his journey but she did not accompany him to Paris, remaining at Amsterdam while he visited that city. She was treated with great courtesy by the Dutch authorities with whom Peter always seems to have been a persona grata. '■ He now journeyed in the direction of Berlin, and while passing through Wittenberg visited the localities connected with the memory of Luther. On reaching Berlin we are told that he surprised the King Frederick Wrfliam, the father of Frederick the Great, by his neglect of the rules of etiquette. It might rather have been expected that such . conduct would have recommended him to a man about whose eccentricities Carlyle has so much to tell us. The daughter of the king, who was afterwards the margravine of Baireuth, has left in her memoirs a sarcastic and highly-coloured picture of Catherine. The margravine was then a child of only eight years of age. She tells us that the Tsaritsa looked like a low-born woman and wore so many decorations that her dress rattled as she walked. She was witness also of one of the convulsive fits from which Peter suffered and of which the origin has been assigned to various causes : among them being that epilepsy of genius which recalls to our minds the twitches and contortions of Dr Johnson. Peter was well received by the Regent at Paris. The Grand Monarque was now dead, and Louis XV. was a minor. When the little king came to visit Peter, the latter took him up in his arms and kissed him. He lived during the time he was at Paris in a simple way. He is reported to have said, "I am a soldier; a little bread and beer satisfy me; I prefer small apartments to large ones. I have no desire to be attended with pomp and ceremony nor to give trouble to so many people ! " Here we have the genuine expression of a noble mind. The curiosity of Peter in the great city was unbounded. He visited the Academy of Sciences and was enrolled among its members. He was* 74 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1717 very much struck by an operation performed upon a man's eye, just as he had been by another surgical feat when in Holland. He gazed with admiration on the tomb of Cardinal Richelieu, and declared that he would have given him half of his dominions on condition that he taught him how to govern the other half. But to the statecraft of autocracy and despotism he was no stranger; it had come to him in his very blood : it is difficult to see what he could have gained from the counsels of Richelieu, certainly nothing of con- stitutional government or popular progress. At the Sorbonne the professors had the bad taste to thrust into his hand a document on a proposed amalgamation of the Greek and Latin churches. But Peter met these pedants with the answer that he was a soldier and that his bishops would be better judges of the matter than himself. On his departure from Paris he took away with him various useful mechanics and artisans. He also drew up the preliminaries of a treaty of commerce with France. He then rejoined Catherine at Amsterdam. While in Holland he purchased several of the works of Dutch masters. He had determined to have a gallery of painting and sculpture in his capital. We find him afterwards purchasing the antique statues which had been collected by an Englishman named Lyde Brown. These formed the nucleus of the splendid collection at St Petersburg. A project which Peter is said to have had of marrying his daughter Elizabeth, afterwards Empress, to Louis XV. came to nothing, but we shall find later that a leaning to France coloured the politics of her reign. The Tsar returned to St Petersburg in October 17 17. After the treaty of Nystadt which had left Peter dominant in the Baltic, he began to occupy himself with his great reforms. Even in the reign of his father, Alexis, Russia had begun to shake off her semi- Asiatic stagnation. Attempts had been made to organise the army on the Western model, and many foreigners had been taken into the Russian service. We have already spoken of the Russian career of Patrick 1718] THE REIGN OF PETER 75 Gordon. That Russia must either disappear from . among European nations or adopt Western ideas was a truth that was perfectly realised by such men as Kotishikhin and Krizhanick, two contemporary writers who have left us valuable pictures of Russian life; the magnificence of the court ; the servility of the boyars, and the Oriental seclusion of the women. Sophia was well aware of the dismal lot that awaited her ; because, as Mayerberg the German ambassador pointed out, the female relations of the Tsar were worse off than the ladies belonging to private families. They could not marry foreign princes — -we have the rare exception of Helen, the daughter of Ivan III., having married Alexander of Poland — and to marry Russian gentlemen would have been considered beneath their dignity. They passed their lives without any object; their employments being to embroider, and to listen to the skazki and gossip of their female slaves. We know what the life of a Russian woman of old time was from the directions laid down in the Domostroi of the priest Sylvester, written in the reign of Ivan IV. They only went out to public ceremonies. They were born and died un- known to the outer world. They knew nothing of what was going on around them ; contemporary travellers tell us that even to go to church they had to pass through a long gallery, and that when they went out it was in close vehicles, surrounded by a retinue of ladies, much as Oriental princesses do now. Very few of the numerous cotirtiers who used to frequent the palace had ever seen the. wife or daughter of the Tsar. The princesses remained in a state of complete ignorance, as Kotishikhin, the renegade diak, or secretary, has told us. In his desire, however, to blacken the reputa- tion of the country which he had forsaken, he has stated the case as badly as possible. Peter during his travels had seen the salons of the West. He now organised his assemblies, where, to the scandal of ecclesiastics and old-fashioned people, the sexes met for conversation. Perhaps these reunions were not always of the most refined character, but they were certainly better than the dull pleasures of the 76 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1718 terem, where the chief amusement was to hear the female serfs babbling. As for the men, when left to themselves their only pleasure was in drinking, and the antics of skomorokhi or buffoons and of dwarfs. One of the great objects of Peter was to get rid of the Oriental dress. The long caftan, so characteristic of Eastern people, who seem to think that one element of dignity is to have a garment which descends to the heels was now to be exchanged for a coat in the French style; and a flowing wig covered the heads of the Russians, already, as • a rule, so abundantly furnished by nature. The portraits in the' Hermitage of Peter's eaglets and fellow-workers look almost comic in this inappropriate dress. But the great difficulty was to get the Russians to abandon their beards. They clung, with considerable reason to these manly appendages, which had to be shaved off in compliance with an ukaz. We are told of one man who, when his beard had been cut off, preserved it so that it might be placed in his coffin. How- ever, exemption from shaving might be purchased by paying a tax, and as an indication that this tax had been paid, a brass token was given. Specimens of these medals are still preserved in Russia, Peter had in these, as in other matters, to struggle against much opposition from the clergy. The year had hitherto commenced, according to the old Russian Calendar, in the month of September. It was now to begin as in the West with the first of January. Moreover, the Russians were no longer in their chronology to count from the beginning of the world. On approaching the sovereign the ceremony of chelobitie or striking the ground with the forehead had hitherto been performed. This was abolished by Peter. At a later time we find it meaning simply a petition, but the use of it in that sense was abolished by Catherine II. Peter also put an end to the barbarous custom of the praviozh, whereby debtors who could not pay were daily beaten on their shins by their creditors in some public place. An extraordinary change was introduced with regard to 1718] THE REIGN QF PETER 77 tobacco. Alexis, the father of Peter, had a great dislike to the practice of smoking, and in the Ulozhenie or Code of Laws, which he published in 1649, the penalty for smoking was to have the nose cut off. Peter however, while in England, had negotiated with Lord Carmarthen for a tobacco monopoly, and on his return to Russia did everything in his power to encourage its use. One portrait of Peter represents him dressed as a sailor with a pipe in his mouth. Apothecaries' shops were established in Moscow,- and the Russians were forbidden to carry knives, the use of which led to quarrels and outrages in the streets. Still the punish- ments inflicted by the Russians judicially continued to be cruel for some time afterwards ; men were broken on the wheel or hung up to die with a hook round one of their ribs. Women w^re buried alive for the murder of a husband. The penalty of banishment to Siberia was in full force ; it may be said to have begun at the close of the sixteenth century, but reached its height in the reigns of Anne and Elizabeth. In the important question of religious reforms, Peter was assisted by Feofan Prokopovitch, and here a few words must be said about this remarkable man, who co-oper- ated largely in Peter's innovations. A clever preacher and propagator of the orthodox doctrines, Prokopovitch was born at Kiev, June 19, 1681. Up to the eighteenth year of his age, he was educated in the schools of Kiev, where a more liberal education could be procured than in any other portion of the Russian dominions. This was owing to the fact that that part of Russia had been for a long time under the domination of the Poles, and had therefore been brought more into contact with Western culture. After attending lectures at Kiev, Feofan travelled through various Slavonic countries and finally reached Rome, where he entered the college of St Athanasius, which had been founded by Pope Gregory XIIL, to serve as a place of education for Greeks and Slavs. The teachers were Jesuits, and Feofan soon became a favourite with them ; they loved him for his cheerful disposition and his great capacity; but they were 78 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [OT» not able to bring him over to their way of thinking. Here he occupied himself busily with the classics and the Greek and Latin fathers. About r702, he managed after many impediments to get back to Russia, and took up his quarters at Kiev. He now threw off entirely his connection with the Uniates, and composed a course of instruction in Poetry or Piitiki as it was called (Greek, aoiTynxn). He also, wrote a tragi-comedy called Vladimir to be acted by the students. If we wish to get a picture of the kind of life which the Polish, Russian and Malorussian students led at Kiev, we must read the quaint descriptions in the Vii of Gogol. Prokopovitch first attracted the attention of Peter by a speech which he delivered when the Tsar visited Kiev in 1700, and later he pronounced an elaborate discourse after the battle of Poltava. This latter pleased the Tsar so much that by his orders it was printed in the Slavonic and Latin languages, together with the Russian, Polish, and Latin verses with which conquerors were generally greeted. After this Prokopovitch accompanied the Tsar in the unfortunate Turkish expedition of 171 1, and subsequently went back for eight years to Kiev; but in 17 16 he was called to St Petersburg, and was soon after made Bishop of Novgorod. To him in 1 7 19 Peter entrusted the composition of the celebrated Duktwvni Reglament which has been already alluded to. He was thus one of the chief agents in the religious reforms which Peter introduced. The clergy had become very rich in Russia. Giles Fletcher, the observant English ambassador at the court of Ivan the Terrible, noticed that in all the most agreeable localities in the country there was a monastery. Ustrialov tells us that forty-one monasteries were erected in the twelfth century, twenty-two in the thirteenth, eighty in the fourteenth and seventy in the fifteenth. Originally the Russian clergy had been under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, but when that city fell into the power of the Turks, it was difficult to submit to the jurisdic- tion of an ecclesiastic who was under a Moslem yoke, and 1721] THE REIGN OF PETER 79 so a patriarchate was established at Moscow by Boris Godunov in 1589, and this was the office that was now abolished by Peter. Of these patriarchs there had been ten. When, in 1700, Adrian the patriarch died, Peter abolished the office at once, and appointed in lieu thereof a "Metro- politan of Moscow." The first man under the new order of things was Stephen Yavorski who had previously been metropolitan of Riazan. He also was one of Peter's chief agents in his ecclesiastical reforms. To emphasize the new order of things more strongly, we are told that Peter himself sat down in the patriarch's chair exclaiming, " I am the patriarch,'' a new version of the motto, " L'Etat c'est moi." Peter much disapproved of the power which the ecclesiastics enjoyed, and the subordinate position which he was obliged to take when he led the ass of the patriarch on Palm Sunday. The chief exception to triumphant autocracy which_he had seen when on his travels was the case of William III. ; and since nothing escaped his observation, whether it were state- craft art, learning or practical mechanics, it may well have been owing to what he had seen in England, that he formed the plan of making the ecclesiastical subordinate to the temporal power. In 1721 the Reglament duly appeared, in which the government of the Church is entirely remodelled upon Western lines. In the new metropolitan Yavorski and Prokopovitch, both men of light and leading, to use the contemporary jargon, both inhabitants of Little Russia, and with Western training, Peter found admirable coadjutors. He knew that he needed educated men and he could find them in Malorussia. Kiev had its academy founded by Peter Mogila in 1631. A variety of learned works had been published in that city, such as the treatise on Logic by Galatovski, and that on Theology by Trankvillion. From Kiev had come Simeon Polotski, already mentioned, poet, dramatist and pedagogue. To him the children of Alexis, and notably Sophia, owed a great deal, and if we consider him in connection with his surroundings, he was certainly a 8o A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1721 remarkable man. In 1721 also Peter instituted the Chin or Table of Ranks, which classified all the free inhabitants in their ecclesiastical, civil or military capacities. All nobles must be employed in some office of the State. The merchants were divided into guilds. As regards the serfs, their condition was not much improved during Peter's reign, although he put forward on their behalf several well-intentioned ukazes. Thus he forbade the sale of serfs except in cases of absolute necessity, and insisted upon families of peasants being kept together. But when in 1705 compulsory service was imposed upon all serfs equally — whether odnodvortsi, a kind of copy-holders — or polovniki, a kind of metayers — a tendency was developed to put all upon the same footing. With reference to his own authority, while being in complete hostility to everything Mongolian which had remained in Russia, Peter did not in any way seek to limit the power of the Tsar. Indeed, as has been said before, there was nothing in the rest of Europe to recommend constitutional government to him, while in the case of Poland he saw it developing into com- plete anarchy. The great tragedy of the reign of Peter was the death of his son Alexis. Peter as we have seen had divorced his first wife, Eudoxia Lopukhin. He seems to have felt but little affection for her. She was also in close relations with the reactionary party. Alexis, under his mother's influence, grew up a bigoted young man, and spent most of his time wi^i monks. Peter had originally built great hopes upon him, and had drawn up with his own hand elaborate plans for his education. He sent him into Germany to pursue his studies, and Alexis was for some time at Dresden, where he busied himself with geometry and fortification. He kept up, how- ever, during the whole time, relations with the reaction- aries of Moscow. One of his tutors was a German named Weber, who wrote an interesting book on Russia. When Peter remonstrated with his son for his idleness, the only reply which Alexis vouchsafed was that he wished to be 1717] THE REIGN OF PETER 81 a monk. Peter had at last brought about his marriage with the Princess Charlotte of Wolfenbuttel. The ceremony took place at Torgau on the 14th of August 171 1. The princess was an amiable woman of some personal attractions, but Alexis treated her with cruelty. Sne died at an early age in 1715, leaving two children — Peter, afterwards Emperor, and a daughter named Natalia. On quitting Russia for his second tour, the Tsar had had a long conference with Alexis, in which the latter told him again that he felt himself unequal to the duties of the throne and wished to become a monk. Peter recommended him to think the matter over and to come to him at Copenhagen. Alexis set out on his journey, but after he reached Konigsberg, all trace of him was lost. For a long time no one knew what had become of him, till Rumiantsov, a captain of the Guards, discovered his retreat. He had travelled by way of Breslau and Prague to Vienna, and late one evening called upon the Imperial Vice- Chancellor Count Schonborn. The German Emperor was then Charles VI. who had married the sister of the wife of Alexis. The latter declared that he was going to put himself under the Emperor's protection. His brother-in-law how- ever refused to see him, and sent him first to the castle of Weierburg near Vienna, and then to Ehrenberg in the Tyrol. It was supposed that he could remain hidden there and escape his father's wrath, at least for a time. Alexis had with him a Finnish girl Afrosinia, and was furnished with all the luxuries he desired, but kept a close prisoner. His rank also was carefully concealed from all his attendants. Rumiantsov did not find out what had become of him till the end of April 17 17. He was then conveyed in great secrecy to the castle of St Elmo near Naples. Strong measures were now taken to induce Austria to surrender the fugitive and Tolstoi was accordingly sent to Vienna, and was allowed to go to St Elmo to have a conference with Alexis. He had great difficulties in inducing the fugitive to return ; and only succeeded in doing so by threats and a promise that he should be allowed to marry his favourite Afrosinia. To this union F 82 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1718 Peter apparently promised his consent. Alexis travelled home- wards very slowly. Afrosinia was left behind at Venice on the ground that she was too unwell to travel. Alexis at length arrived in Moscow, and soon afterwards Afrosinia was taken to St Petersburg and was at once imprisoned. Peter had already decided upon excluding Alexis from the succession, and had appointed a commission to examine into his offences. He wept bitterly, and asked his father's pardon. However blameworthy the Tsesarevich was, the Tsar promised to pardon him if he would reveal his confederates. He was then declared to be disinherited, and an heir to the throne was fixed upon in the person of Peter, another son of the Tsar, by Catherine, who, however, did not live to succeed, but died young in 1719. The Assembly then adjourned to the Uspenski Sobor, where Alexis took the oath to the newly- appointed heir to the throne. The Commission revealed a great deal which Alexis had striven to hide. He had been in the habit of speaking of the Tsar with the greatest disrespect. He had often openly said that he wished he was dead. He had threatened to put to death on his accession all the nobles who had supported his father. He had been glad when he heard of the revolts among the soldiers and the people. He had made formal complaint to the German Emperor, and, what was more important than all, when at Vienna, he had pre- pared letters to the senators and priests, urging them to revolt. Moreover, his treasonable designs were known to Eudoxia, Peter's divorced wife, narrow-minded and ignorant, who had always greatly affected the old rkgime. The elder sister of Peter, Maria Alekseievna, had, to a certain extent, similar views; and, indeed, we must not wonder that these aristo- cratic ladies — and probably many others, - whose names did not transpire — disliked the new plans of the regenerator. What a scandal to these strict and strait-laced women the assemblies must have been ! Certainly Alexis had contrived in a wonderful way to gather round himself all the disaffected. As regards the divorced Tsaritsa, the revelations made showed that she could hardly be said to have practised orthodox 1718] THE REIGN OF PETER 83 austerities. On the contrary, she held a small luxurious court in the monastery, and gathered round her another group of those who sighed over the evil days, and longed for the restitution of old customs. Peter caused her to be removed to a convent of stricter rules at Old Ladoga. She survived to a good old age, and was present at the coronation of her grandson Peter, in 1730. No doubt her last moments were consoled by the apparent prospect of a reversion to the old order of things. Maria, Peter's sister, was incarcerated at Schliisselburg, the gloomy prison on the lake which has seen so much human suffering in Russian annals. The minor criminals, as is always the case in trials of this sort, suffered the full vengeance of the Government, just as Ankarstrom at the close of the century was made in Sweden the scapegoat of the conspiracy against Gustavus III. Glebov who had been implicated in the irregularities of the widowed Tsaritsa ; Kikin, the special friend of Alexis, Ignatiev, and others, were exe- cuted with cruel tortures. The miserable Alexis, whose con- duct had been throughout so wayward, from every point of view, and so inexplicable, now went to St Petersburg, and appeared to be reconciled to his father. With the complete want of natural affection which characterised him, he seems to have forgotten the young German wife whom he had so brutally treated, and hurried to her grave. He begged that he might marry the coarse Finnish girl, a woman absolutely without sentiment or refinement, as her letters show. How- ever, his request was treated with contempt, and the miserable woman, either from want of feeling, or terrorised by Peter, made a full confession of all the foolish and traitorous things which Alexis had been in the habit of saying. Peter now was thoroughly incensed against his son ; he saw that he medi- tated a complete destruction of all his cherished plans ; the capital was to be no longer St Petersburg, but reactionary Moscow. The fleet would be destroyed, and old-fashioned Russia would be brought back to life? Not only then was Alexis in the deepest sense of the word a traitor, in that he was working against the best interests of Russia, but he also 84 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [ms showed a total want of filial piety; he was anxious for the death of his father. The character of the unfortunate man seems a complete puzzle : he was not wanting in natural ability. His education had been planned most carefully, and Leibnitz even had given the Tsar the benefit of his counsel ; and, besides Weber, already spoken of, he had had another tutor of repute, Neugebauer. The enemies of the Tsar were already looking forward to what would occur when Alexis should rule ; Sweden would surely get backAer lost territory. The Russian Tsar, as such, had all the ideas of an Oriental autocrat. We are apt to forget this in Peter's case, on account of his Western inclinations, and the ease with which he adopted the civilisation of more advanced countries. Whether he actually ordered his son to be put to death will perhaps for ever remain a State secret. Alexis was tried by a tribunal of the highest functionaries of the State and was sentenced to death. There were one hundred and twenty-seven judges, and as they all knew the verdict they were expected to give, there could not be much doubt as to what it would be. According to some authorities the Tsesarevich was beheaded. Lady Rondeau, the wife of the English resident, gives a story of a girl being employed to sew on the head of the corpse, so as to hide all traces of his having been decapitated. Peter Henry Bruce — whose memoirs are, however, regarded by some writers as spurious — speaks of a poison, procured from an apothecary at St Petersburg, having been administered to the prince. It appears most probable that the unfortunate young man expired under the knout. He died on the 7th of June 1 7 18. It was given out that he had died of an apo- plectic stroke. One is reminded of the letter sent by the Russian Minister to foreign courts on the death of Paul. Peter showed no signs of grief; the very day after his son's death the anniversary of the battle of Poltava was celebrated. In the case of Alexis, as on so many other occasions in Russian history, pretenders made their appearance, who were, however, all dealt with in summary fashion. 1721] THE REIGN OF PETER 85 In 172 1 Peter promulgated an ukaze, afterwards abrogated by Paul, to the effect that the Tsar had the right cf naming his successor. By this injudicious law the way was paved for the revolutions de palais and weak female reigns, till Catherine II. had seated herself on the throne. We must now retrace our steps a little to consider the action of Peter with regard to Persia. His Eastern policy has been briefly alluded to above. He had also had great ideas of the important trade which the Russians might carry on with Asia. In 17 17 he sent Prince Bekovich to open negotiations with the' khans of Khiva and Bokhara ; he was to offer these potentates the opportunity of becoming tributary to Russia. With a regiment of 7500 men Bekovich sailed across the Caspian. The Khivans seeing his approach, sus- pected that the expedition was altogether a military one, and not merely for commercial purposes. But Bekovich, although a Circassian, who must have been acquainted with Oriental stratagem, was so imprudent as to visit the Khan for a per- sonal interview with but a small escort. He was treacherously seized and killed. In spite of the failure of this attempt, Peter did not lose hope of reaching the wealthy regions he coveted, and he made use of the disturbed condition of Persia to strengthen his influence in the East. In that country a sanguinary civil war had been raging for more than twelve years. Shah Hussein, knowing nothing that took place outside of his Seraglio and surrounded by unworthy favourites, had lost the affection of his subjects by a rule as weak as it was cruel. The Afghans were especially embittered against him, and of these most of all those in the neighbourhood of Candahar. In 1709 they openly rose. They found a leader who pro- mised them freedom from the hateful Persian yoke. He succeeded in defeating the soldiers of the Shah, and threw even Ispahan into a state of agitation. Hussein, through the instrumentality of the Russian resident, Artemii Volinski, who has already been mentioned, as early as 1 7 1 2 asked the Russian Tsar for assistance. Peter at that time had enough 86 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1722 to occupy his attention, and moreover had only recently ex- tricated himself from his unfortunate escapade on the Pruth. The rebel leader died about this time, and was succeeded by his son, Mir Mahmoud, who was even a greater terror to the Persians than his father had been. He took Ispahan, im- prisoned Hussein, and declared himself Shah. But the son of Hussein, Tahmasp, succeeded in escaping from his hands, and determined to try conclusions with him. Feeling, how- ever, that he had hardly an adequate force, he asked the Russian Tsar and the Sultan of Turkey for assistance. Peter resolved to help him for various reasons. The supporters of Mahmoud kept the Caucasus in a continual state of agitation ; gangs of robbers plundered the Russian merchants without hindrance, and in Shemahia alone murdered 300 men ; and the Russian silk-trade was almost extinguished. Moreover, Peter had discovered that the Sultan was about to send forces into the Persian provinces, not so much with a view of co-operating with Tahmasp as of establishing Turkish rule between the Black and Caspian Seas. This was a disagreeable prospect for the Russians. Volinski ascertained that the Persian troops were in a very disaffected condition ; that the Shah had rewarded the Khan of Khiva for the murder of Bekovich, and that the Persians were ex- pecting an attack from the Russian forces. Thinking to settle the matter by a decisive blow Peter set out in person. He had been urged to do so by Volinski, who was now Governor of Astrakhan. He started towards the end of May 1722, taking with him the Empress, who had accom- panied him in so many journeys, Admiral Apraksin, Tolstoi, and Prince Kantemir. Apraksin had been chief admiral since the death of Golovin. His services to Peter had been great, and among other things he had been instrumental in saving St Petersburg from the Swedes in the earliest days of its existence. Of Tolstoi and Kantemir we have already heard. Peter had issued a proclamation to the effect that he had only come to chastise those who had attacked and plundered the Russians. 1722] THE REIGN OF PETER 87 On the first appearance of the invaders, Tarki, the capital of Shakhmat, and the fortified port of Derbent, surrendered without a struggle. The Tsar now moved on to Baku, the inhabitants of which sent messengers to welcome him and to entreat him to take them under his protection. But unfore- seen events necessitated the return of the army to Astrakhan. He accordingly left a garrison in Derbent and built a fort on the river Sulak. He found that a storm had scattered his ships and that the army was in imminent danger of famine. At Astrakhan he had a violent attack of illness, but he used his enforced leisure to make arrangements for the eventual acquisition of these districts ; and he eventually got possession of Resht, situated at the south of the Caspian. It was on July 19, 1722, that the Russian flag first waved over that sea. When the Tsar returned to St Petersburg, an ambassador came to him from Tahmasp to negotiate a defensive treaty. In the name of the Shah he ceded to Russia the towns Derbent and Baku, and the districts of Gilyan, Mazanderan, and Astrabad. Peter, on his part, promising to send a body of troops to assist Tahmasp, Turkey viewed with disapproval the interference of Russia in the affairs of Persia; but was pacified when Peter consented that she should occupy Georgia, the country of the Lesghians, the Tavlintses, Lower Daghestan, and a part of Shirvan. Tahmasp, however, did not confirm the treaty made by his ambassador in St Petersburg, and the Russian soldiers who occupied Gilyan were as much called upon to defend them- selves against his supporters as against the allies of Mir- Mahmoud. Peter was not prepared to give up his acquisitions on the southern shores of the Caspian, and was only pre- vented from carrying out his designs by his premature death. Thus we see Russia expanding in every direction through the vigorous measures of this great Tsar. The Turks kept intriguing against her, assisted from time to time by some of the European Powers, for the Eastern Question was now fast developing itself. In 1724 Peter succeeded in effect- ing arrangements for a demarcation of frontier between the 88 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1721 Russian and Turkish provinces, and Rumiantsov was sent to Constantinople to ratify the treaty. Peter allowed many Armenians to settle in his new territories. We now come to the dealings of Peter with Holstein- Gottorp, the reigning family of which was to be so clos&y connected with that of Russia. Duke Frederick, the friend and coadjutor of Charles XII., lost his life in the battle of Klissovo in 1702. He left his possessions to his son (two years of age), by his wife, Hedwig Sophia, the elder sister of Charles XII. A kinsman of the young duke, the bishop of Liibeck, took upon himself the management of affairs, and conducted matters successfully till 17 13. He observed a strict neutrality at the time of the war in the North after the battle of Poltava. When, however, Peter defeated Stenbok, the governor gave shelter to the Swedish general in Holstein, and permitted him to enter Tonningen. The Danish king, who only awaited an occasion to quarrel with the duke, declared the proceedings of the governor an in- fringement of the neutrality. He accordingly occupied Schleswig with his troops. In vain did the duke seek protection from Charles XII. on his return from Turkey; the king had not the power to assist his nephew, although he loved him as a son, and saw in him his successor. The sudden death of Charles took from the duke the last hope of getting back his dominions. Deprived of the Swedish throne, which belonged to him by right, as the son of the eldest sister of Charles, he found a bitter enemy in his aunt Ulrika. She deprived him not only of the crown of Sweden, but of his hereditary dominion, Schleswig having handed it over to the King of Denmark. The duke had tried to procure the mediation of the Court of Vienna, which had guaranteed the treaty of Travendale. Being, however, disappointed in this direction, he betook himself to the Russian Emperor. In the beginning of the year 1721 he came to St Peters- burg, and there saw Anna, the eldest daughter of Peter, a woman of some beauty, and offered her his hand. Peter interceded for the nephew of Charles at the congress of 1721] THE REIGN OF PETER 89 Nystadt. Among the conditions of peace he demanded that the Swedish Government should recognise the rights of the duke to the Swedish Crown, and to Schleswig. But Ostermann informed the Tsar that there was no hope of his end being attained. Ulrika had given her throne to her husband, the Prince of Hesse-Cassel, who was making every effort to ensure it for his posterity. Moreover, Russia was now being threatened by Turkey, and the terms of the peace must of necessity be concluded speedily. Peter yielded, but promised the young duke that he would, as soon as possible, renew his mediation. He kept his word. Soon after the treaty of Nystadt, owing to his efforts, the Swedish senate recognised the rights of Frederick to the crown of that country, and accorded him the title of Royal Highness. When the Tsar married his daughter to the duke, he demanded from the King of Denmark the restitution of Schleswig. This was refused. The Tsar accordingly began to form plans for compelling, Denmark, with the help of Sweden, and a war would certainly have broken out, but all preparations were stopped by the premature death of Peter. Anna survived her father only three years, dying in 1728. Her child was the unfortunate Peter III. With the reign of the great Tsar may be said to have begun the active interference of the Russians in the affairs of Poland, which was one of the chief causes of the break-up of that country. She had two vigilant foes, who were resolved never to let her rest. The Polish question, with that of Sweden and that of Turkey, were the three great political problems which Peter found himself called upon to face. There had been many disputes between Russia and Poland in earlier times ; Bathory had great designs against Ivan the Terrible, and was only prevented from parcelling out Russia by the mediation of Possevin, the Jesuit. The Poles had favoured the attempt of the False Demetrius to get the Russian Crown, and Ladislaus, the son of Sigismund III., had even sat on the Muscovite throne. We find the Russians interfering in favour of the Orthodox Christians in Lithuania. 90 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1725 In the time of Alexis Russia had begun to get back some of the territory which the Poles had conquered, and Peter inter- fered in Polish affairs with a high hand. He supported the candidature of Augustus II., as worthless a man as his rival Stanislaus Leszczynski was a good one. Prince Gregory Dalgorukov, the resident of Peter at Warsaw, even tampered with the diet, just as we find Repnin doing in the reign of Catherine II. There were not lacking, however, selfish magnates who could be influenced by bribes to forward the Russian plans. The religious persecutions which the Jesuits had introduced gave both to the Prussian king and to Peter ample opportunity for interference. Peter had always been careless of his person. He had fearlessly exposed himself to all climates, and had committed many excesses in eating and drinking. When he was about fifty years of age his robust constitution began to show signs of weakness. He further impaired it by spending much time in the marshes superintending the works of the Ladoga Canal, accompanied by Munich, who was afterwards to play such an important part in Russian history. He also undertook a journey into Finland at a very unseasonable time of the year. He entered the port of Lachta on the 5th of November 1725, and there witnessed the dangers to which some soldiers and sailors were exposed in a small vessel. Seeing that they were unable to help themselves, he jumped into a skiff, and thence into the sea, and so reached the stranded vessel. He succeeded in rescuing the crew, at the risk of his life, a striking proof that he was a brave, and, on occasion, a humane man. But the same night the chill brought on an old malady. He fell into a violent fever. Ill, however, as he was, his mind was active, and he gave commission to the navigator Behring for a voyage. He suffered a great deal, but was able to dictate to those round him his last orders. He entreated Catherine to protect his Academy of Sciences, and to invite learned men to it from other parts of Europe. He then pointed out Ostermann to her, saying : " Russia cannot do without him ; he is the only man who knows her 1725] THE REIGN OF PETER 91 real interests." He then, in a calm manner, fixed the time during which mourning should be worn for him : and on January 28th, about four o'clock in the morning, the end came. As regards the character of Peter, it has been so often depicted — from the point of view both of his admirers and detractors — that nothing need be added here. The reader will probably be better able to understand the man if he reflects that, in spite of all the profound appreciation of Western civilisation which Peter showed, there were deep traces in him of his Asiatic training — ideas of absolute autocracy, and recklessness of human life and suffering. When we remember the originality and vigour of his mind, we cannot justly refuse him the title of Great. Many collections of anecdotes relating to him have been published, the two best known being those of Staehlin and Nartov. The latter has been published by the Russian Academy from a copy which had been handed down in manuscript. As an instance of the practical «good sense of Peter, and his respect for honest labour — no man better than he understood the dignity of labour— we might quote the story given by Staehlin of how the Tsar paid for a pair of boots by working at a forge. It was told by Peter Miiller, the son of Werner Miiller, the blacksmith, who figures in the story. Staehlin says (we have slightly altered his language to suit the present narrative) : On his return to Moscow he went to see Werner Miiller, bestowed great praise on his establishment, and asked him how much he gave per poud for iron in bar furnished by a master blacksmith. "Three copecks or an altin," answered Miiller. "Well, then," said the Tsar, " I hav« earned eighteen altins, and I have come to be paid." Miiller immediately opened his desk, took out eighteen ducats, and counting them before him, said : " It is the least that can be given to such a workman as your Majesty." But the Tsar refused them : " Take again your ducats, and pay me the usual price ; I have worked no better than another blacksmith, and this will serve to buy me a pair 92 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1785 of shoes, of which I am in great want." At the same time the Tsar showed him those which he wore, which had already been soled, and stood in need of repairs. He took the eighteen altins, went directly to a shop, and bought a pair of shoes. These he took great pleasure in showing on his feet, saying to those who were present, " I have earned them well, by the sweat of my brow, with hammer and anvil." From the testimony even of his enemies, as also of those writers who otherwise accord him merit grudgingly, we know that he was an affectionate husband to Catherine ; he is con- tinually writing letters to her while away, and sending her presents. There is a whole series of letters to her, many of boyish playfulness, included in the published collections of Imperial Epistles. We have already spoken with all plainness of the terrible fate of Alexis ; where the half-Oriental autocrat seems to have completely prevailed over the father. His conduct to his first wife was more in accord with the dictates of ordinary humanity, and although not to be justified can be explained. It was not a marriage of affection. A wife had been found for him by the State, and he never received sympathy from a woman of such a different mind and train- ing. Although violent in his outbursts of temper, he would yield to remonstrance. Staehlin gives us many anecdotes of the ways in which Catherine knew how to soothe him, and would frequently procure the mitigation of the punishment which Peter threatened. Thus Voinarovski, the nephew of Mazeppa, who had been condemned to death by Peter, had his sentence commuted to banishment through the inter- cession of Catherine. The latter, if not a refined woman, had strong mother wit and a sympathetic nature. The rough soldier's heart of Peter had found some place where to anchor itself safely. To his friends and co-operators Peter could be just and generous. We have seen how he pardoned Menshikov for his greed and Sheremetiev for his blunders. Stories are told of how he allowed Prince James Dolgoruki to rebuke him and oppose his plans when he thought them mischievous. 1725] THE REIGN OF PETER 93 Dolgoruki seems to have been a man of strong common sense and great honesty of purpose^ Pushkin, in his humorously satirical poem, " My Genealogy " (Moya Jiodoslovnaya), alludes to this fact when speaking of one of his ancestors who resisted Peter and was hanged for it, but, he adds, " Not everybody is a Prince James Dolgoruki." Peter has been accused of cruelty, and it has been re- marked that the Russians were knouted into civilisation. How far this can be substantiated is problematical. Un- doubtedly in the reign of Peter cruel punishments were inflicted, but these were common enough throughout Europe at the time, and do not necessarily testify to the Tatar nature which has been said to lurk in every Russian. Breaking on the wheel was an ordinary form of punishment on the Con- tinent, and prevailed in France till the time of the Revolu- tion. Russia never witnessed anything more atrocious than the execution in 1757 of Damiens at Paris, at that time the most civilised capital in the world ; and we have already mentioned the punishment inflicted upon Patkul by Charles XII. It was one of Peter's barbaric habits to cane people with his own hands. Carlyle has recorded how the father of Frederick the Great caned a man on the parade at Potsdam for contemplating the exercises of the troops with idle curiosity. We read in the accounts of Peter's travels that he was in the habit of belabouring with his thick oak stick those who approached too near to him. Cook, the Scotch surgeon, who was for some years in Russia, tells us how, finding that one of his captains had behaved with ingratitude to his father, " that wise and wonderful Prince called for his dubine " (this was an oak stick kept in a scarlet cloth and carried by a servant), "and with this chastised the unworthy son." Staehlin, who was for some time a tutor in Russia to the unfortunate Duke of Holstein, afterwards Peter III., relates how the Empress Elizabeth would frequently come into the room, while he was working with her nephew, and would talk about her father. He says, " As she was pleased to hear her illustrious father spoken of, and never mentioned him without 94 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [17M emotion, she often took occasion to speak of the regret he publicly expressed at the neglect of his education, and at his never having been taught any science. She said that he came often to her room and those of her sisters to see how they passed their time, and that he seldom went away without giving them good advice. " He often," added she, " required an account of what I had learned in the course of the day j and when he was satisfied with my answer gave me com- mendations, accompanied by a kiss and sometimes by a present" On another occasion, seeing her nephew carefully Studying fortifications, she said: "See what noble amuse- ments we may enjoy when we apply (sic) to a science or after it is acquired. I recollect what my father often repeated on this subject. He would have given one of his fingers that his education had not been neglected. Not a day passed in which he did not feel his deficiency. One day when he found myself and my sister reading the works of Mme. Lambert and translating them into the Russian tongue as we went on, he told us that we were very fortunate to have had a taste for reading given us at so early an age and to have received so good an education. " It is an advantage," added he, " of which I much lament the privation." In fact, such education as Peter could have got in Russia in his youth must necessarily have been of a most rudimentary description. We can guess its character from the works of Mr Zabielin. This writer tells us that the primers, from which the Tsar's children were taught, were in manuscript certainly till the middle of the seventeenth century. Nothing is known of the earliest primers, because not a copy of them . has survived. The first was printed at Moscow in 1634 by Basil Burtsov. He seems to have derived the plan of it from that printed in 1621 at Vilna, a city which, we must remember, was at that time under the government of Poland, and there- fore in. closer touch with Western culture. In these old primers are curious Alexandrine verses admonishing boys how they ought to behave. Spelling, reading portions of the Bible, and writing, comprised the whole curriculum, with the 1725] THE REIGN OF PETER 95 possible exception of some oral arithmetic. Many of Peter's letters have been preserved, and have occasionally been quoted in the course of our narrative. His orthography and handwriting are alike very bad, even if we make due allowance for the fanciful cursive character in vogue at that period. The names of foreign places are invariably mis- spelled. From many stories, we can gather that Peter took no delight in bloodshed or torment. When present in Paris at an operation performed upon a man's eye, it was observed that he turned his look away at the moment when the surgeon applied the knife. Staehlin reports, on the testimony of a lady who was present, that when Peter took the town of Narva by assault in 1704, his troops were so furious and exasperated by the length of the siege that they forgot all discipline, and pillaged indiscriminately. The Emperor was obliged to check their violence by wounding some with his own hands. He afterwards repaired to the citadel, and Count Horn, the Swedish commander, was brought as a prisoner before him. In the first transports of his rage the Emperor actually struck him. "It is you alone," he said, "who has caused so much blood to be shed. You ought long ago to have capitulated, as you could hope for no assistance, and had no means of saving the place. Behold this blood," added he, throwing his sword on the table, " it is not the blood of your Swedes, but of my own soldiers. With this sword I restrained their fury and saved the inhabitants of the city from the slaughter to which your thoughtless obstinacy had devoted them." A curious story of his clemency is recorded by Staehlin, which reflects much credit upon him. He was one day on the square before the Admiralty reviewing some newly-enrolled sailors. Suddenly he started, and ordered one of them to be taken into custody. The sailor, fully understanding what was in the Tsar's mind, fell at his feet, and entreated his clemency, confessing that he had deserved death. The bystanders were surprised, but the cause of their amazement was explained when the sailor confessed to the 96 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1725 Tsar that he had been a strelits, and was the man who had threateningly held a sword over the head of Peter when he had fled to the Troitsa. He added that he was young at the time, and had only just joined their corps. He had deserted them before they were brought to punishment, and had, in the interval, been wandering about in a miserable condition. He had offered himself to the Admiralty as a peasant arrived from Siberia, and had done his duty like an honest man till that moment. The Tsar pardoned him, but forbade him ever to appear before him. The sailor thanked the Emperor for his clemency, and was sent off to serve in a remote province. It remains to consider the constitutional and other changes introduced by Peter into Russia. (1) And first of his Church reforms. The great powers given to the Patriarch could not have been acceptable to a man imbued with such truly autocratic ideas as Peter was. He must in his youth have heard much of the controversies between his father and the pugnacious Nikon, who had so nearly carried his point, and elevated the authority of the Church above that of the throne. In the Protestant coun- tries which he visited during his travels, and notably in England, Peter could not help realising that the Sovereign was regarded as the head of the Church, and had a substantial con- trol over religious matters, and the instruction had not been lost upon him. As we have seen, when Adrian the patriarch died he did not appoint a successor. He did not wish to see the patriarchate continued with the same powers. He felt that in that case his attempts to regenerate Russia would be impeded, for Adrian had been a strong reactionary. A metropolitan was accordingly appointed, and the supreme religious authority was not concentrated as before in one person ; the regulation of ecclesiastical matters was now en- trusted to a newly-created synod. The Dukhovni Reglament marked out with definite precision the rights and duties of the clergy, and also the limits of their power and responsi- bilities. A procurator {Ober-prokuror) was appointed from 1725] THE REIGN OF PETER 97 among the civil functionaries, who had similar authority to that of the general procurator in the Senate. It was his duty to see that matters were properly conducted and that the laws were carried out ; according to the expression of the Tsar, he was " his eye." Another reform was the appointment of civilians to investi- gate the ecclesiastical revenues, some of which in the modern spirit Peter wished to divert to schools and hospitals. Finally he conceived the idea, afterwards attempted by Peter III., and fully carried out by Catherine II., of taking over the ecclesiastical revenues and making them national pro- perty, fixed stipends being assigned to the clergy. During the reign of Peter there was a very prevalent desire in ecclesiastical circles in England to bring about a union between the Anglican and Greek Churches. The latter, however, on this, as on subsequent occasions, refused to make any concessions to the Anglicans, and thus matters^ have remained in statu quo. In nothing does the bold character of Peter stand out more prominently than in his ecclesiastical reforms. These drastic changes could have only been carried out by an iron will, for, as has been well remarked, although the Russian is politically so docile, he is unfettered in his religious convictions and goes his own way. This is amply evidenced by the great number of religious sects in Russia, the staro-obriadtsi and hundreds of others, who have undergone the most terrible persecutions rather than give up their special forms of creed or ritual. It is gratifying to be able to add* that Peter displayed toleration towards some of these sectarians. M. Smirnov has shown, in his studies of the Mordvinians and other Ugro-Finnish races, that Peter was entirely opposed to the violent and wholesale " conversions " which the priests were supposed to be carry- ing on. Of course as an innovator, toleration was, in the nature of things, to be expected of him. Some writers have not hesitated to call him a free-thinker. Perhaps this view is based upon his gibes and constant satires upon monks and monkish ways. In the life of Golovin, the Russian boyar, G 98 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1714 by Mr Shubinski, we are told how the father was summoned to St Petersburg in order that he might build his town house there as the majority of the nobility were=doing. Peter dis- liked him on account of his superstition, and when he saw him, said : " We don't want you here, monk; be off and send your son in your stead." (2) Another great reform of Peter's was the reorganisation of the ranks of the nobility. The word dvorianin (nobleman) before this time had signified a person holding a rank between a stolnik (who attended the Tsar at his table) and a zhilets (lit, householder), used in a technical sense to mean a man who resided at Moscow and could be employed by the Tsar on military service. It was now used to signify a man who had obtained the rights to distinction either by his own services or the services of his ancestors. In 1722 Peter had divided all officials into fourteen classes. He further declared that the rank of superior officer in the military service, and in the case of civilians the eighth class should confer an hereditary right of nobility, even though those who received it might have been of plebeian origin. This right was also conceded to those persons who could show that they were descended from noble families who had served their country in honour- able callings. The descendants of these noble families could not acquire the right of alienation over their immovable property until they had served seven years in the army or ten years in a civil capacity. Had these rules not been complied with they remained till old age nedorosli, minors. In the year 17 14 Peter issued a memorable ukaz, the terms of which, however, were afterwards changed by the Empress Anne. According to this, a nobleman had not the right of selling or mortgaging his land, but was compelled to leave it in its entirety to some one of his sons, whichever he preferred; his money and chattels were to go to his other children. The object of this law was to prevent the partition of family estates, which, according to Peter's idea, was both prejudicial to the nobles themselves, who thereby fell into poverty, and also to the State, which lost its revenues. He 1725] THE REIGN OF PETER 99 hoped by keeping estates in the hands of one individual to augment the class of industrial and learned workers. He hoped, also, that those members of noble families who had no land would seek professional callings, and in other ways make use of their brains, so that in this way a middle class might be gradually created. There can hardly be said to have existed a middle class in Russia before the time of Peter ; it was one of his aims to create one. Had a reformer with similar ideas appeared in Poland, the downward course of that- unfortunate country might probably have been stopped. It was the development of a middle class which had enabled the nations of the West to outgrow their feudal institutions. Unfortunately in the case of Poland the position of the middle classes was occupied by aliens — to wit, Germans and Jews. The former were to be found in Russia, though to a less extent, while the latter hardly existed at all ; their development is explained by the special agricultural ten- dencies of the Slav, as in the case of the Celt. (3) Another reformation of Peter's was to give protection to the merchant class. These were divided into guilds, as were the artisans into corporations. There has been always a tendency among Russian mechanics and other craftsmen to form themselves into artels, as they are called, living together and having a common table. The development of a profes- sional class was of course a slower matter. For a long time the Russians looked upon a physician or surgeon as a wizard or medicine man, and indeed that is the first meaning of the word vratch, now in such common use. From the time of Ivan the Terrible foreign medical men had occasionally visited the country, often exposing themselves to great perils. During the reign of that sovereign the Dutch physician Bome- lius was put to death for supposed intrigues with the King of Poland. During the riot of the streltsi, on the accession of Peter, the mob had murdered another Dutch physician, looking upon him as a wizard. The one safe place for these foreigners was the Niemetskaya Sloboda, which was called derisively by the common people nalei, because it was ioo A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1725 the place where intoxicating liquors could be obtained during the time of the severe fasts of the Orthodox Church. But to find the middle class substantially benefited by reform, we must wait till the nakaz of Catherine II. (4) Of the condition of the serfs under Peter we have already spoken. The Tsar had planned an academy, and the outlines of it were submitted by him to Leibnitz, whom he had occa- sionally met during his travels in Germany. Leibnitz is said to have entirely approved of his plans. But they were not destined to be carried out until Peter was in his grave. We have already spoken of his practice of sending young men out of Russia to be educated. Even at the beginning of the seven- teenth century this method of training citizens had been adopted by Boris Godunov. The latter sent four young men to England. Peter also caused a number of useful books to be written and others to be translated into Russian. He startad, too, the first Russian newspaper; and he even modified the Slavonic alphabet, making it more suitable for printing by rejecting some of the useless letters. We have already spoken of the Russian Grammar published at Oxford. It was written in Latin by Henry Ludolf. The dialogues contained in it are curious. The Russian lan- guage, in its modern form, was then slowly developing itself out of the Church Slavonic. The Russians, then, too, first became familiar with arithmetic by the publication of the work of Magnitski, which has been regarded as one of the greatest curiosities of Peter's press. A very marked change then came over the literature of Russia. Such literature as she had previously had consisted chiefly of dry chronicles hymns, and lives of saints. The new literature was to take form upon French models, as was only natural. It begins with Antioch Kantemir (1708-1744), the son of that Demetrius with whom Peter had been brought into contact at the time of the disastrous expedition on the Pruth. Kantemir was ambassador at the courts of St James and Versailles. He was evidently well acquainted with the 1725] THE REIGN OF PETER 101 writings of Pope and Boileau, and he also translated Fontenelle on the plurality of worlds. His poetry being imitative, took the form of satire, which is, in reality, rather a late stage of literary development, in that it implies a nation sufficiently strong and self-confident to criticise itself. Kantemir's satires have a good deal of merit and appear to have attracted attention even in other countries, a trans- lation of them into French verse having been published in London in 1750. The author was, doubtless, a well-read man and had a good library ; for among the papers concerning him, which Prof. Aleksandrenko of Warsaw found in Paris, is a list of his books made when they were about to be sent back to Russia after his decease. Among them we find the names of many English authors. Libraries of considerable magnitude were now beginning to be formed in Russia. Thus we are told that Dmetri Golitsin had a large library at Arkhangelskoe, near Moscow. A little later on we hear of the great number of books belonging to Volinski, a prominent man of the days of Peter, and Governor of Astrakhan. Nor was Peter lacking in interest in literature for its own sake. On his second tour as he passed through Rheims, he saw there the celebrated Texte du Sacre, the book upon which the French kings took the oath at their coronation. This curious volume, consist- ing of religious extracts partly in Glagolitic and partly in Cyrillic letters, appears to have originally belonged to a monastery founded by the Emperor Charles IV. at Prague. Afterwards in some unexplained way it was taken to Con- stantinople and was there purchased by a French cardinal. It seems to have been regarded by the French kings as a kind of sacred hieroglyphic, for no one clearly knew in what language it was written. When Peter saw it he is reported to have at once read it, saying, "This is my own Slavonic." At the time of the Revolution the book disappeared, having probably been carried off on account of the precious stones which adorned the cover. When it afterwards was found it had been stripped of its gorgeous binding. 102 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [m« Of the foundation of the new capital by Peter we have already spoken. It was more than a window through which to look at Europe, as Algarotti said. It secured to the ship- building Tsar a certain amount of coast line and the necessary outlet for his fleet. The acquisition of a footing upon the Black Sea, which was at first a Turkish but has now become a Russian lake, was not to follow till later. It was in 17 13 that St Petersburg was for the most part built ten years after the foundations had been laid. Here he was to symbolise the return of Russia to her old position as a European state before the iron-yoke of the Mongols had been laid upon her. It was a costly business and perhaps was not in all respects a wise one having regard to the proximity of the sea and the great risk of inundation as events proved, indeed, in the time of Alexander I. The ground could not be safely built upon till vast piles had been driven into it : even now build- ings occasionally sink, and the magnificent cathedral of St Isaac has lately had to have its foundations strengthened. The city lies amid marshes on the left bank of the Neva, which flows from Lake Ladoga into the Baltic. Here were originally to be seen a few huts of Finnish fishermen grouped around the pillar erected by Gustavus Adolphus after the treaty of Stolbovo in 161 7 to mark his triumphant treaty with the Russians and to fix a limit to their progress. The ground upon which the pillar stood is now comprised within the heart of the city. Peter's new creation consisted of a series of buildings in the Dutch style, then so prevalent throughout Europe. To build it as many as 40,000 labourers were employed, brought, in many cases, from the most remote parts df the Empire. Hither were sent many of the refractory Cossacks after Peter had quelled the rebellion. On occasion, too, he would stop all work at the quarries throughout the Empire so that the quarrymen and stone masons might be available for St Petersburg. Many of these workmen perished by disease, as the climate was unhealthy on account of the marshes, and even now the inhabitants cannot be said to enjoy longevity. 1725] THE REIGN OF PETER 103 ft is said that the population would noticeably shrink if it were not for the large importation of foreigners and people from other parts of Russia, seeking their fortunes in the metropolis. Inundations occurred from time to time during the building of the city, and it became necessary to raise the level of the ground by the formation of vast mounds. Finally, the canals of Vishnevolotski and Ladoga had to be constructed. Thus sprang into existence the majestic city of Petersburg rising over the waters with her tiara of proud towers, a symbol of Russia's advancing strides along the paths of civilisation. The poetic aspect of the scene was much enhanced when the French sculptor Falconet in the reign of Catherine II. accomplished its crowning ornament — a striking equestrian statue of Peter the Great. There the great Reformer, from a mighty block of granite, points triumphantly to the city which he has called into being from the waters. And we feel that we are standing in the presence and surrounded by the creations of a master-mind. Like Napoleon in later years, Peter showed himself a true judge of men and continued to gather round him, regardless of social and other considerations, the most capable fellow- workers, for whom he searched everywhere, not disdaining to take them from the lowest social positions when he saw their capacity. These were his eaglets {ptentsi) ; these were the men he had trained, some foreigners and some Russians who had shaken off the prejudices and superstitions of their race and were ready to dare great things ; and if we would know Peter thoroughly we must understand these men also. They form a motley group ; some died before their great master ; those who survived him were enabled to carry on his work. Not all of them indeed have escaped belittlement at the hands of posterity ; but it is enough that these foreigners and Russians conferred signal benefits upon the country, and their memories must be tenderly dealt with. Magna voluisse magnum. These men who bore the heat and burden of the day were very different to some of the 104 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1725 later adventurers of the times of Anne and Elizabeth and even of the great Catherine who came to Russia to make a career and acquire opulence. These latter too often loaded the country where they had failed with abuse as soon as they found themselves safely beyond the frontiers, and it is from them that many of the anecdotes to the discredit of Russia have emanated. The " Eaglets " of Peter have been already mentioned in their respective places. Let it suffice here to recall the names of the Swiss Lefort who taught Peter in his youth but died before the end of the century and was not destined to witness the full glories of his great pupil ; of Patrick Gordon who also predeceased him ; of Sheremetiev, Menshikov, Apraksin, Golitsin and Golovkin. During the latter part of Peter's reign Menshikov, who had at one time enjoyed his unbounded favour, began to lose his influence. After the peace of Nystadt he was made vice-admiral. Being left head of the Senate during Peter's absence on the Persian ex- pedition Menshikov incurred the Tsar's displeasure by his unseemly quarrel with Shafirov. When the latter was con- demned, the Tsar could not be blind to the faults of his former favourite. He was subjected to a severe examination and was deprived of the Presidency of the Military College ; and his final disgrace was imminent at the time of Peter's death. But he was still to play a very important part in the destinies of Russia. Sheremetiev had been on the ex- pedition against the Tatars in 1681, and was at one time a favourite with Sophia the Tsar's sister. Count Golovkin, one of the Tsar's most important diplo- matists, was his inseparable companion in all his expeditions. He watched over the relations of Russia with foreign courts in the capacity of Imperial Chancellor. Baron Shafirov performed important services to Russia in concluding the treaty of the Pruth and preventing Turkey from utilising the advantage which Peter by his carelessness had enabled her to seize. Shafirov was of Jewish origin, but had become a Christian. His original name was Schaffer, i.e. 1725] THE REIGN OF PETER 105 the agent. He was made a baron in 1711. In the last years of the reign of the Tsar he fell into disfavour and was deprived of his titles. He was sentenced to be beheaded in 1723, but pardoned. Concerning Ostermann, another of the Tsar's co-operators, we shall hear a great deal more in the subsequent reigns. It will suffice to say here that he was a diplomatist in the truest sense of the word, and had been the moving spirit in the congresses of the Aland islands and Nystadt. Another clever diplomatist was Jagushinski, of whom also we shall hear again in the course of our narrative. In treating of the creation of the Russian navy, the great services of Admiral Apraksin call for special mention. He was born in 167 1 and died in 1728. He distinguished him- self alike in the Black Sea and the Baltic, and in 1722 he accompanied Peter in his Persian campaign and was the first to fly an admiral's flag in the Caspian Sea. How great a part was played by Englishmen and Dutch- men in the formation of Peter's navy appears from a contem- porary account by an Englishman who must have been in his service, which has recently been published from the original manuscript by the Navy Records Society (" History of the Russian Fleet during the Reign of Peter the Great," by a contemporary Englishman, 1724. London, 1899). It has been supposed that the author was Captain John Deane. As, however, that person is mentioned without any comment in the course of the narrative, it is hardly possible that such can have been the case. Here we find lists of Peter's ships and their commanders, and many curious notes on. minute matters concerned with his navy. We are continually told of ships being sent from Holland and England. In 1713 we have details of the punishment of some of Peter's officers for not having successfully resisted the Swedes. Apraksin was the president of the court-martial, at which Vice-Admiral Cruys for neglect of duty in 17 12 and 17 13 was sentenced to death; but Peter mitigated the punishment and ordered his banishment to Kazan. When this was read over to him in 106 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1713 " Hollands " (i.e. Hollandsch = Dutch), the accused replied, with a bow, "What His Majesty pleases." Captain Schel- tinga was then sentenced to serve as youngest captain during His Majesty's pleasure. Last of all, Captain Ray's sentence was published ; he had not made use of an excellent oppor- tunity to take or destroy three ships of the enemy. He was condemned to be conducted to the place of execution and shot. In pursuance of the sentence he was led directly to the post, which was but a few paces distant, and a file of musketeers being ready, the word of command was given to present arms ; then the Tsar's pardon was read, and his sen- tence was commuted into perpetual banishment to Siberia. " The fear of death," says the writer, " had seized him with that violence that when they lifted up his cap from over his eyes, and took him up from his knees, he said in the Russian tongue : 'Luchey Polley' (i.e. Luchshe pali), ' 'tis better shoot me.' He was carried to an adjacent house and let blood, and in two or three days' time sent into exile, where, lingering a few years, he died in Siberia." He had never quite re- covered from the effects of his fright. Peter appears to have habitually dealt in a summary way with his officers, as witness his treatment of Jansen, who had played the traitor at the siege of Azov. The court-martial which has just been described was con- stituted to enquire into the conduct of the Russian captains in what really seems to have been the first engagement at sea between the Russians and the Swedes. The Swedish account as quoted by Vice-Admiral Cyprian Bridge is as follows : — "In July 1 7 13, a squadron under Vice-Admiral Erik Johan Lillie's command went to Helsingfors, and from that squadron three ships— one of 56, one of 54, and one of 48 guns — were sent for a cruise under Commodore Karl Raab's command. After this division had taken several prizes, and had reconnoitred the enemy's position at Revel, it anchored off Hogland (an island in the Baltic) on July 10. On the next morning at sunrise, the Russian fleet, of fourteen ships of the line and frigates, was seen coming from the eastward with a fair wind; and, as 1703] THE REIGN OF PETER 107 Raab could not involve himself in a fight with an enemy so superior, he kept off and , ordered his ships to support each other as well as they could. The Russians had begun to chase the Swedes at half-past two in the morning, but the latter replied so heavily to the Russian fire that two Russian ships were soon dismasted. A third had to lie-to to stop a bad leak ; but the Viborg, the Russian vice-admiral's ship, came close up to the Swedish ships, and somewhat later the Russian admiral's ship, Moskva, also the remaining Russian ships were worse sailers and were much further astern. The chase was continued till eight o'clock, when the Swedish senior officer's ship r Osel, ran on a shoal ; but Raab set all sail and succeeded in getting over the bank; the Moskva, however (we see from the text that it was the Viborg), stuck so fast that she could not be got off, so that after the crew had been saved, the Russians themselves set fire to their flag- ship. The Viborg also grounded, but less heavily. In the meantime, Raab, with his ships, succeeded in getting to Helsingfors." (Backstrom, " Svenska Flottans Historia," page 178.) The first actual contact with the Swedes at sea had been in 1703. In this year the Russians took and razed to the ground Nienschantz, a small town and garrison, and sent the inhabitants to live in different parts of Russia. A squadron of Swedish ships of war arrived at the island Retu- sari which was the Finnish name of Kotlin Ostrov, They were ignorant of what had happened at NienSchantz, and sent two vessels to enquire into the state of the garrison. About two miles up the river they saw the Russian army on both sides, and perceived that the place was taken. They stayed however for some time making observations even in the face of the enemy. The Tsar thereupon ordered a certain number of men in lodki or boats to wait at the bar the return of the Swedes. This was a place full of shoals with- out beacons to direct the ships, and abounding with sand- banks. All which circumstances favoured the Russians. The Swedes observed the lodki and determined to return to their fleet, but when they reached the bar were attacked by the 108 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1714 Russians, who poured " incessant volleys of shot from every quarter." The Swedish vessels made a brave defence, but were captured after a desperate resistance, and not until most of the men had been killed. Immediately after the surrender, the Tsar came on board one, and finding the mate who had commanded the boats alive, ordered care to be taken of his wounds. He ultimately recovered and entered the Tsar's service. His name, according to the record of the anonymous Englishman, was Karl van Werden. The Tsar, he goes on to say, thought this affair a good omen although it was but a trivial skirmish. Another naval defeat of the Swedes took place at Hango Head in 17 14, a place destined to be heard of afterwards during the Crimean war. The following members of the Royal Family were alive at the time of Peter's death. It is necessary to keep this list clearly in mind, in order to be able to understand the confused and disputed successions which were to follow : — (1) The Empress Catherine, his second wife. The divorced Eudoxia was still in existence, but confined in a nunnery. At the time of Peter's death she was not regarded as having any right in connection with the imperial family. (2) Three children by Peter's second marriage — the Prin- cesses Elizabeth, Natalia, and Anna — the last-named being married to Karl Friedrich of Holstein Gottorp. (3) Two children of Alexis, Peter's son by his first wife, viz., Peter and Natalia. (4) Of the children of Ivan, the brother of Peter, there remained three, viz. : — (a) Catherine, who was married on Peter's second journey through Europe, at Danzig, to Karl Leopold, Duke of Mecklenburg. This marriage had turned out a very un- happy one, and ended in Catherine living apart from her husband. She continued to reside in St Petersburg, where we shall hear more about her subsequently. She was the mother of the unhappy Anna Leopoldovna, who became the mother of the infant Emperor Ivan VI., and 1725] THE REIGN OF PETER 109 died in Kholmogori. Her husband was Anthony Ulrich, Prince of Brunswick. {b) Anna, afterwards Empress, married Frederick, Duke of Courland, and (c) another daughter. The mother of these last two ladies, and widow of the Tsar Ivan, died in 1723. [1725 CHAPTER IV THE REIGNS OF CATHERINE I. AND PETER II. '"PHE antecedents of the Empress Catherine have already ■*■ been alluded to. In our own times very minute in- vestigations have been made into the subject; and it seems to be established that her real name was Marfa (Martha) Skavronskaya, and that she was a Lithuanian or Livonian peasant. She is supposed to have been the daughter of one Samuel Skavronski, and to have been born about 1683. As her father died when she was still quite an infant, she was adopted by a Protestant clergyman named Gliick who treated her rather as a humble dependent than as one of his family. She is said to have married a Swedish dragoon, of whom we know nothing except that his Christian name was Johan. When the Swedes were compelled to evacuate Marienburg, where Gliick resided, Martha was taken as a prisoner to the house of Sheremetiev who bore, as we have seen, the leading part in the wars in the Baltic provinces. Here Menshikov saw her and is said to have purchased her as a servant for his wife. Afterwards Peter saw her at the house of Menshikov and fell in love with her. The great monarch was somewhat irregular in these matters it must be confessed, and Catherine did not attain to the position of a wife still less to that of a tsaritsa for some time afterwards. It is difficult to understand exactly what charms Peter saw in her. She is universally described as having been a homely person. She seems, however, to have been a cheerful woman who knew how to humour the caprices of her husband and to soothe him in times of weariness or illness. His love for her appears to have been a genuine passion, and he probably 1725] CATHERINE I. AND PETER II. m with his Oriental notions considered that it did not matter from what rank of life he took a mistress or a wife. Like Eastern despots he could make and unmake at pleasure. His whole life was a rebellion against convention and authority. He did not like the restrictions of a court and the isolation in which women lived under the old Muscovite regime, when neither the tsaritsa nor her daughters could dine with the Tsar, but languished in the terem. It was in 1705 that Martha, then aged twenty-three years, began to live with Peter. She entered the Orthodox Church and received the name of Catherine. As Peter was con- tinually obliged to be absent, it is not a little curious to note, in the letters which have been preserved, the ever increasing „ tenderness with which he writes to her. In the first years Peter calls her simply " Mother " ; from 1 709 onwards he adds a tender greeting, and sometimes uses the Dutch word moeder. We have already called attention to the fondness of Peter for occasionally employing Dutch words, as that was the only language which he knew besides his own. His tone becomes more endearing at the end of 17 11, because in that year he had made her his wife. Very many of these letters purport to have been accompanied by presents which furnish evidence of the warmth of his affection for her. In 17 10 her public reception into the Russian Church took place under the name of Yekaterina Alexievna, in 17 10 she was styled Gosudarina, and in 1 7 1 1 she was publicly married to the Tsar. Peter did not take her with him to Paris, fearing, maybe, that his homely wife would suffer by contrast with the elegant Parisian ladies ; so also when, during that journey, he had a meeting at Stettin with the King of Prussia and at Altona with the King of Denmark Catherine was not present. She joined him, however, at Schwerin and he took her with him to Rostock. Her daughter Elizabeth was, according to the Tsar's intention, to become the wife of Louis XV. if the union could be brought about ; but we are told that the French considered such a marriage derogatory H2 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1725 to their king, seeing that her mother was of such humble origin. However, the idea was for a long while in the air. When Louis did marry, at the age of fifteen, a union was by court intrigues arranged with the daughter of the wise and good Stanislaus Leszczynski, but the marriage was equally a mesalliance as Stanislaus was a king without a kingdom. On the death of the great Tsar the Court was divided into two sharply outlined parties. The reactionaries, who still looked with no favourable eyes upon Peter's reforms, wished to raise to the throne Peter, the son of Alexis, a mere boy. On the other hand the progressives, with Menshikov at their head, favoured the succession of Catherine, hoping to attain through her both power for themselves and the , continued development of European civilisation in Russia. Peter the Great made no will ; Catherine, however, was a favourite with the army. In some of the old pictures we see her wearing a cocked hat and in the dress in which she appeared at the head of her own regiment. Despite the fact, therefore, that the idea of a female sovereign was strange to the Russian mind, the government of a woman never having been known in their annals — for Sophia had only ventured to rule in the name of her brothers — the party of reform eventually triumphed, and Catherine succeeded to the throne of her husband. The chief power now lay in the hands of Menshikov. The fortunes of this favourite of Peter had been at a rather low ebb at the time of the great Tsar's death. He was not without petty vices with all his great qualities, and we have already spoken of his pride, ostenta- tion, and inordinate love of money. Some of his ill-gotten wealth Peter had made him give up, and perhaps he would have fallen into permanent disgrace if the Tsar had lived. He was now, however, as we have said, all powerful. On the accession of Catherine he received a gift of fifty thousand peasants, in addition to the town of Baturin, in the Ukraine, which had formerly belonged to Mazeppa. Readers will remember how, when the perfidy of the arch- 1727] CATHERINE I. AND PETER II. 113 traitor was known, Peter had at once sent Menshikov to seize Baturin. Beyond all question he was the most powerful as well as the richest man in Russia at that time, and enjoyed almost royal honours; and the future Empress, Anne, the second daughter of Ivan V., was married in his house. The reign of Catherine was short, lasting little more than two years, and comparatively barren of events. In 1724 the Academy of Sciences was founded at St Peters- burg, and Behring was sent to survey Kamchatka. Peter had occupied himself about these matters during the last hours of his life. The government was administered by a supreme Privy Council, as it was termed, which comprised Menshikov, Apraksin, Golovkin, Tolstoi, Golitsin, and Ostermann. The last of thejse was a Westphalian German, who had attracted the notice of Peter, and one of the few honest persons by whom the Tsar had been served. He was now intrusted with the important office of governor of the youthful Peter. The other names we are already familiar with as having been instrumental in helping Peter to carry out his reforms. In 1726 an English fleet appeared in the Baltic. George I. seems to have considered that the Russian armaments were menacing the peace of Europe. On this occasion Catherine displayed a good deal of spirit ; and Ostermann said : " If the English Ministers think that they can treat us like children they will find themselves greatly mistaken." But the English threats came to nothing, and George I. only found himself met by a coalition of hostile powers, and dropped his bluster. Catherine taking advantage of the ukaze of Peter, nominated as her successor Peter, the son of the unfortunate Alexis, and in default of Peter and his issue, Elizabeth and Anne, her own daughters. Anne died in 1728, the year after her mother ; and her son was eventually destined to succeed as Peter III. The absolute fairness of this arrangement is striking. The Empress died May 17, 1727, in the thirty-ninth year of her age. She seems to -have suffered H H4 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1728 from a complication of diseases, including a cancer and dropsy. The reign of the Empress had been short but, notwith- standing her humble origin, she had endeared herself to her subjects. Neither was she unmindful of her own kin : some she had invited to Court, and one, Sophia, had been made a lady-in-waiting. At the time of the Empress's death it was commonly supposed that the will propounded as hers, by which Menshikov was nominated as guardian of the infant Tsar until he should attain the age of seventeen, had been concocted by Menshikov himself. Certainly Lefort, the Saxon envoy, thought so, for on the 27 th of September he thus writes to his court : As the Princess Elizabeth was in the habit of signing everything for the Czarina, the Duke of Holstein and Menshikov made her also sign this will of which the poor defunct had no idea. Menshikov had further obtained the Empress's consent to the* betrothal of the young Tsar to his own daughter Mary, who was two years the prince's senior. According to her portraits she was a hand- some girl, but it would seem that she had already given her affections to a Prince Sapieha. We are told that she regarded the youthful Peter with aversion. A very careful plan had been drawn up for the young Tsar's education by Ostermann, to whom Russia owed so much, and according to trie accounts of those who were in attendance upon him, he displayed a good deal of ability. He was especially attached to his sister Natalia. About this time Menshikov very sensibly made some con- cessions to the Cossacks, whom Peter had treated with great severity. The latter had never forgiven their revolt under Mazeppa. They now regained some of their old in- dependence, but the Setch, as their military position on the Dnieper was called, was never restored in its ancient vigour. The Cossacks of the Dnieper had suffered much under their Polish masters. Their privileges had been largely encroached upon: the permission to distil brandy upon which they set so much store had been taken away. They were, however, 1727] CATHERINE I. AND PETER II. Ii$ but little better off under Russian rule : the principal relief accorded to them was that their religion was no longer to be interfered with, for the Poles had been for ever trying to convert them to the Romish Church. In a little time the hetmanship of the Cossacks was to become a mere honorary office held by court favourites, such as Razumovski. Menshikov's ascendancy, however, was of short duration. In August 1727 he compelled the Duke of Holstein with Anne, his wife, to quit Russia. In May of that year the Emperor had made him Commander-in-Chief of the Russian forces, and he forthwith began to be courted by foreign potentates, the German Emperor giving him an estate in Silesia. But by degrees his arrogance became intolerable, and the boy Tsar, who was now beginning to feel his feet, entered into a contest with him which could only end in one way. At first Menshikov was deprived of his various offices. Then he was arrested and ordered to be confined in his own house. This last blow gave rise to an apoplectic stroke. At length he was commanded to quit St- Petersburg and to live upon his estates in the Ukraine, his departure from the capital being more like a triumphal procession than that of a man in disfavour with his sovereign going into exile. The new favourites of the Tsar were now the Dolgorukis who had been largely instrumental in bringing about the fall of Menshikov. The Court was r.emoved to Moscow where the young Tsar was almost wholly engrossed with field sports in the forests round the ancient capital. His grandmother, the Tsaritsa Eudoxia, was released from her monastic seclusion. She was present at Peter's coronation, but he did not receive her with any warmth, and she sank again into obscurity. Menshikov up to this time had been allowed to reside on his estates in the Ukraine; but now, on the plea that he had been concerned in a conspiracy, his enemies contended that more severe measures should be taken against him. His vast property was confiscated for the benefit of the treasury and he was found to be possessed of fourteen millions of roubles in money and bank notes, and some millions worth of gold, n6 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [im silver and precious stones, in addition to the landed estates. The family was now banished to Berezov, one of the most dreary places in Siberia. It lies a thousand versts to the north of Tobolsk, and was only inhabited at the time by some Ostiaks. The winter there lasts for seven months of the year, the thermometer frequently falling to forty degrees of frost. The exiles were permitted to Jake a few servants, and five roubles a day were allowed for their maintenance. With Menshikov went his son Alexander, aged thirteen, and his daughter Mary, aged sixteen, who had been betrothed to the Emperor. The ring of betrothal had been taken from her on her way from St Petersburg by a courier sent by the Tsar. Besides these there was another daughter named Alexandra, aged fourteen. The sister of Menshikov was sent into a monastery. His wife, who had never shared the un- popularity of her husband, is said to have wept herself blind with grief; she died just before they reached Kazan, on the road to Siberia. Soon after they had left Kazan the exiles, in their dreary march, were met by the party of Behring ex- plorers who had been sent out by Menshikov himself to explore Eastern Siberia. They were amazed to see the late master of Russia in the garb of a convict, with a long un- kempt beard ; and the bride of the Emperor dressed in sheep- skins. As he entered Tobolsk, Menshikov was met by an exile whom he himself had sent to Siberia; and the latter began to revile him. " My friend," said the fallen minister, " forgive me, if I have injured you — and if abuse of me relieves you, continue to abuse me." Another exile pelted the children of Menshikov with mud. " You ought to throw it at me and not at them — they are to blame in nothing," said Menshikov calmly. When he came to the place of exile he again applied the axe which he had learnt to use when with his imperial master at Saardam and Deptford. He built for himself a little house and a chapel. His children shared with him the labours of the humble home. The eldest daughter cooked the dinner and the younger washed the clothes. In spite of 1729] CATHERINE I. AND PETER II. 117 his many failings we feel that there was something grand in Menshikov, and he never seemed grander than in his desolate home among the northern snows. He endured all with the stoicism of the Russian : a placid submission to fate and the will of heaven. His eldest daughter, however, could not stand the rigours of the climate and the privations she was called upon to undergo. He closed her eyes, fell on the earth near her body and wept ; but, after a few minutes, rose up firmly and said aloud : " there is rest for the holy ! " He made a coffin and dug a grave for the dead girl in the frozen earth, and marked out a grave for himself close by. Some strange and romantic stories have gathered round the memory of Mary Menshikov. A certain prince, Feodor Dolgorukov, who was attached to her, is said to have come to Berezov and been privately married to her there. The inhabitants of Berezov, we read, occasionally saw her walking with her husband on the banks of the river Sosva, but, poetical as this story may be, probably it has little basis of truth. Menshikov did not long survive his daughter. He died on the 1 st of November 1729, in the fifty-seventh year of his age — the same year (as Russian authors do not fail to note) in which Catherine II. and Suvorov were born. His grave is still shown at Berezov. Such was the end of a remarkable man, whose life was so full of dramatic incident. Raised from the humblest position, he had, after accompanying the Tsar on his travels, attained the highest dignities to which a Russian subject could aspire. He was great in the field and in the council-chamber, and no less great in the last pathetic scenes of his life. To return, however, to the capricious boy, upon whose arbitrary will the fate of the great statesman depended. The young Tsar continued to show no desire to go back to St Petersburg, and all the work of Peter was in abeyance. His fondness for sport was boundless, and he abandoned his studies with alacrity. His tutors lost all control over him, and all the wisest courtiers felt that the country was drifting n8 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1728 about like a ship without a pilot. Their constant entreaties that he would allow the court to be again transferred to St Petersburg were useless. No one saw the necessity of such a step more than Ostermann^ one of the few honest foreigners who have served Russia. He succeeded in impressing his views upon the Princess Natalia, whose abilities were so much in advance of her years. Rondeau, the English Minister, thus writes to his government : "The Count Luthol, who is a very handsome young fellow, was a great favourite of the late Czarina (Catherine). Anna Cramer had also much credit with her, and was to be seen at all the entertainments given by the Empress in which Count Luthol was one of the principal actors. Menshikov placed both of them near the Princess Nathalie. Soon afterwards, however, they quarrelled with him, and, having gained the affections of their mistress, they united with her, the Princess Elizabeth, Apraksin, Golovkin, Ostermann, and others to overthrow him. At present Luthol and Cramer are the only favourites of the Princess Natalia, and they rule her just as they feel disposed. This princess, at the beginning of her mother's reign, had great authority at court, for the Czar loved her more than anybody in the world. But she has presumed a little too much upon her credit, and, having tried to persuade her brother to abandon the disorderly life he was leading, her remonstrances have made her disagreeable to him, and she has lost a great deal of the influence which she had over him." Unfortunately this clever woman was soon to be taken away from the brother upon whom she might have exercised such a salutary influence. She suffered a great deal through- out the year 1728, and died on the 7th of December in that year. According to the testimony of the foreign ambassadors she was a woman of noble heart, and must have inherited some of the qualities of her mother, the excellent Princess Charlotte. The next event in the reign was the betrothal of the young Tsar to Catherine Dolgoruki, and then this powerful family rose to the height of its power. Peter seems 1730] CATHERINE I. AND PETER II. 119 to have regarded his future bride with singular apathy. Rondeau in his report describes her as about eighteen years of age, handsome, and endowed with many good qualities. The Saxon envoy, however, has chronicled some very malicious gossip about her, for the atmosphere of the court seems to have been eminently vitiated. But fate had ordered things otherwise. In the beginning of the year 1730 the young Tsar caught the smallpox, and, when on the point of convalescence, got a chill through carelessness and died on the 20th of January. His last words, uttered in delirium, were : " Get ready the sledge ; I want to go to my sister." The external affairs of the country during this reign were of little political import, with the exception, perhaps, of the expulsion of Maurice of Saxony, afterwards the hero of Fontenoy, from Mittau, the capital of Courland, which province he had hoped to gain by making love to the widowed duchess, the daughter of the Tsar's brother, Ivan. Ever since the time of that marriage, however, Russia had kept her eye steadily fixed upon Courland, and its annexation had been planned by Peter soon after his interview at Marienwerder with Frederick of Prussia. He now laid the foundation stone of St Petersburg, and In the grand triumphal procession which took place at Moscow, his train was swelled with 20,000 prisoners. Event after event continued to point to the annexation of Baltic provinces at the expense of Sweden and Poland, to which latter kingdom Courland was but a loose appendage, drifting year by year further apart, till at length the hereditary grand-dukes, the race of the Kettlers, having died out, we find the throne filled by Russian nominees, and in the time of the Empress Catherine it was voluntarily ceded to Russia. [1730 CHAPTER V THE REIGN OF ANNE /^\N the death of the young Tsar the council took in hand ^-^ the question of the succession. According to the will of Catherine the heirs of her daughter Anne were the next in succession ; but the Duke of Holstein had made no friends in Russia, and his son, afterwards destined to reign as Peter III., was then only three years of age. Elizabeth, the other daughter of Catherine, certainly had a right which it would have been difficult to defeat, but she seems to have made no effort to put forward any claim, and spent her time in frivolity and idleness. The French envoy Magnan writes as follows to his government : — " The Princess Elizabeth has made no appearance at all on this occasion. She had gone to amuse herself in the country, and even those who exerted themselves in her favour were not able to get her to consent to be present in Moscow at the crisis ; many express messages which were sent to her to this effect were not able to reach her in time, so that she arrived in this city only after the Duchess of Courland had been elected." He goes on to say that she would not have had many supporters on account of the irregularity of her conduct, and she was hardly con- sidered "legitimate" by the strict adherents of the Greek Church, because she had been born before the marriage of her parents. The Dolgorukis put forward an extraordinary claim on behalf of their relative Catherine, who had been betrothed to the young' Tsar. This candidature however was not treated seriously. According to Mannstein, scarcely had Peter II. died, when Prince Ivan Dolgoruki came out of the bedchamber with a drawn sword. This he flourished and 1730] THE REIGN OF ANNE 121 cried out, " Long live the Empress Catherine." But no one joined in the cry. Seeing therefore that there was no chance of his succeeding he went home and burnt the will. At the instance of Prince Dimitri Golitsin who had been one of Peter's leading men, the crown was now offered to Anne the Duchess of Courland. The old nobility of Russia had looked with a certain amount of contempt upon the great multitude of parvenus with which the country swarmed, since Peter had proclaimed the maxim, la carriire ouverte au talent. In the adjacent kingdom of Poland the aristocracy had made them- selves the sole rulers ; had reduced the sovereign to a mere figurehead, and gradually deprived the peasants of the small amount of liberty which remained to them. Golitsin and his brother nobles took as their model the pacta conventa, on which the kingdom of Poland had been framed. It was conceived that Anne might be induced to sign something similar more readily, than her elder sister Catherine, who still resided in Russia and was married to the Duke of Mecklen- burg. The latter would probably be .more exacting in her demands, as she had a husband to support her ; moreover, the duke had made himself cordially detested in his adopted country. Since the death of her husband which happened so soon after her marriage, Anne had resided at Mittau, the capital of Courland. She had however paid frequent visits to St Petersburg, and had been to stay at her mother's residence at Izmaelovo, but had always been obliged to return to Mittau, a place for which she had but little affection. We often find her writing to the Tsar about the scanty sum which was allowed for her maintenance. Bestuzhev had been Peter's resident at her court and satisfied Anne, but her uncle Basil was ultimately sent to be a spy upon her. In fact Anne was the ruler of Courland only in name ; from this time it was practically a Russian dependency. Bestuzhev happened to be obliged to go to St Petersburg for busi- ness, and presented Biren to Anne as a person capable of managing her business in his absence ; but when he 122 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mo returned he found that his nominee had completely sup- planted him. Terms were drawn up by the Council for Anne to sign. The original document, as we shall see afterwards, was destroyed, but the French resident Magnan sent a copy to his government which probably represents the original pretty fairly. The following extracts will give an idea of these important changes : — "(i) The Empress must consult the High Council on all Government affairs. " (2) She must not declare peace or war without the consent of the Council. " (3) She was to procure the consent of the Council to the imposition of any new taxes. " (4) No important office was to be conferred without the consent of the Council. " (5) The Empress must not condemn nor order to be executed any of the nobility unless the person implicated has been proved to deserve death. "(6) The property of no nobleman shall be confiscated unless his crime has been proved. "(7) No property belonging to the Crown domains could be alienated without the consent of the Council. " (8) The Empress was neither to marry nor choose a successor without the consent of the Council." There was also the basis of a thorough constitutional government in the following proposals : — "(1) The Empress must have a fixed sum for the expenses of her household ; and shall have under her control only the body of troops forming the guard which is on duty at the Palace. "(2) There must be a Supreme Council composed of twelve members from among the most considerable of the nobility, who shall direct all affairs of great importance, such as peace, war, and foreign alliances. A treasurer must be appointed who shall give an account to the Supreme Council of the use he has made of the State funds. 1730] THE REIGN OF ANNE 123 " (3) There must be a Senate consisting of thirty-six members who shall examine all business, before it is brought to the Supreme Council. " (4) There must be a House of two hundred persons of the lesser nobility to maintain the rights of that class, in case the Supreme Council attempt to invade them. " (5) There must be an assembly of gentlemen and merchants whose business it shall be to see that the people are not oppressed." But the carrying out of these important measures was hampered by the quarrels among the nobility themselves. Many of the new men felt that the creation of an oligarchy of this sort meant ruin for themselves. This was especially the case with Golovkin and Ostermann. How far the latter really signed the conditions at all seems doubtful ; it was certain that under such a government the son of the poor Lutheran pastor would be reduced to insignificance. Yagushinski, who had been actively employed by Peter, wrote secretly to Anne urging her not to subscribe to the conditions proposed, and telling her that there was a party that would support her. The agent, however, of Yagushinski, one Sumarokov, was arrested on his way back from Mittau where the widowed duchess was residing. Yagushinski was at once thrown into prison. Meanwhile the members of the Council continued their quarrels, and the future Empress resolved to put the matter to the test. She was without doubt well informed as to the position of affairs. She received at Mittau Prince Basil Dolgoruki, Golitsin and Leontiev who affected to come as deputies from the Senate and nobility. Anne resolved to temporise. She subscribed the conditions which the emissaries proposed to her, and issued a manifesto declar- ing her readiness to accept the crown upon such terms. She then set out for Moscow, stopping en route at the village of Vsevsvatskoe (All-Saints) about eight versts from that city. When the nobles begged her to accept the cross of St Andrew she refused to take it from their hands, and directed one of her ladies-in-waiting to put it on her own neck. The 124 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mo following morning a battalion of the regiment of Preobrazh- enski Guards and a detachment of Horse Guards were sent to her. Anne, as was the custom of the Russian sovereigns, gave to each of the officers a glass of brandy with her own hand. So Sophia, whom she much resembled in her masculine and commanding presence, had done to the streltsi. All this time Ostermann had been secretly working for Anne. At length everything was ready for the counter- blow, and when at Moscow the document was presented to the Empress for final ratification, she seized it from the Chancellor Golovkin and tore it to pieces. She declared that she would never wear a crown conferred upon her by eight people only. This scene occurred on the tenth day after the Empress had ascended the throne. She had become aware of the large party in her favour ; although we are told that the Dolgorukis did what they could to prevent anyone from obtaining access to her. She had on her side Trubetski, Cherkaski, Bariatinski, and Apraksin. The nobles had gone in a body to the palace, and, resisting the attempts of the Dolgorukis to bar their entrance, had presented to the Empress the petition accompanying the document torn up by her as previously mentioned. Thus ended the second attempt to procure a semblance of constitutional govern- ment for Russia if we are to accept the view that Michael Romanov was only allowed to ascend the throne on signing a charter. According to Mannstein on the evening of the same day Prince Demetrius Golitsin uttered in the private circle of his friends the following remarkable and prophetic words : " The feast was ready but the guests were unworthy of the feast. I know that I shall be the victim of the failure of this plan. So be it. I shall suffer for my country. I am already in point of years near to the close of my life. But those who make me weep will shed tears longer than I shall." Anne was in her thirty-seventh year when she was chosen Tsaritsa. According to all accounts she was a woman of forbidding aspect and somewhat staring eyes, and her por- 1730] THE REIGN OF ANNE 125 traits bear out the description. The new Empress did not forget Yagushinski who had suffered so much for her sake. He was appointed Procuror General of the Senate. The Dolgorukis were banished to Siberia. The wrath of the Empress against this family had been repressed till a favour- able time for reprisals should occur. Magnan the French envoy reported to his government that the new Tsaritsa had been several times closeted with Ostermann in her cabinet and had issued orders for the arrest of six members of the Dolgoruki family and some foreigners of distinction. Anne at first allowed herself to be influenced by wise counsellors such as Ostermann and Munich ; but in the latter part of her reign she was a slave to the caprices of her favourite Biren. Hence Russian historians, with a considerable amount of reason, divide her reign of ten years into four under the counsels of Peter's surviving coadjutors, and six under the hateful Bironstchina as it has been happily termed. During the latter stormy period the Empress threw herself entirely into the hands of German favourites, especially the Courlander Biren. According to some recent articles in the Istoricheski Viestnik, Biren (as we will call him for convenience, though the name should more properly be written Biihren), was not the son of a groom as has been commonly assumed, but a man belonging to the smaller gentry, and perhaps the sinister report would not have arisen had he not foolishly tried to connect himself with the old Norman family Biron with which in reality he had nothing whatsoever to do. Biren was born in 1690 and in 1714 had come to Russia to seek a place in the entourage of the wife of the Tsesarevich Alexis. Here, however, he met with a repulse and was compelled to return to Courland. At this time Anne, then the widow of the duke, was living at Mittau. The chief person at her court was Michael Bestuzhev Riumin. Biren succeeded in getting into the favour of the latter and thus obtained access to the duchess. Anne was so taken with him that she appointed him her Kammerjunker. This elevation of the parvenu irritated the proud Courland aristocrats, and two of them, 126 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1733 Vietinghof and Kaiserling, at once vacated similar posts. Biren had a vigorous and fertile mind coupled with the gift of eloquence, and unbounded ambition. He soon acquired great influence over the duchess. He succeeded in forcing Bestuzhev to leave Courland in 1728 and so became all- powerful. In order to establish himself permanently Biren now determined to seek a matrimonial alliance among the Courland nobility. After having endured many rebuffs he married in 1723 Fraiilein Benigna Trotta von Treiden, an old maid, very ugly and afflicted with chronic illness, which did not, however, prevent her from living to an extreme old age. By her Biren had three children, a daughter and two sons ; of one of the latter we shall hear more in the course of the narrative. During the reign of Anne they simply played the part of enfants terribles, being fond of throwing ink and wine over the court dresses of the nobles and tearing off their wigs. One of the chief causes of the resentment felt by Anne towards the Dolgorukis and the Golitsins is supposed to have been their insertion of a clause in the terms they strove to make with her, that Biren should not be allowed to return to Russia. As soon, however, as she had become really mistress of the country she at once summoned him and honours were heaped upon him in rapid succession. Rondeau wrote to his government on June 22, 1733, "The [German] Emperor has sent to M. Biren, the Grand Chamberlain and favourite of the Empress, his portrait encircled with diamonds worth at least 5000 pounds sterling, and has at the same time made him Count of the Empire." In another despatch of the 20th of April he also speaks of the great anger which this fondness for foreigners generated among the old Russian party. Anne herself during her stay of eighteen years in Courland, had become very German in thought and feeling. Biren was at the head of the court; Ostermann directed home affairs; and Munich was at the head of the war department so that Russia was now practically governed by foreigners. 1730] THE REIGN OF ANNE 127 Munich, who came from Holstein, was an excellent example of the soldier of fortune of the period. He was born in 1683, and first served in the French army, then entered the service of Austria and Poland, and finally that of Russia. Peter the Great had a high opinion of him, and entrusted him with the construction of the Ladoga Canal. The opposing faction hardly dared to make any complaint. Yagushinski was the only one who showed any sign of dis- content ; he might perhaps have expiated his rashness by a journey to Siberia as the Dolgorukis had done, but Oster- mann sent him to Berlin as ambassador. The Russians of the old or National party now looked more than ever to Elizabeth and hoped to be able to compel the Tsaritsa to appoint the latter heiress to the throne even .during her lifetime. Anne had however other views, and inclined to her niece, the daughter of the Duchess of Mecklen- burg. Rondeau, in a despatch of the 28th of May 1730, speaks of the irregular and completely idle life Elizabeth led. He adds that he had heard some very compromising details from M. Lestocq, her surgeon, and that the Empress seemed pleased with these irregularities rather than otherwise because they made Elizabeth's accession to the throne less probable. Rondeau is continually writing to his government about the great extravagance which prevailed at the court. Although the exchequer was almost empty the Empress gave a series of court balls. Biren and his brother were continually receiving presents. But the great favourite had other objects of ambition; he was anxious to be the ruler of that very duchy which had previously refused to receive him into the- ranks of its gentry. At his in- stigation Russia sent an army of sixty thousand men to support the claims of the Elector of Saxony (Augustus III.) to the throne of Poland. In return for this material aid the election of Biren to the duchy was ratified by the Republic of Poland of which Courland was a dependency. Rondeau tells us that Biren was very eager to receive the investiture of the duchy, but the Empress could not bear parting with 128 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1739 him, so he was admitted to his new honours by proxy. But even with this position he had not satisfied his ambition. He wished that his son should marry the young Duchess of Mecklenburg whose mother had died in 1733, her constitution having been undermined, as Rondeau told his government, by her addiction to brandy. Of the daughter, Rondeau said that although not beautiful she was passable. The Tsaritsa, however, wished to marry her niece to Prince Ulric Anthony of Brunswick - Beveren, nephew of the German Empress. Rondeau tells us how he duly made his appear- ance at the court. But Anna, the young duchess, seems to have regarded her future husband with dislike. In con- sequence of this the hopes of Biren were not altogether crushed and he did his utmost to ingratiate himself with the young lady. According to Rondeau Biren asked her what her opinions were of the Brunswick prince, to which she replied that she was entirely at her majesty's disposal, that if her own taste was consulted she did not care for the prince. It appears, however, that if she did not like Anthony of Brunswick very well, she liked the younger Biren even less. Finally she was married to the former on the 3rd of July 1739. In the midst of the preparations for this marriage, the tsaritsa was troubled by some conspiracies. A few years before (1733) Prince Cherkaski who was governor of Smolensk had been convicted of conspiring in favour of the Duke of Holstein and sent to perpetual imprisonment in Kamchatka. Three years afterwards the aged prince Dmitri Dolgoruki had his property confiscated and was im- prisoned in the fortress of Schliisselburg. Volinski, the Russian statesman, who had been employed by Peter in very important State affairs, having incurred the enmity of Biren, was executed with two companions, Yerop- kin and Khrustchov, under circumstances of great cruelty. His tongue was cut out, and he was to have been broken upon the wheel, but at the last moment the Empress commuted the latter part of the punishment to decapitation. Volinski was a man of considerable merit, and in our own time a 1740] THE REIGN OF ANNE 129 monument has been erected to his memory. He was, how- ever, haughty and domineering, as was shown in his treatment of Trediakovski, the poet. He possessed a large library for a Russian of that day, and some of the notes which he occa- sionally made in the volumes where he thought he found a parallel to the character and caprices of the Empress — especially in the writings of Justus Lepsius, an author who was then very much read — were found and quoted against him. There could be no possibility of mistaking such a note as eio ona (that's she), apropos of some disagreeable characteristic in one of the persons introduced by Lepsius. It is a pity that Volinski should have displayed so much weakness while under examination, but his spirit was broken by the tortures inflicted upon him. Three days after his execution his son and two daughters were sent to Siberia, where the daughters were forced to become nuns. The brother of Volinski, without being found guilty of any crime, was put into a fortress. When Anne died Anna Leopoldovna set them all free, and the compelling of the daughters to become nuns was declared to have been unlawful. In the time of Elizabeth they married noble husbands. Another victim of the secret chancery was Makarov, who in the time of Peter the Great had been chief of the Cabinet. At one period this man was in close attendance upon the Tsar and all powerful. Many then had sought his favour, and among them Anne, into whose head it never entered that she would one day be Empress. She and her sister had been familiarly called the Ivanovnas at Moscow in former days ; and she had at that time been glad of the countenance of the all-powerful Makarov. But times had changed. She now demanded her letters back from him, and naturally disliked the man whose presence continually reminded her of her former humble position. He was accused of corrupt practices, and kept at Moscow under arrest for two years and nine months, during which time his affairs went to ruin. He ventured in a letter to entreat the Empress to set him free, but this only resulted in a slight relaxation of his punishment. 1 130 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i739 One of the cases investigated by the secret chancery was that of an impostor, who declared that he was the Tsesarevich Alexis. He was a Pole named Minicki, who had come to Russia twenty years before, and had partly lived the life of a soldier and partly in monasteries, especially in those of Malorussia. While he was in the district of Kiev he gave himself out to be Alexis, but only succeeded in gaining as adherents a priest and some soldiers. The priest admitted him to the church and ordered lights to be burnt and the bells to be rung ; the people came into the church and the false Tsar held up the cross for them to take the oath. But suddenly a captain with some Cossacks ran into the church and ordered them to drag out the pretender and send him in chains to the military chancery at Pereslavl. The colonel at Pereslavl sent him, still in chains, off to Moscow to the secret chancery. The impostor himself and the priest who had supported him were impaled, and others of his followers were decapitated. Not only political matters, however, but those of the most trivial, social kind were investigated in the chancery. If any old women came together and in their chattering introduced the name of the Empress or Biren, a bystander had only to cry, Stovo i dielo, "The word and the deed," and the old women were at once transported to the secret chancery. All Russia was in terror of the delatores, who invaded every circle of private life and broke the sanctity of the closest ties. Through the machinations of Biren many other members of noble families were sent to Siberia, He is generally sup- posed to have planned the cowardly murder of Major Malcolm Sinclair, an officer of Scotch extraction, who had entered the Swedish service and was sent in the year 1739 to Turkey with the view of bringing about a treaty between that country and Sweden in view of Russian encroachments. On his way back from Constantinople he was waylaid near Altschau, in Silesia, by two emissaries of Biren and murdered. It does not appear that the Empress was cognisant of the matter. Just at this time the agitation which existed in Sweden for the 1740] THE REIGN OF ANNE ' 131 recovery of the Baltic provinces was coming to a head, and war was on the point of breaking out, when (1740) the Empress died. The principal event of her reign had been the four years' war with Turkey, although in reality it had led to no decisive result. The two chief Russian commanders in this war were Munich, a German, and Lacy, an Irishman. The reign of Anne was not without many changes in internal affairs. It was she who put an end to the Supreme Council and restored the Senate, which had lost its power in the time of Catherine I. and Peter II., giving to it a more regular constitution. According to the scheme of Munich it was divided into five departments : One of them had the superintendence of spiritual affairs, when they were such matters as could properly be discussed by the Senate; another had cognizance of military matters, and the third of finance, the fourth dealt with the administration of justice, and the fifth with manufactures. Each department consisted of four or five senators, who made a previous examination of all questions connected with their department and reported on them at the general meeting, where they were decided by the majority. The Senate also received again the power which it had enjoyed in the time of Peter the Great, but which it lost ultimately by the foundation of the Cabinet of Ministers in the second year of the reign of Anne. The Cabinet had the same significance as had been given by Catherine I. to the Privy Council, that is to say, the Empress consulted her advisers, and with this object formed a Council of four members (over which she herself presided), consisting of the Chancellor Golovkin, the Vice-Chancellor Ostermann, Prince Cherkaski, and Count Munich. Into the Cabinet were brought the papers which were laid before the Empress herself for ratification. Besides these, all political questions were there discussed. The general management of affairs, which did not demand the ukaze of the sovereign, was centred in the Senate, as had been 132 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mo done in the time of Peter the Great. Two other departments also received new and definite settlement, with a considerable increase of their functions. Measures were taken for a speedy codification of the laws, and rules were laid down to guarantee the purity of the courts. A great deal also was done in military matters, and the Russian army came to assume a more splendid appearance. All this was brought about by Munich. He formed a body of heavy cavalry out of some regiments of cuirassiers, such as previously did not exist; he raised two new regiments of guards, the Ismaelov and the Horse Guards. He improved the artillery, laid a solid foundation to the work of the engineers, strengthened the fortresses, and formed a corps of cadets for the training of young noblemen who meditated entering the military service. Moreover, he improved the discipline of the army to such an extent that from this time the Russian infantry became known as a model throughout Europe. As one result of these measures the Empress raised the pay of the officers. The service of the nobles was also rendered lighter. In the time of Peter each nobleman was bound to serve the country from youth to old age ; in fact, as long as his strength lasted. In the case of a family where there were three or four sons, Anne allowed one to remain at home to manage the estate. The others went into the service at twenty years of age, and when they had reached the age of twenty-five might retire with a higher rank. Another privilege conferred upon the nobility was the power to alienate their property. According to the law of Peter the Great (17 14) the owner of an estate could neither mortgage nor sell his immovable property, and could be- queath it to one son only, to the prejudice of the rest of his children. The Senate represented to the Empress that this law did more harm than good. Anne ordered it to be changed, and the devolution of estates was settled according to the Ordinance (Ulozhenie) of the Emperor Alexis in 1649. Other ranks of society too received exemptions no less im- portant. The merchants were forgiven their arrears due to mo] THE REIGN OF ANNE 133 the Customs, and the capitation tax paid by the peasant was considerably diminished. Many steps were taken to improve the manufactures carried on in the country, and mining establishments were founded in Siberia according to the plans of Peter the Great. It was Peter the Great who had first brought into notice the family of the Demidovs destined to fill so great a position in the records of Russian mining. The story of the rise of this family, now so wealthy, is worth telling, even at the cost of a digression. In 1696, when going to Voronezh, Peter had passed through Tula, and sent his attendant to ask the Tula blacksmiths if they could undertake in the course of a month to make three hundred halberds after a pattern which he had brought with him. Only one man responded to the appeal, the peasant Nikita Demidovich Demidov. When he was presented to Peter, the latter was much struck with the tall stature, manly visage, and symmetrical build of the man, and said to the nobles who were present, "What a fine fellow, he would just do for the grenadiers of the Preobrazhenski regiment." Nikita, considering the words of the Tsar to be meant as a command to him to become a soldier, fell at Peter's feet, and with tears asked him to excuse him on account of his aged mother whose only son and support he was. The Emperor, smiling at the terror of Demidov, said to him joking, " I will excuse you if you will make the halberds like the pattern." Nikita answered that he hoped to make them better than the pattern, and that he would bring them to Voronezh by the appointed time. When within a month Demidov presented himself with the halberds, Peter was so pleased with the way in which the work had been executed that he paid him thrice as much as he asked, gave him a silver mug, and promised to come and see him on his way back. When he came again to Tula, Peter remembered his promise, and paid a visit of inspection to Demidov's humble establishment, and asked him about his business. Demidov offered the Tsar a glass of excellent Rhine wine. " Ah ! Demiditch," said the Emperor, " you ought not to keep such 134 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mo expensive wine as this." " Your highness," said his host, " I never drink such wine. I have got this foreign wine only for you." " Take it away," replied the Tsar, "and give me a glass of our national Russian drink." The wife of Demidov hastened to gratify the wish of the Emperor, who drank up the vodka, ate a piece of cake, and turning to Nikita, said, "follow me, I want to speak to you about something." Going back to his lodgings, the Tsar then showed Demidov a gun of foreign manufacture and asked him if he could make anything like it in his establishment. Demidov answered that he would try but could not guarantee the result. " Well, I rely upon you," said Peter, "and when you have done it come to me at Moscow." Demidov went heartily to work, and after some unsuc- cessful attempts, produced six guns with which he made his appearance before the Tsar. Peter examined the weapons carefully, and when he saw that they were no worse than the foreign specimens, he made Demidov a present of a hundred roubles, and said "develop your business, Demiditch, and I will stick to you." In this way began the fortunes of the house of Demidov, which in the course of the eighteenth century developed into almost fabulous wealth. In this story Peter shows him- self, as indeed he always was, a typical Russian man of the people, with his humour, his straightforwardness, and dex- terity. It is interesting to think that the greatest sovereign whom Russia has produced, should have been such a typical specimen of the race. To return, however, to the reforms of the Empress Anne. The principal educational establishment was the Academy of Sciences, in conjunction with which a school for thirty-five youths of the class of nobles was founded in the year 1735. This Academy of Sciences also had the control of scientific expeditions. There had been appointed in the year 1732 a second expedition to the coast of Kamchatka which had also an administrative object. Okhotsk and the eastern coast generally was to be settled with colonists. Behring was to 1740] THE REIGN OF ANNE 135 send men both on land and by water to ascertain the limits of the Northern Sea, and he himself was to ascertain what was between Kamchatka and America, and to claim whatever he found as belonging to Russia, provided that he did not interfere with the rights of foreign nations, including those of China and Japan. With these two last-named countries he was to open up commercial relations. In 1736 another expedition was sent by the Academy under the command of Muraviov and Ortsin, with the object of discovering a route by the icy ocean from Archangel to the mouth of the Ob; and in the year 1740 Professor Delille was sent by the Academy to make astronomical observations at Obdorsk. The attention of the Academy of Sciences was also directed to the history of the country. In pursuance of the Academy's resolution in June 1736, directions were given throughout all Russia for the collection of MSS. and documents relating to the reigns of Ivan the Terrible, Michael, and Alexis. These were to be sent to the Senate, and the Senate having investigated them with a view of seeing what they contained relative to the history of the country was to send them to the Academy. Whatever was of a secret nature was to be sent to the Cabinet. It was then that were published the first works of Gottfried Miiller, a foreigner who came to Russia in the year 1720, and rendered some valuable services to the country. Though imperfectly acquainted with the language, he soon set himself to collect materials, and published his " Samm- lung der russischen Geschichte," a work which retains its importance even at the present day. In 1732 Miiller received a commission from the Academy of Sciences to visit Siberia in order to study the country, and spent ten years in doing so. It was while on this journey that he saw near Lake Baikal Voinarovski, the nephew of Mazeppa, who, after having been a popular visitor at some of the western courts of Europe, had now become the half savage inhabitant of the desert. As such he is described in the poem of Ryleiev. On his return, Miiller, till the close of his life, was occupied 136 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i732 in putting in order the materials he had collected relating to the geography, history, ethnography, and natural history of Russia. The collections he made are still preserved in the foreign archives at St Petersburg under the title of Miiller's portfolios. Nor was Anne less interested in national education, and schools were established for the children of the clergy. These may be said to have existed even as early as the reign of Ivan the Terrible, and as a result of the Council of 155 1, which published the Stoglav or Book of the Hundred Chapters. In matters of external policy Anne followed in the footsteps of her predecessors. Russia, which for more than half a century had longed for peace, was now in a position to enjoy comparative calm. Ever since 1687 the country had been engaged in warfare with its neighbours; at first with the Turks, then with the Swedes, and finally with the Persians. The disputes with the Turks and Swedes were now matters of history ; but the war with Persia had for nine years been carried on without any decisive result. Besides these, the complicated affairs of the Duke of Holstein still remained unsettled. In the time of Catherine they had almost dragged Russia into a European war. However much Peter might have been interested in these contests, his opinions were by no means shared by the majority of his subjects. By them these wars were considered a useless burden ; they looked upon the Persian territories which had been subjugated by the Russian arms as a gulf which had swallowed up both men and money. In the quarrel with Denmark about the rights of the Duke of Holstein, they saw a matter which was of indifference to Russia ; and from this point of view Anne regarded both questions. Her resolve to put an end to the quarrel with Persia and Denmark met with the general approval of her subjects. To really strengthen the Russian authority on the western and southern banks of the Caspian Sea a large additional force was required. Russia had to deal with a fierce soldier, 1732] THE REIGN OF ANNE 137 who had filled the East with the story of his battles. This hero was the daring Nadir Shah. He was for a long time the captain of a band of robbers, and as such had gained for himself a great reputation. He was now inflamed by a spirit of ambition, and aimed, at restoring the ancient power of Persia. He quitted his former trade of brigand and offered to enter the service of the son of Hussein with a large body of adherents. The Shah Tahmasp had been reduced to extremities by the victories of the Turks, and the rebels had got possession of almost all Persia, including Ispahan. He hid himself in Mazanderan, without soldiers and without hope of getting back his throne. He was therefore the more ready to listen to Nadir's offer, because in him he saw his one hope of assistance. And now events were not long in taking a turn. Victory followed upon victory, and at length the rebels showed themselves cowed. Nadir quickly drove them out of the chief cities, got possession of Ispahan, gave the Shah back his throne, and having rendered Persia tranquil once more, directed his victorious arms against the foreign enemies of his country, especially the Turks. A crushing defeat, which he inflicted on the Turkish army under the walls of Tabriz, had the effect of throwing the Porte into consternation. An insurrection broke out in Constantinople. The Sultan, Akhmet III., was driven from the throne, and Mehmed V. took his place. Meanwhile an agitation in favour of Tahmasp was discovered in those districts of the Caspian which had been occupied by the Russian forces. The people rose en masse, and the Russian regiments were barely saved from destruction. Levashev implored the Empress to send large reinforcements. Anne, instead of doing so, despatched Baron Shafirov with terms of peace, and, at the same time, offered to restore all Peter's conquests. Shafirov met the ambassadors of the Shah in conference at Resht, and the principal terms of peace were agreed upon. It was arranged that the Russian forces should immediately evacuate all the Persian territories on the southern shores of 138 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i786 the Caspian, and the western shore between the old Russian frontier and the river Kura was to be handed over as soon as peace should be concluded with Turkey. The main object of the Russian Government was the re-establishment of the old friendship with Persia and the expulsion of the Turks from the Caucasus. The Shah confirmed the treaty which had been concluded at Resht, and Levashev brought his regiment to the left bank of the Kura. Here he awaited the conclusion of the* war between Turkey and Persia, which had broken out once more with renewed vigour. Soon after this the disagreement with Denmark about Schleswig was settled. The interference of Russia in the quarrels between the Duke of Holstein and the King of Denmark had been brought to an end by the mediation of the German Emperor. Offers were made to the duke to give up the disputed portion of Schleswig for one million reichsthalers. If he did not receive this sum in the course of two years he was to consider the matter settled. At the same time the two powers signed mutual treaties of defence, which guaranteed the integrity of the Danish possessions. 1733] CHAPTER VI THE REIGN OF ANNE— continued HP HE Empress died in 1740 at the age of forty-seven. *■ When she felt her end approaching she named as her successor her grand-nephew Ivan, grandson of her sister Catherine, Duchess of Mecklenburg. Catherine, who was now dead, had a daughter Anna, whose marriage with Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick has already been mentioned. Biren was nominated as regent. This man had retained his influence over Anne till the last ; almost her last words were addressed to him: " Nebois, do not be afraid." No man, however, had made himself more thoroughly hated than Biren, and his sons were -equally detested. One of the last acts of the Empress was to arrange a match for the daughter of Biren. She was especially anxious that she should marry the handsome and clever Hereditary Prince of Hesse- Darmstadt ; but her wish was not to be gratified, for the father of the prince, the Landgrave Ludwig VIII., declared that under no circumstances would he take into his family the' grand-daughter of a groom. These insulting words were received in St Petersburg on the eve of the death of the Empress, and seem to show that this story of Biren's origin was believed in his life-time, and was not a late invention. If Anne in some respects departed from Peter's Oriental policy, she adhered to his plan of action with regard to Poland and Turkey. Augustus II. died in 1733. The election of a king in Poland had become a more turbulent matter than ever since the sovereignty was no longer con- tinued in the line of the Jagiellos. The last Jagiello had been John Casimir, whose pathetic renunciation of the crown 140 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i733 is familiar to all readers of history. The Polish nobles were generally divided into three prominent parties, one being inclined to Austria, one to France, and one to Russia. In spite of all her machinations, Austria never succeeded in getting a Habsburg elected to the throne. She contrived, however, that many of the Polish sovereigns should marry Austrian archduchesses. The fatal quarrels and egoism of the nobility were again patent. On the death of Augustus the diet (Sejm) was summoned at Warsaw. The Archbishop of Gniezno (Gnesen), who by virtue of his office was regent of the kingdom, wanted to keep foreigners from the throne, and to have a Piast, that is, a native Pole, appointed, as had been done in the case of Michael Wisniowiecki and John Sobieski. The choice fell upon Stanislaus Leszczynski, who was at that time living at Nancy. He had previously had some experience of kingship, and knew well the fickleness of his countrymen. In 1725 his daughter Maria had married Louis XV. At first Stanislaus was reluctant to accept the proffered honour. When, however, he did accept it, a great difficulty presented itself. How was he to reach Poland ? Neither Austria nor Prussia would allow him to pass through their territories, and a Russian fleet barred all access to Poland by the Baltic. Accordingly, a stratagem was resorted to. A report was circulated that Stanislaus was going to Danzig with a French fleet, which was about to sail from Brest. On the 20th of August 1733 Stanislaus publicly took leave of the French court in order to accept his new kingdom. He then went to Berry, where a certain Chevalier de Thianges, who had some likeness to him, was waiting. This man then disguised himself as the Polish sovereign, and hurried to Brest. On the 26th of August, while the false Stanislaus embarked at Brest amidst salvos of cannon, the genuine king was hurried through Germany to Poland in the company of the Chevalier d'Andelot. On the 10th of September he appeared at the diet, and was duly elected by a majority of sixty thousand votes. 1733] THE REIGN OF ANNE 141 The union of the daughter of Stanislaus with the French king was urged against him by the pro-Russian party. To this day the intrigues which brought about this extraordinary marriage cannot be said to have been completely unravelled ; of course it was considered a misalliance for a powerful monarchy like France. It has been supposed that his ministers wished the king to be married to a woman of com- parative insignificance, so that they might have him more under their own control. There were a certain number of Poles at the diet who showed the usual jealousy of their order, and attempted to upset the election of Stanislaus : their candidate was the son of Augustus, of the same name, — a man of coarse habits and poor intellect, who seemed likely to keep the country at the same level of degradation as his father had left it. Austria, always planning something to the detriment of Poland, took the same side as the Russians. Augustus III., as he afterwards became, promised the Empress that he would support the claims of Biren to the Duchy of Courland. He also promised the German Emperor that he would give his consent to the Pragmatic Sanction. Augustus was supported by the Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Michael Wisniowiecki. Russian troops presently made their appearance on the scene, and the Poles were too weak to withstand them. Stanislaus could hold out no longer at Warsaw, but was obliged to retire to Danzig, in expectation of some French troops which had been promised him. His rival, with his supporters, occupied the suburb of Praga. There were even fights between the opposing parties, which were only too characteristic of divided and unhappy Poland, now fast declining. Wisniowiecki then invited the Russian troops to enter upon Polish territory, and a force was sent under the command of General Lacy. This Irish soldier of fortune had entered the Russian service in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and he had distinguished himself by taking 17,000 Swedes prisoners in 1742. He died Governor of Riga in 1751. A new diet now met and appointed Augustus to the throne, Stanislaus was still at 142 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1733 Danzig, and it was not until he had been there five months that the Russians began the siege. The much expected French troops at length made their appearance; they con- sisted of only iooo men under the command of Count de Plelo. Some of the Russian forces had been left behind to hold Warsaw, and the siege of Danzig was consequently carried on in a desultory manner, with only three or four field pieces. The Tsaritsa hastened to increase her forces and put them under the command of Munich. Affairs at once took another turn, Munich captured the French detachment which had made a sally, collected some powerful artillery, and began such a bombardment of Danzig that Stanislaus saw the im- possibility of defending the place, and contrived to escape through the Russian lines disguised as a peasant. He himself has left an interesting account of his flight and the generous refusal of a peasant to receive any money for ferry- ing him over the river. The good king retired to his little capital of Nancy where he eventually died at an advanced age in 1766. The loss of such a man was a great blow to Poland. The reign of the Empress Anne cannot be said to have added much lustre to the annals of Russia. She was a hard and somewhat cruel woman, and many stories are told of her caprice and severity. She was rigorous in upholding even the most petty details of court etiquette, of which some examples are given in the very interesting memoirs of the Princess Dashkov. She used to make the old ladies of her court stand in her presence till they were ready to faint. When she was tired of court business, she would call her ladies-in-waiting and say " sing, girls, sing." The ladies then would stand in a circle and sing till the Empress began to yawn, then soldiers of the guard and their wives came in and danced national dances in which the noblemen present and members of the Imperial family often took part. Princess Dashkov tells us how some of the young ladies growing nervous when the Tsaritsa ordered' them to dance, forgot the figure and in consequence had their ears well boxed by the 1736] THE REIGN OF ANNE 143 Empress. Mannstein, whose memoirs of this period are very valuable, tells us that the Empress did not love gambling, although a great deal of card playing went on at court. She was fond of entertainment and music, and liked comedies acted in Italian and German. In 1736 the first opera was put on the stage at St Petersburg. There was at the same time greater sobriety at court, for, as Mannstein tells us, the Empress could not bear to see anyone drunk. Prince Kurakin was the only one who had free permission to drink as much as he pleased. There was, however, a good deal of revelry on 10th February, on the day of the Tsaritsa's accession, then everyone was obliged to toss off a bumper of Hungarian wine with one knee on the ground in the presence of the Empress. On the eve of the great festival, the courtiers and officers of the Guards were admitted to kiss the hand of the Empress, who, at the same time, presented each with a glass of wine on a salver. The Empress loved dress arid always wore the gayest 'colours. No one dared appear at court in black. Anne hqrself generally wore a costume of blue or green, and on her head the red handkerchief which was usual with the ordinary Russian women of the middle class at the time. It was she who conceived the whimsical idea of the house of ice, which inspired the poet Cowper with matter for some of his most beautiful lines. Another favourite whim with her was to keep a number of court buffoons, and instances are recorded of people who had offended her being made jesters for her amusement. Thus she took vengeance upon Prince Nikita Volkonski whose wife had done many acts of hostility to her in the reign of Peter II. The wife was imprisoned in a monastery and the husband appointed to a contemptible office at court. Literature was at a low ebb; we have already told how Trediakovski, who was more of a poetaster than a poet, underwent personal chastisement at the hands of the minister Volinski. A great many of the letters of the Empress have been 144 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i737 preserved. Many of them are addressed to her relative, Semeon Saltikov. In them she is always asking him to send her gossip of the most trivial kind. The Empress appears altogether to have been a woman of narrow capacity and incapable of really understanding State affairs. With the fall of Danzig Stanislaus lost all hope of retaining the Polish throne. He willingly surrendered it, preferring a quiet life and the pursuit of science to the heavy burden of governing a country distracted with feuds. The cabinet of Versailles, however, considered it discreditable to abandon the king's father-in-law, and not having succeeded in furnish- ing him with assistance at the time when it was wanted, now resolved to re-establish him on the Polish throne when it was too late. Louis XV. declared war against the German Emperor for his share in the election of Augustus. This war cost Austria dear ; her troops were everywhere defeated by the French and their allies : on the Rhine, in Milan, in Naples, in Sicily. In vain did the veteran Prince Eugene of Savoy direct all his efforts to resist the conquerors ; the' other generals also failed; and Charles VI. trembled for Vienna itself. The Russian Empress sent a considerable body of men under the command of General Lacy to help him. Before, however, the Russian soldiers had reached the Rhine, the French Cabinet had proposed terms of peace. Augustus was recognised as King of Poland, and a considerable portion of the territory which the French had conquered in the north of Italy was restored to the German Emperor. Charles on his side surrendered Lorraine to Stanislaus for his life, and on his death it was to be united to France. Charles also renounced his rights to Naples and Sicily, and peace was finally concluded at Vienna in 1738. Augustus made Biren, the favourite of Anne, Duke of Courland when the ruling house of the Kettlers had come to an end in 1737. As soon as Augustus III. had been securely seated on the throne of Poland, the Empress moved her forces to the Black Sea. Her object was to preserve the southern portions of the Russian dominions from the continued inroads of the Crimean 1736] THE REIGN OF ANNE 145 Tatars. From the days of the Emperor Alexis their in- vasions had not been so disastrous as formerly : they were kept at bay by the war-like spirit of the Cossacks who proved themselves excellent frontiersmen. When the Russians gained Azov these attacks became even rarer. This explains why Peter had been so unwilling to part with this outpost. As soon as the Russians had abandoned Azov after the treaty of the Pruth, the Tatars appeared in the government of Voronezh; they burnt many villages and carried off 15,000 men into slavery. Soon after this they plundered the neighbourhood of Izum and Kharkov, and almost got possession of Astrakhan. Their insolence continuing to increase, Peter the Great had several times applied to the Porte urgently demanding that it would keep in order the Tatars of the Crimea who recognised in a way the suzerainty of the Sultan. The Turkish Government, either from weak- ness or out of ill-will to the Russians, did not attempt to acquiesce in the wishes of the Imperial Court, and the Tsar saw that it was necessary to employ force. At the close of his life all things had been got ready for an expedition. Troops had been collected in the Ukraine, at Briansk, and Voronezh ; some thousands of flat-bottomed boats had been built by which Peter intended at the same time to sail down the Dnieper and Don to the coasts of the Black Sea to break up these nests of robbers. The death of the Emperor delayed for a while the conquest of the Crimea. His plans found no seconder either in the reign of Catherine I. or Peter II. The Tatars accordingly took advantage of this inactivity on the part of Russia, and plundered the Ukraine in the old fashion. In the beginning of the reign of the Empress Anne, the Government of St Petersburg once more made an urgent demand for satisfaction to the Porte. The Sultan replied that the Tatars were a free people, and that there was no means of bringing them into order. But he soon afterwards showed the usual Turkish contempt for international law. He had entangled himself in a difficult quarrel with the brave Nadir Shah, and had begun to direct 146 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i736 all the forces of the Porte against Persia. He accordingly ordered the Khan of the Crimea to invade Daghestan. In vain did the Russian resident represent to the Divan that the Tatars could not reach the Caucasus except by passing through the Russian possessions on the Kuban and Terek, and that in order to do this the permission of the Russian Government must be asked. The Sultan would pay no attention. The Tatars moved in one entire horde and met the Russian forces between the Terek and the Sundja. Here they profited by the negligence of the Russian Com- mander-in-Chief in the Caucasus, the Prince of Hesse-Hom- burg, and broke through the scattered Russian regiments. They thus carried out the intention of the Sultan to commit a breach of international law, and, in so doing, aroused the keenest indignation in the Russian Cabinet. The Empress had only been waiting till Polish affairs had been settled to direct all her forces against the Tatars. As soon, therefore, as this was the case, Field-Marshal Munich received orders to devastate the Crimea ; General Lacy was to take posses- sion of Azov. Meanwhile Ostermann informed the Vizier of the rupture and the Sublime Porte of the dissatisfaction of Russia at what had occurred. A very good time had been chosen for this expedition. Turkey was engaged in a vexatious war with Persia, and had no means of giving any support to the Tatars. On the other hand, Russia could rely upon the support of Austria under the treaty of 1726, and still more upon her own soldiery led by Munich. The Russian forces had already surprised the Germans by their strict discipline and familiarity with war, in their descent upon the Rhine sometime before. The expedition was a complete success; Lacy got possession of Azov; Munich, who neither spared himself nor his soldiers, quickly passed the steppe which separated the Ukraine from the Crimea, and met the whole horde on the line of Perekop, which was considered impassable. He now completely scattered the Tatar bands, took Perekop by assault, and devastated the western part of the Peninsula up to the actual capital of the 1736] THE REIGN OF ANNE 147 Khan, Bakchisarai, of which we now begin to hear for the first time. He could not, however, establish himself in the Tauric peninsula owing to want of provisions. He therefore blew up the fort of Perekop and returned to the Ukraine. The Khan, however, recovered from the blow inflicted upon him, and harassed the quarters of the Russian army during the entire winter. He still nourished the hope of saving himself by the assistance of Turkey. In the meantime the Sultan had succeeded in concluding a treaty with Persia, and being in no further fear of the terrible Nadir Shah, who had turned his victorious forces against Eastern India, he hoped to preserve some portion of the Caucasus. But, in truth, this was no easy task ; he had more foes than one to contend against. The German Emperor, Charles VI., showed an inclination to take up arms against Turkey. By the treaty of 1726 he was bound to assist the Russians with an auxiliary force of 30,000 men. On the present occasion he resolved to direct all his efforts against Turkey, no doubt in hopes of making up, at the expense of the Sultan, for the loss of his Italian possessions. The allies resolved to attack simultaneously all the European territories of the Porte, from the Sea of Azov to the Adriatic. Lacy was to invade the Crimea, and Munich to get possession of Ochakov, afterwards to be so celebrated in Potemkin's wars, and Bender. The Austrian generals were to drive the Turks out of Serbia, Bosnia, the parts of Croatia belonging to the Porte, and Wallachia ; so as to carry their arms across the Danube, and to decide the war with united forces in Bulgaria. The Russian generals fought well. Lacy devastated the Crimea. The Khan waited for him on the line of Perekop, with the whole horde and some thousands of Janissaries, in the firm resolve not to allow him to enter the peninsula. Lacy, however, chose another route by which he was not expected. He crossed Sivash or the Putrid Sea by a ford, made a forced march into the Crimea, and showed himself on the rear of the Khan. The enemy fled into the mountains. The Russians made the inhabitants 148 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mo of the Crimea remember the expedition of Munich. The whole region was devastated ; the villages in the eastern part being reduced to ashes. Munich, who was already known among the Russians by the name of "The Falcon" (Sokol), now appeared under the walls of Ochakov, which was strongly fortified and defended by a numerous garrison. He immediately ordered the place to be stormed. The Turks, however, were animated with the courage of despair, and though the Russians attacked vigorously, their position became dangerous. An uninter- rupted battle of two days showed the impossibility of taking Ochakov by storm, and that it would be necessary to lay regular siege to the city. The troops were suffering from want of provisions, and saw around them a limitless barren steppe, which could neither furnish food nor fodder. Munich made up his mind to take the fortress. He himself led the Izmail regiment to the attack, and, amid a conflagration which lit up the whole city, planted the Imperial standard on its walls with his own hands. The Austrian generals did not experience the same good fortune. One marched into Serbia, and was driven thence by the Turks; another appeared in Bosnia, and was defeated ; the third suffered a complete disaster in Wallaehia. All the three were superseded by the German Emperor in his dis- pleasure ; but matters showed no signs of improving, and he was compelled to enter into negotiations for peace. But it did not escape the notice of the Turks that there was no longer a Prince Eugene in command of the Austrian forces. They, therefore, resolved themselves to dictate the terms of peace, and laid siege to Belgrade, which was the key to the Austrian territories. The Emperor now saw himself driven to make peace. He was in want of money, and his army was disorganised. He saw too that there was no real co-operation between the allies. He therefore turned to Louis XV., asking him to mediate. This task the Cabinet of Versailles gladly undertook, but really with the object of hampering the German Empire in accordance with the 1739] THE REIGN OF ANNE 149 principles of hereditary antagonism. It was doubtless owing to French intrigue that the Turks were able to get terms so much more favourable than they might have expected. In accordance with the request of Austria, Villeneuve, the French Ambassador at the Porte, took a part in the negotiations, and also offered his services to the Russian court. Ostermann thoroughly understood that the object of this so-called mediation was to destroy the Russian influence in the Black Sea, and refused the French offer accordingly. Here, however, Biren stepped in, the very evil genius of Russia, and persuaded the Empress * to send to Villeneuve full powers for the conclusion of peace. The negotiations were opened under the walls of Belgrade, in the camp of the Vizier, who was secretly supported by France. Count Neiperg, the Imperial Ambassador, sustained a complete diplomatic defeat, and yielded all that the Turks wanted, and Villeneuve was just as compliant at the expense of Russia. Only a short time before the signing of the treaty Russia had gained another victory, another evidence of the advan- tageous position of which she was robbed by the mischievous interference of Biren, a wholly incapable man. At the time when the Vizier was besieging Belgrade, the Seraskier Veli- Pasha with a large army entered Bessarabia with the view of invading Russia. Miinich had been only waiting for a chance of encountering the main army of the Turks, and at once led his troops against them, although far inferior in numbers. The two forces met at the village of Stavuchani, near Khotin. Veli-Pasha had fortified his camp, and, having surrounded Munich on all sides, hoped to starve him into surrender. Munich, however, according to his custom, led his columns in person, attacked the fortified camp of the Seraskier, got possession of the artillery and baggage, and drove the Turks in confusion to the Danube. A result of this victory was the fall of Khotin, which surrendered without firing a shot. We get a graphic description of the battle of Stavuchani in 150 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [wo the memoirs of a Scotchman who accompanied the Russian forces in the capacity of surgeon. The Earl of Craufurd was also there as a Scotch soldier of fortune. It is remark- able how many Scotchmen from the time when Russia was opened to the English, in the reign of Ivan IV. down to the beginning of the present century, have entered the Russian service. We are often indebted to them for valuable descriptions of historical events. Thus Gordon is the authority for the campaign of Peter the Great in the Crimea. This battle took place in 1739. In con- sequence of it the Russians acquired a temporary footing in Moldavia. The Hospodar Ghika fled to the Turkish forces, and when Munich arrived at Jassy the leading officials met him with bread and salt, and agreed to recognise Prince Kantemir, the Russian general, as their hospodar in depend- ence upon Russia. The field-marshal hastened to reap the fruits of his successes, and was contemplating a descent upon the banks of the Danube so as to inflict there a decisive blow upon the Turks, when the unexpected news of the peace of Belgrade put a stop to his triumphant career. A treaty was signed within three days after the battle of Stavuchani. Austria restored to Turkey all that sire had gained twenty years before by the victories of Prince Eugene, and gave up all her rights to Wallachia and the part of Serbia ceded to her by the treaty of Pozharevats (17 18). Moreover she gave up Belgrade and Orshova, and bound herself to demolish the fortifications of the former place. Thus were the unhappy Serbs, after a brief taste of civilisation, sent back to the yoke of their ignorant and unsympathetic Ottoman masters. In 1740, 150,000 Serbs emigrated to Russia and were established in the southern governments. Russia lost nothing, but also gained nothing, in spite of all her victories and sacrifices. Each expedition had cost her large sums and many thousands of men. The soldiers perished not so 1740] THE REIGN OF ANNE 151 much by the sword of the enemy as by want of provisions and the laborious marches over the steppes of the Ukraine and Bessarabia. To compensate the Russians for this lavish ex- penditure of money and men, the Sultan agreed to raze Azov to its foundations, so that neither Russia nor Turkey could find it of any service. Moreover, he was to cede to Russia the steppe between the Bug and the Donets. He was to have no further dealings with the Zaporozhian Cossacks ; Russian merchants were allowed to send their goods across the Black Sea but only on Turkish ships. Russia gave back Ochakov and Khotin to the Porte, and bound herself not to molest the Khan of the Crimea. No doubt Biren contributed much to make Anne un- popular, for the Germans were thoroughly detested. Even before the death of the Empress a conspiracy was detected, the main object of which was to get rid of the Germans, and proclaim as Empress, Elizabeth, the surviving daughter of Peter the Great. Finch, the English resident, wrote that if the wishes of the nation were consulted, Elizabeth would certainly be elected her successor; she was popular on her own account, and more so because she was the daughter of the great Tsar whose memory was so cherished by his subjects. The Dolgorukis were at the head of the conspiracy and were even able to direct it from Siberia, but they paid dearly for their audacity. They were brought to Novgorod and executed. Ivan, who had been the favourite of Peter II., before being decapitated was broken on the wheel. We have already spoken of the devotion of his wife Natalia. The graves of the two unfortunate princes are still to be seen at Novgorod. Magnan, in the reports to his government, says that Anne had been offended by the part which the Dolgorukis took in negotiating terms with her, and the pains taken to prevent persons of opposite views having access to her. Alexis and Ivan Dolgoruki were accused of having appro- priated the Crown jewels during the reign of Peter II., as well as of having taken money from the public exchequer without giving any account of it. The father was exiled to 152 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1740 Yakoutsk and the rest of the family to Berezov, their goods being confiscated. Prince Vasilii was shut up in a monastery at Archangel, and a few months afterwards, as previously mentioned, Field-Marshal Dolgoruki was arrested and con- ducted to the fortress of Schliisselburg. mo] CHAPTER VII THE REIGNS OF IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH '""PHE Empress Anne being dead, Biren succeeded to the -*■ regency. But he was soon to be driven from the summit of power. In the last years of Anne he had shown himself an intolerable tyrant. The nobility could not hide their discontent, and some of the leading men resolved to ask the mother of the infant Emperor to take the helm of the state. They wished her to act in some such decisive manner as Anne Ivanovna had done when she put an end to the tyranny of the Supreme Council. They elected as their leader Prince Cherkaski, a man "of weak character. He informed the regent of the danger which threatened him. Biren at once took his measures ; the participators in the conspiracy were seized and put to the torture. The capital was in a state of panic ; even the father of the baby Emperor, Prince Anthony Ulrich, on account of the part which his adjutant had taken in the conspiracy, was obliged to listen to the most insulting rebukes in the presence of the whole court, and received an order to resign the rank of general which had been given him by the late Empress ; and at length he was even arrested. The mother of the young Emperor trembled when Biren came to see her. An ukaze seemed on the point of being issued, by which she and her family would be sent from Russia. Biren had already threatened it during his sharp disputes with her husband. In the midst of the general stupefaction only the hero of Ochakov, Munich, dared to withstand Biren. Influenced partly by pity for the Imperial family, and partly by disgust at the conduct of the regent, who would share his authority with nobody, and 154 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1740 perhaps even more allured by the hope of holding the helm of state himself, Munich opened his mind to the princess with a view of ridding both her and Russia of their tormentor. He only asked permission to use her name, and then took his measures. She gladly consented. As all classes of society were embittered against Biren, the field-marshal might safely have arrested him in broad day- light when visiting the princess. He could have shut him up in a fortress with the sure conviction tha^ no one would endeavour to release him. Miinich, however, effected the arrest at night, and laid hands on Biren in the latter's own palace, where he was surrounded with three hundred soldiers. Owing to the promptness of his adjutant, Mannstein, he accomplished this without shedding a drop of blood. The capital heard of the fall of Biren with the greatest— joy, which found an echo throughout Russia. Finch reported to his government that Field-marshal Munich, at the head of a detachment of- forty grenadiers, had gone to the Summer Palace and, in virtue of a verbal -order of the Princess Anna, had seized the regent in bed, and caused him to be taken away prisoner. He adds significantly. "The Duke of Courland (Biren) has been deprived of all his money and of everything which he possessed, even of his gold watch and his clothes." Very minute details have come down of this picturesque revolution de palais, for such it may truly be called. Hedwig-Elizabeth, the daughter of Biren, had been dancing that night at a ball given by the Cabinet Minister Prince Cherkaski. She had come back late, and gone to bed very tired. She had hardly fallen asleep when she was suddenly aroused by terrible cries issuing from the bedroom of her parents. She leaped from her bed, wrapped a fur shuba round herself, and rushed to the scene of the noise. When she opened the doors of the duke's bedroom Hedwig was petrified with terror. She saw her father, half-dressed, and bound hands and feet, in the power of some Preobrazhenski guards. The duke was shouting and making frantic efforts to 1740] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 155 escape; he was even biting those who attempted to detain him. The soldiers, however, treated him in the most un- ceremonious fashion, and tied his mouth with a handkerchief. They then wrapped him in a cloak, and dragged him into the street. The Princess Hedwig and her mother, weeping bitterly, entreated them to show pity, and begged to be allowed to accompany the duke. The officer in command, however, ordered them to be taken back to their rooms and to be kept under guard. When morning broke a court chinovnik appeared and politely requested them to give him the keys of all their boxes and drawers. He then placed the duchess and her daughter in a close carriage, on the box of which two police-officers took their seat, and ordered the vehicle to be driven to the monastery of St Alexander Nevski. Here, in the cell of the archimandrite, Hedwig found her father and youngest brother. The elder had been left in the city on account of illness. Anna Leopoldovna now declared herself governor, and was recognised as such without opposition. Biren was ultimately sent to the fortress of Schliisselburg. There he fell into com- plete despair, and in pusillanimous terror almost lost his senses when he heard the sentence of death pronounced by the Commission which had been appointed for his trial. The chief witness against him was his former friend, Bestuzhev, who hoped thereby to win the favour of Anna and Munich. This man afterwards confessed that his accusations had been ground- less. ,The Pravitelnitsa, as Anna was called, gave Biren his life and commuted his sentence into exile to Pelim, a little town of Eastern Siberia, 600 versts beyond Tobolsk. Here a special house was built for him according to the plan of Munich ; all his family shared his fate, and his property both in Russia and Courland was confiscated. On the fall of Biren the supreme government was centred in a cabinet of ministers, which now acquired a more regular organisation. It was divided into three departments. Munich as chief minister had the control of military matters; Ostermann, who was created an admiral, superintended diplomatic relations with 156 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1740 foreign powers, and had the control of the fleet ; the Chan- cellor, Prince Cherkaski and the Vice-Chancellor Count Golovkin had the management of home affairs. The com- mand of the troops was entrusted to the father of the Emperor Prince Anthony Ulrich, who was made general-in-chief. He was a dull, heavy man — a kind of Prince George of Denmark — we can see this plainly from his portraits. Having as her advisers Ostermann and Munich, who both knew Russia so well, and so clearly understood her wishes and Jiopes, the princess endeavoured to keep the people well affected by deeds of gentleness and mercy. She began by releasing from imprisonment some thousands of innocent persons whom Biren had shut up in dungeons or sent to Siberia. She was gracious to all classes, and loaded the nobility and soldiers with presents. She restored any church lands which had been confiscated ; she encouraged trade and native industry ; she remitted taxes and caused a number of schools to be built. Considering what efforts Anna made to benefit the country the ingratitude with which she met seems inexplicable. There was, however, always the party of Elizabeth to be feared. Although that princess herself was idle and self-indulgent, her name could be used as a watch- word for those who wished to disturb the order of affairs. Anna, moreover, was occasionally capricious and apt to forget that she was surrounded by enemies. At the beginning of her short regency she was active, but afterwards became careless and averse to showing herself in public, and heard the reports of her ministers with reluctance. Married to a stupid man, for whom she had no real affection, she threw herself into the society of a few close confidantes, the chief of whom was Julia Mengden, one of her ladies-in-waiting, the Austrian Ambassador, the Marquis Botta, and the Saxon Ambassador Count Lynar. The network of intrigues fostered by these people set Anna at variance with her husband, prejudiced them against Munich and Ostermann, and ended by bring- ing about the downfall of Anna. In the old days the intrigues of foreigners did a great deal of mischief to Russia. 17«] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 157 Anna did not trust Ostermann nor listen to Munich, but followed the suggestions of her flatterers. She was so unwise as to allow Russia to be implicated in foreign affairs in which the country had no real interest, as for instance in the quarrel between Austria and Prussia about Silesia. One of the consequences of this interference was the estrangement of Munich, who was one of the bulwarks of the youthful Emperor's throne. According to Finch, it was not sympathy with Anna that made him overthrow Biren. In the second place a disagreement arose with the court of Versailles. This made Sweden irritated against Russia, and was unwelcome to the Princess Elizabeth personally. She had always had leanings towards France. Frederick II. of Prussia on his coining to the throne not long before the death of the Empress Anne was desirous of wresting Silesia from Maria Theresa, the heiress of the Emperor Charles VI. The Kaiser had died in 1740, where- upon Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, had put forward an absurd claim to the hereditary possessions of Maria Theresa. Frederick accordingly sought the friendship of the Russian court, and offered to conclude a defensive treaty with the Cabinet of St Petersburg. His overtures were welcomed the more eagerly because of his connection with Prince Anthony Ulrich, and because Munich could not pardon the eagerness with which the court of Vienna had entered into the treaty of Belgrade and so forced Russia to forego some of the most valuable conquests she had made. As we have already seen, however, the failure of Austria was due to the French Govern--- ment, in its traditional hatred of that house, having encouraged the Turks to make greater demands. Accordingly a treaty was concluded between Frederick and Russia, under the terms of which each was to assist the other in every war except with Persia and Turkey. This accomplished, Frederick was not long before he invaded Silesia, and by the end of 1741 had occupied almost the whole province. Maria Theresa there- upon asked for the assistance, of Russia on the basis of former treaties. Austria found a vigorous supporter in Count 158 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mi Lynar. His government urged him to use every effort to prevent any rapprochement between Russia and Prussia, and he had no difficulty in persuading Anna to ignore the treaty with Frederick. Nay more, she was ready to form an alliance with Maria Theresa against him. Munich, on the other hand, considering that Russia was bound to keep terms with Frederick, who had faithfully carried out his part of the treaty, espoused the cause of Frederick in the Cabinet, and opposed Ostermann, who generally held with the stronger, and who was implicitly followed by Count Lynar. Anna much resented the attitude of the Field-marshal, who accordingly sent in his resignation, which was accepted. It was a comparatively easy matter to lead Sweden into war. France in reality directed her policy. Ever since the time when Ulrika Eleonora, the successor of Charles XII., had allowed the Senate to limit the authority of the king, the nobility had held the supreme power. The nobles were divided into many sections, and, as a natural consequence, foreign influence made itself much felt in the affairs of the nation. After many disorders, which much weakened Sweden, two hostile parties were formed under the leadership respectively of Count Horn and Count Gyllenborg. Horn was the head of those who adopted a dignified policy, who were equally anxious for peace at home and tranquillity abroad. Especially were they desirous of peace with Russia. Gyllenborg led the party desirous of war. These two factions had now continued their struggle for ten years. Gyllenborg could rely upon French assistance, and his supporters had for some time been threatening Russia. They were eager to recover for Sweden the territory which Peter had won from her, and thought that an opportunity had presented itself, now that an infant was upon the throne of Russia and the regent was a woman. The French Minister seconded these views, and encouraged the Swedes in the idea that Russia was in a more or less helpless condition. Accordingly war against Russia was declared, and in the manifesto issued, the Russian nation was informed, among other things, that the 1741] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 159 Swedes were resolved to free Russia from the rule of foreigners and to raise Elizabeth to the throne. But, as already said, the true object of Sweden was to get back all that had been ceded to Peter by the treaty of Nystadt in 1721. Anna was perplexed at this declaration of war ; the more so because the Russian fleet during the rule of Biren had been very much neglected, and was now in a miserable condition. The Admiralty could not send a single ship to sea. The vessels were rotting at their moorings and there were no sailors. The reign of the Empress Anne Ivanovna had indeed been a sad one for Russia. The weakness of this gloomy and repellent woman had left everything in the hands of the minion Biren. Fortunately for the Russians the Swedes resolved to attack by land hoping to drive them out of Fin- land. The comrade of Munich, Field-marshal Lacy, hastened to anticipate their attack, and rapidly moved to Wilman- strand, where he met and defeated Wrangel, the Swedish general, whom he took prisoner with all his army. Fearing a similar fate, the Swedish commander-in-chief, Lowenhaupt, hastened to quit Russian territory. Triumph as this was for Russia, it was no less a triumph for France, in that the latter had succeeded in her design of entangling Russia in a northern war and thus preventing her from assisting Maria Theresa. The traditional policy of France had certainly been to humble the House of Habs- burg, but in return for Lorraine she had virtually guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction. Meanwhile de la Chetardie, the French Minister at St Petersburg, was manoeuvring against the Regent in another direction. He was in close friendship with Lestocq, the physician of Elizabeth, a great master of intrigue. He had orders from his government to entangle Russia in the disputes which were leading up to the Seven Years' War between Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa. Anna, however, had no intention of sending an army to support the pretensions of Frederick, and the Marquis de la Chetardie hoped to accomplish more if the Princess Elizabeth was made Tsaritsa. His policy was seconded by the Swedish 160 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i7« minister, but Finch, the English resident, endeavoured to persuade Anna to embrace the cause of Maria Theresa. He was bent upon defeating the plans of de la Chetardie. Finch tried to ascertain what was going on, but found Ostermann reserved. The latter pretended to be ignorant of the whole matter, but this sort of conduct, says Finch, is in keeping with his character, "just," he adds, "as he pretended on the death of Peter*II. to have the gout in his right hand so that he might not be obliged to sign the document which limited the power of his successor." Finch, however, got more out of the Duke of Brunswick who told him that he had the same suspicions about the French and Swedish ministers. De la Chetardie was continually having private interviews with Elizabeth, and was in intimate relations with Lestocq, who was a Hanoverian notwithstanding his French name. The Duke of Brunswick added that he had long suspected Miyiich of making advances to the Princess Elizabeth, and that the marshal had been for some time under his observation. Orders had been given that if he was seen to go to the house of Elizabeth at night, he should be seized alive or dead. Finally, however, Finch tells us Ostermann likewise opened his mind to him upon the subject. Finch was urged by him to invite Lestocq to dinner, that under the influence of wine information as to his secret plans might be extracted from him. "To this," the Englishman adds, " I made no response, for I believe that if ambassadors are held to be spies in the interest of their master they ought not to ply this trade for the benefit of others. Besides, my health does not permit me torjjuere vino." He concludes his despatch by regretting that Anna passed so much of her time in private in the society of her favourite Mademoiselle Mengden. On the other hand, Elizabeth was very obliging, affable, and personally very much liked. Finch, on,December 20th, 1740, describes the splendid presents she had just received. Moreover, the people could not forget that she was the daughter of the great Peter. He had now been dead fifteen years, and the country had been more or less on the verge of humiliation 1741] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 161 ever since. Finch then goes on to say that the situation might, become very critical as so many of the Russians of the old school would willingly see St Petersburg and the conquered provinces at the bottom of the sea, and return to Moscow. Moreover, he adds, they hate foreigners. Mann- stein tells us that the ministry proposed to Anna that she should declare herself Empress. This project was especially favoured by Golovkin, and all preparations were made for proclaiming Anna Empress on the 18th of December, which was her birthday. But the plans were frustrated by the rapid movements of Elizabeth. Meantime the court was full of cabals. Anna would not allow her husband to have a vestige of authority, and opposed Ostermann in every way. A Russian party was being de- veloped in a great measure owing to the machinations of the Austrian Ambassador. Gradually Elizabeth allowed it to be seen that she was sensitive on the subject of her authority ; thus she was offended when the Persian Ambassador had not paid her a visit. She sent a message to Ostermann to the effect that she knew he was trying to humiliate her, and bade him remember that her father had raised him from a mere clerk. On the 26th of November 1741, Finch was able to communicate to his government this startling piece of in- telligence — "Yesterday at one o'clock in the morning the Princess Elizabeth went to the barracks of the regiment of the Preobrazhenski Guards accompanied only by Mr Vorontsov, one of her chamberlains, Mr Lestocq, and Mr Schwarz, who is, I believe, her secretary, and putting herself at the head of three hundred Grenadiers, she went directly to the palace." On a previous occasion in one of his despatches Finch had said that Elizabeth was too fat and comfortable to make a plot, quoting the lines of Shakespeare in Julius Csesar. He goes on to say that the young Tsar and his little sister, who were in bed, were seized, and likewise the Regent and her husband the Duke of Brunswick. Their arrest was followed by that of Munich and his son, Ostermann Golovkin, and several others. 1 62 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mi Soon afterwards Elizabeth was proclaimed with unanimity Empress of Russia. At the conclusion of his despatch, the English envoy dwells upon the insolence of the soldiery. It remains to pass in review the political jealousies and counter struggles of the great Powers of which Russia had lately been made the theatre. It was the English who first thought of making use of the influence of Russia as a great factor in European politics. Instructions had been given to Finch (February 29, 1740) to bring about a close alliance between Great Britain and Russia, and to respect the treaty which had previously existed between Anne and the House of Austria. Frederick the Great had also cast his eyes upon Russia, and as soon as he ascended the throne had en- deavoured to establish good relations with the Cabinet of St Petersburg. His envoy, De Mardefelt, paid assiduous court to Ostermann, who was at that time at the head of foreign affairs. The latter was very favourable to Frederick, and he would only agree to a treaty with England on con- dition that Prussia, Denmark, and Poland were also included in it. But this did not suit the English Cabinet, as Finch tells us in his despatch of October 1st, 1740. The German Emperor, Charles VI., died on the 20th of the same month. The news of his death reached St Petersburg soon after the death of Anne Ivanovna. The intelligence was anything but agreeable to Ostermann. Lord Harrington, who was one of the English Secretaries of State, informed the English minister at Vienna that England would abide by the stipula- tions she had made with reference to the Pragmatic Sanction. As for Frederick, he had made up his mind to prefer his own interests to the obligations which his late father had undertaken. He knew the Russians well, and was convinced that they would be unwilling to support the Pragmatic Sanction. Of the Russians he always spoke with a real or assumed contempt, and avowed, with his usual cynicism, that the time of Anne's death would be a favourable period for the seizure of Silesia, because the Russians would find themselves hampered by a minority. 1741] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 163 The neutrality of Russia, however, was not acceptable to France, which was striving as much as possible to detach the country from her German connection. French influence was beginning to increase in Russia. De la Chetardie had long been intriguing to ensure the succession of Elizabeth, who had been destined at one time by her father to become the wife of Louis XV. It was his object to re-arouse something of the sympathy with France which had at one time existed. The Empress Catherine, the widow of Peter, had received discouraging replies when she had ventured to express similar views. French writers have not hesitated to regret this, and that at such a critical moment in her history Russia was thrown into the arms of Germany, It was then the time for the French to choose new allies. Sweden had been com- pletely exhausted by the mad pranks of Charles XII. Poland was most unmistakably approaching the agonies of dissolution, and the same appeared to be the condition of Turkey. With Anne Ivanovna had begun the influence of the Germans upon Russia, which was to weigh her down during the greater part of the eighteenth century. This accounts for the great energy displayed by De la Chetardie in his endea- vours to counteract it. Vandal, the historian, in a sentence, pointed with all the epigrammatic force of Tacitus, says : " The spectacle was presented of a French ambassador pre- paring a list of proscribed persons, and including in it all the members of the government to which he was accredited." Elizabeth has been blamed for the severe treatment which she accorded to Anna Leopoldovna and her family. De la Chetardie, however, is said to have recommended that they should be put to death, on the principle, no doubt, on which the execution of Strafford was recommended : " Stone dead hath no fellows." It is singular how often the Russians have been instigated or assisted in cruelties, for which they have been justly blamed, by foreigners who came from the more cultured countries of the West. Thus we find' Gordon committing great cruelties upon the Streltsi during the absence of Peter. 164 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mi The German party in St Petersburg had much hampered France in her course of continued opposition to Austria. In fact, the French historians dwell with particular delight upon the circumstance that the Treaty of Belgrade, by which Austria was obliged to hand back to Turkey some of her newly-made conquests, had been altogether planned by France. The attachment of the newly-made Empress to France was, as we shall see, really an abiding passion. Till the day of her death Elizabeth spoke of Louis XV. with enthusiasm ; perhaps the only human being who ever did so. But the union was not to be. The French king, by some curious piece of intrigue, married Maria Leszczynska, the daughter of the good Stanislaus. During the reign of Anne Ivanovna, France was anxious that Russia should join her against Maria Theresa. While Ostermann was in power there was but little chance that the overtures made by France would meet with success. Biren also sympathised with Austria. When Anna Leopoldovna had been proclaimed regent, Frederick's hopes had risen, seeing that the prince was his brother-in-law, and Munich was to be gained over. In the history of his own time Frederick tells us how he sent Baron de Winterfeldt as ambassador to Russia ostensibly to congratulate Anna and her husband on their accession to the regency. The real motive, however, being to gain over Miinich, the father-in-law of Winterfeldt; and success crowned the mission. Finch announced to his government (December aoth, 1740) the arrival of Major Winterfeldt, and he wrote a few days later to the effect that Munich thought that Austria ought to give Prussia satisfaction. These sentiments met with gratitude from Frederick. He gave to Malzahn, the son-in-law of Munich, a commission as colonel in his army; he sent the field-marshal himself a diamond ring, and pre- sented his son with an estate on the Oder. The recipients on their side were equally grateful. Frederick tells us how Winterfeldt procured a treaty of alliance between Prussia and Russia. It was not long, however, before Munich fell into disgrace, and the treaty was put an end to by an alliance 1741] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 165 between the Queen of Hungary, Russia, Holland, and the King of Poland. This combination was an overwhelming blow to the King of Prussia, and shortly afterwards the revolution broke out which placed Elizabeth upon the throne of Russia. Lestocq has been regarded as the author of the revolution, but in reality he had only put himself at the head of public opinion. The Russians were tired of the German yoke, and in Elizabeth they found a Sovereign of true Russian descent. The requisite money had been furnished by De la r Chetardie. Vorontzov was made minister. Finch notices the growing French ascendancy ; and, indeed, this was to be a reign of French sympathies. Lestocq had taken advantage of the confidence which Elizabeth reposed in him, and had continually reminded her of her rights to the throne ; of the attachment of the people to her, and how easy it would be to take the reins of power out of the hands of the weak Anna Leopoldovna. Elizabeth well understood the claims of her house, but she loved an idle, irresponsible life, and viewed with timidity the assumption of imperial duties. It is probable that she would never have made up her mind to seize the supreme power if Anna Leopoldovna had not more or less compelled her to do so in self defence, for the latter had planned to marry her to one of the smaller German potentates with the view of removing her from Russia. The fate of Anna and her family was a sad one. Elizabeth at first wished to send her with her son and husband to Germany ; but she afterwards seems to have reflected that a party might be formed with the object of placing Ivan upon the Russian throne. Accordingly Anna and her family were detained for more than a year in a fortress near Riga ; thence they were removed to Ranenberg in the government of Riazan ; and here Anna was separated from her son. She and her husband were sent to Kholmogori, a dreary place in the north of Russia, near which was the birth-place of the author, Lomonosov. 166 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1748 Their son Ivan was shut up in the fortress of Schlussel- burg. The unfortunate boy is added by some to the list of the Russian emperors. At his accession he was a mere baby of eight weeks old. Biren, and then his mother, ruled in his name. The two younger brothers and two sisters received their liberty in 1780, and were sent to Denmark, where they died. One of the daughters survived into the nineteenth century. We are told that when the offer came to the survivors to leave their prison they were unwilling to go; continual seclusion had made them almost half-witted, and they had lost all zest for the world. The portraits of the children have been preserved in some silhouettes which were published a few years ago in the Russkaya Starina. They exhibit a rather heavy Teutonic type of feature. Anna only survived her downfall five years, dying in 1 746. A few years before we read of her as dressed in crimson velvet embroidered with gold, with diamond bracelets. All this was to be exchanged for the miserable life and death of a State prisoner. Her husband, Anthony Ulricb, continued a wretched life of drinking and card-playing for thirty years longer. Many changes occurred in the Russian government but no heed whatsoever was taken of him. But in this wholesale condemnation of the German faction there were included some men who had done Russia good service. The Empress, who was now triumphant, and who on the occasion of assuming the reins of power, had been followed to the Winter Palace by the acclamations of the whole popula- tion, could have afforded to be lenient. She was at this time about thirty two years of age, and from the testimony of travellers was a woman of comely appearance. Munich, Ostermann, Golovkin, and others, were sentenced to be executed, but their punishment was commuted into banishment to Siberia. Finch, the English envoy, sent to his government a striking account of the behaviour of some of them on the scaffold, whither they were taken under the impression that they were to be put to death. Ostermann i7ii] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 167 was actually obliged to put his head on the block, but was then pardoned. He displayed the greatest sang-froid, and when he got up quietly asked them to give him back his wig. It is painful to think that this man to whom Russia owed so much did not live to return. He died in Siberia. Oster- mann was born at Bockum in Westphalia in 1686; when in Holland he became secretary to Cruys, whom Peter had made admiral. Peter had met him on board Cruys' vessel, and finding that he was a clever young man and had a great knowledge of modern languages, he took him into the diplo- matic service. We have already seen how he rose to fill some important posts in the Russian government. He became completely Russianised, and married a rich Russian lady. Munich never quailed in the least when on the scaffold. He told his guards that they had found him brave enough when he had led them to battle, and they would find him brave now — the hero of many a fight was to be dauntless to the end. The prisoners soon commenced their dreary journey to the Siberian snows. Munich was to be deported to Pelim, whither Biren had been sent. He is said, indeed, by Mann- stein to have been confined in the same prison which he himself had designed for Biren. We are also told that his banishment had followed so closely upon that of Biren that he overtook the latter at a passage of the Volga, where he had been detained some time by a flood. Biren seems to have been fortunate in getting a minimum of punishment. Elizabeth had him removed from Pelim to Yaroslavl in European Russia, where he was interned indeed, but under a far milder system of discipline. The brave Munich was to languish in exile for twenty years, till Peter III. came to the throne. Ostermann was sent to the dreary town of Berezov, where Menshikov had died, and the Dolgorukis had suffered their imprisonment. There he also died in 1747. Golovkin, Lbwenwold and Julia Mengden also ended their days in Siberia. If the adversaries of Elizabeth were somewhat severely 1 68 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i74i dealt with, she had lavish rewards for her supporters. Lestocq received a pension of 7000 roubles a year, was continued as the physician of the Empress, and made head of the depart- ment of medicine in Russia. The three hundred grenadiers also received their reward. Elizabeth formed a bodyguard, the common soldiers of which had the rank of lieutenant, and of which she assumed the captaincy herself. We must now return for a while to the intrigues of the Continental Powers in Russia, some of whom had con- tributed, as we have seen, not a little to the eventual triumph of the new Empress. Frederick of Prussia was anxious to know what the policy of Russia was to be, but it was difficult to forecast. If De la Chetardie had had as much influence as we are led to believe be possessed, there can be no doubt that Elizabeth would immediately have made an alliance with France and have sent to the assistance of Frederick the very troops which had assembled in Livonia to march against him. Lestocq was in favour with France, but Bestuzhev, who as chancellor directed foreign affairs, had leanings towards England, and in consequence towards the Court of Vienna. As to the Empress, she had not, as Frederick saw, a predilection for any of the Powers in preference to the rest; but she clearly regarded with coldness the courts of Vienna and Berlin. Anthony Ulrich, the father of the Empress whom she had dethroned, was cousin-german to the Queen of Hungary, nephew of the Empress Dowager, and brother-in-law of the King of Prussia. She was therefore not without fear that the ties of blood would cause those Powers to intervene in favour of the family upon whose ruins she had established her rule. Bestuzhev, however, would probably in due time have overcome the repugnance of Elizabeth : Russia in alliance with England and Austria would have declared war against Prussia, which would have been taken in the rear. From day to day the English influence increased, and the neglect of public business by Elizabeth made Bestuzhev master of the situa- tion. Wych, the new English Minister, thus wrote on October 1742] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 169 21, 1742 : "As the Empress likes hunting very much, and is generally very tired at night, the Ministers have seldom an opportunity of introducing State affairs to her notice." Wych, however, managed to manipulate both Lestocq and Bestuzhev, the former receiving a pension of'^1000 a year from the English king. But Elizabeth still remained undecided and could not be induced to enter into an alliance with England and Austria. The Marquis of Botta Adorno, the Austrian Ambassador, who has been previously mentioned, made persistent efforts to win over Elizabeth. He is said to have encouraged a plot to put Ivan on the throne, which was dis- covered after he had left the country. Certainly many persons were punished by the Secret Chancery because they were supposed to have participated in a plot of the kind. The Queen of Hungary neither acknowledged nor repudiated the impeachment. Frederick, however, to whom Botta Adorno was accredited as minister after he left Russia, professed to be much shocked at his conduct, and refused to receive him. Such terms as he could secure from Russia were insignificant, and he attributed the failure of his overtures to Bestuzhev. The Court of Versailles also cordially detested Botta Adorno because he had opposed the policy of De la Chdtardie. The latter was therefore again sent to Russia to compass, if possible, the disgrace of the obnoxious minister. In this he was seconded by the Prussian envoy, De Mardefeldt. It was at this time that a marriage was negotiated between Peter, the heir of Elizabeth, and Sophia of Anhalt Zerbst, afterwards the world- famous Catherine. This Peter was the grandson of Peter the Great, being the son of his daughter Anne, who died in 1728, by Karl Friedrich, the Duke of Holstein ; the latter survived his wife eleven years. The support given to him by Peter the Great and the pains he took to bring about the marriage have already been mentioned. Frederick laid much stress on the marriage which he, too, was on this occasion furthering. He thought that a Russian princess of German origin and brought up in Prussian terri- tory must needs retain some affection for her native country. 170 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i7« In his celebrated memoirs he dwells on the necessity of being friendly with Russia, although in terms very uncomplimen- tary to the latter power. Catherine, however, when she became a Russian grand-duchess, found that in order to be popular she must get rid of all sympathies except those that she entertained for her adopted country ; and, later in life, she used to tell her surgeon to bleed her so that not a drop of German blood should be left in her veins. The young Duke of Holstein, who was the nephew of the Empress, and destined to succeed her, arrived in St Peters- burg in 1742, being then only thirteen years of age. Eliza- beth soon began to look out for a wife for him. Among others the Princess Ulrica of Prussia, the sister of Frederick, and the Princess Marianne, the daughter of Augustus of Saxony and Poland, were thought of. There were, however, obstacles in the case of both these ladies, and Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst was eventually chosen. She was born at Stettin, May 1 st, 1729, being the daughter of the governor x>f the city, Prince Christian August, and the Princess Johanna Elizabeth. The latter was of the Holstein family, and, therefore, a connection of her daughter's future husband. In the memoirs published by Herzen in London nothing is said of the early life of Sophia. She is reported to have written a playful biographical sketch for her friend the Countess Bruce, but the manuscript is now lost. In 1776, in her correspondence with Baron Grimm, she jokingly alludes to her reminiscences of Stettin and the dull life she had led there. The young lady, provided with a celebrated letter from her father, which is still to be read as a curious specimen of the style of a German prince at that time, arrived in St Peters- burg in February 1744, and her marriage with Peter was celebrated in the following year. Meanwhile Mr Tyrawly, the new English minister to St Petersburg, was doing his best to get the Russian Court to enter into an alliance with George II. He wrote to his govern- ment to the effect that the Russian attitude of thought was 1745] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 171 that they were too strong to be attacked on their own terri- tory, and did not care the least as to what was going on in other parts of the world. According to Tyrawly, Bestuzhev was now engaged in devising some way of persuading the^ Tsaritsa to take possession of the dominions of the King of Prussia and to hand them over to the Poles, who in return were to give up such portions of their territory as were inhabited by Orthodox Christians. He thought that the Empress might be captivated with this idea, and he knew that he could count upon the support of the clergy. But the plan, although concocted by Bestuzhev and the English resident, did not commend itself to Elizabeth. One strong reason against it was that, owing to her extravagance and liberalities to her favourites, the treasury was almost empty. The only thing which could dispose her to undertake a war would be the granting of very large subsidies. Frederick on his side thoroughly realised this fact, but he was far too poor to offer any resistance ; all he could do was to bribe her ministers. Accordingly he sent a considerable sum of money to be divided between Bestuzhev and Vorontsov. Maria Theresa also sent them some valuable rings hoping to gain them over to her side. Frederick had resumed his war with the Austrian Empress, and his troops had entered Bohemia. Bestuzhev, who, in spite of the presents which he had received, still nourished a dislike of Frederick, continued to urge Elizabeth to declare war. The English resident seconded his endeavours, and in the despatches to. his government declared that Vorontsov, the chancellor, was the only obstacle. But Elizabeth was not to be shaken, and England now sent Lord Hyndford. But the new ambassador, although he promised an immediate subsidy, was no more successful than Tyrawly had been. Elizabeth could not be induced to declare war against Frederick, although,, according to an English despatch of November 3, v i74S, she spoke very depreciatingly of him: Whatever her reasons for disliking him may have been, they were soon rein- forced by some satirical remarks which he had made and which 172 ' A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i7«. were duly reported to her. Lord Hyndford meanwhile took a very different course. He, was all compliment, and among other pleasant things said that her Majesty had the heart of a man and the beauty of a woman. Frederick, however, had his usual good luck in tiding over difficulties. His great military talents now began to indicate him as the first captain of the age : he was able to make advantageous terms both with England and Austria, and under the circumstances did not trouble himself much about Russia. He did not scruple, therefore, to withhold from Bestuzhev the bribe which he had promised, and that minister became in consequence very anti-Prussian : his animosity was accentuated by his impecuniousness, and it was not long before he became the sturdy beggar and boldly demanded a gratuity from the English ambassador. Lord Hyndford made this request the subject of one of his despatches; but England also had no further need of Bestuzhev, who had in consequence to look to other quarters for supplies. In 1748 the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed, and it was by the influence of England that Russia was one of the signatories and was thus treated as one of the great Powers. It was, however, of an ephemeral nature, and only brought about by the temporary exhaustion of Austria. She was in reality preparing for another attack. She could not brook the loss of Silesia, and her policy was to effect as close a union as possible between Russia and herself, and to provoke a quarrel between Elizabeth and Frederick. This was not a difficult thing to do, for Bestuzhev still nourished his resentment. An occasion soon offered itself. A triple alliance had been concluded between France, Prussia, and Sweden, at which the Russian Cabinet took offence, and large bodies of troops were massed on the Prussian frontier. At the end of 1750 the Russian ambassador left Berlin, and Frederick also recalled his minister from St Petersburg. England was not behind hand : she offered Russia a subsidy, and the latter undertook to have an army of 60,900 men ready in Livonia, and also a 1755] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 173 fleet for operations by sea. The plan was approved of at St Petersburg, and the only thing wanting was the signature of the Empress, which, however, was continually withheld on the most frivolous pretexts. The English minister, Mr Guy Dickens, wrote in 1755 to say that Bestuzhev showed quite as much aversion to business as his mistress. He also has much to say about the continual round of gaieties which was going on at the court. In this same year we find him in- forming his government that he was too old to endure the constant festivities which a foreign minister was expected to attend. He was accordingly replaced by the versatile and fashionable Sir Charles Hanbury Williams. The new minister received the most stringent orders to revive the treaty with Russia. He had been an intimate friend of Sir Robert Walpole, and naturally one of his political adherents. Austria laid down as one of the conditions of her alliance with Eng- land that she must be assisted by Russia against France. She was anxious to get back Silesia, and therefore the Russians must be secured at any price. Kaunitz, the Austrian prime- minister, was continually urging this upon the English, and Sir Charles Williams put the policy into practice. He wrote to his government, naming the sums by which the various Russian officials could be bribed ; and on the 9th of August he was able to report that a convention had just been signed with Russia, the principal object of which was the support of that country against France and the co-operation with Austria. Bestuzhev received for the help which he gave to the undertaking ten thousand pounds besides the ordinary diplomatic presents. Williams suggests that a good deal of this money would go into the coffers of the Empress, and he adds " since she is at the present time building two or three large palaces, she must be in need of it." In a later despatch he dwells upon the facility with which the Russian court was to be manipulated. He even states the sum for which, in his opinion, the Empress herself could be purchased. " Fifty thousand pounds more or less for the private use of the Empress would have a great effect." 174 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA ["6* The English government, however, did not altogether approve of the convention which Williams had concluded. But it succeeded in so far as it maintained good relations with Austria, and Kaunitz expressed himself entirely satisfied with it. The English ministers therefore ratified the conven- tion, but in order to leave a door open for reconciliation-with Frederick on some future occasion, communicated the terms to the Prussian monarch. England was not prepared to make a sacrifice simply to gratify the resentment of Maria Theresa. Her point of view was well described in a despatch of Lord Holderness to the English minister at Berlin (October roth, 1755); "our object is France, that of Austria is Prussia. She will not help us against France unless we make Prussia an enemy and assist her to regain what she has lost in the last war. Assuredly in our present condition it would be folly to enter into such projects." These views were known to the German Empress and her advisers, and precautions were taken against them accordingly. Among other measures Austria sent to St Petersburg Count Zinzendorf without any apparent object, but the watchful Sir Charles Williams was not long before he began to suspect that Austria and Russia were making a secret treaty without the knowledge of England. The English government had, as we have said> communicated to Frederick the terms of the convention already made with Russia, to which nothing but the signature of the Empress was lacking. Frederick showed his usual presence of mind and energy : he laboured to become the ally of England instead of her enemy, and on June 16, 1756, he signed a treaty by which England and Prussia guaranteed to each other the" integrity of their respective dominions. Never surely was there a greater diplomatic entanglement and dis- play of state-craft. Elizabeth made no haste to ratify the convention, and Williams speaks of it as having lain five days on her table. Finally, however, the ratification took place on the 25th of February. This convention was practically nullified by a clause to the effect that it was to have no value except in the 1756] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 175 event of the King of Prussia attacking the possessions of the King of Great Britain or those of his allies. This was hardly likely to happen, seeing that England had just concluded a treaty of mutual guarantee with Prussia. In his despatch the English minister describes the conversation which took place between him and Bestuzhev, and how the latter complained that he had not yet received the money promised him. In the midst, however, of the plotting and counter-plotting going on everywhere around him, to which it must be acknowledged he himself contributed a considerable share, Williams now hegan to look into the possibilities of the future. The Empress was in a feeble state of health, and it was now calculated that she could not live more than six months. The rising sun to be worshipped was the Grand Duchess Catherine, who, to judge by the masculine spirit which she showed, was sure to rule her husband as soon as she ascended the throne. Williams, who was an exceedingly clever diplomatist, had not only bought Elizabeth's ministers, -but had established himself on an excellent footing at the little Court of the Grand Duke and his wife. The latter was very favourable to an alliance between England and Russia, and Williams was able to inform his government that the Grand Duchess had spoken to him with enthusiasm of the English king, and with much coldness of the King of Prussia. She had forgotten that to the latter she in reality owed her position. But there is no gratitude in politics, and she was as ready to cut herself adrift from the Prussian connections of her family, in the army of which country her father had been an officer, as Sophia the wife of Ivan III. was to forget the Latin teach- ings of the Roman court where she had received alms as an orphan. On May 1st, 1756, France and Austria signed the treaty of Versailles, and on the 27th of the same month England formally declared war against France. Meantime Williams informed his Government that Vast bodies of men were being massed in Livonia, the number of which was said to amount to 140,000, but that he was not able to fathom the plans of the 176 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [me Russian Cabinet. He only mentioned that the hatred felt by the Empress for the King of Prussia seemed to be very great. Keith, however, the English minister at Vienna, assured his government that there was a close alliance between Austria and Russia. But it was not only with Austria that England had to deal ; France had gradually regained a great deal of her influence there. A few years before M. Du Chatelet, the French ambassador in London, had had a personal qua.rrel about precedence with the Russian ambassador Chernichev. The latter pocketed the affront, but Elizabeth resented it, and recalled her ambassador from Paris. In order to renew the relations which had thus been interrupted, the French court despatched a certain Scotchman named Douglas, one of the broken-down adherents of the Pretender, who was ready to embrace any opportunity of bettering his fortunes. Douglas seems to have performed his task ex- cellently, and soon re-established friendly relations between the French and Russian courts. The Scotch adventurer did not allow his mission to be easily discovered ; and when the suspicious Austrian ambassador asked him why he had come to Russia, he answered : " At the advice of my medical man, who recommended me to try a cold climate for the benefit of my health." Williams now found himself obliged to inform his government that the Russian court was growing ill-affected towards England. According to the despatches which he sent home, this change was entirely owing io the influence of Ivan Shuvalov, the great patron of letters, of whom we shall speak presently ; he was at this time a favourite at court, and had a penchant for all things French. While, however, Douglas was anxious to be in favour with the moribund Elizabeth, Williams busied himself with paying court to the Grand Duchess Catherine. The latter made a downright demand for a sum of money from the English, and Bestuzhev also again became importunate. The English cabinet finally agreed to give the Grand Duchess 20,000 ducats, and to pension Bestuzhev. While these complicated intrigues were in progress, Frederick, feeling that the time of action 1756] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 177 had come, at the beginning of September entered Saxon territory. On the first of October 1756 he defeated the Austrians at Lowositz, and the Saxon troops thereupon laid down their arms. The success of the Prussian king completely disconcerted his adversaries. The Queen of Hungary sent an emissary to the Russian empress with the object of inflaming her against Frederick. She insinuated that the latter really had designs upon Russia, and meant to put the young Ivan upon the throne ; to this Elizabeth replied that if he attempted anything of the kind she would have Ivan's head cut off. Meanwhile the great force massed in Livonia still remained inactive, and as Williams informed his government, the general in command was ludicrously incapable. The English minister thus writes (September 18, 1756): "Apraksin is to command the Russian army. He has been recently made field-marshal. He is the idlest of men, and cowardly to a degree. A little while ago he was grossly insulted and almost beaten by the hetman of the Cossacks (Cyril Razumovski), and he shewed no resentment whatever." Williams goes on to tell us among other things that this redoubtable hero was enormously stout. Frederick now made use of Williams to convey to Bes- tuzhev a present of a hundred thousand crowns in order to induce the latter to espouse his cause. The English ambassador has described in his despatches how the dishonest minister waxed more favourable to Frederick, the more he offered him, and finally wound up by promising to serve the Prussian monarch as soon as an occasion offered itself. According to the account given by Frederick himself in his writings, he had found among the State papers at Dresden, when that city came into his power, a letter from Bestuzhev to the Count de Briihl, urging him to poison the Russian resident at that court. The fact that Frederick had got possession of this letter must have put Bestuzhev in his power. Be this, however, as it may, Bestuzhev remained faithful to Frederick, though he in reality relied much more 178 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1767 upon the Grand Duchess Catherine and her husband. The latter on one occasion defended the Prussians in the council, but was silenced by the Empress. Frederick, however, although he had begun the war successfully was far from confident. He told the English envoy, Mitchell, that the house of Brandenburg itself was at stake. He had already France and Austria against him, and could not hope to with- stand them if Russia arrayed herself on their side. Hostilities, which had been suspended by the severity of the winter, were now to be resumed. The most important thing was to ensure that the vast Russian army should not move. Mitchell wrote to Williams that the Prussian king thought the best thing to do would be to give a sum of money to Apraksin to induce him to delay marching, which, the king added, he might do under various pretexts. But even as late as two months afterwards Williams informed his colleague that Apraksin had sent an orderly to get him twelve suits of clothes from St Petersburg, from which it would appear that he was in no hurry to move ; and inactive he would probably have remained had he not received orders from the Empress to begin the campaign at once. He had 83,000 men under arms, and the Prussian frontier on the side of Russia was almost entirely undefended. On the 30th of June Apraksin appeared before Memel, which capitulated in five days ; and on the 30th of August, Marshal Lehwald, Frederick's general, was completely beaten by the Russian general in the great battle of Gross- Jaegers- dorf, in eastern Prussia. The aged general ventured to attack the Russian camp. The Germans lost 4000 slain, and 600 prisoners and 29 guns were taken. Apraksin might now, in fact, have crossed the Oder and taken possession of Prussia, but he made no use of his victory, and retreated across the Niemen, retiring into winter quarters in Poland as if he had been beaten. The cause of this was manifest when the papers of the chancellor, Bestuzhev- Riumin, were examined. It was then discovered that he had been tampered with. 1758] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 179 Meanwhile Sir Charles Williams was recalled by his government, as it was felt that the English policy had met with a considerable check. On quitting Russia, however, he received a kind letter from the Grand Duke Peter, and a still more enthusiastic one from the Grand Duchess, who assured him that it would be one of the occupations of her life to bring Russia into close relations with England, so that they might attack France in common ; the greatness of which country, she added, is the disgrace of Russia. The Grand Duchess was no doubt implicated in the plot by which the progress of Apraksin had been checked. Bestuzhev was immediately arrested and punished. The field was now open for the manoeuvres of Austria and France. Douglas, the Scotch adventurer, had been recalled, and his place taken by the Marquis de l'Hospital, with the title of ambassador. There were naturally loud complaints against Apraksin, whose conduct was only explicable on the sup- position that he was doing all he could for Frederick. The Empress was induced to remove him from his post, and to appoint Fermor commander-in-chief in his place. William Fermor was of English extraction, and connected with the same family which claimed the famous Arabella, the heroine of the "Rape of the Lock." He had been the favourite adjutant of Munich, and was an excellent artillery officer and engineer; he had been made colonel for his services in the Turkish expedition in 1736, and had served with Lacy in Finland in 1741. He was thus not a mere carpet-knight as many of the Russian commanders were. Apraksin was summoned to St Petersburg to explain his conduct. His -treason in connexion with Bestuzhev and the Grand Duchess was only too evident. But he soon disappeared from the scene, and died in August 1758. Frederick still continued to believe that Elizabeth might yet be brought over to his side, and the same opinion was held by the English. Keith, the successor of Sir Charles Williams, as the envoy of the British government, was a man much his inferior. Bestuzhev hoped that he would be able to i8o A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1758 tide over his troubles by the help of this man. But before the latter could reach St Petersburg, the Russian chancellor had already been overthrown. He was arrested February 24 on the charge of having conspired to dethrone the Empress and hand over the crown to the Grand Duchess. The fallen minister was sentenced to death, but his punishment was commuted into exile to one of his estates 120 versts from Moscow. The chancellorship was then given to Michael Vorontsov. Keith seems to have found the English party at the lowest ebb and himself powerless. Meanwhile the Russians had crossed the Polish frontier without paying any xajiiVDORF tzsa attention to the protestations of the Republic, and devastated the Prussian territories wherever they went. Fermor made himself master of Konigsberg, Thorn and Elbing, and laid siege to Kiistrin. But the battle of Zorndorf (August 25, 1758) in Eastern Prussia proved that Frederick was not altogether a negligible quantity. In this sanguinary battle the Russians lost about 20,000 men, killed, wounded, and taken prisoners, and 103 guns, but the loss of the Prussians was also very great, and Frederick showed no desire to renew the conflict. The command was now taken from Fermor and given to Peter Saltikov, a member of an illustrious family, but hitherto a man of no mark as a commander. He was born in 1759] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 181 1698, and had been sent by Peter the Great to be educated in France. On his return in 1734 he was made chamberlain and major-general, and had fought against the Swedes in 1742. The new commander took ample vengeance upon Frederick at Kunersdorf, near Frankfurt on the Oder (August 12, 1759), where the Prussian monarch suffered a crushing defeat. Fermor was present at this battle, but only as commander of a detachment. The Russian army had got possession of Frankfurt and took up a strong position on the hills between the Oder and the village of Kunersdorf. Here it was joined by 18,000 Austrian cavalry under the command of General Laudon. The number of the allied forces amounted to 60,000 men. The Prussian king lost all his artillery, amount- ing to 200 guns, 7000 killed, 4500 taken prisoners, and about 8000 wounded. His suite had difficulty in removing him from the field of battle, on which he lingered, hoping that some friendly shot would put an end to his existence. His fortunes were now at their lowest ebb, and he meditated committing suicide. Mitchell, the English resident at his court, wrote to say that Prussia was exhausted. In spite, however, of the desperate state of his affairs, Frederick laid 1 82 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [wea aside 150,000 crowns to be distributed among the ministers and principal councillors of Elizabeth. He knew by the despatches of Keith that the Russians were getting tired of the war. Meanwhile the ill-health of the Empress continued ; the Grand Duke looked forward to the time when her death would allow him free action. Elizabeth still continued to hate Prussia, and seems to have cherished the idea of a permanent annexation of a part of that country. Ivan Shuvalov, who was now high in her favour, even ventured to broach the subject to Keith, with the view of ascertaining how far the Russians might look for assistance from the English in the matter. But Keith rejected his overtures. The Russians in the campaign of the following year (1760) committed terrible ravages in Prussia under Todleben, a German in the service of the Empress. They entered and pillaged Berlin ; the arsenal was destroyed and a contribution levied upon the city. The king on hearing of the savage way in which Todleben was conducting the war uttered the memorable words : " We have to do with barbarians who are digging the grave of humanity." We shall hear of Todleben afterwards as being employed in wars in the Caucasus. Even the English government, now under the new ministry of Bute, began to think of giving Frederick up as lost. He was on the very verge of ruin, when, what was for him a piece of supreme good fortune, the Empress, who had long been ailing, expired on January 6th, 1762. The foreign affairs of Russia during her reign had been chiefly confined to participation in the Seven Years' War. With Sweden and Turkey she was at peace. In 1755 the first Russian university, that of Moscow, was founded through the influence of Ivan Shuvalov, who was the Maecenas of his time, and is remembered as the patron of the poet Lomonosov, and others. St Petersburg was orna- mented with many handsome buildings ; French architects, musicians, and painters made their appearance. The palaces erected by the Tsaritsa were, however, chiefly from the designs of the Italian Rastrelli. Volkov opened a theatre 1764] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 183 under the patronage of Elizabeth, and the stage became a national institution. In this reign, too, was established a kind of political inquisition, empowered to examine into and punish all dis- loyal remarks and criticisms upon the government. Even in our own days prosecutions for this kind of offence are not wholly unknown. This naturally gave an opening to -in- formers. Accusations under the title of Slovo i dido (the word and the deed), had been heard of since the time of the Emperor Alexis, but hitherto they had not received official recognition ; as a consequence, a great number of people were sent to Siberia during the reign of Elizabeth. Literature, too, was raising its head. Kantemir, a man to whom Russia owes a great deal, had flourished in the, time of Anne. He had been ambassador both in London and Paris. Professor Aleksandrenko of Warsaw has given us an insight into the learning of this remarkable man by printing the list of his books, already alluded to ; his habits have been carefully chronicled by the French spies who watched him. He died in 1744. He was the son of the Hospodar Demetrius Kantemir, who was so much mixed up with Peter's un- fortunate expedition to the Pruth. Trediakovski, the court poet during the reign of Anne, possessed but little merit as a writer. His dull epic the Telemakhida was a subject of jest among the wits of the reign of Catherine II. She is said to have made any courtier who committed a breach of etiquette at one of her evening parties learn by heart a certain portion of this dismal pro- duction by way of penalty. Trediakovski, however, did much to improve the style of Russian versification. The glory of the reign of Elizabeth was the brilliant and discursive Lomonosov, epic and lyrical poet and writer on scientific subjects. He also compiled the first Russian grammar published in Russia. As has been already men- tioned, one had appeared at Oxford in 1698. The story of the life of Lomonosov is very interesting. He was born near Archangel, the son of a poor fisherman. He contrived to 1 84 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1762 find his way to Moscow with a load of fish, and was admitted to one of the schools there. He was afterwards sent to Germany to complete his education, and finally attained to a very high position in his native country. He died in 1765. Mention must be made of the dramatic author Sumarokov, interesting in many ways. Although, strictly speaking, a native drama had not been formed in the country, Sumarokov had the good sense to choose national subjects for his plays. He was the first Russian professional author, and had all the caprice of the genus irritabile. His periodical writings remind us in some measure of the style of the Spectator. He also first introduced the Russians to a knowledge of Shakespeare by his adaptation of Hamlet, which, however, differed very much in form from the original. Sumarokov survived into the age of Catherine, and died in 1777. In the reign of Elizabeth, too, died Basil Tatistchev ( 1 686-1 750), who was. both a statesman and an historian. He compiled a kind of history of his native country, which, if not exactly a critical work, was in advance of the chronicles which up to that time had been the only historical productions. It was not published till after his death. In religious matters Elizabeth was a strict devotee of the Church, and very much given to going upon pilgrimages to the sacred places in Russia. In her reign the clergy regained some of the influence which they had lost through the reform- ing measures of Peter. Prokopovitch, the great agent of the regeneration of the Church, had died as early as 1735 at the age of fifty-five. The condition of the peasants was also by no means improved under Elizabeth, as she allowed masters to send their refractory serfs to Siberia. As regards the personal character of the Empress, she was certainly idle and fond of luxury and finery, but she does not seem to have been a cruel or vindictive woman. Thus, she had some pity for the family of Biren ; she had even wished to put him again in possession of his duchy of Courland : but was probably deterred from doing so by her minister Bestuzhev. She rendered his im- 1762] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 185 prisonment, however, milder. From the rigours of Pelim he was removed to Yaroslavl, and allowed to enjoy a portion of the revenues of his duchy. Lestocq, who at the beginning of the reign had great weight with the Empress, persuaded her to employ Bestuzhev in the place of Ostermann in her relations with foreign powers. The Tsaritsa assented, but Bestuzhev, who, seems to have been throughout a contemptible fellow, requited Lestocq by undermining his influence with Elizabeth. In 1742 De la Ch&ardie quitted Russia, carrying off with him presents to the value of a million francs. It was in this year that Bestuzhev was made chancellor. In a short time De la Cheterdie, as we have seen, returned to Russia with a secret mission to entangle' the Empress in the European war then going on ; but Bestuzhev had different views, and De la Chetardie consequently aspired to overthrow him. The latter had an ally in the Princess of Anhalt Zerbst, the mother of the future grand duchess, who was in her sympathies devoted to Prussia, which, we must remember, was then on the side of France. Bestuzhev caused copies of the correspondence of De la Chetardie to be submitted to the Empress, who found in it some things which were very unacceptable to her. It is impossible to disentangle the threads of this complicated plot, Dut it ended in De la Chetardie being treated with ignominy ind eventually expelled the country ; and Lestocq was ruined in the estimation of the Empress. France did not show any resentment for the way in which Elizabeth had treated her ambassador. On the contrary, it was the policy of that court to stand on as good terms as possible with Russia. Lestocq by the machinations of Bestuzhev was accused of high treason and brought before the secret commission which was very active in the reign of Elizabeth. He was several times put to the torture, and eventually banished to Uglich, and afterwards to Ustiug Veliki, near Archangel. The large fortune which he had acquired was distributed among his enemies. But Elizabeth led on the whole a troubled life, and imagined herself surrounded by conspirators. Lord 1 86 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i762 Hyndford, the English minister, wrote to his government as follows on the 7th of June 1745 : — "A man was found con- cealed behind the curtains who wished to kill the Empress. The most cruel tortures could not force a word from him. Elizabeth is a prey to such terrors that she rarely remains more than two days in the same place, and few people know where she sleeps." It is said that she was married secretly to Count Razumovski, a man of humble origin, who first attracted her attention in 1737 by his being an excellent singer in the royal chapel. His name appears to have been really Rozum. His gaining the favour of the Empress was the signal for the rise of his family, who were poor rustics in the^Ukraine. They now became members of the highest Russian aristocracy. His brother Cyril was made hetman of the Cossacks and president of the Russian Academy. He became very popular. Bolotov, the author of the diary, has some extraordinary tales of his magnificence; 100 people fed every day at his table. Pushkin severely lashed parvenus of this kind in his celebrated poem, " Moya Rodoslovnaya " (My Genealogy). All agree in saying that Razumovski used with moderation the great influence which he had acquired over the Empress. On the day of her coronation she made him grand huntsman, and finally he became count ; and although He never set a squadron in the field Nor the divisions of a battle knew More than a. spinster he was eventually created a field-marshal, and received very splendid presents from the Empress. A man who stood very high in the Tsaritsa's favour was Ivan Shuvalov. He was of a noble and ancient family, but poor. From his time dates the great influence of the French language and French fashions in Russia which prevailed almost to our own days. So much was the former cultivated that the ladies of the aristocracy were practically ignorant of their native language. Readers of Pushkin will remember how this failing is satirised by the poet in his " Eugene Oniegin." The mother of 1762] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 187 Turgueniev invariably used the French language, and only employed Russian as the means of communication with her serfs. It was Shuvalov who induced Voltaire to write his well-known life of Peter the Great. The English ministers continue to speak in their Reports of the unbounded license and extravagance which prevailed at the court. They express natural doubts about the stability of such a government. M. du Swart, the minister of the Nether- lands, in a despatch of 1757, speaks of the Empire as being abandoned to pillage. The Empress amused herself, and the courtiers plundered wherever they chose. Up to this time Russia had in reality mingled very little in the politics of western Europe; her external affairs had been confined to Sweden, Poland, and Turkey. It was the English who first thought of bringing the influence of Russia to bear upon the balance of power. Instructions were given to Finch the envoy (February 29, 1740) to establish a close relation between Great Britain and Russia, and to strengthen the treaty which had previously existed between the Tsaritsa Anne and the house of Austria. Frederick the Great had also cast his eyes upon Russia, and as soon as he ascended the throne he endeavoured to establish friendly relations with the Cabinet of that country. The only addition to Russian territory during this reign was that secured by the treaty of Abo, August 18, 1743. By this Russia acquired the southern part of Finland as far as the river Kymene, with the towns of Friedrichshamn and Wilmanstrand and the remaining part of Carelia with the fortress of Nyschlot. The story about a Princess Tarakanov, a daughter of Elizabeth by Razumovski, who was living in Italy and decoyed back to Russia in the reign of Catherine II. by Orlov, does not seem to have any grounds to support it. According to this legend the wretched Princess was drowned in a subterranean prison. It has, however, been made the subject of a novel and a famous painting. Among important men in the reign of Elizabeth may be mentioned the Scotchman Keith who fought in the Russian war with the Swedes in 1741. In 1747 for some 1 88 A HISTpRY OF RUSSIA [i762 cause or other he left Russia, and Frederick the Great received him into the Prussian Service with the rank of Field-Marshal. He fell at the battle of Hochkirchen in 1758- Rumiantzov, afterwards destined to achieve a considerable reputation in the reign of Catherine II., was born in 1725. With the rank of Major-General he fought throughout the Seven Years' War, and was present at Zornsdorf and Kunersdorf. At the latter battle he commanded the centre of the army. His subsequent career will be described under the reign of Catherine. Alexander Vasilievitch Suvorov was the most eccentric of all the Russian generals, and the man who has lived the longest in popular legends. Volumes of stories have been published about him, and his extraordinary habits of crowing like a cock and leading the troops in his shirt sleeves. He seems, however, to have thoroughly understood the Russian soldier and to have exercised great influence over him. Suvorov was born in the year 1729; his father was a general and a godson of Peter the Great. The family is said to have been of Swedish origin : the ov being merely added to Russify it as was done in the case of Lermontov. Suvorov entered the Guards in 1754 with the rank of an officer; and in the Seven Years' War distinguished himself by his bravery, and attained the rank of Colonel. His subsequent career will be fully discussed in the proper place. He is the great military hero of the times of Catherine. Peter Ivanovich Panin was the descendant of a noble family which is said to have emigrated to Russia from Italy. He was born in 1721, and entered the Guards. He was in the campaigns under Munich in 1736, and with Lacy in Finland in 1742, and at the beginning of the Seven Years' War he held the rank of Major-General. He distinguished himself at Gross-Jaegersdorf, and was wounded at Zorndorf. He fought at Kunersdorf and was at the taking of Berlin. Alexander Ilich Bibikov, the son of a Lieutenant-General, was born in 1729, and entered the corps of engineers. He 1762] IVAN VI. AND ELIZABETH 189 travelled into Saxony and Prussia, and by the knowledge which he had thereby acquired, he was able to perform great services at the beginning of the Seven Years' War ; he dis- tinguished himself at Zorndorf, Kunersdorf, and Kolberg, and in 1762 was made Major-General. We will conclude our account of the reign of Elizabeth with the description of her given by Cook, the Scotch surgeon. He has been already cited during the reign of Anne. "She deigned," he says, " to advance to the place where I stood, and with all the graceful sweetness with which goodness could inspire an illustrious personage, was pleased to say ' we have been informed of you : we desire that you'll take as good care of the good old count's health as you have done of Prince Golitzin's, for which you shall gain our esteem.' She stretched out her hand which I considered as a high distinction, and most respectfully kissed it. I had frequently seen the Empress, but never was so nigh her before. She was of a large stature and inclinable to be fat, but extremely beautiful ; and in her countenance I saw such mildness and majesty that I cannot in words express them. Her hair was black, and her skin white as 'snow unsunned.' I humbly answered that her majesty's orders should be obeyed most religiously. She was pleased to say, with a placid smile, that she doubted nothing of it, and in an instant retired. At this time Count Razumovski was attending her Majesty. It is really surprising that a fat though young woman could move so cleverly as the Empress did, in so much that I could scarce hear her feet upon the floor ; but indeed her august presence had much disconcerted me." [l762 CHAPTER VIII PETER III.— CATHERINE "T^LIZABETH was, according to the settlement of the -*— ' crown which she had made by virtue of the ukaz of Peter, succeeded by her nephew Peter. The genealogy of this unfortunate man has already been fully explained. He had succeeded to his father's duchy of Holstein in 1739, and there he might have ended his days in peace, vegetating in petty dignity. At the request of his aunt he came to Russia in 1742. It is singular that the Swedes had, a short time previously, offered him their crown with a view of propitiating Russia. They chose, however, ultimately Adolphus Frederick of Holstein, also connected with the Russian royal family, and were thus enabled to secure more advantageous terms in the treaty of Abo, following on the little war which they had had with their powerful Slavonic neighbour. The new emperor, as we can see plainly written in his portrait and can gauge by every action, was a thoroughly weak man, and Russia was a country that a weak man could not rule. His face is that of a man who has weakened himself morally and physically by self-indulgence, and we know only too much of his brutal orgies from the revelations of Catherine in her Memoirs and the reports of the foreign ministers. Sophia, the German princess, who had entered the Greek Church under the name of Catherine, and now became empress, was a woman of extraordinary talent. Sir C. Williams, the English resident, seems to have thoroughly appreciated her vigorous character. He had expressed him- self to that effect in the despatches which he wrote to his government. The clever English intriguer had assisted the 190 1762] PETER III.— CATHERINE 191 young Stanislaus Poniatowski in his position at the Russian court. In 1757 Poniatowski had been minister at St Peters- burg from Warsaw. But the position of Catherine had frequently been imperilled during the last days of the impress. The latter seems to have had some idea of once more placing on the throne the former sovereign, Ivan, now languishing in the gloomy casemates of Schliisselbarg. The Dutch minister declared in a letter to Sir A. Mitchell that the poor youth had been brought to the Winter Palace at St Petersburg where the empress had an interview with him. The probable intentions of Elizabeth were the subject of much discussion. Poniatowski, who was mixed up with many intrigues, was recalled by the King of Poland. He contrived, however, under some pretext, to remain in Russia. The influence of Catherine was then much on the wane, and in consequence she was neglected by the political intriguers. She was quite in disgrace with the empress, and in an interview with her pre- tended to wish to go back to her country, but Elizabeth, whose ■ resentment never seems to have lasted long, soon forgave her. The English minister writes that the Empress at a court fite had a long conversation, and seemed very cordial, with Catherine. This was in May 1758. Their reconciliation was at the time considered a blow to French interests, but if so it was not of long duration ; and during the last three years of the life of Elizabeth, Catherine remained in retirement. On the 5th of January 1762, Keith wrote to his govern- ment, "The Empress died this afternoon at two o'clock. She caused the Grand Duke and Duchess to be sent for, and took a very tender adieu of them. As soon as she was dead the senators, ministers, and other State functionaries took the oath of allegiance to Peter III., for whom the generality had the most profound contempt." The first act of the reign of Peter was a complete reversal of the policy of Elizabeth. He was an ardent admirer of Frederick the Great, and in Russia had taken a pleasure in dressing his favourite regiment in the Holstein uniform. He 192 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [ws at once sent orders to the Russian generals to make an armistice with the man whom he regarded with such venera- tion. During the last years of the reign of Elizabeth French influence, as we have already seen, had been paramount. Peter seems to have embraced every opportunity of display; ing his contempt for that power, and to emphasise matters at once sent off some French actors who were in the country. A treaty was concluded with the Prussian king in 1762, by which Russia abandoned all the fruits of her victories. No guarantee whatever was exacted from Frederick, who had been in the very depths of despair. On the other hand, it has been pointed out that Russia was gaining nothing by this contest with the Prussian king. The war had been begun from personal pique, and no national question was involved in it ; while it had already cost her a great deal of blood and treasure. The abandonment of the war was not an unpopular measure, and in other respects the new Tsar began his reign well. He abrogated the law by which Peter the Great had compelled all members of the Russian aristocracy to take some State function. He also put an end to the secret chancery which had exercised such terrorism during the reign of Elizabeth. This was not, however, to be the last which the Russians were to hear of it. It became active once more during the reign of Catherine II., and the chief inquisitor or head of the secret police, Sheshkovski, was a man of infamous reputation. Peter's next step was to recall from banishment various political offenders who had figured prominently in the last reign. One of the first to come back was the adventurer Lestocq. He was followed by Munich and his son ; and by Biren, in whose case, however, the severity of the sentence had, as we have seen, been relaxed, the Empress Elizabeth having allowed him to live in the provincial town of Yaro- slavl. Ostermann, to whom Russia owed so much, was dead. Keith had some startling episodes to communicate to his government on their return. Both Biren and Munich 1762] PETER III.— CATHERINE 193 appeared at Court and were treated by the Emperor with much distinction. The two men, once such bitter enemies, seem to have met without rancour and even with a certain amount of politeness. Time and suffering had softened their mutual animosities. Miinich died five years afterwards at the age of eighty-four, and Biren, who was seventy-two when he returned, lived till 1772. He was restored by Catherine to his duchy of Courland, the inhabitants of which seem to have cordially detested him. He was a bad, unscrupulous man, and one feels that if he had ended his days in Siberia he would have only had his deserts. He had brought un- merited sufferings upon many people. Munich, on the other hand, had been a brave general, and his name is conspicuous on many a page of Russian history. For the few remaining years of his life he was made governor of Riga. The Siberian climate does not seem to have had a prejudicial effect upon the health of these prisoners any more than in the case of many of the Dekabrists, the Muraviovs, and others who returned at an advanced age in the reign of Alexander II. An attempt on the part of Peter to confiscate lands belong- ing to the monasteries met with general opposition. Such a measure had indeed been beyond the power of his great ancestor, Peter. ""In exchange for the lands he assigned to all classes — from archbishops to monks — a proportionate fixed income. This attempt was undoubtedly one of the principal causes of his downfall, in that by it he lost the support of the clergy; we shall, however, see how it was afterwards suc- cessfully carried out by the more capable Catherine. The Emperor showed great partiality for the English ; he constantly invited Keith, the minister, to his table, and this probably caused the latter to send home to his government such favourable accounts of the new sovereign. The French minister, who was treated with neglect, had very different stories to tell. He has plenty of information about the licentious conduct of Peter and his continued fits of drunken- ness. Catherine was treated with contempt, although Fred- erick, who took Peter under his protection, so to speak, was 194 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1762 continually recommending him to consult his wife. Peter, however, paid no attention to his admonitions in this respect, and the memoirs of the Princess Dashkov and of Rulhiere are full of stories illustrative of the excesses of the Emperor and his quarrels with Catherine. We have also Catherine's own Memoirs, which were published some forty years ago by Herzen in London. Peter made himself additionally ridiculous by aping German manners and showing a childish idolatry for Frederick the Great. He used to prostrate himself before the portrait of the latter, and boasted that with his assistance he would conquer the world. While, however, treating his wife in such a brutal fashion, his puerile and irresolute character placed him completely in her power. He talked about building a special prison in which she should be immured for the rest of her life. Meanwhile the Empress was gaining the popular favour more and more. With great tact she contrived to assume the part of an adherent of the old Russian school ; an attitude peculiarly agreeable to a people who had been groaning under German v exploitation since the beginning of the reign of Anne. Peter now allowed himself to become embroiled in a petty war with the court of Denmark, which he accused of attempt- ing to appropriate some of his Holstein dominions. His mentor, Frederick, gave him some valuable advice on this subject. He recommended him to be crowned at Moscow, and reminded him that if he left Russia to lead his troops against the Danes, as he talked of doing, serious com- plications might occur in his absence. Had not the revolt of the Streltsi broken out during the absence of Peter the Great? Peter, however, turned a deaf ear to all these wholesome admonitions, and went steadily on in the path of destruction. Catherine, meanwhile, was gathering a powerful party round her. At first the idea seems to have been to proclaim as sovereign her son Paul (born in 1754), but this did not at 1762] PETER III.— CATHERINE 195 all fall in with her plans, even though she was to be appointed regent. She was greatly assisted at this time by the clever and somewhat unscrupulous Princess Dashkov, one -of the most remarkable women produced by Russia or any other country. It was she who managed to win over Panin, the governor of the young prince. The latter at first, as did also Count Chernichev and others, who favoured the idea of a revolu- tion, only contemplated that Catherine should be regent during the minority of her son; and the English minister, Shirley, in a despatch of March 10, 1762, wrote home to this effect. Now, however, a new adherent of Catherine came on the scene in the person of Gregory Orlov, one of the famous brothers, who from this time forward were to figure so prominently in Russian history, and who have cast a lurid light over the affairs of half a century. He was a man of gigantic stature, ready for any violent action ; such as Tacitus would have loved to describe. Orlov and his brothers were invaluable to the Empress in sowing the seeds of dissension among the various regiments ; while Panin, Chernichev, Razumovski, and others pulled the strings of the more widely-spread political conspiracy. About this time, we read, Peter paid a visit to the fortress of Schliisselburg, built on an island at the entrance o Lake Ladoga, where was still confined the young Tsar Ivan, the monarch of a few days. The casemate in which the latter was kept a close prisoner, and where his tragic fate occurred, as will be afterwards narrated, are still to be seen. Peter is said to have found the poor youth in an almost imbecile condition ; Rulhiere, however, tells us that he conceived the idea of releasing him and making him his heir. Meantime, the plot concocted by Panin and others pro- gressed vigorously. Two other important persons mixed up with it were Cyril Razumovski, the brother of the favourite of Elizabeth, and Vorontsov. But it was the prolonged 196 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1762 drinking bouts and absurd actions of Peter which more than anything else favoured the intriguers. He had become ridicu- lous in the eyes of the nation. He would begin his drinking bouts early each evening and continued them till he was dead-drunk. Meanwhile, blind to all that was going on, he was still threatening his wife and declaring that he intended to get rid of her. After his visit to Ivan, Peter retired to his country house at Oranienbaum where he recommenced his life of pleasure. In two days, however, on July 8th, 1762, the revolution broke out. It has been accurately described in the pages of Rulhiere, whose details are confirmed by the reports of the ministers ; Keith informed his government that so mighty a change had been effected without shedding a drop of blood. The city wore its usual appearance; the only noticeable thing being the pickets of soldiers stationed at the tops of the bridges and the corners of the streets. Pasek, one of the subordinates, had almost revealed the conspiracy in a fit of indiscretion, but the Princess Dashkov, then only a young woman of twenty years of age, aroused Alexis Orlov at night. The latter at once set out to summon Catherine and tell her that all was ready. She was then residing at Peter- hof, and escaped with him unnoticed by a back gate. After being somewhat delayed on the road she reached St Peters- burg at six o'clock in the morning. It was at Peterhof that she had long been concocting her measures. A well-known picture represents her getting into a carriage just as the morn- ing was breaking. Like Elizabeth she went at once to the various barracks so that the soldiers might be gained over. She succeeded with all except a cavalry regiment of which the Emperor was colonel. The officers refused to join her and were put under arrest. Keith, the English minister, wrote back to his government that the whole affair was over in two hours. It was like one of the revolutions which Tacitus records; Peter knew nothing about what had taken place till the middle of the day. He then went from Oranienbaum to Peterhof with the idea of seizing the Empress, but found that she had 1762] pet£r iil— Catherine; 19? left the place. He had neglected the most ordinary precautions and had not even secured the possession of the military chest, so that he was without the means of paying any troops who re- mained loyal to him. He became bewildered and was unable, till it was almost evening to form any fixed plan. He then, with a small suite, got on board a vessel lying at anchor off Peter- hof and made for Cronstadt in hopes of being received there. But Talietsin, the commissioner of the Admiralty, and Vice- Admiral Mardison, who had been sent thither in the morning from St Petersburg, refused to let him land and even threat- ened to fire upon him. Thereupon the party in bewilderment made for the opposite bank, on reaching which, some retired to Peterhof, and others to Oranienbaum. The Emperor with a few attendants was among the latter. On Saturday morning he learned that the Empress was approaching with a large body of troops. He thereupon sent Prince Golitzin and Major-General Izmaelov to negotiate. The latter re- turned with a paper drawn up in the form of an act of abdication ; this the Empress signed and rode off with the General. Keith adds that it was reported that these terms allowed him to retire to Holstein. This was July nth, 1762. His friends seem now to have deserted him. He had estranged the clergy and the army, and the nation in general was dis- pleased with his dragging them into a war with Denmark on account of his Holstein duchy. Meantime Catherine was carrying all before her. When she saw Munich, who had survived so many strange revolutions of fortune, she said : "So it was you, Field-Marshal, who wanted to fight me." " Yes, madame," replied Munich vigorous as ever, " could I do less for the prince who delivered me from captivity ? But it is henceforth my duty to fight for you, and you will find in me a fidelity equal to that with which I had devoted my services to him.' ; The Empress received with her son the homage of the citizens and the revolution was a fait accompli. Keith, the minister, in his despatches gives pretty much the same 198 A HISTORY OP RUSSIA [1762 reasons for the collapse of the power of Peter, as we have above stated, so too does the French minister ; but the latter lays more stress on the absolute poltroonery of Peter, who although he had fifteen hundred Holstein Guards still remaining loyal, had not the courage to make use of their services. Munich, who for a long time had continued his adherent, advised him to go to the army on the frontiers of Prussia, and to return at the head of it. But Peter abandoned himself to his fate almost without a struggle. He now wrote a letter to the Empress asking her to pardon him, to give him a pension and to allow him to retire to Holstein. But the Empress replied by despatching Izmaelov to conduct him from Oranienbaum to Peterhof. He was there closely con- fined and treated with indignity. The outside world now saw no more of him. On the 16th of July he asked for a favourite pug dog, his negro Narcissus, his violin, some novels, and a German Bible. The Revolution was now over. Those who had advocated a simple regency became silent; while others who had in- clined to the election of Ivan seemed to abandon their plans. But although Catherine was now acknowledged Empress she could feel no confidence in her position so long as Peter lived, and his name could be used as a rallying cry. The latter was conducted by slow stages towards Schliisselburg on the morning of the 19th of July. While proceeding on his journey he stayed at a little country house in the village of Ropsha. There Alexis Orlov, who commanded the escort, and a subaltern officer named Teplo*, were seen to go into his room. What there occurred will never be known, but it is certain that Peter was not again seen alive. It was said that he had died of colic, but the French minister relying upon the testimony of Peter's valet, wrote to his government that the Emperor had first been poisoned ; but the poison not acting with sufficient rapidity, he had been strangled. It appears that either from prudence or pusillanimity, for which he was reproached by Louis XV., Breteuil, the minister, 1762] PETER III.— CATHERINE 199 had left St Petersburg abruptly for Warsaw. He handed over the care of the embassy to his chancellor, Berenger, and a young attache named Rulhiere. The work of the last- named has become one of the great authorities for the events of this revolution. He also wrote a history of the Anarchy in Poland, and it was these two works which procured him the honour of being elected member of the French Academy. Chastelux, to whom the function of receiving him was com- mitted, complimented him in true French style as having wielded the pen of Tacitus in places beyond even those where that of Ovid became stationary between his frozen fingers. According to the account of another French minister, Alexis Orlov at a later period of his life was heard to express great remorse for the crime he had committed. But the story to the effect that when Orlov came subsequently to England as ambassador, people gazed with horror on his thick fingers because they were known to have accom- plished this crime, must be ascribed to the rhetoric of Macaulay. The body of the unfortunate Emperor remained exposed to view for three days in one of the churches of St Petersburg, in order that no impostors might afterwards arise and take his name. The bystanders clearly noticed the blackened visage of the unfortunate man and the marks upon his throat. According to the despatch of the English minister, thousands of people flocked to see the corpse. Three days afterwards, Peter was interred in the cemetery attached to the monastery of St Alexander Nevski, and not among the other Tsars in the Petropavlovski church. There it remained till it was disin- terred by the filial piety of Paul. The second funeral of Peter was witnessed by Admiral Shishkov and has been duly de- scribed in his interesting Memoirs. The French minister seems to have been loath to believe that Catherine was re- sponsible for the murder of her husband. But according to the reports of others her culpability did not admit of any doubt. She received the news, however, with much apparent 200 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [was grief, though probably the only person who lamented the loss of the unfortunate Peter with real sorrow was Frederick of Prussia who had benefited so much by his succession to the throne, and who had always found in him a sedulous imitator. Rulhiere's account of the Revolution was not published during his lifetime, but he was in the habit of reading the manuscript to his friends. Catherine consequently became aware of its existence, and did all she could to suppress it. Diderot seconded her efforts to the utmost of his power, having himself previously urged Rulhiere to destroy it. Catherine even talked about purchasing the manuscript. She wrote in the name of Alexander Golitsin, her vice- chancellor, to Khotinski, who was the chargi d'affaires at Paris, with instructions to open negotiations with Diderot or Rulhiere himself. " Vous l'engagerez a lui faire la proposi- tion de vous ceder son manuscrit au moyen d'une somme que vous lui payerez en dedommagement des profits qu'il en espere et cette somme je ne vous la fixe point ; deux trois quatre cents ducats, plus ou moins, selon que vous sentirez les pretentions de l'auteur.'' A comic account is given by M. Tourneux in his " Diderot et Catherine II.," in which the anxiety of Catherine to get possession of the manuscript is very apparent. When the Princess Dashkov came to Paris on her European tour she refused to see Rulhiere, so as to discredit his account as much as possible. When the latter was summoned by the Duke d'Aiguillon to give up his book he put himself under the protection of the Dauphin (Louis XVI.). In 1773 he added to the celebrated anecdotes a kind of postscript in which he collected and refuted the various criticisms which had been made upon his work. On the 30th of January 1790 he died suddenly and almost forgotten; and when Catherine was informed of his death by Grimm she replied that she had hardly noticed it. Whatever the circumstances may have been which led to their resolution, the heirs of Rulhiere waited till the death of the Empress before publishing this important work. It did 1762] PETER III.— CATHERINE 201 not make its appearance until 1797, and was almost imme- diately translated into English. The book is in the main accurate enough. A few minor errors, however, were detected by Fortia de Piles in his work, " Examen de trois ouvrages sur la Russie, 1802." [1762 CHAPTER IX THE REIGN OF CATHERINE— Continued /CATHERINE was not allowed to spend the early days of ^ her reign in tranquillity. There were mutinous signs among the regiments, as well as factions which were still endeavouring to compass the accession to the throne of either the young Grand Duke Paul or the unfortunate Ivan confined in Schltisselburg. The Empress, however, managed things well, and was able to tide over these dangers. As a result she came to regard Paul with greater hatred than ever, and made more stringent the confinement of Ivan. Keith, the English minister, to whom we owe so many interesting details, although in the main he was a dull man, now asked permission to be relieved of his duties, and his place was taken by Hobart, Earl of Buckinghamshire, an ancestor of the redoubtable Hobart Pasha of our own times. When Hobart arrived at Moscow he found the Empress depressed. There had been some signs of disaffection among the troops, and these favoured soldiers ruled Russia much as the praetorians ruled the Rome of the Emperors. He seems soon to have fallen under the fascination of this remarkable woman. Nor was the French minister, M. de Breteuil, less influenced. His despatches are of quite a glowing character, and it is obvious that Catherine was anxious to create a favourable opinion of herself in Western Europe. She gave some offence to her subjects by the favour which she showed to Gregory Orlov and the great emoluments which she gave him. This man, not content with the extravagant privileges which had been conferred on him, even aspired to the hand of Catherine, and to share the throne with her. The Empress 1762] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 203 seems to have had sufficient feminine weakness not to vigorously repulse his advances. According to M. de Breteuil Catherine received a petition from certain ecclesi- astics entreating her to choose a husband from among her own subjects. But Panin, Razumovski and some other leading courtiers exerted themselves to resist these plans, and tried to put before the Empress the perils she would incur if she lowered herself so far as to marry Orlov. The very rumour of such a thing caused a riot among the soldiers. Some had the name of Ivan on their lips, and others de- manded to be shown the Grand Duke Paul whose life they said, was in peril. The rebellion was hushed up, and many of the common soldiers were punished on the plea that discipline must be maintained. The chief persons, however, concerned were not brought to any trial. The wrath of Catherine fell mostly upon her friend, the Princess Dashkov, to whom she had owed so much on the most important day of her life. The Princess retired to her estates in disgrace. The Empress, pretending to believe her guilty of complicity in the plot, offered her a full pardon if she would confess anything. The indignant letter which the Princess wrote in reply to the suggestions of the Empress has been preserved by M. Berenger, the French chargi d'affaires. It was as follows : " Madam, I have heard nothing of the subject you mention, and if I had heard anything I should take care not to tell it. What do you want of me ? That I should die on the scaffold ? I am ready to mount one." Catherine, how- ever, did not pursue her animosity any further, and the Princess made no effort to appease her former mistress. Her house became a focus of intrigue against those in power. Owing to the influence of Count Panin, the Princess was allowed a little time afterwards to return to St Petersburg. Sir G. Macartney, who had succeeded Hobart as English minister, describes in a letter to his government the manner in which the Princess was received by the Empress. He goes on to say that the former was a woman of extraordinary character, and very dangerous in a country like Russia, 204 A HISTORY Of RUSSIA [i764 " for," he continues, " in spite of the general brutality of the Russians, women seem to exercise in this country as much authority as among the most civilised nations." Princess Dashkov, who quitted her native country in 1770 for a tour, has left us an interesting account of her journey. She was for some time at Paris where she made the ac- quaintance of Diderot, who seems to have been very much captivated by her. From Paris she went to London and there met Horace Walpole, who has left us an account of the agreeable impression which she made. She also visited Scotland where she stayed for some time while her son took his degree at the University of Edinburgh. The wits of the modern Athens were surprised at the clever woman who had come among them from the land of the Scythians. But it was not only at Edinburgh that Eussians were educated, many also were to be found at the University of Oxford ; some of whom went back and distinguished themselves in their own country. The year 1764" witnessed the curious attempt of Lieutenant Mirovich to rescue Ivan who was still kept imprisoned at Schliisselburg. Mirovich was a Cossack whose grandfather had been ruined by following the fortunes of Mazeppa. This conspiracy, like the Gowrie Plot in Scottish history, is very enigmatical. According to some writers there was no conspiracy at all. Catherine, they say, was anxious to have an excuse for putting to death Ivan, whose name might still be a rallying cry for her opponents. He was of direct Russian blood and the descendant of Russian tsars, while she was a German parvenue. It is said that she had issued orders to his Guards to slay him if- ever an attempt to rescue him should be made. Mirovich secured the assistance of some soldiers, pretending to have an order from the Empress. The officers in charge of the prisoner at once attacked the unhappy young man who was unarmed, and had in fact just awoke from sleep. Undefended as he was he made a desperate attempt to save himself, but being overpowered and wounded in several places he was finally despatched by 1764] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 205 a stab in the back. The officers thereupon threw open the door, and pointing to the body of Ivan, exclaimed, "Here is your Emperor." Mirovich started, but retaining complete self-possession, delivered up his sword to the governor, Berednikov. On the following day the body of Ivan was shown to the people. An immense concourse flocked from all quarters, and according to the account of eye-witnesses sympathy with the unfortunate Ivan was expressed on every countenance. Coxe, the historian, who visited Russia during this period and has left us a very valuable narrative of his travels, assures us that he was told by people who saw the body of the dethroned Emperor that he was about six feet in height, of athletic build, and with reddish hair. It is said of Mirovich that when tried and condemned to death, he exhibited no emotion and kept the same sang froid even on the scaffold. He was executed on the 26th of September. He walked to the place of execution with an unconcerned air, crossed himself, and, without saying a single word, laid his head upon the block where it was severed from his body at one stroke. Coxe assures us that he was not gagged, and therefore his silence must have been self-imposed. The conduct of Mirovich on the scaffold has been cited as proving that he expected a reprieve ; but the more correct view seems to be that he was a desperate adventurer who thought he would put his fortune to the touch. Catherine must at all events have been glad of the death of so serious a rival. Mirovich had been at first sentenced to be broken on the wheel, but his punishment was commuted by the Empress into decapitation. There still remained one candidate for the throne who had a better claim than the Empress, this was none other than her own son. Paul was born in 1754. According to all Russian ideas he was the legitimate heir, his mother had only seized the supreme power by force. She could have no legal claim, except such as the lawyers set up for Henry VII. of England — present possession and the will of God, as the 206 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1764 technical expression is. She was never entirely at her ease about this son, and, therefore, throughout her reign kept him in the background. We cannot wonder that such injudicious treatment had a pernicious effect upon the character of Paul. Just as the slights which he had to endure are supposed to have fostered the malignity and^dissimulatiofl of Tiberius, Paul showed the feelings with which he regarded his mother by annulling as far as it was in his power those enactments of her reign which were most characteristic of her. Some of the clergy ventured at this time to ask the Empress to fix the succession, as the country might be placed in a very awkward position if the Grand Duke Paul should die, and his health was said to be very delicate. It was also suggested that the Duke of Brunswick and his family should be allowed to quit Russia. Catherine seemed half inclined to concede this latter request, but the matter was allowed to drop, and the family remained for some years longer in their dreary abode amidst the Arctic snows. To the other request the Empress does not seem to have returned any answer. The year in which the fate of the former Emperor Ivan was sealed, witnessed the great measure planned by Catherine of secularising the estates of the Church. The Archbishop of Novgorod had been one of the chief actors in the revolu- tion which made her Empress. He had also assisted in curbing the power of the monks ; but when Catherine was firmly seated on the throne she ignored him, and the miser- able man was left exposed to the contempt of his fellow- priests. The boldness of this great ecclesiastical reform on the part of Catherine shows her extraordinary force of char- acter. It had only been by assuming an air of complete orthodoxy that she had been enabled to ascend the throne. We have already spoken of the great numbers of monas- teries in Russia and the serfs which they possessed. These lands and peasants were now handed over to the State and definite salaries were allotted to the priests, varying according to their position in the hierarchy. Peter the Great had -764] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 207 attempted a similar reform, as also had his feeble namesake, but the opposition which it met with had prevented its being carried out in both cases. In this way the subjection of the Church to the State, which had been begun by Peter the Great, was finally carried into effect. For a long time after this the despatches of the English and French ministers are filled with accounts of the struggles between Orlov and Panin. Of the capacity of the latter they speak favourably. He was the tutor of Paul, whose mother seems to have continued to legard him with dislike and suspicion. Another of his preceptors was Teplov, of whom we have already spoken. The foreign ambassadors at this time give us but a poor account of the progress of civilisation in Russia, but for all that it was steadily advancing. They continue, however, to give gloomy pictures of the relations existing between the Empress and her son' Paul. The latter at this time greatly resented a member of the family of Saltikov being placed as a spy over him. Paul was now married. His wife was a Princess of Hesse- Darmstadt, who was received into the Greek Church under the name of Natalia Alexievna. The marriage took place in 1773. This unhappy woman was soon drawn into the vortex of universal intrigue. Among the chief events at this time which call for notice were the revolt of Pugachev and the consternation caused by it ; and the enormous influence of the fantastic, but certainly clever, Potemkin, whose extraordinary vagaries have filled so many pages of books on Russia. Gregorii Potemkin (pro- nounced Patiomkin) was born in 1739, of noble parents, living near Smolensk. They do not, however, seem to have been in very prosperous circumstances, nor had any of the family held high office with the exception of two, who had been ambassadors. He does not appear to have been in any way a prominent figure till the day when Catherine arrived in St Petersburg to overthrow her husband. The Empress was without a plume to her hat, and Potemkin, like another 208 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1768 Raleigh, stepped forward and offered her his own. He seems to have made an impression upon the Empress and from that time forward we find him closely mixed up with most of the events of her reign. In 1768 he was made major-general. In the same year there was a great agitation among the Cossacks. Since the days of Mazeppa the hetmanship had been reduced to a nullity. Terrible massacres of Jews and Roman Catholics were committed in the government of Kiev, under the leadership of Gonta and Zhelezniak. The history of these tumults has become better known through the poem of Taras Shevchenko, a writer of great celebrity in Malo- Russia. There does not seem to be any evidence to show that they were fomented by the Russian government, as has been asserted. Potemkin, the new favourite, advanced rapidly in the graces of Catherine, and Gunning tells his government in 1774 that to the astonishment of the other members of the Privy Council, Potemkin had taken his place among them. It was like Sir Christopher Hatton being made Lord Chancellor by Queen Elizabeth. He gradually contrived to displace the most influential ministers of Catherine. He devoted himself to exposing their peculations and therefore may in one respect be said to have done the State some service; for there was undoubtedly much misconduct of the kind going on among them. Thus Gunning could tell his government that Chernishev had embezzled a hundred thousand roubles, his only excuse being that his affairs were in an embarrassed condition. To the superficial observer Potemkin appeared merely a man of pleasure. But in reality he possessed a good deal of talent, and was an accomplished intriguer. At this time he was endeavouring to make himself indispensable to Catherine who was greatly harassed by the success of the rebellion of Pugachev. This remarkable insurrection broke out in 1773. The leader, Emilian Pugachev, was a Cossack of the Don, who gave himself out to be the Emperor Peter III., having, according to bis story, escaped from the clutches of the vm] THE REIGN OP CATHERINE iog conspirators. It is said that one day an officer casually remarked to Pugachev, who was serving in the ranks, that he resembled very much the late Tsar. _The remark took effect People had become used to revolutions de palate, and persons of high social rank, had frequently disappeared among the snows of Siberia. The scantiness and ignorance of the population fed the delusion. There were moreover many classes of people eager to seize any opportunity of revolt. Peasants were anxious to break away from their masters. Raskolniks were irritated by persecutions, and many of the Mongolian races for religious and other reasons hated the Russians. The Cossacks had for a long time been in a state of fermentation. Peter had punished them severely, and the exploits of the setch were now a thing of the past. The revolt broke out. The landed proprietors were massacred wholesale by their serfs. Here and there occurred instances of their being concealed by faithful attendants but these were rare. We are told of the father of Radistchev, the reformer, that at the time of the mutiny he was obliged to quit his estate and hide himself, leaving his four children in the care of the serfs, who disguised them and thus saved their lives. The Cossacks of the Yaik, among whom the insurrection broke out, were a branch of the Don Cossacks, and had been subjects of Russia from the time of the Tsar Michael. Till the reign of Peter the Great they had lived in all the ordinary license of Cossack life — they elected their own hetman and elder (starshii), paid no taxes, and were liable to no military duties except a very light service. They were in the habit of committing depredations on the Caspian Sea, where they plundered Persian trading vessels ; now and then they received a severe reprimand from Moscow, but were never efficaciously punished. Peter had tried to restrain their lawless habits by the same system as the great Stephen Bathory adopted. He had them disciplined and governed by the Imperial military college ; he caused them to be enrolled and their service fixed ; and he o 2io A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [m» himself appointed their hetman. Thereupon the Cossacks had rebelled and retreated into the Kirghis steppes. They could not however forget the former days of liberty and license celebrated in so many of their dumi, and there were consequently frequent disturbances on the Yaik in the middle of the eighteenth century. They became more and more violent towards the close of the reign of the Empress Anne and at the beginning of that of Catherine II. ; and in 1771 it became necessary to send soldiers to subdue them. Nothing but force of arms could put them down. The office of hetman was abolished, and the power which had attached to the post was transferred to the commandant of Yaitsk. The Cossacks submitted to necessity, but murmured more than ever, awaiting the advent of a leader who should re- store to them their former liberty. Such a man appeared in the person of Pugachev, who was a runaway Cossack of the Don from the stanitsa of Gimovei. He had been for some time a preacher of disaffection to the Russian Govern- ment, reviling all the new regulations, and endeavouring to persuade the Cossacks to become subjects of the Turks. For this he had been arrested, taken to Kazan, and con- demned to imprisonment with hard labour. But he managed to escape, and soon appeared again on the Yaik. Like Antaeus he seemed to gain new strength whenever he trod upon his native soil. Accordingly a plot was concocted. Some of the Cossacks conceived the idea of taking advantage of the supposed likeness of Pugachev to the late Emperor — certainly not very evident, if we compare their portraits. He was, however, a man of a daring and adventurous disposition; added to which he had some knowledge of military tactics, which he had gained while serving against the Turks and Poles. He accordingly took the name of the Emperor. He seems to have had in his camp some men of education, who no doubt had their own motives for joining him. Thus he was able to display a Holstein flag; how he obtained it is not known, but it was important for him to have one, considering the character he assumed. So, too, WW] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 21 i some educated man must have written his proclamations, for he was himself entirely illiterate. At the outbreak of the insurrection his force numbered 3000 men, which in a short time swelled to 30,000. He made himself master with remarkable rapidity of all the fortified places of the Ural ; had besieged Orenburg and stirred up the Bashkirs, Calmucks and Kirghiz Kazaks. The negligence of the local governors contributed greatly to his success ; especially was this the case with the governor of Orenburg, Reinsdorp, a zealous officer, but weak and without much foresight. He had had the means of crushing the revolt at the very beginning, but gave it time to spread, and was after- wards unable to recover his opportunity. General Carr, a Scotsman in the service of Russia, who had been sent from St Petersburg to act in conjunction with Reinsdorp did not prove equal to the task. He came to the Ural with full confidence that he would have no difficulty in settling the matter. But he seems to have taken no measures, and to have been paralysed by the increase in the strength of the rebels. He declared that he was ill, left the army, and went back to Moscow. Pugachev, by this delay, obtained time to strengthen his position still further. He also made good use of another important circumstance. The Cossacks of the Yaik were Staro-obriadtsi followers of the old rites before the introduction of the changes of Nikon. Of the same persuasion was the rebel himself. These men had, among other superstitions, the greatest horror of the loss of their beards. They heard, therefore, with delight that the new Emperor, as he styled himself, would allow them to wear their beards, and restore their ancient liberty. Catherine saw that decisive steps must be taken if the rebellion was to be crushed. General Bibikov, who had gained reputation by his victories in Poland, was commis- sioned by the Empress for the purpose. It is said she offered him the command at one of the court balls, addressing him in the words of a popular song. He arrived at Kazan, and proceeded to allay the general terror. He organised a 212 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [M7* powerful force under competent commanders, and hastened to raise the siege of Yaitsk, Orenburg, and Ufa, which had been reduced to great extremities by the rebels. The wise measures of the general, who had both military knowledge and energy promised a speedy end to the disturbances. Colonel Michelson saved Ufa; General Mansurov relieved Yaitsk; Prince Golitsin beat Pugachev himself under the walls of Orenburg, and drove him into the steppe as far as the banks of the Tobol. The rebellion was thus on the point of coming to an end, when matters took an unexpected turn, owing to the -death of Bibikov in the full vigour of his powers. His successor, Prince Stcherbatov, did not understand how to complete the discomfiture of the rebel army, and by his continued inactivity gave them time to gather fresh strength. Pursued by a far too small force under the command of Michelson, Pugachev hurried to the mining establishment in the Ural ; seized the treasury; stirred up rebellion among the men employed in the mines, and proceeded to establish there a cannon-foundry. He now invited the Bashkirs, Tatars and Calmucks to join him ; who, as Mussulmans, were naturally disaffected to the Russian rule. From the upper part of the Ufa Pugachev moved with a vast body of men upon Kazan. The garrison consisted of but few defenders, and those in command seem to have lost their heads. They had retired with their men to the old citadel; and thither the townspeople had followed them, despairing of safety. Pugachev easily gained possession of the town, plundered and burnt it, and prepared to make himself master of the citadel with the intention of eventually marching upon Moscow. Count Peter Panin was now asked to undertake the suppres- sion of the rebellion on the lines adopted by Bibikov, which had given promises of success. While, however, the new commander was taking measures for the safety of Moscow, and was collecting troops, Michelson succeeded in defeating the rebels. On hearing of the movement of Pugachev towards the Volga, he quickly followed and came upon him 1775] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 213 in sight of Kazan, which was fast becoming a heap of ruins. Here a battle took place, which, after lasting for some time, resulted in the victory of Michelson. The rebels were now scattered. Pugachev retreated to the right bank of the Volga, where he issued a manifesto, and partly by coaxing, partly by terror, roused the whole of the district. The entire region of the Volga was now in rebellion, and Pugachev was ready to march on Moscow, where his confederates had promised him success. Michelson, how- ever, who throughout displayed the greatest activity, diverted his journey at Arzamas, and, without giving him a moment's rest, drove him once more- in the direction of the Volga. Pugachev now abandoned all thought of marching on Moscow, and began to look out for a refuge in Turkey or Persia. He made a rapid retreat, destroying all the villages and towns in his way, including Penza and Saratov. When he had nearly reached Astrakhan, whence he could have easily escaped to the sea, Michelson fell once more upon him bejj»w Tsaritsin, and, having completely defeated him, forced him across the Volga into the steppes. Here, behind Lake Elbon, the rebel was surrounded by the soldiers who gathered together from all quarters as Count Panin had skilfully arranged. Finally Suvorov came upon the scene and pursued him at the head of Michelson's regiment. The confederates of Pugachev now saw no other means of escaping from the trap in which they had fallen than by throwing themselves on the mercy of the Government. They therefore resolved to sacrifice their leader. He was delivered up at Simbirsk and taken in an iron cage to Moscow. There he was kept for about two months fastened by a chain to the wall and subjected to the gaze of the inquisitive public. He seems to have shown none of the courage that might have been expected from his career. On the 22nd of January 1775, he was executed, together with five of his confederates, Perfiliev, Shigaev, Padurov, Chika and Tornov. A rudely executed seal, which he used for his official documents, has been preserved. He could not write himself, and therefore 214 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1775 these papers had to be subscribed by one of his attendants. Sometimes he seems to have tried to imitate the letters of the Russian alphabet, but his attempts are obviously those of a wholly illiterate man. The number of persons killed by this monster was very great, and dreary lists will be found appended to the Russian works on the rebellion. It is not a little curious that even so late as the time when Pushkin was collecting materials for his history, about 1830, he found many peasants who still believed that Pugachev was the genuine Emperor : one old woman said to Pushkin — " You call him impostor, but we call him our Tsar, Peter III." If he had not estranged so many people by his reckless and meaningless cruelties, one cannot help thinking he might have succeeded. The result of this rebellion was that the few remains of the Cossack setch were uprooted, and the very name of the district in which the uprising occurred changed. From this time forth the peculiar mode of life of the Cossack was gone, just as the Highland clan system in Scotland was practically destroyed after the rebellion of 1745, and we may even pursue the parallel still further, since just as with us the name Highlander has been appropriated to certain regiments, so it has been with the name Cossack in Russia. Catherine had been much alarmed until the rebellion was crushed, for it had seemed to threaten her very crown. Now, however, Gunning was able to inform his government that he had never known the court more tranquil. Potemkin had become the dominant favourite, and it was he who was really ruling Russia. No man ever succeeded in so completely getting Catherine under his influence. The Orlovs attempted to stop this, but he was more than a match for them. The power of Panin he reduced to insignificance, or something very much like it, and contrived to recommend a son of the old General Ostermann to the Empress ; but of him, we are told, that he was far from inheriting the talents of his father. The English ambassador was pleased at the fall of Panin, as he saw no obstacle to an alliance, offensive and defensive, 1776] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 215 between England and Russia, and even believed that Potemkin would help him to carry out such a plan ; but he was obliged to confess to his government that his manoeuvres had been unsuccessful. Catherine was more or less at variance with her daughter- in-law, whom she had expected to be able to control, but soon found that she had no influence over her. Gunning, writing February 6th, 1775, tells his government of the public entry made by the Imperial family into Moscow ; but the apathy with which she was received in that city was sufficient to convince Catherine of her unpopularity there. Durand, the French envoy, writing about the same time, has the same tale to tell. Even though the Empress remitted an unpopular tax on salt, the citizens received the good news with apathy. She had, he says, waited at a window to watch how the announcement was received, and was not a little mortified by the silence. " How stupid they are ! " she cried. On the other hand, the Grand Duke was the popular idol. This conduct was resented by the Empress, who sometimes took petty means of revenge. Thus M. Durand describes how on one occasion she gave a watch of trifling value to Paul, but made a present to another person of 50,000 roubles. Such a sum was greatly needed at the time by the Grand Duke, and he had even begged it of his mother. The envoys have naturally accounts to give us of continual squabbles between Potemkin and Paul. They speak, however, far from well of the latter. The Empress continued to squabble with his wife ; but their altercations were put an end to by the death of the latter in 1776. The Grand Duke is said to have given way to indescribable despair. Oakes, the English envoy, tells us how Prince Henry of Prussia, the brother of Frederick the Great, who happened to be at St Petersburg at the time, never quitted the side of the bereaved husband. It was probably on this occasion that the Prussian prince ventilated the subject of the partition of Poland. He also suggested a second wife for the Grand Duke in the person of the Princess of Wurtemberg ? the grand-niece of Frederick. 216 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1777 The grief of Paul, however, did not last long, and he married the Princess of Wurtemberg in September of the ensuing year (1777). She seems to have been a woman of gentle character. The English envoy (Oakes) is loud in her praise.' According to her portrait, she was a handsome woman of regular features and tall stature. In the contemporary pictures which represent her with her husband, the latter appears to considerable disadvantage in comparison. He was short and ill-shaped, with a peculiarly ugly nose, and is said to have been unwilling to have his portrait stamped on the coinage. At all events,- from that time, instead of the effigies of the Tsar, the coinage bears the double-headed eagle. The good looks of the Grand Duchess were transmitted to her son Nicholas, who was a very handsome man. Whatever his faults may have been, Paul certainly seems to have been a man fond of a simple, domestic life. Meantime Potemkin was more than ever in favour. On the day of his fete, the Empress made him a present of a hundred thousand roubles. Having the command of such ample * revenue, we cannot wonder that his extravagance took even a fantastic turn ; and it is recorded of him that in his library he had several volumes of rouble notes bound up. It was, how- ever, impossible for him to remain long in the giddy position to which he had attained without being assailed. Marshal Rumiantsov, a general who has been already mentioned, and who had led the Russian armies to many victories, stirred up a rival against him in the person of a certain Zavadovski, a native of the Ukraine. The court continued to be a focus of intrigue, and it is, indeed, tedious to read of the rise, fall, or, to use the words of the poet, the evaporation of each successive favourite. We now come to what was, perhaps, the most important series of events of the reign of Catherine — the dismemberment of Poland. The attention of Russia was by this time con- centrated on that unhappy country, which had long exhibited signs of decay. Augustus III. had died in 1763. He was hardly a man to win the affections of his subjects. Dull. 1763] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 217 apathetic, and engrossed in bodily pleasures, he did not even take the trouble to learn the Polish language. Poland had been reduced to such a condition during his reign that it had come to be called the public inn (karczma zqfezdna) ; its dominions might with safety be invaded by the forces of any power that felt inclined to do so; as for instance by Russia in her war with France in 1 748. The country was impoverished by the quantity of false money put into circulation by the Jews. Augustus III. has left no mark upon the history of Poland. At Dresden, how- ever, he is better remembered as having been the founder of the famous picture gallery. Stanislaus Poniatowski was next elected king— a man of elegant manners, but feeble, and without principle. He was altogether a specimen of the Frenchified Pole, such as Mickiewicz has ridiculed in Pan Tadeusz. In spite, however, of his somewhat superficial education, he was a man of some taste. His election was favoured by Frederick the Great, whose object was to weaken the country, and who saw that in such a king he would have a tool ready to his hand. He came of an aristocratic family, his uncles being the Princes Czartoryski, whose names are so indelibly engraved in Polish annals. Coxe and other travellers who visited the country, have given us very pleasant recollections of Poniatowski ; but his memory is viewed with contempt by his countrymen, who will for ever associate his name with their greatest national disaster. It will be remembered that Ponia- towski had formerly been Minister at St Petersburg from the court of Warsaw. He was also one of Catherine's favourites. Attempts were made to remedy the anomalous nature of the Polish Constitution, and the mischievous use of the liberum veto was abolished. But the division of Poland, which had been planned at an earlier time by Charles XI. of Sweden, and had been prophesied so eloquently by John Casimir, was now to be carried out. The first proposals for this partition certainly came from Frederick the Great, who was anxious to acquire the littoral 218 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [177» of the Baltic and Danzig. He was the moving power through- out, and only called in Russia and Austria as accessories. The subject was broached at St Petersburg by Prince Henry as early as 1770 ; but more than a year elapsed before Russia and Prussia could come to an understanding on the subject. Frederick proposed the plan to the court of Vienna, which finally assented ; and the treaty of partition was signed at St Petersburg in 1772. Russia received as her portion of the spoils, White Russia, the palatinates of Mstislavl and Witebsk, with the territory beyond the Dnieper. Kiev had belonged to her since 1667 by the Treaty of Andruszowo. Prince Repnin had been sent as Russian Ambassador to Poland, and virtually ruled the country. He treated the king with contempt, and did what he could to lower him in the estimation of his subjects. Thus we find him keeping the king and his suite waiting at the theatre for the performance to begin, until he made his appearance. He even dictated the reports which Stanislaus was to send to the Empress about the condition of the country. Prominent citizens, moreover, were deported to Siberia ; and Bishop Soltyk was carried off and interned in Russia. In 1768 had been formed the Con- federacy of Bar, a league of patriots whose object was to drive the invaders from the country. The name was given them from the little town of Bar, which had been founded in the time of Sigismund I., and was called after Bari, in Italy, in honour of his Milanese wife, Bona Sforza. A foolish attempt was made to seize the person of the king, who was hurried by the conspirators through the public streets and after- wards set at liberty. It is difficult to believe how the seizure of such a weak man as Stanislaus could have had any marked effect upon the political situation. The patriotic attempts, how- ever, of the confederates of Bar were checked by the counter- movement of the traitors of Targowica. The old foolish customs were restored, and the country was as a result doomed. Some of the European courts, seeing the unbounded popularity of Potemkin, now began to load him with honours, That model of the domestic virtues, Marja 1777] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 219 Theresa, was not behindhand : she made] the favourite a prince of the Holy Roman Empire, and of course the astute Frederick followed her example. Oakes writes to his govern- ment on the 16th of April 1776 : " Prince Henry of Prussia has just arrived here, and yesterday Prince Potemkin has had the honour of receiving from the hands of His Royal Highness the order of the black eagle." Meanwhile Zavadovski was in the full fruition of his honours : he received a gift of three thousand peasants. But Potemkin was still held in the Imperial fetters, and enjoyed a gilded slavery. Oakes tells his "government that the Empress had just bought for him a house which cost a hundred thousand roubles. She had also given him a like sum wherewith to furnish it, and had increased his pension to seventy-five thousand roubles. Well might unhappy Russia groan under the terrible burden of these minions. About the same time Zavadovski was made major-general, and received twenty thousand silver roubles and a thousand peasants. Soon afterwards we find Potemkin sulking and retiring from the court, and some of his rivals even thought that he might end his days in a monastery, which he often threatened to do ; for ambition, balked or sated, is apt to produce the devotee." But the pretended pietist was soon to come into power again. He seems to have exercised ex- traordinary influence over Catherine. Zavadovski now retired to the Ukraine, having received lands in White Russia with four thousand peasants. But the same year (1777) was to witness the visit of the fantastic and theatrical Gustavus III. We are told that the king was charmed with his reception. In 1780 Catherine received the visit of the Emperor Joseph II. She went to Mohilev to meet him, and brought him with her to St Petersburg, where he stayed a considerable time. Six weeks after he had gone there was another visitor at St Petersburg. This was the Prince Frederick of Prussia, the nephew of Frederick the Great. The Empress, however, received him coldly. Potemkin was at this time again in favour, not only with the Empress, but also the Grand Duke. Oakes, how- 220 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1777 ever, had soon afterwards news to. communicate about a fresh favourite. This was a certain Zorich. There was the same lavish squandering of money upon him as upon the others. Oakes writes to say that the new favourite had received a present of an estate in Livonia, worth a hundred thousand roubles, and another estate was to be purchased for him from Prince Adam Czartoryski. It was not long, however, before Zorich was hurled from his place. Oakes was succeeded by Harris, afterwards Lord Malmes- bury, who has left us a very vigorous picture of the country. Harris arrived with a mission to bring about an alliance offensive and defensive with Russia, but Catherine did not favour the idea, and the plan came to nothing. Harris writes in a very depreciatory manner of the country. He had come to St Petersburg after a long residence at Berlin, and speaks of finding much luxury and but little morality among the upper classes and among the lower extreme servility. He considers the Russians " varnished Asiatics." While bearing ample testimony to the great talents of Catherine, Harris was by no means insensible to her foibles, and M. de Corberon, the French ambassador, does not speak in a more flattering way. Later on Harris declared that Potemkin was absolute master of the Empress. Of the Grand Duke and his wife he wrote that they lived in perfect harmony, and that the latter was universally popular. He also tells us of the German inclinations of Paul, and speaks almost prophetically of a fear that he may make himself ridiculous by such propensities as Peter III. had done. Harris has nearly always something to tell of the luxury of the Russian court, but he is especially eloquent when describing the great festival given by the Empress on the birth of Alexander, son of Paul, afterwards Emperor. On this occasion Catherine seems to have displayed the most fantastic extravagance. There are also many tales of the luxury and idleness which pervaded the upper classes throughout the country. Potemkin now persuaded the Tsaritsa to create him Duke of Courland. Rumour, too, was busy with the names of otfyer favourites. 1769] THE REIGN OP CATHERINE 22 1 We must now turn to the wars which Russia under Catherine was destined to wage against the Turks. Turkey had long felt that sooner or later, owing to the great increase of Russia, she must measure swords with that power, and accordingly declared war in 1767. The Turks, however, had made their preparations in such a dilatory fashion that the Russians were quite ready for them when the crisis arrived. More than 300,000 Turks under the command of the Grand Vizier prepared to enter Poland in 1769, with the view of driving the Russians out of that country and removing^ Stanislaus Augustus from the throne. This was in accord- ance with the Sultan's invariable policy of minimising the Russian influence in Poland. The Empress replied by send- ing into the field two armies : one under the command of Prince Alexander Golitsin, whose object was to prevent the Grand Vizier from entering Poland ; the second, under the command of Count Peter Rumiantsov, was to defend the southern parts of the Empire from the inroads of the Tatars of the Crimea. Besides these detachments were sent to the Kuban with a view of creating a diversion on the part of the Turkish forces, and to the Caucasus in order to co-operate with the Georgians who were anxious of liberating themselves from the yoke of the Porte. The first year of the war (1769) was not distinguished by any decisive engagements. The Vizier crossed the Danube and directed his march into Podolia. Golitsin blocked his route at Khotin and so prevented him from crossing the Dniester. He succeeded, moreover, in compelling the Turkish army to recross the Danube. This they did in some confusion, and Khotin, a place very celebrated in Slavonic history, surrendered to the Russians. Catherine, however, not contented with the way in which Prince Golitsin was conducting the war, recalled him and entrusted the chief command to Count Rumiantsov. It was now resolved to get possession of the Turkish fortresses on the left bank of the Danube beginning with Bender; and in the meantime the Russian fleet was sent into the Mediterranean to attack Turkey from the side on 222 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mo which she felt herself quite secure. The Sultan, on his part, was discontented with the Grand Vizier and the Khan of the Crimea, and the former was in consequence superseded by Halil Pasha, and Ghirei was made Khan of the Crimea. Potemkin who was rising in importance as a military man, served under Golitsin and Rumiantsov, but it was not until after the conclusion of peace that his brilliant career began. In the spring of the year 1770, Turkey concentrated her forces consisting of more than 250,000 men on the left bank of the Danube, between the Pruth and the Dniester. The Russian forces amounted to something less. Rumiantsov hurried to the scene of action. Having ascertained that the Khan of the Crimea had already appeared in the neighbourhood of Bender, the siege of which had been entrusted to Count P. Panin, and that the Turks were crossing the Danube in order to unite with the Tatars, he led his soldiers along the left bank of the Pruth so as to meet the Khan with the intention of defeating him before the Grand Vizier could come to his assistance. To insure rapidity in the expedition, the baggage was left behind, and the cheveux de /rise were abandoned, which up to that time were con- sidered indispensable in a war with the Turks. " Powder and the sword will be your defence," said Rumiant- sov to the Russian soldiers. On the 19th of July, he reached the bank of the Larga, and there found the army of the Khan of the Crimea in a well fortified position. This he proceeded to attack and succeeded in capturing together with all the Khan's artillery. He scattered the Tatars and then moved against the Vizier himself, who with the main army was advancing in the track of the Khan and had already reached Trajan's road. Here on the banks of the river Kagul Rumiantsov met him. The Vizier halted to fortify his camp and to give time for the Crimean Khan to collect his scattered hordes. They were intended to fall upon the Russian rear while he himself attacked in front. The position of Rumiant- sov was a dangerous one. His army consisted of no more than 17,000 men weakened by disease and by the loss of 1770] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 223 some regiments who were protecting the convoy of provisions. These men were exhausted by their rapid marches, by a battle which they had only recently fought, and by the deficiency of food. In sight were 150,000 Turks, and from behind they were threatened by 80,000 Tatars. But Rumiantsov managed to keep his presence of mind, and having given his soldiers a short time to rest, issued orders for the battle. His army was divided into five squares. General Bauer was ordered to attack the left wing of the enemy, and Prince Repnin and Count Bruce (a descendant of an old Scottish family) to surround the right, while Plemiannikov and Olets delivered the centre attack, the commander-in-chief being himself in front. On the night of the 2nd of August the army in squares quietly marched on the enemy, and when the morning broke went straight against the camp, which was protected with deep trenches. The Turks seemed at first panic-stricken at the sudden appearance of the Russians, but soon swarmed out of their entrenchments and threw the division of Plemian- nikov into confusion. This caused some hesitation on the part of the Russian right wing, and as a result some regiments were mown down by the Janissaries ; others began to retreat. Thereupon Rumiantsov rushed into the thickest part of the fray, and crying out " Stop, boys ! " rallied the fugitives. Led by him in person the Russians now took to their bayonets. The enemy began to waver, and his confusion was increased by the excellent fire of the artillery. At length, after many hours of stubborn fighting, the Russian soldiers rushed into the camp on all sides. The Vizier fled to Bulgaria, followed by the whole of the Turkish army. The passage of the Danube was a matter of some difficulty, and thousands of the Turks were drowned in its waters. The Khan of the Crimea, who had fallen upon the Russian rear, also took to flight and concealed himself at Ochakov. The whole Turkish baggage and artillery, and a vast quantity of treasure remained in the hands of the conquerors. Rumiantsov was loaded with honours by the Empress for his victory. 224 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i77<> The Russians were equally successful at sea. A short time before the decisive defeat of the Turkish army on the Kagul the Ottoman fleet was defeated in a naval engagement off Chesme, on the coast of Asia Minor. In the autumn of 1769 two Russian squadrons sailed from the Baltic into the Mediterranean. The first of these squadrons was commanded by Admiral Spiridov and the second by Vice-Admiral Elphin- stone, an officer of British birth. In spite of severe weather, violent storms, and inexperience on the part of his sailors, Spiridov passed the Sound, and getting supplies in England, CffESPfE. 1770. X'u.rjz-Ls'h. o £n 9 1.'° .1 •'■JlZi.l.es soon appeared in the Mediterranean to the great surprise of the Turks, who had never expected to see Russian ships in the waters of the Archipelago. Elphinstone appeared soon afterwards. The two squadrons united on the coasts of the Morea, and at the wish of the Empress the chief command was taken by Count Alexis Orlov, who, although not deficient in personal courage, does not seem to have possessed any special qualifications as an admiral. He came from Italy with his brother, Feodor. The object was to divert the Turkish troops by a blockade of the Morea, since an insur- rection on the part of the Greeks against their Ottoman oppressors had long been in contemplation. The Russians 1770] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 225 easily took possession of Navarino and Modon. The Mainotes were the first to arm themselves, and their example was quickly followed by others. To subdue the Greeks and drive away the Russians, the Sultan sent forces to the Morea and got ready his fleet. The Capitan-Pasha appeared on the coasts of the Morea, and at Napoli di Romani was met by the squadron of Elphinstone. The Russians bravely attacked him in spite of his superior forces, but the Turkish commander, declining a decisive engagement, sailed to the coasts of Asia Minor with a view of there reinforcing his fleet with some vessels which had come from Constantinople. As soon as Count Orlov ascertained thafthe Turks had made their appearance in the waters of the Archipelago he hoisted his flag, and set off in pursuit of the Capitan-Pasha. He did not have to wait long. The Turkish fleet, which was almost twice as large as that of the Russian admiral, took up a strong position in the bay of Smyrna and was drawn up in the form of a crescent under the shelter of the coast batteries. Here Orlov attacked. In front was Spiridov, in the centre the Count himself, and in the rear Elphinstone. The Capitan-Pasha had, shortly before the battle commenced, handed over the command of the fleet to his brave comrade Hassan-bey : he himself went on shore. The battle was sharp, and keenly contested on both sides; the ships, stationed at the distance of a pistol-shot from each other, were in many cases blown up, and the crews were burnt or drowned. The hero of this sanguinary battle was Admiral Spiridov. After a stubborn fight with three Turkish vessels, he grappled with Hassan himself, and both their vessels were blown up ; the respective admirals, however, having the good fortune to escape in time. The panic- stricken Turkish sailors hastened to shelter under the batteries in the bay of Chesme. Orlov lost no time in completing the discomfiture of the enemy; he blocked the entrance to the bay, and ordered Captain Greig, a Scotchman in the Russian service, to fall upon the enemy with a separate detachment of the fleet. p 226 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [wo Greig with great gallantry hurried into the bay and succeeded in silencing the Turkish batteries and burning some of the vessels. Two fire-ships, under the command respectively of the Russian Ilyin and the Englishman Dugdale, were navigated into the midst of the Turkish fleet and there left to work havoc. Similar tactics were at a later date employed successfully during the Greek war of Independence by Constantine Canaris. In the course of six hours the whole of the Ottoman fleet was destroyed. These achievements, however, were, as we shall see, but anticipations of Navarino and Sinope. Almost ioo Turkish vessels were destroyed on this occasion ; one vessel which escaped destruction fell into the hands of the Russians. It is interesting to observe how many Englishmen participated in this engagement. At a later period we shall find Billings in the service of Russia circumnavigating the globe. The news of the annihilation of their fleet threw the Turkish Government into consternation. Mustapha the Sultan trembled for his capital, fearing that the Russians would now force the passage of the Dardanelles. The fact being that their fortifications were in a deplorable condition. Orlov, however, did not know how to make use of his opportunity. The French agent Baron de Tott, who was in the Turkish service, repaired the forts of the Dardanelles and furnished them with artillery. He also fortified Constantinople, so that when the Russian admiral, after taking Mitylene and Lemnos — two very useless performances — resolved to go into the bay, he met with a warm reception from the Turks and lost many of his ships. Taking advantage, however, of the discomfiture of the TuTks, the Greeks and Slavs who were under her dominion rose, and the Pasha of Egypt also endeavoured to get rid of the Turkish suzerainty. Almost all the Turkish ports on the left bank of the Danube submitted to the Russian arms. Prince Repnin obtained possession of Ismail, Kilia and Akerman ; Count Panin of Bender ; and immediately after- wards Braila, Bucharest and Giurgevo surrendered. The 1774] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 227 Russians, moreover, induced the Crimean Tatars to declare themselves independent. After renewed successes of Rumiantsov on the Danube, the treaty of Kutchuk Kainardji, so-called from a village near Silistria, was signed on July 22, 1774. Its terms were as follows: — (1) Turkey agreed to recognise the independence of the Tatar Khans. This quasi-independence was only to serve as a preliminary to the annexation of the country by Russia. (2) Azov, Kertch, Yenikale, and Kinburn were to be ceded to Russia. Azov, so often contested in the old days, seized temporarily by the Cossacks in the time of the Emperor Alexis, then conquered and afterwards lost by Peter, was now to be finally annexed. At the present time, in spite of its geographical position, it has lost its strategic importance and has been reduced to insignificance by its flourishing neigh- bour Rostov on the Don. (3) Russian merchant ships were to have a free right of navigation from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean. (4) Russian subjects in the Turkish territories were to have all the privileges which the French and other more-favoured nations enjoyed. (5) The Greeks, Slavs, Moldavians, and Wallachians in the Turkish territories were not to be molested. This, however, was but a vague clause, and virtually abandoned them to the vengeance of the Turks. The Russian attempt to free the rayahs, though noble in itself, had not been successful. (6) The Turks were to pay the Russians 4,500,000 roubles as an indemnity for the expenses which they had incurred. (7) By the treaty of Kutchuk- Kainardji the right of interference on behalf of the Orthodox subjects of the Porte was conceded to Russia. In 1 77 1 the plague broke out at Moscow and committed fearful ravages. The sanitary measures proposed by the government were resisted by the ignorant people, and while endeavouring to enforce them, Ambrose the Archbishop of Moscow was slain. We now come to speak of the legislative and constitutional reforms effected by Catherine, for this able woman was to leave her name stamped upon Russian history in many 228 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [wee directions, (i) Catherine had always been a great reader, and had familiarised herself with, among other works, the writings of Montesquieu, Blackstone, and Beccaria. In 1766 appeared the Manifestu of Instruction (nakaz) given to the Commission of Jurists to whom she entrusted the duty of drawing up the new code. This commission was opened by Catherine in person on 30th July 1767, and the sittings com- menced on 3rd August at Moscow. The previous Russian codes were the Russkaya Pravda of Yaroslav in the twelfth century ; the Sudebniks (Law-books) of Ivans III. and IV.; and the Ulozhenie or ordinance of Alexis in 1649, memorable among other things for being the first code by which the peasant was bound to the soil. (2) The secularisation of the estates of the clergy has been already mentioned. (3) The position of the nobles in their relation to the sovereign was definitely fixed by Catherine, who had a high opinion of the importance to a country of its nobility, they being as it were the bulwark of the throne. She moreover revived the popular decree of Peter III. which provided that the nobility should not be constrained to enter the government service. In 1775 she gave a charter (Ztialovannaya Gramotd) to the nobility which in regard to the strength which it added to their power over the serfs, might almost be said to resemble the statute of Nieszawa in the time of Casimir IV. of Poland. But above all these concessions to the nobility, and indeed in the very forefront of the code was the assertion of the supreme autocratic authority of the Sovereign. This principle was affirmed in the most emphatic manner ; at the same time principles of the most magnanimous and enlightened kind were enunciated. " The nation is not made for the sovereign, but the sovereign for the nation. Equality consists in the citizens being obliged to obey the law only. Liberty is the right of doing everything which is not forbidden by the law." (4) Catherine did a great deal to improve the condition of the burgher or middle classes, who before her time had been treated almost as on the same level as serfs. Many new towns were built, and the population of the country increased 1783] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 229 in a remarkable degree. Everywhere factories were erected for new industries. (5) With regard to the serfs their position cannot be said to have been improved. The very indepen- dence of action allowed to the nobility in some points made it more easy for them to maltreat their peasants without interference by the crown. Catherine, however, sometimes was able to interpose with effect, as in the case of the " Saltichika," so-called from a lady of the aristocratic and wealthy family of the Saltikovs. This cruel woman had practically tortured to death some of her female serfs, and was justly sentenced to imprisonment for life. It is true that Catherine has been charged with having drifted far away from her liberal ideas towards the close of her reign. What may have been the reason for this change we shall consider shortly. In the meantime the next important event of her reign which calls for mention is the annexation of the Crimea, which already had been for some years a quasi-independent state under the protection of Russia. In this connection too we have to deal with the second Turkish war (1787-1791) and the doings of Potemkin and Suvorov. The former had been at great pains to colonise the territories which the Russians had recently acquired from the Turks. In 1782 he had removed about one hundred families who had been induced to emigrate from divers parts of Germany to the govern- ment of Azov. Since Russia had held the protectorate of the Crimea there had been a succession of Khans and the country was now in a very unsettled state. In 1783, however, Potemkin took possession, whereupon the Khan resigned and was to receive a pension of 200,000 roubles annually. He retired, however, to Moldavia, then under Ottoman rule, whence he was carried off to Rhodes and there strangled by the Turks. But before Potemkin had time to consolidate his conquests, an insurrection broke out among the Tatars, who were unwilling to become the subjects of Russia, and were far more in sympathy with their Turkish co-religionists. The outbreak was suppressed with great severity, and Potemkin busied himself more than ever with 230 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i787 his favourite plan of the humiliation of Turkey. The Empress appointed him Governor-General of the Crimea as well as president of the military college, and he displayed con- siderable ability in the changes which he introduced into the army. He reorganised the troops and made some very successful modifications in their dress. As a reward for the annexation of the Crimea, Catherine made him Field-Marshal and Prince of the Tauris. Owing to the provocations which they were continually receiving from him, the Turks proclaimed war against the Russians in 1787, and, according to the barbarous custom then prevailing, Bulgakov, the Russian ambassador, was sent as a prisoner to the castle of the Seven Towers, a prison too well known for the horrors it has witnessed. Great preparations were made for war on both sides. Potemkin, as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian forces, had under his orders the old marshal Rumiantsov and the already famous Suvorov. He formed his army into two main divisions : one, the army of the Ukraine, was placed under the command of Rumiantsov and was to begin hostilities in Moldavia; the other was commanded by Potemkin in person, and marched in the direction of Ochakov. The Turks were very anxious to recover Kinburn, which is situated exactly opposite to Ochakov, from which place it is separated by the mouth of the Dnieper. But their attack was repulsed with great loss by Suvorov, who was himself wounded in the conflict. Potemkin spent the winter of 1787 at Elisavetgrad. Here he conceived the curious idea of raising a regiment of Jews, which he humorously styled Israelovski. It was about this time that the wife of Paul entreated Catherine that her husband might be allowed to go to the war. Catherine, who always kept Paul in the background as much as possible, met this with a peremptory refusal. When the Grand Duke urged that he would be considered a coward, Catherine answered him curtly, "It will be said that the Grand Duke is an obedient son." Potemkin now made all preparations for the siege of Ochakov. A Turkish fleet was lying under its walls, 1789] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 231 but was dispersed by the Russian fleet under the command of Prince Nassau and Commodore Paul Jones. This extraor- dinary Scotchman had turned filibuster, changing his name from John Paul, and had successively entered the American and Russian services. Among his other achieve- ments he landed in Scotland and burnt the village in which he was born. Ochakov was eventually taken under circumstances in which no quarter was given or expected. Eight thousand, three hundred Ottomans are said to have been killed during the siege. Tooke says that 12,000 perished. At the close of the campaign Potemkin, having stationed his infantry in Ochakov and Moldavia, and sent his cavalry beyond the Dniester, hastened back to St Petersburg. Catherine had resolved to give her favourite a triumphant reception, and ordered the road by which he was to arrive to be illuminated for a distance of six miles. St Petersburg now became for some time en- grossed with the long series of festivities given in honour of Potemkin. In the spring of the next year the war with Turkey was resumed, and engagements took place on the banks of the Pruth. On July 21st, 1789, the Turks were repulsed by Suvorov at Fokshani in what is now Roumania ; and Repnin defeated Hassan Pasha, the Seraskier, who shut himself up in Ismail. Suvorov had greatly distinguished himself at Rymnik, and as a reward Catherine had made him a count, with the title of Rymnikski in 1 789. He now advanced upon Ismail. Kamenski, another Russian general, laid Galatz in ashes, and Bender was also taken. Ismail was captured at the beginning of 1790; 35, 000 Turks are said to have been slain in this battle, which is familiar to many from the vigorous description of Byron. Thus ended the campaign of 1790. We have, however, somewhat anticipated the chronological sequence of events, and must now return to the Crimea. This was a most important addition to Russian territory. A Scot named Mackenzie had pointed out the advantageous situation of the bay where Sevastopol was afterwards built. The Turkish name of the place was Akhtiar ; and the capital 232 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1787 during the occupation of the country by the Khans had been Bakchisarai, where the picturesque palace may still be seen. Its beauties have been sung by two of the foremost Slavonic poets, Pushkin and Mickiewicz. Catherine now determined to visit the new territory which had been acquired for her in a large measure by the efforts of her brilliant but fantastic favourite. She started on the 14th of January 1787, accom- panied by a gorgeous retinue. She had originally intended to take the Grand Dukes Alexander and Constantine with her, but they had to be left behind on account of illness. They seem to have been too young to bear the fatigues of the journey. On the confines of each Russian government the Empress was received by each governor-general in turn. Potemkin met her at the ancient and picturesque town of Kiev, and here she embarked on the stately Dnieper, escorted by a fleet of fifty galleys. All kinds of droll stories are told of the way in which Potemkin had made the newly acquired territories through which she passed, appear populous and flourishing. Some of these anecdotes are too good to be true, and indeed no country has been the subject of so many ill-founded stories as Russia. At Kudak, the ancient capital of the Zaporozhian Cossacks, she was met by Joseph II. of Austria ; and at Kherson she was confronted by the inscription : This is the way to Byzantium. The limit of her journey was reached at Stary Krim ; thence she slowly made her way back to Moscow, where Joseph took leave of her, and she then proceeded to St Petersburg. The career of Potemkin was now soon to close. After the campaign of 1790 he arranged the winter quarters of his troops, and repaired to Jassy. He then again made a triumphal expedition to St Petersburg. The road was again illuminated for his journey, and it was on the occasion of this last visit that he gave his magnificent entertainment to the Empress in his Taurian Palace. Reading the details of this gorgeous banquet, we seem to have before us a page of the " Thousand and One Nights." The company began to assemble at six o'clock ; and when the carriage of the Empress 1791] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 233 approached, meat, liquor, and clothes were abundantly dis- tributed among the mob standing at the doors. The Prince handed the Empress from her carriage. He wore a scarlet coat, over which hung a long cloak of gold lace, ornamented with precious stones. His dress was loaded with diamonds, and his hat was so heavy with them that it had to be carried by an aide-de-camp. On the entrance of Catherine a symphony was played by more than three hundred musicians. She took her seat upon a throne, surrounded with transparencies with appropriate mottoes. The Grand Dukes Alexander and Constantine at the head of the most beautiful young persons of the court now danced a ballet. This was followed by several other ballets, and every room of the palace was brilliantly lighted. Six hundred guests were present at the banquet. Potemkin stood behind the chair of the Empress, and did not sit down till she had repeatedly ordered him to do so. The tables were loaded with gold plate, and the most exquisite viands and wines. Contrary to her general rule, the Empress stayed till one o'clock in the morning : she seemed loath to disturb the universal pleasure. As she retired, numerous voices accom- panied by suitable instruments chanted a hymn in her praise. She was much affected, and turned to Potemkin to express her satisfaction. The latter fell on his knees and clasped her hand with tears in his eyes. Meanwhile, in his absence, Prince Repnin in the beginning of 1 79 1 opened the new campaign with some brilliant manoeuvres. The Turks were now anxious for peace, and the preliminaries were signed while Potemkin still delayed at St Petersburg. The great man whom all Russia had obeyed now began to show signs of premature decay. However he managed, though broken in health, to get to the south again ; and on his arrival at Jassy sent for Repnin and upbraided him for having dared to fight and make peace during his absence. Repnin, however, boldly answered that the only person to whom he had to give account was his sovereign. But Potemkin's originally vigorous constitution was now fast 234 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i»i breaking up. He could hardly endure any exertion. Life seemed to be ebbing without any apparent malady. He refused to pay attention to the admonitions of his physician, and ate salt meat and raw turnips as if by way of bravado, while he continued to ruin his constitution by the excessive use of wine and spirits. Finally he resolved to quit Jassy, as the place did not suit him, and attempted to get to Ochakov, the scene of his former triumphs. On the morning of October 13th, 1 791, at three o'clock he set out; but he had only travelled a few versts when the motion of the carriage became intolerable to him. He got out and lay upon a carpet, which was spread at the foot of a tree. Suddenly he became speechless, and could only press the hand of his niece, Countess Branicka, in whose arms he expired. He had only reached the age of fifty-two years. Such was the end of this remarkable man, who, though he had undoubtedly considerable talent, is now remembered chiefly for his luxury and caprice. Catherine received the news of his death with great sorrow, and remained for some time in a state of melancholy. By Paul his memory was regarded with loathing. He was at first interred in the Cathedral of Kherson, but his final resting-place is not known, as Paul caused the remains to be moved and thrown into a common pit. Russia had now on hand wars both with Turkey and with Sweden. The throne of the latter country was then oc- cupied by the fantastic Gustavus III., in whom some persons have seen a great statesman. Gustavus had very exaggerated ideas of his own dignity, and of the position to which he could raise Sweden. His assumption of almost autocratic power belongs, however, to the history of his own country. It was owing to the aggrandisement of Russia that his plans for the development of Sweden according to his own fashion were thwarted. He kept watching for his opportunity, and had even thought of attacking Russia during the revolt of Pugachev. At that time the greater part of Russia's fighting power was occupied in the South, and if Gustavus had had the prudence 1790] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 235 to wait a little longer, the Russian fleet would also have sailed southward. • War having been declared, Greig, the Russian admiral, attacked the Swedish fleet under the command of the Duke of Sudermanland, off the island of Hogland. Each side lost a vessel, and the battle was on the whole inde- cisive, but the Swedish fleet was compelled to seek safety under the guns of Sveaborg where they were blockaded by Greig during the remainder of the campaign. On land the King was also unsuccessful ; his own nobles intrigued against him and even entered into secret correspondence with the Russians. When Gustavus returned to Stockholm, he effected a kind of coup d'itat, by which he made himself more than ever absolute master of the country. Meanwhile, however, his nobles had concluded a truce with Russia, as a result of which the Swedish fleet no longer remained locked up at Sveaborg. In 1790 the struggle was renewed and chiefly in the Gulf of Finland. The Swedish fleet under the command of the Duke of Sudermanland succeeded in getting out to sea before the two Russian squadrons (of Revel and Cronstadt) could effect a union, and taking advantage of their superiority in numbers, made a bold attack upon Revel, but without success. Having been defeated by Chichagov, the Russian admiral, the Swedish commander returned to Cronstadt with the intention of destroying the squadron lying there under the command of Admiral Kruze, thus clearing the road for Gustavus, with his fleet of galleys and troops to make a descent upon St Petersburg. The brave Kruze, who had co-operated with Orlov and Spiridov in the waters of the Archipelago, met the Swedes at the island of Seskar, and a severe engagement took place. During the whole day, from dawn till late at night, the cannonade resounded at St Peters- burg, which was thrown into a state of consternation. Kruze succeeded in routing the Swedes and effecting a union with Chichagov, who on the death of Greig had taken over the chief command of the Russian fleet. 236 ' A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [noo The Duke of Sudermanland returrfed to the Gulf of Vyborg where the King himself had remained. Chichagov, however, blocked the entrance of the bay, and thus shut the Swedes in. This continued for a whole month, and when the want of provisions and water came to be severely felt, the Russians, knowing their desperate condition, offered terms. But Gustavus by a bold effort broke through the Russian line and cut his way in heroic fashion to Sveaborg, at the cost of losing a third of his fleet. He was able, moreover, to take vengeance upon Prince Nassau-Siegen, one of the Russian admirals, who, while pursuing the flying Swedes, came on the flotilla of galleys at Rochensalm : here his fleet was partly wrecked on the rocks and partly driven ashore, the whole squadron being thrown into the greatest confusion. The Swedes thus encouraged, fell upon the bewildered Russians, captured many of their vessels and took prisoners about six thousand men. The Prince himself escaped with difficulty. But Gustavus felt himself unable to prolong the struggle, and- a treaty was accordingly concluded at Verela on the Kymene, in the spring of 1790. All this blood had been shed for no purpose, and Gustavus had wasted the treasures of his poor kingdom Without accomplishing anything. Matters between Sweden and Russia were to remain on the same footing as that on which they had been in the spring of 1788. Foiled in his atttempts upon Russia, Gustavus next conceived the idea of trying to restore, the Bourbon family to the throne of France, and proposed to send a fleet to attack the French coast. He even seems to have thought himself competent to take the supreme command of the allied Austrian and Prussian forces against the French revolutionists. But the resources of Sweden were now ex- hausted. A conspiracy against Gustavus was formed by some of the chief nobility, of which the directing spirit was a retired military officer named Ankerstrom. This man had received a personal injury from Gustavus, and in the end shot the king at a masked ball held in the Opera House at Stockholm, March 16th, 1792. 1792} V THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 237 Fortunately for Russia, hampered in so many ways, she was able to conclude a satisfactory peace with Turkey. Jassy was appointed as the place of meeting of the pleni- potentiaries. Owing to his illness, Potemkin could take no part in these negotiations, and he soon afterwards died. But Count Bezborodko was sent to act for him, and the treaty was concluded on 10th of January 1792. The Turks agreed to carry out all the stipulations of the treaty of Kutchuk- Kainardji; to recognise the authority of Russia over the Crimea, and to cede to her, together with Ochakov, the country between the Bug and the Dniester. It remains to describe the last agonies and the final partition of unhappy Poland. She had struggled on since the first partition in a state of great weakness. The European powers were partly apathetic and partly hostile. To the latter class belonged Russia, Prussia and Austria. Frederick the Great, one of the most uncompromising enemies of the Republic, died in 1786, and was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II., as unprincipled as his uncle, without possessing the latter's ability. In her difficulty Poland appealed to the German Emperor, the weak Francis II., who had succeeded in 1792, but received only a shuffling answer. In 1788 the celebrated four years' diet was opened, in which the Poles, by a series of judicious changes, endeavoured to eliminate the incongruities and anachronisms of their constitution. Had these salutary measures been carried out, Poland might perhaps have raised her head once more. But her enemies were determined that nothing of the sort should be done. Russia protested against this constitution, sending 100,000 men into the country, and on June 8th, 1792, the King of Prussia wrote to Stanislaus, letting it be seen very clearly that he intended to help Catherine. He also despatched a body of troops, under General Mdllendorf, who, on January 24th, 1793, entered Thorn, and soon afterwards seized Danzig. The Diet appointed Stanislaus commander-in-chief of the forces, but he did not go into the camp. The Prussians declared that Danzig was a seat of Jacobinism. Thorn, the Palatinate of 238 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1793 Posen,- and other territories were then occupied. At the end of the same year a final constitutional struggle took place at Grodno. At the second partition Prussia acquired the remainder of great Poland, and the Russian boundary was advanced to the centre of Lithuania and Volhynia. To carry this out the Russian troops occupied territory from Couriand to Galicia. The Prussians now bombarded Warsaw with vigour, but without doing much damage to the city. The King of Poland was himself in command, though no one seems to have paid any attention to his authority. If we wish to get an idea of the state of affairs in the beleagured city, we must read the memoirs of Kilinski, the patriotic shoe- maker. A supplementary volume of these memoirs, the manuscript of which has lately been discovered, was published at Cracow in 1899. The popular party got the power entirely into their hands, and hanged some of the nobles who were supposed to have betrayed the national interests at the diet of Grodno. In this ignominious way perished Bishop Kossakowski, the hetman Ozarowski, and others. The heroic figure of Thaddeus Kosciuszko now comes upon the scene. He marched upon Warsaw and compelled the Prussians to raise the siege. It was at this time that Michael Poniatowski, the brother of the king, and primate of Poland, committed suicide. Thinking only of his own safety and that of his connexions, he entered into treasonable correspondence with the Prussian king. In the hope that he and his family would be rescued from the turbulence of the inhabitants, he sent a trusted messenger through the Polish lines, but the manner of the man attracted suspicion ; he was searched, and the letter of the primate was found upon him. The matter was at once brought to the knowledge of the king. According to a diarist, Stanislaus sent to his brother a packet containing poison. In the accompanying letter the king told him frankly that if he was guilty he had better take the poison, as there was no other way of escape. No sooner had the Primate finished reading the letter than he was given to understand that a mob was assembling in the courtyard of 1794] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 239 his palace, and a gallows was being prepared for him. The unfortunate man did not hesitate a moment, but swallowed the poison, which was so powerful that it took effect in half- an-hour. In spite of the manner of his death the Primate was accorded a pompous funeral at which all the clergy of the diocese were present. For some days after the event, we are told, the unhappy King was a prey to the deepest melancholy. The efforts of the noble Kosciuszko to stop the dismember- ment of his country for a second time were fruitless. He was defeated by Suvorov at the battle of Macieiowice, near War- saw (Oct. 1794). Here he received a severe wound, was carried from the battle half dead and sent into Russia as a prisoner. The Poles, disheartened at this loss, endeavoured to enter into negociations with the Russians, but the latter would hear of nothing short of unconditional surrender. Still there was as yet no thought of abandoning their country, and it is well known that to the day of his death Kosciuszko denied having uttered the words "Finis Polonise." They resolved to defend themselves to the last extremity, and gave the command of the army to General Zajaczek. Suvorov then advanced upon Warsaw and on the 2nd of November stormed the suburb Praga which is connected with the city by a bridge over the Vistula. Here a frightful mas- sacre occurred ; thousands of Poles being slaughtered or drowned in the river. According to some accounts Suvorov did what he could to stop the bloodshed and tried to prevent the Russian soldiers from going upon the bridge at all, but when he saw the fury of his soldiers upon whom the very women fired and threw stones from the windows, he ordered the bridge to be broken, and thus, it is said, saved Warsaw from the fate of Praga. It is even said that out of gratitude for this the magistracy of Warsaw, in the name of the citizens, presented him with a golden snuff-box set in precious stones, bearing upon it the arms of the city (a siren with a sword), and underneath the significant inscription Warszawa zbawcy swemu (Warsaw to her deliverer), and the date Nov. 4, 1794, i.e. that of the storming of Praga. This story has of late been 240 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1795 repeated in the Russian newspapers apropos of the hundredth anniversary of the death of Suvorov. In the midst of all these horrors Stanislaus sent a letter to the triumphant general imploring him to grant an armistice; but Suvorov would listen to nothing but surrender. He promised, how- ever, that the king should be confirmed in his authority, and that the lives and property of the inhabitants should be re- spected. The Polish envoy had found the general with all his usual Spartan simplicity, seated on a block of wood with another block of wood as his table. Finally the city capitu- lated on the 8th, and on the following day Suvorov paid a visit to King Stanislaus. The Polish army was now dis- banded and the third partition of the country was settled. Austria seized Cracow, together with all the country lying between the Pilica, the Vistula and Bug. Prussia took Warsaw with the territory as far as the Niemen ; the rest was handed over to Russia. Stanislaus resigned the crown at Grodno on April 25, 1795, and went to live at St Petersburg. He died three years later and was buried in the Roman Catholic Church on the Nevski Prospect. At first Paul had treated him kindly, but afterwards with much hauteur and neglect. Paul had previously made his acquaintance during a tour which he had made with his wife in 1780. This journey seems to have been planned by the Empress, who settled the day of departure, the duration of the tour and the countries which were to be visited. The Grand Duke had agreed to everything, only asking that his friend Prince Kurakin should accompany them and that the Court of Versailles should be included among those which they were to visit. The Grand Duchess had wished to see Berlin, but the Empress angrily refused her consent to this. Catherine had not been altogether satisfied with this ex- pedition. At Vienna they had displayed no cordiality towards the Emperor, and had taken no pains to conceal their sym- pathy with the King of Prussia. Moreover they had con- tracted immense debts during their absence ; and Catherine had showed her displeasure in a somewhat feminine manner. 1795] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 241 She issued a sumptuary law against the extravagance of women's dress ; thereby rebuking the weakness of her daughter- in-law, who had ordered two hundred boxes of feminine finery to be forwarded from France. We learn this piece of news from the English Ambassador. It was, as we have said, during this tour that Stanislaus had welcomed Paul at Wisniowiec. In the last year of her reign, Catherine had to undergo a considerable humiliation at the hands of the Swedes. A plan had been formed for marrying the Princess Alexandra, the grand-daughter of the Empress, to the young king, Gustavus IV. He accordingly visited St Petersburg, was duly betrothed, and all preparations for the marriage were made. The bridegroom, however, at the last moment refused to allow the Princess to have a private chapel in the Royal Palace for the service of the Orthodox Church,' and required that she should always in public conform to the ritual of the country. The marriage was accordingly broken off. The Empress refused to hold any further intercourse with him, and Gustavus returned to his native country. In the same year he married a Princess of Baden. Alexandra was afterwards wedded to Joseph, the Palatine of Hungary, and died in 1801. Had she married Gustavus, her lot would have been an unenviable one, as he was afterwards driven from his throne by his subjects. In 1795 Courland was definitively united to Russia. It had been a dependency ever since the marriage of Anne, the niece of Peter the Great, with the Duke. Later, Biren had been made Duke, and it had been again handed over to him when he returned from exile. He had been succeeded by his son, Peter, who was regarded by the Courlanders with contempt. They now voluntarily became Russian subjects, and have remained Russian ever since. On Nov. 17, 1796, Catherine expired. She was found on the floor of her room in a state of lethargy, having the evening before been unusually vivacious. The English Ambassador, Sir Charles Whitworth, thus communicated to his Government by courier the news of the decease of the Empress : " All Q 242 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i7M who saw the Empress last Tuesday had never found her more cheerful and lively than she was on that day, both morning and evening. On the same night she slept very well, and, according to her custom, rose on Wednesday between six and seven o'clock, drank some coffee, and then wrote a little, as she always devoted herself to literary work in the morning hours, which were too early for her ministers. . . . Only when the Empress had retired to her study, the persons in attend- ance upon her began to be troubled, noticing that she remained there so much longer than she generally did, and so, after half an hour had elapsed, they opened the door and found the Empress lying on the floor, with all the signs of a severe stroke of apoplexy. Assistance was immediately at hand, and all means usual on such occasions were employed, but with- out success. From the first stroke till her last moment the Empress never opened her eyes, being in a complete lethargy, and last night, at a quarter to ten, this incomparable Empress finished her brilliant reign. According to the story of Count Rostopchin, Dr Rogerson let blood, and applied Spanish flies, but agreed with the rest of the doctors in thinking the stroke fatal." The reign of Catherine may be considered the second greatest in the annals of Russia. The constitutional changes introduced by her have been already mentioned. Her foreign policy, likewise, had been eminently successful. The Turks and Swedes had been humiliated, and unhappy Poland, the hereditary enemy of Russia, was now divided and power- less. The gain in territory had been immense, especially in the west and south. The rich alluvial plains of Volhynia and Podolia, known as "the district of the black lands," had been added to the Empire. The frontier was now protected on every side, save only as regards Finland, which was annexed later by Alexander I. Of the many new towns called into existence by Catherine, we have already spoken, though we shall find later that some of her work in this respect was undone by Paul, who was never so happy as when he was nullifying his mother's 1796] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 243 labours. Russia was divided into Governments (Gubernii), which were again sub-divided into districts or arrondisse- ments (uyezdi). Something like a national literature now came into being; though Michael Lomonosov, the father of the modern style, can hardly be considered as belonging to her reign, seeing that he died in 1765. A galaxy of authors enjoyed the patronage of the Court, some of whom, however, are now almost forgotten. It was necessary in those days for a poet to seek court favour, for the reading public was too small to enable a writer to live by his works. Michael Kheraskov (1733-1807) wrote two epics : the Rossiada in twelve books, and Vladimer in eight. These productions belong to the school of the Henriade. Perhaps at a future day their chief claim to be remembered will be based on the fact that it was they which first aroused in Turgueniev when a boy a love for the language and literature of his country. The poems of Kheraskov were read to him by one of the family serfs. Bogdanovich (1 743-1 803) has left a graceful poem entitled "Dushenka," which is a Russian adaptation of the story of Cupid and Psyche. Khemnitzer is important as being the first Russian fabulist and as having developed a species of literature which is peculiarly adapted to the Russian character. He was the precursor of the witty Krilov. In Sumarokov, who died in 1777, Russia had a playwright of considerable merit. At first a mere imitator of the French, and, indeed, he never got out of the heresy of the rhymed tragedy, he afterwards took to national subjects, and saw the highly dramatic nature of the story of the False Demetrius, as, indeed, did Lope de Vega in a contemporary Spanish play. But the laureate of the court of Catherine was Derzhavin (1743-1816), a man who attempted many kinds of com- position. He wrote a grandiose ode on the taking of Izmail bySuvorov; another entitled " The Waterfall," and a poem addressed to the Almighty. He handles his native language 244 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1796 with considerable dexterity, though somewhat bombastic; rhetorical poetry being at that time greatly in vogue through- out Europe. Derzhavin imitated such works as the " Night Thoughts'' of Young, of which a Russian version had appeared. It is an interesting fact that English literature began almost at once to influence the Russian Petrine renaissance, as we may call it, and has continued to do so to the present day. Translations of Sterne, Smollett, and Fielding appeared, and Shakespeare began to be dimly known. Indeed Catherine herself wrote a kind of adaptation of the " Merry Wives of Windsor." Genuine Russian comedy appeared in the writings of Von Visin (1744-1792). In spite of his German name the author was a thorough Russian. One of his ancestors had been taken prisoner in the wars waged by Ivan the Terrible in the Baltic provinces. The two plays of Von Visin are the Brigadier and the Minor (Nedorosl). It is upon the latter that his fame chiefly rests. He has drawn a vigorous picture of the coarseness and ignorance of Russian provincial life. Besides these comedies we have some very interesting letters of Von Visin describing the condition' of France just before the Revolution. 'As already said, Catherine has been charged by some writers with having in the latter part of her reign abandoned her enthusiasm for liberty. The charge seems to a certain extent just, and the cause must be sought in the universal terror aroused by the excesses of the French Revolution. We know from what happened in our own country, that the Russians were not alone in being affected in this way. The persecution of Novikov was one result of this change in Catherine's views. He was one of the most prominent literary men of the day, having been born in the village of Tikhvinka, near Moscow, in 1744. After serving for some time in the army he retired and took to literary pursuits. He was indefatigable in his efforts to educate the people, and published a series of valuable works, such as the " Old 1796] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 245 Russian Library/' the " Dictionary of Russian Authors,'' and various translations of foreign works. He was, in fact, like Charles Knight in this country, a pioneer in the cause of national education ; his object being to provide the Russian public with wholesome books. These were the great days of periodicals, the example for which had been given by Addison in the Spectator. These periodicals became very popular in Russia, and one of the best-known editors of them was Novikov. Even Catherine herself condescended occasionally to write in them. At first Novikov published a journal called the Drone (Truten) in opposition to the Busy Bee (Trudoliubivaya Pcheld) of Sumarokov, and afterwards another named The, Painter (Zhivopisets). Just as Addison playfully touched upon the foibles and shortcomings of English society, so did Novikov in the Essays which he published in his periodicals. Thus we have letters of a father and mother to their son, and of an uncle to his niece. Many of these are very amusing and show clearly enough the faults of contemporary Russian society. In this respect Novikov became an admirable co- operator with the spirited comedies of Von Visin. It was, however, not until he had taken up his abode at Moscow, toward the end of the seventies, that Novikov began his great efforts fpr the intellectual and social progress of his countrymen. The journal Moscow News (Moskovskia Viedo- mosti) had about 600 subscribers till Novikov became the editor. In ten years the number had increased to 4000 — a proof that the Russian public was eager for literature. Soon after this Novikov and his friend Gamaleya founded a learned society, with which another friend, Prof. Schwarz, also co-operated. The object of it was to improve education in the country. Funds were procured from those who sympathised with the plan, and poor students were supported, who in their turn became teachers and spread education. Not contented with this, they also began to establish libraries in various towns and to sell books at a low price. They soon inspired such confidence that many outsiders began to 246 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1796 invest their capital in the undertaking. Novikov, however, in consequence of his liberal opinions, got into trouble with the Government, which was increased by the fact that he was mixed up with some secret societies, to all of which Catherine had a great objection. As a result of this, the courageous litterateur was imprisoned in the fortress of Schliisselburg, where he remained till the death of the Empress. When Paul came to the throne he at once ordered him to be released and wished him to come to court. But Novikov, weighed down with years and troubles, retired to his estate at Tikhvinka and there died in 1818. Under the regime of Catherine an entirely new system of education was introduced, chiefly through the labours of Betski and Zavadovski. Schools were established for all classes of society. The St Petersburg Academy of Sciences, in spite of many unfavourable circumstances into which it was forced by the influence of ignorant people, laboured to considerable advantage. The brothers Bernoulli, Delille and especially the famous Euler, rendered great services to mathematics. Bayer, one of the chief philologists of his time, was the first critical'writer on Russian history, a branch of study which has been greatly developed in Russia in our own time. The Russians are fortunate in having a series of chronicles in the vernacular extending from the time of Nestor, who was born about 1056 and died about n 14, to the days of Alexis the father of Peter the Great. We have no space to discuss these lietopisi of the various cities written chiefly by monks in their cloisters; but it will not be inappropriate here to say something about' the rise of historical study which may be said to date from the days of Catherine. The old chronicles are for the most part dry, always excepting that called after Nestor, which contains many picturesque sagas. They furnish, however, very valuable matter, and must be consulted by all those who wish to thoroughly understand Russian history. The attempt of Basil Tatistchev (1685- 1751) has already been mentioned. Lomonosov also wrote a short Russian history, but of no particular merit. The first 1790] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 247 real Russian historian was Nicholas Karamzin who, although he wrote some works in the reign of Catherine, produced his opus magnum in that of Alexander, where we propose to deal with him at greater length. If the treatment of Novikov by Catherine was harsh, still more severe was her behaviour towards Radistchev, a Russian official. The latter had been educated at the University of Leipzig, where he had inbibed liberal ideas. In a work entitled, "A Journey to Moscow," the idea of which is taken from Sterne's "Sentimental Journey," he described some of the more distressing results of serfdom and told some disagreeable truths which were by no means acceptable to those in authority. For this he was banished to Siberia, but after a time was allowed to return. The obnoxious book appeared in 1790, and was printed by Radistchev at his own press. It managed to pass the censor ; and Radistchev, by sending copies to his friends and acquaintances, placed many of them and more particularly Derzhavin in a very awkward position. The poet, however, got out of the predicament by informing against the book ; on July 8th, Khrapovitski, the secretary of the Empress who has left a very interesting diary, writes that Catherine, speak- ing of Radistchev's book, had said : " It is a spreading of the French plague ; the author is a martinist, he is a rebel worse than Pugachev, he praises Franklin." In this same month of July the Empress ordered the writer to be arrested and tried. She wrote to General Bruce that " The Journey to Moscow " was a book filled with the most prejudicial ideas calculated to disturb the public peace, weakening that due respect which ought to be felt for the authorities, aiming at pro- ducing among the people discontent with the government, and finally, containing insulting expressions against the Imperial dignity and power. Radistchev was arrested and brought" before Bruce, after which he was thrown into chains and imprisoned in a fortress. He was ultimately sent to Siberia for ten years, but after little more than a year was allowed to return to his country seat. He did not, however, visit the 248 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1790 capital again till the reign of Alexander I., who restored to him his rank and orders and put him into a commission for codifying the laws. Count Peter Vasilievich Zavadovski, who was the president of this commission, did not appreciate the ideas of Radistchev, which the latter was too fond of ventilat- ing. Radistchev had drawn up the plan of a civil code which he proposed to lay before the Commission ; but before this could be done he had a misunderstanding with Count Zavadovski, in which the president remarked, among other things, that the opinions of Radistchev would bring him no good, and even introduced the fatal word Siberia. Radistchev was thunderstruck by this language, and said to his children : What, will they send me again to Siberia? In his project of legal reform, Radistchev proposed to introduce some very radical changes, such as the equality of all before the law, public trial, freedom of religious opinion and of the press, etc. On the morning of September 23, 1802, in an attack of hypochondria, he committed suicide by taking poison. Radistchev has a great reputation among his countrymen at the present day as one of the apostles of the emancipation of the serf. In - modern times " The Journey to Moscow " had become a rarity, although copies are occasionally to be found in old book shops. It has', however, latterly been republished in a very handsome style. Radistchev's book was certainly a very bold one for the time when it was written. He justifies the peasants who have assassinated a cruel master, just as some years later the serfs of Arakcheev actually murdered the housekeeper who had tyrannised over them. When Radistchev speaks of slavery he apostrophises it as an Asiatic barbarism which weighs upon the Slavs. Who, he asks, undergoes . this cruel bondage ? It is he who tills the soil, who provides us with the means of satisfying our hunger. Who, adds he, has a right to the soil ? Surely he who cultivates it. And can we call that state happy in which two-thirds of the citizens are deprived of their rights? l5o we call that a happy country where a hundred proud citizens enjoy every 1790] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 249 luxury, and a thousand have neither the food which is necessary to sustain existence nor shelter from the heat and cold? But Radistchev goes even further, and we cannot wonder at the Government becoming alarmed. He in fact prophesied a social war. "The danger," he says, "is gradu- ally coming. It already hangs over our heads. Already time is getting ready his scythe. If only a friend of humanity should come to awaken the poor wretches, he would precipitate the stroke.'' Catherine had spoken and written in a sentimental way about the serfs, but she was hardly prepared to find her theories so carefully worked out. As early as 1776 she had propounded to a society which she had formed questions as to the proper position of the labourer with reference to the land which he had cultivated ; and she seems at one time to have really nurtured ideas favourable to the emancipation of the serfs. But gradually she grew timid, and more particu- larly after the revolt of Pugachev. In 1775 when writing to Prince Viazemski she again urged that something should be done for the serfs, adding significantly, "they will sooner or later take the liberty which we refuse them," thus anticipating the sentiments of Radistchev. Count Bludov professed to have seen in Catherine's hands a duly drawn-up ukaze which provided that peasants born after 1785 should be free. But no such ukaze was ever promulgated. Among the papers of the Empress found after her death there is one dealing with the nineliundred thousand serfs who had been emancipated when the ecclesiastical estates were confiscated. The original of this, which has been published by the Russian Historical Society, is covered with annotations in the handwriting of Catherine, which show what labour she had spent upon it. The only definite plan she had seems to have been to apply municipal institutions to a rural population, which was perhaps not very likely to succeed. But in all these matters she had the nobility, with whose privileges she was interfering, arrayed against her. It is strange that holding these opinions she should have been so embittered against Radistchev. It is 2 so A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1778 perhaps even,, stranger that the emancipation of the serfs seventy years later should have been carried out very much upon the lines which he suggested. Catherine had kept up a learned correspondence with Voltaire, Diderot, and the Abbe Grimm, and had written as a woman fully abreast of the convictions of her century. But this was the spectre in her household. In spite of her many defects, as has been truly remarked by M. Tourneux in his work on Catherine's correspondence with Diderot, she had a great love for letters. She entered into correspondence with Voltaire as early as 1763, but was not successful in persuading him to come to Russia. He had grown rather shy of being the guest of foreign potentates, after his experiences with Frederick the Great. Diderot was then editing the Encyclopedic, which was officially suppressed in 1759, but still continued to be printed in Paris, and had many subscribers in Russia. Within three months of her accession, Catherine had com- missioned Ivan Shuvalov to ask D'Alembert to undertake the tuition of the Grand Duke, and to invite Diderot to finish the Encyclopaedia in Russia. But neither of these accepted the offer. D'Alembert alleged as an excuse that he had bad health ; and Diderot, to whom Voltaire communi- cated the proposals of Shuvalov, also refused to go. Cathe- rine, however, did not allow herself to be offended by this, and waited for a more convenient opportunity of renewing her overtures. Soon afterwards Diderot, who was poor, for the honorarium paid him by the publishers of the Encyclopaedia was but trifling, being anxious to provide for the future of his only child — a daughter — meditated selling his library. The news of this was conveyed to Catherine by some Russians residing at Paris. She at once offered to purchase the library on very favourable terms for the philosopher. She engaged to pay him sixteen thousand livres instead of the fifteen thousand which he asked, but the library was to remain with Diderot till the Empress required it to be sent. She also offered him a pension of a hundred pistoles annually. When 1773] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 251 the news of this munificence spread, the felicitations of Diderot and compliments to the Empress were boundless. Catherine replied that it would have been cruel to separate a learned man from his books. " I have often," she added, with delicate flattery, "had occasion to fear that my own would be taken from me," alluding to the espionage kept over her and her studies during the reign of Elizabeth. Diderot came to Russia in 1773; he seems to have surprised the courtiers by his brusque manners, and the scant ceremony with which he treated the Empress. Many lively discussions took place between them. On one occasion Catherine closed a conversation which was becoming dis- agreeable to her in the following way : — " Monsieur Diderot, I have heard with the greatest pleasure all with which your brilliant wit has inspired you, but out of those grand principles of yours, which I understand very well, good works could be manufactured, but little of a practical purpose. In your plans of reform you' forget the difference between our two positions : you only work upon paper, which allows everything; it is uniform, simple, and opposes no obstacle, either to your imagination or your pen ; while I, poor Empress, must work on human skin, which in a very different way is irritable and ticklish." After that, added Catherine, in repeating the story, we discussed no other subjects but morals and literature. In the year 1899, M. Tourneux published the contents of a little-known volume preserved at St Petersburg, containing notes of the conversations of Diderot with the Empress in the former's own handwriting. The French philosopher seems to have left Russia very contented and maintained a correspondence with the Empress. A further interesting episode of Catherine's reign upon which much light has recently been thrown, was her invitation to the French sculptor, Falconet, to execute a statue of Peter the Great. This proposal, however, was not altogether new on the part of Catherine. The agreement with Falconet was signed on the 31st of August 1766, and on the 15th of 252 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [was September following, he quitted France and did not return for eleven years. At this time large numbers of Frenchmen went to Russia in quest of a career, and of these, such as returned without having succeeded, had some harsh things to say. Among them may be mentioned de la Riviere, of whom Diderot wrote in such inflated terms. This celebrated physio- crat was, however, not acceptable to the Empress, and he him- self did not like Russia. He had held for some time an official position at La Martinique, and this explains the allusion in the following cutting saying of the Empress : " He supposed we walked on all fours, and very politely he took the trouble to come from La Martinique to teach us how to stand on our hind legs." Catherine was very much offended by the " Voyage en Siberie" of the Abbe Chappe d'Auteroche. The French Academy of Sciences had commissioned him to examine the transit of Venus from the meridian of Tobolsk. While he was at St Petersburg, he received a gratuity of a thousand roubles from the Empress Elizabeth. This, however, did not prevent him from writing a caustic book upon Russia, much as the Marquis de Custine did in the reign of Nicholas. Although Catherine told Falconet that she despised the Abbe, she took pains that a refutation of his book should be pub- lished, and this appeared under the title of " Antidote ou Exa- men du mauvais livre superbement imprimi intitule Voyage en Sibtrie" (here follows a copy of the title of the book). This book is considered to have been "in the main written by Catherine herself with assistance from a Frenchman then in Russia. She was also very much incensed by the publication of the work of Rulhiere, as previously mentioned. The dramatic circumstances of the overthrow and death of Peter III. soon gave rise to the publication of pamphlets. In 1763 appeared Memoires pour servir a I'histoire de Pierre III., by Ange Goudar, published at Frankfort, and, Anecdotes russes ou lettre d'un officier allemand a un gentU- homme Livonien par Schwan de la Marcke, London, 1764. Voltaire had taken pains to pass very lightly over the occur- 1796] THE REIGN OF CATHERINE 253 rence in the thirty-second chapter of his Precis dti regne de Louis XV. (1768). According to him, Peter III. "pursued, captured, and put into prison, consoled himself by drinking punch for eight days at a stretch, at the end of which he died." In this Voltaire allowed himself to adopt the official version, but in one of his letters to Madame du Deffand, he wrote : " I know that she is reproached with some trifles with regard to her husband ; but these are family affairs with which I do not meddle, and besides, it is not a bad thing to have com- mitted a fault for which one must atone. This forces a person to make great efforts to arouse public esteem and admiration, and assuredly her detestable husband had never done any of the great things which my Catherine is doing every day" (May 1787). We have already alluded to the literary works of Catherine, her comedies, translations and essays contributed to the literary journals of Novikov and others. Her favourite reading seems to have been the works of the French encyclo- pedistes. With Bayle she was very familiar, as also with Voltaire. The historian who gave her most pleasure appears to have been Tacitus. In her legal studies we find her reading Montesquieu, Beccaria, and Blackstone. The library of Diderot, which on his death was transferred to the Hermitage, was afterwards joined by that of Voltaire. The latter was purchased from Madame Denis through the instrumentality of Grimm, although the grand-nephews of the philosopher were displeased at the deportation of the books. The collec- tion consists of about 7000 volumes, most of them bound in red morocco, and every volume has notes in the handwriting of Voltaire. The collection was afterwards still further increased by the transference of the Zaluski library from Warsaw to St Petersburg. Catherine also collected many valuable pictures which now ornament the St Petersburg gallery. In 1768 she bought the collection belonging to Count Briihl, and in 1772 the Crozat collection at Paris. We cannot wonder when we bear in mind the splendour 254 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [me of the reign of Catherine that she made such an impression upon her age, and especially on her own subjects. It is interesting to observe how fond the great novelist Turgueniev is of introducing in his writings stories of this time and characters that at an earlier period in the century were survivals of the great epoch. In parts of the Zapiski Okhotnika and Nov are to be found several such, and in the clever tale entitled " Some Old Portraits " we have a vigorous picture of a husband and his wife of the old school. The commerce of Russia greatly increased under the regime of Catherine. Of the celebrated generals of her time some had laurels to- win in succeeding reigns. Bibikov how- ever was dead, and Rumiantsov survived Catherine only a month. Suvorov still had his greatest work to do. There were the French to conquer and the Alps to be traversed. The Russian lives of Suvorov, who is a national hero, are full of the strangest stories of his odd humours, such as riding in his shirt sleeves, crowing like a cock to arouse the soldiers, and on one occasion allowing his men for practice to storm a monastery in Russia. He announced the taking of Izmail in the following quaint lines which he sent off to the empress — ' ' Slava Bogu ! Slava Vam ! Krepost vziata i ya tam." Glory to God, glory to you, The fortress is taken and I am there. But we must reserve farther details of his eccentricity till we come to speak of his retirement to his native village, after having been disgraced by Paul. We must not leave the reign of Catherine without making mention of Betski who died in 1 795. To him Russia owes many educational and charitable institutions in St Petersburg, and to him was entrusted the superintendence of the monu- ment erected to Peter the Great. 1796] CHAPTER X THE REIGN OF PAUL "DAUL, who now succeeded to the Russian throne, was in -*• his forty-second year, having been born in 1754. He was short in stature, of extreme ugliness, and had become bald at an early age. During the reign of his mother he had lived in retirement, chiefly at Gatschina. Catherine had always been careful to keep him in the background, and the courtiers had not failed to imitate their mistress. Many of them, however, paid dearly for their conduct when he came to the throne. The ill-treatment which he had received had no doubt contributed a great deal to the souring of his temper, as was the case with Tiberius, a man both physically and mentally much his superior. He was subject to strange outbursts of wrath, almost amounting to insanity. When, however, the fit was over, he would frankly ask forgiveness, and sought to make reparation. Owing to his caprices, those who were included in his immediate circle were in great dread of him, and became frequently victims of his in- justice. On the other hand, some strange stories are told of his good humour. Thus, in the memoirs of Sablukov (first published some years ago in Preiser's Magazine), we are told how Sablukov, who was on duty at the Palace, had amused himself in his monotonous occupation by drawing caricatures. While thus engaged on one occasion, the Emperor came suddenly upon him and asked to see his sketch-book. Sablukov, who was almost in a state of collapse, was obliged to hand it over. Paul turned over the pages, and remarked in a laughing manner — "You have no doubt got a likeness of me !" Sablukov, horrified, saw the Emperor come 255 25<$ A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [we upon the caricature which he had drawn of him, and antici- pated some very disagreeable results. There was Paul indeed with the pug-nose and many other unwelcome exaggerations. The Emperor, however, only burst into a fit of laughter, and said that it was certainly an excellent likeness. Mme. Smirnov, in her Memoirs, speaks of having conversed with one of the ladies-in-waiting of the Empress Maria, Paul's wife, and heard from her how the poor Emperor in his mental alienation, like a second Caligula, paced the corridors of the Palace at night. They tried narcotics to cure his sleeplessness, but their only effect was to produce violent headaches. All writers, however, bear testimony to his being an affectionate husband and father. As a consequence of his existence, Catherine's position as sovereign had been ambiguous in the highest degree. He had a legal right to the throne, whereas she was a usurper, whose only claim was by right of actual possession. There even seems reason to believe that she had executed a will in favour of Alexander, the eldest son of Paul, thus completely passing the latter over in the succession. Kurakin, a favourite of Paul's, is said to have taken advantage of the confusion which occurred at the death of Catherine to obtain access to her apartments, and to have got hold of the will and destroyed it. Stories soon began to be told of the caprice and petty despotism of Paul. We have a faithful picture of the time in the Memoirs of Admiral Shishkov. The only event of im- portance in Paul's life hitherto had been his tour in the West of Europe in 1780, when he seems to have been fairly popular in the countries which he visited. He was twice married; first in 1772 to Augusta, Princess of Hesse Darmstadt, who died three years afterwards, leaving no issue; and, secondly, in 1776, to Dorothea .Sophia, Princess of Wurtemberg, who was received into the Greek Church as Maria Feodorovna. As great a revolution de palais was now to be witnessed as on previous occasions when Russian sovereigns had been deposed. Officials of every kind who had been treated with 1796] THE REIGN OF PAUL 257 neglect hastened to the court. Paul's first act was to do honour to the memory of his father, whose neglected remains had not rested with those of other Tsars in the church of SS. Peter and Paul at St Petersburg — the church whose tall spire dominates the neighbourhood. He had been hastily interred in the monastery of St Alexander Nevski, and the body was now exhumed. On the coffin being opened, it is said that nothing was found but the boots and a few pieces of bone. The coffin was now borne in magnificent procession together with that of Catherine, and they were buried side by side in Petropavlovski church. Behind the coffins walked Alexis Orlov and the other supposed assassins of Peter, and when the ceremony was over they were banished for ever from the empire. This historic procession has been minutely described by Shishkov, who was an eye-witness. All the old courtiers who had been loyal to Peter, and had in consequence been under a cloud during the late reign, were now welcomed by the Tsar and promoted to various offices, while the favourites of Catherine were disgraced. Potemkin's remains were dragged from their pompous tomb and thrown on to a rubbish heap. Some of the changes introduced by Paul were no doubt whimsical and futile, but many were thoroughly sound. Thus he put an end to the pernicious custom whereby the sons of aristocratic families were, from their cradles, registered as holding commissions in the army without ever being com- pelled to perform military service ; owing to which the Russian army in the time of Catherine had to a large extent consisted of paper forces. The character of Paul soon began to reveal itself; he alter- nated in the strangest way between paroxysms of severity and generosity. The explanation of his conduct lies, it may be, in certain elements of insanity in his temperament. If it were possible to find room in a short work like the present, many pages might be filled with anecdotes of the most amusing character. At the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nine- R 258 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1796 teenth century Russia was visited by one of the most pene- trating and instructive of travellers, Dr Edward Clarke, the Cambridge professor. It was through him that the English public became so familiar with the caprice of Paul, and the picture has remained fresh to the present day. With effusive generosity Paul released Kosciuszko and the Polish prisoners who were incarcerated in Russia. Niem- cewicz, while narrating these occurrences, tells us of Paul : " He said himself, and I have no doubt sincerely, that if he had reigned at the time, far from co-operating in the partition of Poland he would have been strongly opposed to it." Many terrible stories are told about persons who, without even the knowledge of Catherine, had been thrust by the influence of their personal enemies into oubliettes, where, after many years of hopeless captivity, they had expired. Some of those rescued by Paul had hardly preserved their reason. One of the basest of the flatterers of Paul was the notorious Arakcheev, who was his evil genius, as he was later that of his son, Alexander I. We shall hear more of this man in the reign of the latter, but as he is an important historical figure and was destined to play the part of a second Sejanus, a few biographical details may here be given. Neither from his birth nor the personal qualities of Arakcheev could a brilliant career have been prognosticated for him. He was the son of a poor gentleman of the government of Novgorod, possessed of about twenty peasants, and was born in 1769. When he had afterwards come to be a conspicuous person in the country he was anxious to manufacture a pedigree for himself, and started the fiction that his father had been a major in the army. As a lad Arakcheev received no instruc- tion save such as the village priest could give him, and the latter was paid in agricultural produce. Towards the close of the year 1782 he was taken by his father to St Petersburg with the object of being enrolled in the Corps of Cadets, the money for the journey being raised by the sale of, among other things, two oxen. The father, however, was too poor to bribe the court officials as was necessary in those days ; and 1796] THE REIGN OF PAUL 259 his petition remained unanswered for six months, during which period father and son suffered all the trials of extreme poverty. They were obliged to beg of the Metropolitan Gabriel, and received as an alms a rouble, upon which they lived for ten days. Both father and son were to be seen day after day on the steps of the Cadets' School, vainly hoping by their profound bows to attract the attention of General Milessino as he went to his carriage. It was the son who finally had the boldness to accost the general and tell him of their deplorable destitution. Milessino went back to his study and returned with a favourable answer. Gradually, by complete obedience and regular habits, the young man pushed his way. He showed some talent for mathematics, but was more conspicuous for his roughness and ill-manners; when he was promoted to assist in the education and training of the cadets, he soon made himself notorious by the cruel personal chastisement which he in- flicted. Afterwards he managed to attract the attention of Count Saltikov, and in 1790 we find him adjutant and captain. Two years later, when Paul, then Grand Duke, requested General Milessino to find him a man to take the charge of the artillery at Gatschina, Arakcheev was selected for the post, and found himself on the high road to favour. His extraordinary activity as a martinet of the most exacting and rigorous kind recommended him to Paul, and on the latter's accession his fortunes were made. On the very day of the death of the Empress Catherine he was appointed command- ant of St Petersburg, and created major-general, though barely twenty-seven years old. Honours continued to be showered upon him in rapid succession. In the course of a few months he was made baron, lieutenant-general, knight of the order of St Alexander Nevski and quartermaster-general of the Russian army. The new Emperor soon made himself disliked by reviving many obsolete imperial privileges. He had the true spirit of a martinet, and was very strict in matters of etiquette. People had to get out of their carriages when they met him and kneel 260 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1796 in the mud. He had many particular, antipathies, and was constantly issuing ukazes about the shape of a hat or a coat His especial wrath was kindled by anything which seemed to show that the bearer sympathised with the principles of the French Revolution. We are told in the memoirs of Pushkin that Paul had once met the future author of "Evgenii Oniegin" when a baby, and snatched the child's cap off because the nurse was not qUrck enough in doing so. But he was above all things infatuated with the idea of introducing the German dress into the army, just as his unfortunate father had been. Soldiers must now wear pigtails, have their hair powdered, and go about in gaiters. These changes were not pleasing 'to the veterans of Catherine's time who had had their baptisms of fire under other conditions. Public opinion, as far as it could venture to express itself, did so in a plethora of cutting epigrams and -pasquinades — the invariable resource of a country where free discussion is denied. Suvorov himself got into trouble for some lines in which he had said that hair-powder was not gunpowder and pig-tails were not bayonets ; and he remained in disgrace at his estate in the government of Novgorod till his services became indispensable to Paul. Kotzebue, the dramatist, venturing to return to Russia during the reign of Paul, was for a fancied offence at once sent off to Siberia, though afterwards as capriciously pardoned, by the Emperor. He tells us how he was sent for on one occasion by Paul, who gravely announced that he thought the con- tinental wars then raging would be best put a stop to if the European sovereigns would fight it out propria persona ; and announced his intention of sending a challenge to each. Shishkov in his memoirs, already quoted, says that on one occasion, seeing a pompous-looking man in the surrounding crowd, Paul at once sent him (Shishkov) to tell the man that he was a great fool ! When a foreign ambassador once spoke to him of a certain Russian being a great man, Paul is reported to have replied, that no man was great in Russia except he be one to whom the Emperor spoke, and that man was great only so long as the Emperor was speaking to him. 1798] TH£ REIGN Of PAUL 261 But the drollest scenes were witnessed on parade, where the Emperor would cane with his own hand any delinquent soldier who had been careless about his buttons. On one occasion he was much displeased with the unsoldierly appearance of a regiment, and when he gave the order to march, added, " to Siberia." Officers and men obeyed at once, and had pro- ceeded some way on their journey, when they were overtaken by a courier sent by the Tsar, with orders to return. Paul, however, showed himself wise in altering the law of Peter the Great, whereby the sovereign was able to dispose of the succession by will. This had opened the door to many irregularities, and' had placed on the throne female sovereigns, who were mere puppets, while the political strings were pulled, not only by Russian intriguers, but even by unscrupulous foreign adventurers. At first it seemed as if the reign was to be a tranquil one, Paul having definitely said that Russia stood in need of peace. His reign, which only lasted about four years and six months (November 1796 to March 1801), seemed to afford but little opportunity for any prolonged struggle. But he was never- theless drawn into a war with France. As an autocratic monarch he had no sympathy with a republic. The un- fortunate Louis XVIII., expelled from one court after another, found refuge at Mittau, the capital of Courland. Thither repaired Madame Royale, the daughter of Louis XVI., and the Abbe Edgeworth, who had accompanied her father on the scaffold. At Mittau the French princess was married to her cousin the Due d'Angouleme. At Mittau also the worthy Abbe Edgeworth was buried. The French had now taken Malta, where in 1798 the knights had offered Paul the dignity of Grand Master, which he had accepted with much enthusiasm. Paul therefore was not without a reason for joining with Turkey, England, Austria, and Naples in a coalition against Bonaparte. Meanwhile, Suvorov was vegetating in his country retreat, reading the lessons on Sundays in the church, singing in the choir, and ringing the bells. He was still the quaint humourist of the days of Catherine, and, according to one story, when 262 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [«" the letter of the Emperor reached him summoning him to take the command of the Russian army, he was ready with a new prank. On seeing the letter addressed Field-Marshal Suvorov, Commander-in-Chief, etc., etc., he sent it back, adding that there was no such person in the village, but only a certain Count Suvorov, and therefore the letter could not be for him. Russia now sent troops to Verona, where, according to arrangement, Suvorov took the command of the combined Russian and Austrian armies. He is said to have surprised the Archduke Charles by the simplicity of the tactics which he advocated. In 1799 he defeated Moreau, the French general, on the banks of the Adda, and made a triumphal entry into Milan, which, with the exception of the citadel, had been evacuated by Moreau. Suvorov then turned to meet Macdonald, the other French general, who had marched from the South to the Trebbia, and, in a battle on the banks of that river, which lasted three days, completely defeated him with a loss on the French side of 18,000 men. Suvorov wished to follow up his victory, but was soon obliged to re- turn to Alessandria, not having received the requisite support of his Austrian co-operator, General Cray, who remained inactive near Mantua in consequence of orders from the Austrian court. Indeed, it seems tolerably clear that Suvorov was altogether hampered in his movements owing to the want of harmony among those who were supposed to co-operate in his plans. We are told that this annoyed him so much that he asked permission from the Emperor to retire; who was, moreover, much displeased with the way in which the King of Sardinia had been treated by the Austrians. After the defeat on the Trebbia the power of the French in Italy was crushed. They could with difficulty maintain them- selves in Nice and Tortona. The King of Naples recovered his dominions; Rome was freed; Mantua fell, and the citadels of Turin and Alessandria surrendered to the conqueror. The Directory, however, made up its mind to strike yet another blow, and despatched Joubert, a skilful although youthful general, to drive the allied forces out of 1799] THE REIGN OF PAUL 263 Piedmont. Joubert took up a good position on the heights near Novi with 40,000 men. The battle proved a very severe one, but ended in the complete defeat of the French, who lost 7000 men; a great many prisoners, as well as all the artillery being captured. Joubert himself was killed. It was with difficulty that Moreau gathered together the fragments of the army and retreated into the defiles of the Maritime Alps. On account of these brilliant victories, Paul raised Suvorov to the rank of a prince and conferred many favours upon him. After this, if we may believe the Russian historians implicitly, the veteran's plans were changed by his allies. The Arch- duke Charles, by remaining for a long time inactive at Zurich, had allowed the French to mass 70,000 men in Switzerland, whereas the Russians had no more than 50,000 under arms. Instead of supporting Rimski-Korsakov, the other Russian general in Switzerland, he had made a division, and before Suvorov could join Korsakov the latter had been beaten by the French with the loss of 10,000 men. Suvorov's position was now much as follows. After he had driven the French out of Lombardy, and inflicted a decided disaster upon them at Novi, the Austrians considered that they had no further need of the services of Russia. Meanwhile, how- ever, matters were going on badly for them in Switzerland, and they were also obliged to send an army to the Rhine in order to oppose the progress of the French in that direction. It was there- fore resolved that the Archduke Charles should remove his forces from Switzerland to the Rhine, and that Suvorov should replace him in Italy. But it was impossible to remove the Austrian army from Switzerland before the arrival of Suvorov, except at the risk of subjecting the Russian corps of Rimski Korsakov to the chances of a defeat, the latter being en- camped opposite to the French general Massena on the river Limat near Zurich. Accordingly it was arranged that the Russians should replace the Austrians in Switzerland gradually and with an equal number of men. Baron Thugut personally assured the English ambassador that the Austrians would evacuate Switzerland only when an equal number of 264 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1799 Russians had occupied their positions. But in the event, the arrangement was not adhered to. Baron Thugut, anxious that the Netherlands should be protected, instructed the Archduke Charles to evacuate Switzerland without waiting for the arrival of Suvorov. In this way Rimski-Korsakov was left alone vis-cu-vis with Massena, a circumstance of which the latter was not slow to avail himself. Suvorov, who knew Korsakov to be self- confident and careless, seems to have foreseen the result, and hastened to Switzerland as best he could. He wrote to Count Vorontsov as follows : " Although I fear nothing in the world, I must say that Massena will not wait for us but will make straight for Korsakov." The route taken by Suvorov was by way of the St Gothard and the Devil's Bridge to Altorf and thence to Schwytz and Lucerne, thus giving him a position in which he might be very dangerous to the French on their flank and rear. This route was certainly the shortest and, if only on that account, the best under the circumstances. It is true that the French were on the track and there were immense local difficulties, but Suvorov knew that these were to be overcome, and gave a brilliant proof of his strategic ■skill. The plan was moreover fraught with the danger of Massena defeating piecemeal an enemy coming up in detach- ments from various quarters : still it seems to have been justified by the crisis to which matters had come. If Suvorov could arrive before Massena attacked Korsakov, his object would be fully attained even though he lost a great number of men. The steps taken by Suvorov have been subjected to much criticism, into which, however, we cannot now enter. To carry out the arrangement it was settled that provisions, and mules to the number of 1400, should be collected at Taverno, on the borders of Switzerland. Melas, the Austrian general, in response to Suvorov's request, had promised that the Austrians would see to this. But when the Russian general, with an army of 18,000 men, arrived at Taverno on the 1 6th of September, he found that nothing had been done. The condition of the Russian forces was in consequence 1799] ^ THE REIGN OF PAUL 26s deplorable. Nothing was to be got on the mountains ; the inhabitants were of the poorest class, and Suvorov had no alternative but to delay his march. Almost beside himself, he reported to the Emperor that the Austrians were merely playing tricks upon him, and that the position of the Russian army might become very perilous. In another letter he wrote that he had come to Taverno ; that there were " no mules nor horses, but there was Thugut and mountains and disasters." Even in his agonies the epigrammatic commander could not cease from pleasantry. At last Suvorov contrived to procure some stores in the neigh- bourhood; but, in the meantime, five days and nights had elapsed and this loss of time proved fatal. The Archduke, by his departure from Switzerland, had placed the Russians in a very critical position ; and the breach of faith had created a want of confidence which had a still worse effect. On September 22 nd the Russians marched from Taverno. Rosenberg was sent to make a circuit from Biasco to Digentis with the object of falling upon the rear of the French who were defending the St Gothard ; and on the 25 th of September Suvorov attacked. The French for a time maintained themselves firmly, their positions were strong, but Suvorov eventually drove them back and captured the pass. At the same time Rosenberg attacked and defeated them in the rear. The Russians encamped for the night in the Hospenthal and Andermatt (Ursern). Suvorov, satisfied with the day's work, on the following morning commenced the attack of the Urnerloch and the Devil's Bridge. The day was one of desperate onsets. The Russians had to clamber up granite rocks, to ford the strong current of the Reuss, and to pass over burning bridges. The French, under the command of the brave and skilful General Lecourbe, disputed the ground step by step. On the 27 th of September Suvorov occupied Altorf only to find to his consternation that there was no further road to Schwytz. The rocks of the Rostock ridge hang over the lake, and the only com- munication, that by water, was cut off owing to the fact 266 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1799 that all the boats were in the hands of the French. The determination and energy of the Russian- commander once more asserted themselves. He found out from the in- habitants that through Rostock, along the pass of Kinzig- Kulm, there was a narrow path only suited for shepherds or chamois hunters, which led to the village of Muthen. "Wherever," exclaimed Suvorov, "a stag can go, there a soldier can go." It was by this narrow path that he led his army. The pass was indeed terrible, and the march through it lasted two days. It was not until the ist October that the army was concentrated in the village of Muthen. There was still a long journey to Schwytz. But now Suvorov had the mortification of learning that on the 26th of the previous month Massena had attacked and defeated Rimski-Korsakov. The other Russian detachments had also met with similar reverses, and the French army now on all sides surrounded that of Suvorov, consisting of 10,000 men. There appeared no means of escape, except by cutting their way through the ranks of the enemy. Suvorov, who now had not only to make up his own mind, but to convince the other generals, summoned a council (to which the Austrians were not invited) to meet in a convent lying on his route. Here occurred a never-to-be-forgotten scene, of which Bagration, who was present, has left a description. When the others entered the room they found Suvorov dressed in the full uniform of a field-marshal. He bowed to them, and then closed his eyes as if in deep thought. After a pause he opened them, and with looks that seemed to flash fire began to speak in bold and decided tones. His whole being seemed changed; no one had ever before seen him look as he then did. Briefly alluding to what had occurred in Switzerland, he seemed barely able to control his feelings of disgust. He reminded his hearers of all the difficulties and obstacles which had been placed in his way by Thugut and the Austrian Hofkriegsrath ; for without the confirmation of the latter no military operation could be undertaken, and it was thus that his action had been fettered. He continued 1799] THE REIGN OF PAUL 267 by stating his belief that the Russians had been forced to quit Italy by an intrigue, of which the Austrians had reaped the advantage ; and that the perfidy of Thugut culminated in the sudden recall of the Archduke Charles from Switzerland. The detention of the Russians at Taverno, he added, bore upon its very face the clearest signs of treason ; and it was owing to this treachery that Korsakov had been defeated, and he, Suvorov, had arrived too late. Having said thus much, Suvorov paused, as if to give time to his generals to appreciate to the full the meaning of his words. He then continued : they had a few biscuits and guns left ; it was impossible to reach Schwytz : to retreat was disgraceful. " We can get help from no quarter ; our only hope is in God and the steadiness of our troops." So he continued to speak with an ever-increasing agitation and bitterness of language. All were moved at the distress of the grey-headed commander who had led them in so many battles. All felt that they would yield up their lives in following him. To this effect they spoke. Suvorov lifted' up his head, gave them one bright look of thanks, and ex- pressed his firm conviction that there would be a victory— a double victory, both over the enemy and over the bad faith of their allies. It was then decided to retreat across the pass in an easterly direction towards Glarus. Rosenberg was left in the valley of Muthen, where an attack might be expected, after repulsing which he was to follow the rest of the army in retreat. During the 1st and 2nd-of October there was uninterrupted fighting both in the valley of Muthen and round Glarus. Massena made a furious attack, thinking that the Russians were in a position from which they could not extricate them- selves, and that they all, including the commander and his staff, would fall into his hands. Suvorov, however, succeeded in crossing the Pragel Pass into Glarus ; and Rosenberg even forced the French to retreat. The Cossacks pursued, and the fierce struggle culminated round the bridge which crosses the Muota, where the French were hampered by the difficulties 268 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1799 of the locality. The Russians meanwhile had reached Glarus, but they still had the difficult pass of Ringenkopf before them. Here they suffered a great deal from frost and snow and bad weather; but managed to force their way into the Grison territory by the pass Panix. Throughout all these horrors the Russian soldiers had shown of what metal they were Srt/VOXGF-FS CHOS SHTG of tHe^AJZJPS silt JVarvi-O — " &*rffZJ*iU B 2_ Sfc.G .StGo&tTia.T-cL J'a.ss IP. X'r-a.greZ. J'a.ss made. Their privations were shared by their commander and his officers, among the latter being the Grand Duke Constan- tine, destined to be well known in connection with the Polish insurrection. The iron courage of Suvorov and his gallant band finally triumphed ; at Hants he was in the valley of the Rhine, and soon afterwards reached Cur. Thence by way of Feldkirchen with the remnants of the two armies he directed his march to Russia. 1800] THE REIGN OF PAUL 269 On the 20th September 1898, a monument was erected to commemorate this celebrated expedition. It consists of a gigantic cross ornamented with a bronze wreath and two swords, and is cut in the face of the rock at the Devil's Bridge at the spot where one of the most difficult and glorious feats of the Swiss expedition took place. The form of the memorial was to a certain extent settled by the Swiss government, who were unwilling that anything should be erected more than a quasi tombstone of the Russian soldiers who fell. On his return to Russia Suvorov was destined to experience the ingratitude of Paul, who was doubtless displeased at the great losses which the Russian army had sustained ; for it has been calculated that Suvorov lost quite a third of his men. The Emperor refused to see him, and the veteran retired to his estate Kantchansk in the government of Novgorod, where he soon after died in 1800. The English ambassador was the only person present at his funeral. Over his grave in the Alexandro-Nevski monastery are inscribed these three words, " Here lies Suvorov " (Zdies lezhif Suvorov). On his way back to Russia he had stood by the grave of Laudon, one of the generals of Frederick the Great at Neu Teschen. He looked at the long Latin inscription enumerating the deeds and titles of Laudon, and said, " What is the use of all this long inscription ? " and then turning to Fuchs, the director of his Chancery, he said, " I tell you my wish," and then uttered the three words as the epitaph which he desired for himself. The capricious Paul now seems to have completely changed his views and sympathies. He declared himself disgusted with the treatment which he had received not only from Austria but at the hands of England ; for Russia had suffered from the incapacity and blunders of the Duke of York in Holland. Bonaparte took advantage of this irritation on the part of Paul, and stimulated it by secret intrigues. He gained over at St Petersburg two very influential persons, viz., Kutaisov who had been promoted by the Emperor from the humble status of a barber, and the celebrated Rostopchin of whom we shall hear so much in the reign of Alexander. The last 270 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [isoo named was a few years older than Paul's other minion Arakcheev, having been born in 1765 in the government of Orel. His father was a retired lieutenant, but nothing is known of the earlier history of his family which does not seem in any way to have been illustrious. He was fond of speaking of himself as descended from Tatar princes, but many of these statements appear to have been legendary. He had seen some military service, having been in one of the Turkish campaigns, but had quarrelled with Suvorov and left the army in 1792. We next hear of him as gentleman of the bedchamber to the Emperor Paul whose favour he won, as did Arakcheev by his obsequiousness and attention to minute details. On the death of Catherine, Paul appointed him brigadier and soon after major-general and president of the military college, which was equivalent to his being made minister of war. In 1798 he was made minister of foreign affairs. We shall find him throughout to have been a Russian of the old type, uncompromising in his policy and a thorough hater of western ideas. One of his first steps was to get rid of General Dumouriez who had been sent to St Petersburg to carry on intrigues for the Bourbons. Paul at first did not seem to wish to break with the English, and a certain number of Russian troops were allowed to remain interned in Guernsey, whither they had been sent on the failure of the Duke of York's expedition. But a quarrel soon broke out because the English would not exchange some of their French prisoners for the Russians who had been taken, and gave Paul to understand that they intended to keep the island of Malta which that fantastic sovereign seemed to consider as being under his immediate protection. Napoleon understood how to work upon these feelings, and sent back the Russian prisoners newly clothed and armed. Paul now recalled his troops from Guernsey, but the English detained them yet a little longer with a view of baffling the intrigues of Paul and Napoleon. The immediate cause, however, of the outbreak of war between England and Russia was that Paul, like his mother before him, challenged the 1800] THE REIGN OF PAUL 271 right of search of neutral vessels which the English claimed in time of war. In this attempt Paul was joined by Prussia, Sweden and Denmark. In 1 800 sixteen English ships appeared before Copen- hagen and threatened to bombard the city if Denmark did not acknowledge England's right of search. The Danes, however, through the skilful diplomacy of their minister, Count Berns- torf, were able to stave the difficulty off without sacrificing any of their rights. Gn the 5th of September 1800, Malta capitulated, and the English took possession. When the news reached Paul he was beside himself with rage. Lord Whitworth, the am- bassador, had already been ordered to quit St Petersburg, and on the 7th of November, Paul laid aft embargo on three hundred English ships in Russian ports, and sent their crews prisoners into the interior. Shortly before this, the unhappy Louis XVIII. had been ordered to quit Mittau at the most unfavourable period ef the year. The exile was soon to understand how many of the potentates of Europe were offer- ing their homage to the rising power of Bonaparte. The melancholy journey of the Royalist fugitives commenced on the nth of January 1801. The weather was in the highest degree unfavourable, and the route to be traversed devoid of all opportunities of comfort. We have full details in the diary of one of the suite of Louis, a certain Viscomte de Hardouineau, which is now preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, and has as yet been printed only in the extracts given by M. Kraushar. The titular king was allowed by the Prussian monarch to take up his abode at Warsaw, which at that time was in the possession of the Prussians: But even while there he was not free from the espionage which Fouche - directed against him. Napoleon is said to have entertained the design of having him seized as he had done in the case of the Due d'Enghien. We also hear of proposals being made to him that he should receive as a kingdom a portion of dis- membered Poland. But he eventually returned to Mittau in the reign of Alexander. 272 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [isoi At Christmas, 1800, Gustavus IV. was invited to St Petersburg, which city he had not visited since the reign of Catherine, when he behaved so badly towards Paul's daughter. But Paul was now bent upon carrying into effect his con- federation against the English. A fleet was commissioned and an army was placed under the command of Saltikov Pahlen and Kutuzov. Napoleon, then first consul, had already sent Durocq to St Petersburg with proposals to Paul that he should invade India. On the 1 2th of March a powerful English squadron sailed from Yarmouth to the Baltic under the command of Admirals Parker and Nelson, and there was every sign of a great war impending, when the news of the death of Paul startled the world. He was assassinated on the night of March 23, 1801. Napoleon vainly endeavoured to insinuate that this crime was committed at the instigation of the English. The fact was, that the fantastic government of Paul had become intolerable to his own subjects. The constant changes in his foreign policy were ruining the country, and the war with England was in the highest degree prejudicial to the trade of Russia. The details of the tragedy are but dimly known. On the night of the 23rd of March between eleven and twelve o'clock, after a protracted banquet, the conspirators entered the Mikhailovski palace where Paul had been for some time residing, and which he had caused to be carefully fortified. There the Tsar, having refused to abdi- cate in favour of his eldest son, Alexander, was strangled by Zubov, Pahlen and others. Sablukov, a young officer on duty at the time, has left us some details of what occurred ; though of the actual assassina- tion he saw nothing. It is said, however, to have been com- mitted by Benningsen, who, when the conspirators thought that their victim had escaped, found him crouching behind a screen. We are told that Alexander was filled with grief on hearing of the death of his father, he having only given his consent to the demand for his abdication. According to some writers, 1801] THE REIGN OF PAUL 273 the Empress, on hearing of her husband's death, was very anxious that the supreme authority should be entrusted to her. But the Russians could not but feel that they had had enough of German rule ; even though it had given them a Catherine. Prince Adam Czartoryski, the intimate friend of the Emperor Alexander, has described the circumstances in his memoirs. According to him, Alexander knew that his father would in a few hours be called upon to abdicate, and in a very excited state threw himself dressed upon his bed. This fact explains how it was that Sablukov saw him still dressed in the middle of the night. About one o'clock Alexander heard a knock at his door, and there' saw Count Nicholas Zubov. The latter came up to the Grand Duke who was sitting on his bed, and said in a hoarse voice, " All is over." "What is over?" asked Alexander, in a state of astonishment. He had not the least idea of what had happened, but he perceived that Zubov, without offering any explanation, addressed him as "Sire," and "Your Majesty." This led him to question farther, and then the whole truth was communicated to him. When the Empress heard the news, she rushed out of her apartments with cries of anger and despair. On seeing some grenadiers, she said, to them repeatedly : " As your Emperor has died a victim to treason, I am your Empress, I am alone your legitimate sovereign; follow me and protect me." Benningsen and Pahlen, who had brought a detachment of soldiers to the Palace, had great difficulty in getting her to return to her room. Prince Adam says that her appeals to the soldiers (which were perhaps rendered somewhat ridiculous by her German accent), produced no effect. The only person who retained self-possession, and was able to console Alex- ander, was his wife. His attitude with regard to his father's murderers was a very painful one. He knew that there was great sympathy with the objects of the conspiracy ; and that if the conspirators had been brought to trial, they would certainly have been able to show that he was privy, at all s 274 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1801 events, to the deposition of his father. Hence it was, that although the Empress-Dowager was continually urging him to proceed against his father's murderers, it was not possible for him to do so by the ordinary legal means. In a subsequent letter to Addington, then Prime Minister, Nelson wrote : " We did not [then] know of the death of the Emperor Paul : my intention was to penetrate to Revel before that ice had appeared at Crpnstadt, so as to destroy twelve Russian ships-of-war. Now I shall go there in the capacity of a friend." The idea of a Russian expedition against India had been mooted in 1791 in the reign of the Empress Catherine. The letter sent by the Russian Government to Lord Hawkesbury ran as follows: — "St Petersburg, 20 Mars 1801. " My Lord, — II a plu a l'Eternel de rappeler a Lui S. M. I. l'Empereur, Paul I., dece'de dans la nuit, du n ou 12 de ce mois, d'un coup d'apoplexie et de realiser les plus belles esperances du peuple russe en placant sur le trone l'auguste Alexandre. Les relations usitees ayant ete interrompnes entre nos deux cours par un suite d'evenements inattendus, l'Empereur mon Maitre a juge bon de faire parvenir la notifi- cation de son avenement au trone a S. M. Britanique, eu m'ordonnant de l'addresser a Votre Excellence pour Stre transmise a sa destination. Je saisis cette occasion pour vous assurer de la haute consideration avec laquelle j'ai l'honneur d'etre, My Lord, de votre Excellence, le tres humble et tres obeissant serviteur. — Le Comte de Pahlen." The new Emperor received the oaths of fidelity from his subjects early in the morning in the Chapel of the Winter Palace, and it was noticed that he was in a state of great agitation. Such was the end of Paul, a very strange figure in European history, but a man of considerable shrewdness, and by no means wanting in heart. The Empress Maria survived till 1828. 1801] THE REIGN OF PAUL 275 By her he had a numerous family, the eldest being the Tzar, Alexander. Then followed in order of seniority the re- maining three sons : Constantine, Viceroy of Poland ; Nicholas, afterwards the Emperor; and Michael. Of his daughters, Alexandra had been, as we have seen, originally betrothed to Gustavus IV. She afterwards gave her hand to Joseph Pala- tine of Hungary. Maria married the Duke of Sax-Weimar. Catherine married first, Prince George of Oldenburg, and secondly, William I., King of Wiirtemberg; and Anne married William II., King of Holland, and became the mother of the late sovereign, who, in many of his characteristics, showed himself a true grandson of Paul. We have already spoken of the dramatist, Kotzebue, and his journey into Siberian exile. His experiences were detailed by him in a volume which made no little sensation in Europe at the time. He owed his return to Paul having accidentally seen one of his dramatic pieces acted. The Emperor had been so much pleased with the sentiments contained in the piece that he ordered the poor dramatist to be summoned from his captivity, and afterwards treated him with great generosity. Another person who should be mentioned is the Lutheran pastor, Seidler, in the Baltic Provinces, who eked out his slender stipend by keeping a kind of circulating library. This unfortunate man, who had something of the simplicity of Dr Primrose in his character, carelessly allowed some seditious works to be mixed up with his books. Paul was very sensitive about such matters, and maintained a strict press censorship. At the time of his rage against the French, the printers had not dared to put on the title-page of a book that it was translated from the French : is inostrannago from a foreign language was added. Seidler was denounced on account of his having some comparatively harmless books which Paul chose to consider seditious. He expiated his offence by banishment to Siberia, whence he was, however, recalled by Alexander. [1803 CHAPTER XI THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. /~"\N coming to the throne, Alexander at once made peace ^-' with England and France. It was impossible for Russia to continue at variance with the former, with whom she had such abundant commercial relations. The new Emperor was only twenty-five years of age, and without being exactly a handsome man was by no means ill-favoured, as his father had been. He had considerable grace of manner, according to universal testimony ; but we shall be better able to study his character as we deal with the events of his reign. Alexander felt uneasy at the constant aggressions of Napoleon. " Tua res agitur paries quum proximus ardet." He accordingly sent Novosiltsov, a minister who had great influence over him, to England with the view of negotiating a coalition against France. The British Cabinet agreed to furnish a subsidy of one million two hundred thousand pounds sterling for every hundred thousand men Russia put into the field. Thus was brought about the third coalition against Napoleon in the year 1803. The King of Prussia speedily joined it, swearing friendship with Alexander by the side of the coffin of Frederick the Great. Before, however, we launch into the intricacies of the great wars with Napoleon, something must be said of the annexa- tion of Georgia, that valuable and picturesque portion of the Russian dominions. There had been a kind of connection subsisting between Georgia and Russia as far back as the close of the fifteenth century. In the reign of Catherine General Todleben, the same who had occupied Berlin in the Seven Years' War, had to some extent driven the Turks out 276 1803] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 277 pf Georgia. But towards the close of the eighteenth century the country had suffered greatly at the hands of its Moslem neighbours, and more particularly the Persians. In 1793 the Sha.h, Aga Mohammed, had made a descent upon Tiflis and reduced it to a heap of ashes, and it may with perfect truth be said that if Russia had not interfered to protect her co- religionists they would have been wiped out from among the nations. Heraklius, the king, escaped, but died not long afterwards at a very advanced age ; and George, his son and successor, surrendered the country to Russia in 1799, and died the following year. The actual unification, therefore, of Georgia with Russia belongs to the reign of Paul, but the manifesto incorporating it as part of the empire was issued by Alexander on the 12th of September 1801. It is said that Maria, the queen of George, was not equally ready to surrender her claim, and that violence was resorted to to compel her acquiescence, but the authorities for this anecdote are not very convincing. Tiflis has risen from its ashes, and at the present time is one of the most charming cities in the Russian empire. Probably in the future it may become a place of much importance, lying as it does on one of the main' roads to India. To return, however, to the third coalition against Napoleon ; by the Treaty of Potsdam, as it was called, the Prussians agreed to furnish eighty thousand men ; and it was not long before the coalition was joined by Austria. The latter had a grievance in the formation of the kingdom of Italy, and was not without hopes of getting back Lombardy. The King of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus IV., who had been personally insulted by Napoleon, had conceived such a hatred of him that he was ready to attack him alone. When, however, it came to action, Prussia preferred neutrality, chiefly through the policy of General Haugwitz. This attitude on the part of Prussia was very injurious to the cause ; for the plan of cam- paign as settled by Austria allowed the French to concentrate their strength on one point. The Austrian generals, Prince Schwarzenberg and Baron Mack, supposed that Italy would be 278 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1805 the seat of war as before, and decided in a council of war in conjunction with the Russian general, Baron Wintzenrode, to divide the Austrian forces into three armies. Of these the principal force, under the command of the Archduke Charles, was to invade the kingdom of Italy ; another was to enter Switzerland from the Tyrol; while the third, amounting to So,ooo men, under the nominal command of the Archduke Ferdinand, with Mack at the head, was to remain in a defensive position in Bavaria, on the banks of the Lech, till the arrival of a Russian army of 90,000 men ; when the united force was to march into Suabia, and from thence to Franche Comte, as soon as the Archduke Charles had defeated Napoleon in Italy. Bonaparte, however, by one decisive stroke broke up all these plans and annihilated the hopes of the court of Vienna. As soon as he heard of the outbreak of the war he moved his armies with incredible rapidity from France, Holland, and Hanover into the very heart of Austria, and to the rear of the main force. He crossed the Rhine without opposition, and secured to his interests Wurtemberg, Baden and Bavaria. He then passed through the Prussian territories (the principality of Anspach) without paying any attention to the announced neutrality of the Cabinet of Berlin. Prussia was to reap but little from her selfish policy. The new Emperor of the French eventually concentrated all his forces on the banks of the Danube, in the neighbour- hood of Ulm, and in sight of Mack. He thus, by his rapid movements, prevented the union of the latter with the first Russian army which Kutuzov was bringing to his assistance. Considering how much he was outnumbered the only prudent course for Mack would have been to retreat betimes to the banks of the Inn, where already the Russian columns had appeared, and with the help of Kutuzov to await the attack of the enemy. Mack, however, remained on the banks of the Iller, and took no measures either to retreat or to fortify his position. Napoleon came on his rear, and having entirely surrounded him, began to cut to pieces the Austrian army, which was broken up into detachments ; half of it was de- 1805] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 279 stroyed by Ney, Soult and Davoust ; with the other half Mack retreated into Ulm, and after a feeble resistance surrendered on October 20, 1805. The garrison of Ulm, 30,000 strong, with sixty pieces of cannon, marched out of the gates of the fortress and laid down its arms. This immense army of prisoners took five hours in defiling before the conqueror. Having thus disposed of the Austrian army, Napoleon marched with all his forces against the Russians who, to the number of 50,000, were encamped on the Inn. His object was to destroy this army and then to take possession of Vienna. It was impossible for Kutuzov to repel the attack of a force three times as strong as his own ; still more to save Vienna, which was not prepared for a siege. He resolved, therefore, to retreat into Moravia, there to effect a union with another Russian army that had come from the banks of the Vistula under the command of Buxhovden. The Emperor Alexander now hastened to put himself at the head of the Russian army which was concentrated at Olmiitz. The plan of Kutuzov was to turn the right wing of the French in order to drive them into the "mountains of Bohemia, and then to cut off their communication with Vienna. Napoleon pene- trated this design; on the 2nd of December 1805 the great battle of Austerlitz was fought. Both Emperors (those of Russia and Germany) were present at the battle, and also the Grand Duke Constantine. On the dawn of the 2nd of De- cember, a cold and misty morning, Buxhovden left the heights where he was posted with the division of Kinmeyer and the corps of Dokhtorov, and took possession of Telnitz. Langeron occupied the Castle Sokolnitzki. At eight o'clock when the mist began to clear off and a bright sun appeared, " the sun of Austerlitz," Napoleon saw with delight that the allies had neglected to occupy the village of Pratzen, the most im- portant point of the position. He immediately appreciated their mistake, and ordered a general attack. Eventually the centre of the allies was broken, and while Soult poured a deadly fire from the heights of Pratzen, Lannes, supported by Murat, drove Bagration back to his former position, and 280 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1805 Davoust inflicted severe injury on the left wing. Bukshovden, forced to retreat beyond Citava, left all his artillery on the bridge and retired in disorder ; the division of Langeron was driven from Sokolnitzki to the Lake of Sachau where 500 men perished under the ice ; the two brigades of Przibi- shevski, surrounded at the Sokolnitzki Castle, were cut to pieces after a stubborn contest. Only Dokhtorov retreated in good order across the dike of the Sachau Lake. Late in the evening the allies collected together about Miskovits, and at midnight entered Hungarian territory. They had lost more than 20,000 men and 30 flags, with the greater part of their artillery. The loss on the French side amounted to about half that number. The Russians were not impeded in their homeward march. Napoleon, desirous of gaining the goodwill of Alexander, not only ordered his retreat to be respected, but also sent back Prince Repnin and all the men of the Imperial Guard who had been taken prisoners at Austerlitz. The victory was followed by the conclusion of what is known as the Peace of Pressburg, under the conditions of which Austria made great concessions to her conqueror. About this time Prussia also concluded a discreditable treaty with Napoleon, ceding some of her territory to him in exchange for Hanover. The only gleam of sunshine for the allies amidst their general discomfiture was the great battle of Trafalgar (October 21, 1805), in which Nelson almost annihilated the combined French and Spanish fleets. The French marine never re- covered from this blow during the war. The loss to England of her greatest sailor was irremediable, and it was followed by the death of Pitt, July 23rd, 1806. In the same year a fourth coalition was formed against Napoleon, which re- sulted in the great battle of Jena (October 14th), where, however, Russia was not represented. In the following year the Russian general suffered a so- called defeat at Eylau, but the French losses were so great that they could hardly look upon the result as a victory. 1807] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 281 The Russians admitted having lost 30,000 killed and wounded, but the loss on the French side appears to have been no less. On June the 14th of the same year was fought the battle of Friedland, in which Russia was said to have lost from fifteen to twenty thousand men. Benningsen, however, was not very closely pursued : he passed the Niemen on' the 19th, burning the bridge behind him, and immediately afterwards Napoleon arrived at Tilsit. It cannot be wondered at that Alexander was willing to listen to terms of peace. Prussia was practically ruined, Austria mutilated, and but little inclined to attempt any fresh adventures. He was also annoyed with England, which had just refused him a loan. Accordingly, when a truce had been signed (June 22), Prince Lobanov arrived at Tilsit with proposals for an interview between hjs emperor and Napoleon. This took place on June 25th on a raft moored in the middle of the Niemen, and the Treaty of Tilsit was concluded (July 7, 1807). The terms of this treaty only affected Russian possessions to a small extent. At the intercession of Alex- ander, Frederick William III. was allowed to keep his crown, though he was deprived of nearly half his kingdom. He was compelled to give up all his territories between the Elbe and the Rhine ; to cede the circle of Cottbus in Lusatia to the King of Saxony; and to abandon all his Polish possessions, including Danzig, with the exception of Warmia or Erme- land and a part of the district of Netze. All the rest of Prussian Poland, under the style of Grand Duchy of Warsaw, was to be tranferred to the King of Saxony ; and the latter, in order to connect his possessions, was to have a military road through the Prussian territories. Danzig, with a territory of ten leagues in circumference, was to be independent under the protection of Prussia and Saxony. The department of Bialystok, formerly attached to Prussia, was to be made over to Russia. The penalty paid by Prussia was indeed severe, but it was the result, to a great extent, of her selfish and vacillating policy. A secret treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, was 282 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [isos now concluded between France and Russia, the two powers aimed at being England and Turkey. Russia was to address an ultimatum to England, which, if neglected, was to be followed by a declaration of war on the part of Russia before the ist of December. Another treaty is said to have been also made by which these powers were to divide the world between them ; among other territories Turkey was to be assigned to Russia. Meanwhile an order of the British .Government had de- clared all the ports of the French Empire blockaded from Brest to the Elbe. On November 21st, 1806, Napoleon had issued his celebrated Berlin decree, and in the following spring Copenhagen was bombarded by the English, and Russia made her declaration of war, alleging want of good faith on the part of England. This attempt on the part of Alexander to enforce the Berlin decree of Napoleon was very detrimental to the interests of his own country. She was the great producer of raw material, and required, above all things, the markets for her products which England afforded her. Alexander proclaimed anew the armed neutrality, and declared that he would enter into no dealings with England till the Danes had received compensation. This was followed up by an embargo being laid upon all English vessels in Russian ports. Thus after having suffered great humiliation at the hands of Napoleon did Russia turn against England, her natural friend. All efforts, however, of Alexander to make the King of Sweden close his ports against the English were ineffectual. He still allowed them to use Goteborg as a free port. But the Russians found in this a pretext for declaring war against Sweden and annexing the long-coveted Finland. Gustavus IV. was a man of weak character, and though he must have known that the Russians meditated an attack on his territory, he seems to have made no effort whatever to resist them. On the contrary, just before their arrival he had gone off with an army to Norway. The war began in 1808. The Swedish troops, scattered in small detachments over 1809] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 283 the whole surface of Finland, remained quietly in their winter quarters, and did not begin to concentrate until the Russians had passed the frontier. The king appointed Count Klingspor the chief commander of the Finnish army, and gave him orders to collect the scattered regiments. Buxhovden ap- peared on the scene with 20,000 men, to be followed by 40,000 more. The troops under Klingspor and Adlerkreuz now took the field. The Swedes were at first victorious in one or two petty engagements, but lost what they had gained by the battle of Oravais on September 14 and the defeat of Lokalaks on the 18th. General Knorring, who had crossed the Gulf of Bothnia on the ice with 25,000 Russians, took possession of the Aland islands and granted the Swedes a cessation of hostilities so that terms of peace might be arranged. As the result, Sweden surrendered Finland with the whole of East Bothnia and a part of West Bothnia, lying eastward of the river Torneo. This cession of territory was guaranteed by the treaty of Frederiksham, September 17, 1809. Treason on the part of some of the officers in high command is known to have occurred, especially in the surrender of Sveaborg, the fortified outpost of Helsingfors. Sweden thus lost a popula- tion of 900,000 souls. The Grand Duchy had been evacuated by the Swedish and Finnish troops towards the close of the year 1808. A Finnish deputation, elected by the nobility, the clergy, the burgesses, and the peasantry, the four Swedish " Estates," assembled at St Petersburg in November 1808. The Emperor was anxious to consult them on the condition of the country. They declared to him in solemn audience that this could only be done in a full meeting of the diet. To this the Emperor assented, and by a decree of February 1, 1809, the Estates were summoned to assemble at Borga. The Emperor was present at the opening of this diet, and signed a declaration to the effect that he confirmed and ratified the religion and fundamental laws of the land, and that each class in the country was to continue to enjoy the privileges it had already 284 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [isoo had under the constitution. Changes, however, had to be introduced to a certain extent, because the supreme tribunal and the offices of the central government had up to that time been at Stockholm. The former taxes were continued, with the exception of some extraordinary imposts from which the Emperor desired the people to be exempt. The revenues of the Grand Duchy were to be employed solely for the wants of the country itself, and thus the independence of Finland's budget was secured. Alexander at the same time conceded that there should be no compulsory recruiting in Finland. The line of frontier between Russia and Finland remained at first as it had been fixed in 1743 between Russia and Sweden ; but the Emperor, for the sake of unity, generously united to the Duchy the province of Viborg, which had been acquired in the time of Peter the Great. The statutes of the State Council were sanctioned on August 18, 1809. For some time the council sat at Abo, but in 1819 removed to Helsingfors, which has since been considered the capital of the country. By the statute of 1809, the Governor-General was to preside at the Council. The diet was not convoked again in the time of Alexander, nor indeed at all during the reign of Nicholas. But in the time of Alexander III. a law was passed by which it was enacted that the diet should be convoked periodically. We have somewhat anticipated matters by mentioning these facts, but in reality Finland has continued in a very prosperous condition till the unfortunate troubles of the present day, which are beyond the purview of the present work. One interesting fact may be dwelt upon, the development of the Finnish language. This, from the time of the Russian occupation, has been very great. Lonnrot discovered the fragments of the Kalevala, which he so dexter- ously pieced together, and the professors at Helsingfors were allowed to deliver their lectures in Finnish. Before the signing of the treaty of Frederikshamn, Gustavus IV. had been deposed. He ended his life as a private indi- vidual; and Bernadotte, Prince of Monte Corvo, one of 1810] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 285 Napoleon's generals, founded a new dynasty, which has lasted till the present day. He ascended the throne under the name of Charles John. England had partially assisted the Swedes against the Russians by blocking some of the vessels of the latter in the ports of Esthonia. Another Russian fleet, under Admiral Seniavin, which sailed to Portugal to co- operate with the French against the English, was obliged to surrender to Admiral Cotton, but it was afterwards restored to Russia. The annexation of Georgia had brought Russia into collision with Persia, and this proved disastrous for the latter power, in that she was compelled to surrender Derbent and the Province of Shirvan. However, by September 1st, 1810, the Persians had ceased to be troublesome. Turkey about this time was in one of its chronic states of apparent dissolution. The authority of the Sultan was set at defiance by his dependents. Pasvan Oglu was in rebellion at Viddin, and Ali Pasha at Janina. Moreover, a serious rebellion was on foot in Serbia led by Tsrni (Black) George, who was really laying the foundations of the emancipation of that country from Ottoman rule. Napoleon had been intriguing with the Turks whom he wished to force into a war with Russia, for he foresaw that the treaty of Tilsit was fast becoming waste- paper. The ultimate effect of the quarrel between Turkey and Russia was the cession by the former power of Bess- arabia, by which the Russian dominions were extended to the Pruth. All things were now tending to the great quarrel between Napoleon and Alexander. During the year 18 10 Napoleon had pushed his Berlin decree to the utmost. Still the two emperors affected extreme courtesies to each other: Alex- ander sent malachite vases, and Napoleon had the Russian Emperor's bust manufactured in porcelain at Sevres. At the celebrated meeting at Erfurt, when Talma, the actor, pro- nounced the line, "L'amitie d'un grand homme est un bienfait des dieux," (and) Alexander, pressing the hand of Napoleon, declared that he had never felt it so much as at 286 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [lsio that time. In fact more than courtly deception prevailed, and when we find Napoleon afterwards speaking of Alexander as a man full of duplicity and false as a Greek of the Byzantine period, we may be sure that he was secretly lamenting the failure of his own exaggerated flattery and carefully prepared traps. Meanwhile the grovelling adula- tion of the miserable German princelings formed a fitting chorus. There was, however, soon to be a break-up of this unreal friendship. Alexander, by a ukaze of the 31st of December 18 10, allowed the importation of colonial products into Russia under a neutral flag, and so interfered with the continental blockade and inflicted a mortal blow upon the treaty of Tilsit. Russian commerce was practically ruined, and the coinage greatly depreciated. Moreover, Russia did not relish the creation of the duchy of Warsaw — a resuscita- tion of Poland and a formal menace to her ; nor did she like the intrigues which were going on between the French and the Poles. But she had first to settle with Turkey. The Russian armies were commanded by Prozorovski, and after his death by Bagration, of whom we shall hear a great deal more in the future. All the fortresses on the Danube fell 1 into their hands, with the exception of Giurgevo. In 18 10 these successes were continued, though not unalloyed in that failure attended the Russian endeavours to take the strongly fortified towns of Varna, Shumla and Rustchuk. At these places there were English officers in the service of the Turks, and this fact is the more significant since it must have been about this time that the English mercenary captains turned their attention from the service of Russia to that of Turkey. The war was eventually brought to an end by Kutuzov who defeated the Turks at Rustchuk, and drove the Grand Vizier across the Danube which he had rashly crossed. Count St Priest also captured the Turkish flotilla. The Russians, how- ever, had experienced considerable losses during the campaign, and perceiving, no doubt, that their great struggle with France could not be much longer delayed, they were the more in- 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 287 clined to peace. The Turks also were exhausted, and so it came to pass that by the agency of Kutuzov the treaty of Bukharest was signed on May 28th, 1812. The chief point conceded by the Turks was that the Pruth should for the future separate Russian and Turkish territory. There were, however, other matters which call for mention seeing that they figure prominently in the negotiations concerning the Crimean War. The Porte abandoned to Russia a third part of Moldavia together with the fortresses of Khoczim (Khotin), and Bender (two very historical places in connec- tion with the peoples of these regions) ; to this was added the whole of Bessarabia with Izmail and Kilia. Some concessions were made to the Serbs, who were now begin- ning to be heard of after a bondage of five centuries. Finally, the Porte was to induce Persia to conclude a treaty; that country having again shown itself inclined to war at the instigation of the English. The quarrel with Turkey having been arranged, Alexander now began to feel that he could embark upon the great war which menaced him. Napoleon for nearly a year and a half, for objects which no one could exactly divine, had been massing troops on the Russian frontiers, especially the river Niemen. It was con- jectured that these movements were directed against Russia. Napoleon, who had fortified Danzig, now declared war, and Alexander made preparations to meet him. He had dis- tributed his forces as follows : 90,000 men under the orders of Barclay de Tolly, without including Platov's Cossacks, occu- pied the line of the Niemen, and formed the First Army of the West. Michael Bogdanovich Barclay de Tolly was descended from an old Scottish family which had settled in Livonia. He was born in the year 1761. He figured in the Turkish wars at Ochakov, and other places; in 1790 he was in Sweden; in 1794 in Poland; and afterwards in Finland. The Second Army of the West, 60,000 strong, under Prince Bagration, guarded the frontier of the Duchy of Warsaw. Lower down, about 45,000 men, commanded by General 288 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [wis Tormasov, formed the Third Army of the West. This force was intended to act as a reserve for the two first, and to watch the movements of the Austrian contingent in Galicia, which was nominally co-operating with Napoleon. Finally, at the two extremities of the country, the Army of Finland, under the command of Count Wittgenstein, and the Army of Moldavia, under the orders of Chichagov completed the system of defence. The centre of operations, and the quarters-general of the Emperor, were at Vilna. Alexander made his entry into the town on April 16, i8r2, on horseback, accompanied by his generals and ministers. After some demands made by both parties had been re- jected, the war finally began. Napoleon raised the garrison of Danzig to 20,000, and Hamburg was occupied by the corps of Davoust, under the pretext that the king of Sweden had connived at the introduction of English goods and Colonial produce. Napoleon, having in vain endeavoured to induce Turkey to begin another war with Russia, then set out on his great expedition. It was from his quarters-general at Vilko- viski in Russian Poland, on June 22, 181 2, that he definitely declared war. Various statements have been made about the number of men Napoleon had with him. It was probably between 500,000 and 600,000 men. The bulk of the army really consisted of Germans, who were skilfully distributed among the Frenchmen, so that they should not know their own numbers. There are supposed to have been upwards of 120,000 Germans at least. There were also several thousand Italians, Spaniards and Portuguese forced into the service, whom their royal masters had sent to perish amid the Russian snows, and to carry destruction to a people with whom they had no conceivable quarrel. But carefully dispersed among the various regiments were also 60,000 Poles, who were burning with hatred of Russia, and eager to restore their fallen country. The Russians could bring against this enormous host about 372,000 men all told, but these were all animated with extraordinary fanati- cism against the invader of their sacred country, and their 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 289 patriotism was further stimulated by the proclamation of the Tzar. On his way to Russia, Napoleon held a grand levee at Dresden, attended by his vassal monarchs. Here met him the Emperor and Empress of Austria, and the Kings of Prussia and Saxony. Besides the Poles he actually had in his army, he could also count upon 100,000 more ready to raise the standard of Polish independence, and do what they could to hamper the Russians. On the 24th of June the invader crossed the Niemen between Kovno and Grodno. This was one of the few available places at which the country could be invaded, owing to the number of marshes and the bad roads which existed generally throughout Russia, and which could not be traversed in wet weather. ' The French were amazed that they met with no resistance. Some sappers were the first to cross in a boat. They reached the bank and landed. A Cossack officer com- manding a patrol came up to them and asked who they were ? " French," they replied. " What do you want, and why do you come to Russia ? " A sapper answered rudely, " To make war upon you ; to take Vilna, and deliver Poland." The Cossack then went off into a thicket, and the three soldiers discharged their pieces after him. Napoleon then, with the greater part of his forces, moved to Vilna against Barclay de Tolly, sending at the same time his brother, Jerome, King of Westphalia, against Bagration. His idea was by rapid manoeuvres to separate the Russian armies and so destroy them in detail. In this he nearly suc- ceeded, and the Russian plan of operations, which had been devised by the Prussian general, Pfuhl, was completely upset. Napoleon was to be resisted on the frontiers of the empire. Barclay de Tolly was to be firmly entrenched in a fortified camp on the Dvina at Drissa, a place which often figures in Russian history, and there to keep in check the main army of the invader, while Bagration with Tormasov and Chichagov were to act on his flank and rear. In furtherance of this plan, Barclay de Tolly concentrated his T 290 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 corps in the neighbourhood of Vilna, and moved northward in order to occupy his fortified camp at Drissa. Bagration took up his quarters at Slonim. This was quite in accord with the wishes of Napoleon. The chief Russian armies were separated from each other more than 300 versts. Between them was Marshal Davoust, who occupied Minsk with a strong force. It thus became evident, if there had been any doubt about it previously, that the Russian generals were not men of great tactical capacity. It was the vigorous stuff of which the Russian soldier is made and the severity of the climate which saved the country. Now, however, the immeasurable superiority of Napoleon's forces made it doubtful whether he could be stopped on the Dvina ; the more so as the fortifications appeared to be com- pletely untrustworthy. The plan was therefore changed. It was resolved under any circumstances to unite the western armies, and not until that had been done to venture on an engagement. Barclay de Tolly moved higher up the Dvina to Vitebsk, and ordered Bagration to join him quickly. Prince Wittgenstein was left with one corps to protect Pskov and Novgorod ; and this corps had some success against the French detachments. Alexander now issued a proclamation calling to arms the whole Russian people, in consequence of the great crisis in which the country found itself. Moscow answered by a unanimous readiness to sacrifice everything for Tsar and country; the nobility bound themselves to furnish regi- ments ; the merchants did not spare their treasures ; the people only asked for arms to go against the enemy. The other cities of the empire followed the example of Moscow with such zeal that the Emperor considered it suffi- cient to form a militia in seventeen governments only, those, namely, which were nearest to the theatre of the war. In one month more than 200,000 men had been armed at the expense of the nobility and merchants, and were ready to die for their country. Directly after crossing the Niemen the French occupied 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 291 Kovno, and on the following day (June 27th) their light cavalry was within ten leagues of Vilna. The Russians now fell back behind the Vilia, after burning the bridge and their stores. A deputation of the principal inhabitants of Vilna delivered to Napoleon the keys of the town. At first the Russians had intended to dispute the passage of the Niemen, but Barclay de Tolly is said to have con- vinced the Emperor that this would be impossible in the face of such a large army as the invader possessed. On the 25th of June Alexander had issued an address to his subjects from Vilna. It was simple and dignified, and concluded with the following words : "It is unnecessary for me to recall to the minds of the generals, the officers, or the soldiers, their duty and their bravery. The blood of the valiant Slavs flows in their veins. Soldiers, you defend your religion, your country, and your liberty ! I am with you. God is against the aggressor.''" The whole of the French army was now concentrated near Vilna, and the second Russian corps, under General Bagovut, had effected a retreat across the Dvina. The Polish Uhlans of the 8th Regiment, commanded by Prince Radziwill, entered Vilna first; The town was large and populous, and it was calculated that the army would get abundant supplies. More- over, it was full of people well affected to the French, and had indeed only been for a short time part of the Russian dominions. The attitude of the Polish population at this time has been well described in the Pan Tadeusz of Mickiewicz. They considered that the hour of their deliverance had come, and looked upon Napoleon as the Messiah. The bad roads of the country now began to tell terribly upon the horses, and the invader seems to have had a fore- taste of what he was to suffer later. The French now found the country before them deserted ; and this was the case more and more as they passed out of territory which had till quite recently been Polish, and, therefore, contained many secret sympathisers. Napoleon, in a bombastic address to the 292 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 Poles, declared that he re-established the independence of the country. He knew that there were many soldiers of Polish nationality in the Russian ranks, and accordingly summoned them to leave the service of their oppressors. The address concluded thus : " Hasten and range yourselves under the eagles of the Jagiellos, the Casimirs, and the Sobieskis. Your country requires it of you. Honour and religion equally command it." The standard of Lithuania, representing a galloping horse, was now seen floating on the walls of Vilna, and those who had dreamt of a restored Poland thought their dream had come true. The heads of the University waited on Napoleon. This had been founded by Stephen Bathory in the sixteenth century as a kind of Roman Catholic wedge into Orthodox and Protestant Lithuania. Napoleon reorganised the civil administration of the town, which had been deranged owing to the departure of the chief functionaries. But his real desire was to witness a levy of the Lithuanians en masse. He also adopted the favourite device of invaders, that of inducing the peasants to rise against their masters. These plans, however, did not lead to any important results. The department of Vilna was created, and the conquered territory was divided into eleven subordinate districts. The country, however, was pillaged by the soldiers, and the peasants fled into the woods. The French were horrified at the continual appearance of Jews of the most abject demeanour, and clothed in the filthiest rags, who abandoned themselves to all kinds of petty forms of extortion. Labaume tells us that when the sous-prefet of Nowy Troki came from Vilna to take possession of his department he was stopped by the French troops and plundered of everything. Even his own escort robbed him of his provisions and clothes. At length he arrived on foot in a condition so wretched that everyone regarded as a spy the man who was destined to be the first French administrator. This serves to indicate what a horde of brigands the French were letting loose upon the unhappy country. 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 293 A great diet had been summoned at Warsaw for June 28th, and the idea proposed was to offer the crown of Poland to the King of Saxony. A committee was formed to consider the following three proposals : (1) the union with the new kingdom of Poland of all the provinces which she had lost in earlier times, especially the Russian-speaking portions of Lithuania; (2) the recall of the Poles from the Russian service ; and (3) the despatch of a deputation to Napoleon, entreating him to extend to them his protection. This deputation reached Napoleon at Vilna the night before his departure. The duplicity and insincerity of the man soon became transparent. He had no real love for popular assemblies or constitutional rights, however much he might use such expressions about a powerful enemy whose rule he wished to break up. He would make no definite promises, but on the contrary demanded more sacrifices from them. Thus he required that the provinces which Russia had taken from Poland should declare against the former country before he entered them. Moreover Galicia was still to belong to Austria, because he had guaranteed the integrity of her dominions. A detachment of the French army under Murat now tried to intercept Platov, the hetman of the Cossacks, before he could join the main Russian army, but failed to do so on account of the badness of the roads. The legs of a great many horses were broken in the morasses which continually obstructed the path of the French General. At length he arrived at Smorgoni, the inhabitants of which proved to consist chiefly of Jews. About this time the Russian authorities issued a declara- tion which was extensively circulated on the banks of the Dvina, remonstrating with the French for the invasion, and plainly telling them that they would only be drawn further and further into the country to their ruin. After evacuating Vilna the Russians retired to Vitebsk, and from thence to Smolensk. After three days' desperate fighting, the latter place, where troops to the number of 120,000 had been con- 294 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 centrated, was set on fire and, on the approach of Napoleon, evacuated. According to the accounts of eye witnesses, Smolensk presented a ghastly spectacle. Every street, every square was covered with the bodies of the Russians, dead or dying. The cathedral became the refuge of those who had escaped the flames. Labaume describes the entry of the French army into the town to the sound of war-like music. It was vx victis indeed. On the road from Smolensk the enemy found only the ruins of villages burnt by the in- habitants themselvSs, who had concealed themselves in the forests after committing to the flames all that they could not take with them. The French marched without guides and often lost their way. The war was fast assuming the same characteristics as had marked that at the time of the expedi- tion of Charles XII. a hundred years previously. The only difference was that Peter had acted according to plans sketched out beforehand with the complete conviction of the necessity of avoiding a decisive battle till the enemy, who were continually being drawn further and further into the devastated country, should be thoroughly weakened. Peter spared neither towns nor villages, setting them on fire in- discriminately, and giving strict orders to the inhabitants to retire into the forest. Charles had everywhere found ashes, ruins, and unpeopled wastes ; Napoleon found the same owing to the self-sacrifice of the Russian people who, without being in any way instigated to it, did all they could to impede the enemy. But the continued retreat of Barclay de Tolly before the French, and the fact that he seemed to have no settled plan, had the effect of making him unpopular, and the discontent soon became universal, growing in intensity as he abandoned city after city. If we are to believe the words of Pushkin even his foreign name contributed to this, he being de- scended from a Scotch soldier of fortune who had emigrated to Livonia. At length the Russian army, now encamped at Tsarevo Zaimistche, learned that they were to have a new commander. 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 295 On the 29th of August Kutuzov made his appearance, a veteran who had been tried in many previous battles and was looked upon by the Russians as almost their last hope. He was, however, inferior as a general to Barclay. Kutuzov at once declared that the Russian army should retreat no further. The French were now within four days' march of Moscow, and with a view to its defence, he looked out for a strong position betweeen Gzhatsk and Mozhaisk, where a decisive blow might, he thought, be struck. This he found on the little river Moskva, near Borodino. On the 5th of September Murat attacked the rear-guard of the Russians under the command of Konovnitsin at the Kolotski Monastery, and forced them to retreat to Borodino. Before daybreak on the 7th of September the whole of the French forces were paraded, and every captain read out to his company the following proclamation ; Soldiers ! this is the battle so much desired by you. The victory depends on yourselves. A victory is now necessary to us. It will give us abundance of all we wish — good winter quarters and a prompt return to our country. Behave as you behaved at Austerlitz, at Friedland, at Vitebsk, at Smolensk, and let the latest posterity recount with pride your conduct on this day. Let them say of each one of you ; he was at the great battle under the walls of Moscow. The Russians had taken up an admirable defensive position, and had thrown up vast earthworks. Both sides had spent the previous evening in careful preparations. Napoleon is said to have thought that the Russians would retreat during the night. On the morning of the battle he personally visited every regiment. Kutuzov, preceded by an icon which had been rescued from Smolensk, harangued his soldiers but in very different language from that used by the French generals. Suddenly a radiant sun burst through the thick fog, where- upon Napoleon is said to have exclaimed : " This is the sun of Austerlitz ! " All was now ready ; the armies were in sight of each other ; the gunners at their posts. The signal for action, which seems to have been given about six o'clock, although 296 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 accounts vary a great deal, was the firing of a cannon from the principal French battery. The Russians had a strong position, though their earthworks had been hastily con- structed. Their chief defences consisted of one great re- doubt and three smaller ones. The village of Borodino had already been set on fire. The large redoubt from which the Russians kept up a murderous fire was at length captured, though not without a terrible struggle, and the guns were turned upon the Russians themselves. The smaller works were taken and retaken. Murat and his staff took posses- sion of the big redoubt and cut down all the artillerymen. Kutuzov then ordered the Russian cuirassiers to advance and the fight waxed more fierce than ever. The interior of the redoubt presented a horrible spectacle, corpses being piled on corpses. Labaume describes how he saw the body of a Russian gunner decorated with crosses. In one hand he held a broken sword and with the other firmly grasped the carriage of the gun which he had been serving. All the Russian soldiers in the redoubt had chosen death in preference to surrender. The general who commanded them had sworn to die at his post, and seeing all his comrades dead, tried to throw himself upon the Frenchmen's swords. The latter, however, in view of the honour of capturing so valiant a prisoner, resolved to spare him, and Murat ordered him to be conducted to the Emperor. Murat and Eugene Beauharnais, the Viceroy as he was called, were conspicuous for bravery, the latter even standing at one time on the parapet of the great redoubt. Napoleon is said to have been on foot during the battle, and to have been suffering from a very bad cold. He remained in the rear of the centre and directed some very dashing manoeuvres, including the despatch of the Westphalians and Poles to support Ney in his attempt to turn the Russian position : these were, however, repulsed with great loss. The Russians kept up a determined fire till nightfall, and this was so well directed, that, according to Labaume, the legion of the Vistula, commanded by General Claparede, was I812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 297 forced to kneel down behind the grand redoubt. In this uncomfortable position they remained for more than an hour. The Russian fire at length slackened, only a few shots being heard at intervals, until the silence of the last redoubt gave the French reason to believe that the Russians were preparing to retire on the road to Mozhaisk. The weather, which had been very fine during the day, became cold and damp towards evening. Some of the corps of the French army were without food, and the want of firewood left them exposed to all the rigours of a Russian autumn ; it BOROHI2V0.281Z. 1 .TheGreatJledLwLbt Z.Ths-Fleches Sn.ffZ- was a foretaste of what they were destined to suffer before leaving Russian territory. The next day (September 8th) very early in the morning, the French returned to the field. They found, as they had surmised, that the Russians had retreated during the night. The latter, having lost two of their redoubts, saw that their position was no longer tenable. The field was strewn with heaps of slain, and there are not wanting authorities who have not hesitated to characterise the battle of Borodino as the most sanguinary since the invention of gunpowder. Various computations have been made as to the number of slain.. Napoleon had indeed' gained a Pyrrhic victory; 298 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [isai he is calculated to have lost more than 30,000 men, and the Russians 40,000. Many important generals fell on both sides. Amongst the Russians killed were the brothers Tutchkov and Count Kutaisov, the favourite of Paul, who here found a grave more honourable than his life had been. Bagration, who was in command of one of the three divisions of defence, was severely wounded. He was carried off the field, and expired on the 24th of September, saying that he died happy if no peace had been made with the invader. Many eloquent descriptions have been given of the terrible scenes presented by the battlefield. Space does not admit of quotation, but the splendid genius of Tolstoi and Verestchagin has recorded them in their respective manner for posterity. As the French army pursued the retreating Russians within half a league of the village of Krasnoe they found the road defended by four other great redoubts, in the form of a square. The Russians had retired quickly, carrying off the wounded, and their pursuers had not fully perceived their movements. At Mozhaisk, about six versts from Borodino, the French came upon a Russian camp, where a number of the wounded had been left? The defence of this post had been entrusted to the Cossacks and their hetman Platov. These had formed the rearguard of the army. Four guns had been given to Platov, but in front of the little town of Mozhaisk which had been reduced to ruins, it was impossible for him to keep the French at bay for the appointed time, four hours, however advantageously he was conditioned in other re- spects. Platov accordingly retreated, and for doing so was degraded by Kutuzov till the end of the war. But even in his lower rank he continued to do his duty bravely, and the Emperor afterwards made him a count. Platov, who was a Cossack of the old school, was deeply hurt by the way in which the tchinovniks or officials treated him in Moscow. His nephew tells us that in his old age he showed a marked dislike for official papers ; the sight of them threw him into a passion, and he could hardly be induced to sign any. 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 299 If any sealed packets came into his hands he always put them in a particular room under lock and key. From this room more than two cartloads, which had never been opened, were carried away after his death. He seems to have had a vague, but no: ill-founded idea, that these papers might contain indictments against himself. Kutuzov now saw all his tactics paralysed. Even up to five o'clock on the fatal day of Borodino it had seemed that victory might eventually rest with him. He actually issued orders for fighting on the following day. But about eleven o'clock the same night he perceived that his losses were too great. Napoleon remained master of the field, though greatly taken aback by the stubborn resistance of the Russians. He did not conceal his disappointment at the result of the battle, though it was now evident that nothing could save Moscow. Kutuzov and the chief generals of the Russian army has- tened to the ancient city. On the slope of the Poklonnaya hills, in view of Moscow, at the village of Fili, a very important council was held in a peasant's . cottage. Were the Russians to defend Moscow, or to surrender it to the invader without a battle ? The surrounding country is uneven, intersected by rivers, and unsuited for fighting. It had no fortified walls and no earthworks, and this explains why it was so often the prey of the Tatar. Moreover, after such great losses it would be the wildest folly to attempt a second Borodino. In addition to this the French army was approaching Moscow with great rapidity, their average rate being twenty, versts in twenty-four hours. If the Russians were again defeated there was no possibility of retreat, because of the interposing river Moskva ; and the army would consequently be annihilated by the superior strength of the enemy. So in this memorable council, after a long dispute between Barclay de Tolly and Benningsen, by a final vote Kutuzov decided to abandon Moscow without a Battle. "With the loss of Moscow," said Kutuzov, " Russia is not ruined, so long as the army survives. I see that I shall have to answer for everything, but I am willing to sacrifice myself for what I 300 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 think the good of the country. I give the order to retire," added he, rising up from his chair. Then, pensive and sad, he walked up and down the cottage, where he had remained when the other generals had retired. An officer in close attendance upon him tried to dissipate his melancholy. " Where shall we stop ? " the officer enquired. Kutuzov suddenly burst into a passion, struck the table with his fist, and said : " This is my doing ; but I will soon make the accursed French eat horse flesh, as I made the Turks do last year." The old man throughout the night kept discussing the matter with tears in his eyes. In reality he gave up Moscow so that the wolf might fall into a trap; when he had so fallen the Russian army would be prepared to deal with him. The following curious notice was posted up in the streets by the orders of Rostopchin, the governor, whom we have already mentioned among the favourites of Paul : — "The most illustrious prince, Kutuzov, has passed Mozhaisk, and united with the rest of the troops. He has taken up a strong position, where the enemy cannot attack him suddenly. We shall send him forty-eight cannon, and he says that he will defend Moscow to the last drop of blood. He is ready to fight in the streets. Do not be grieved, brothers, that the courts of justice are closed. We must arrange matters, and we will settle with the miscreants after their own fashion. I hope brave young men will come from the towns and villages. The axe is useful ; the pike is also useful ; but the three- pronged fork is better than anything. A Frenchman is not heavier than a sheaf of rye. To-morrow I shall take the icon of the Holy Virgin of Iveria to the Catherine hospital, and it will heal both the sick and wounded. I am now well : one of my eyes was bad, but now I see with both." Such was the strange language of this humourist, who had for some time previously been writing attacks upon the French. He repre- sented the old Russian party which hated foreigners, and like Surovov affected to use the language of the muzhik. When a young man named Verestchagin was caught foolishly circulating the notices of Napoleon, he caused him 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 301 to be thrown into the midst of the mob, who tore him to pieces. How far Verestchagin had really intended to circulate the French proclamations is not clear. Some authorities hold that he was merely showing off his knowledge of foreign languages by translating from the foreign newspapers which had come by post. Under any circumstances he committed an act of egregious folly, and paid dearly for it. When the inhabitants found out that the Russian troops had retreated from Borodino to Moscow, there was great consternation. Every man began to look out for himself, and the selfishness of despair prevailed everywhere. All respect for persons was at an end. One man buried his wealth in the corner of a courtyard ; another concealed it in his cellar, or built it up in a wall. The serfs who helped him to do so in many cases afterwards dug it up for their own profit. Few of the original owners ever got their property again, it being either burnt or stolen. Those who owned horses were in the best case, because they could carry off their possessions ; but, on the other hand, they were liable to have their horses requisitioned for the service of the Government. The most painful spectacle was presented in the case of those tradesmen who had passed all their lives in their shops, which were well stored with goods. These were unwilling to abandon their wares, and had no means of carrying them away. Accordingly, as they would not allow them to remain for the French to enjoy, they offered them as a gift to any who chose to accept them. All wished to leave Moscow as soon as possible. People were every- where to be seen quitting the city on foot, heavily laden with sacks and bags. There was universal confusion. It was like a vast parade, as an aged lady who had herself witnessed it once described it to the writer. The exodus, as was natural, took place on the opposite side of the city to that by which it was expected the enemy would enter ; and at the barriers the confusion was naturally much increased; the shouts of the crowd blended with cries of pain and abuse. With the whole city at their mercy, thieves and pickpockets seized their oppor- 302 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 tunity ; they had all Moscow for their hunting-grounds. Bare- footed ruffians carried all before them, and served their country by turning incendiaries. But although Rostopchin had issued his misleading notice, and talked in a vague way about the Russian troops making a stand at Moscow, he was removing the Government property as fast as he could. The rougher part of the populace now began to break into the liquor shops, and to stab all foreigners whom they came across. A report was spread that Rostopchin had ordered the citizens to assemble at a place called the Three Hills, with such weapons as they could get hold of, and that he would lead them in person. The citizens, how- ever, stood there in crowds, awaiting his arrival in vain ; and it was not until the darkness of night came upon them that they dispersed. On the night of the 13th of September Rostopchin learned definitely that Moscow was to be abandoned to the French. Carriages were at once got ready to transport the sick. The police began to burn the corn, forage, and stores which could not be carried away ; the casks of wine were broken up ; and debauchery and drunkenness prevailed throughout the night. Towards morning the agitation of the people reached its height. Huge crowds assembled in front of the house of the Commander-in-Chief, urging him to lead them against the French. Rostopchin now found himself in a position of great difficulty; He proceeded to release the prisoners, and then, amid the murmurs of the populace, delegated all authority to the Com- mander-in-Chief, and left the city for his country house just as the French were beginning to appear on the heights. The people were soon to see what the actual plans of Rostopchin were. He certainly did not seek his country house with a view of hiding himself there, for he shortly set fire to it to prevent its falling into the hands of the French. All vessels on the Moskva which contained stores were now blown up, and the noise of the explosions still further terrified the people. 1821] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 303 Two hundred thousand of the inhabitants left Moscow in two days. On the morning of the 14th of September, Kutuzov had hardly succeeded in forcing his way through the barrier on the road to Riazan. Meanwhile the enemy was approaching the Kaluga barrier. The greater part of the Russian troops marched quietlyenough through the deserted city, but the garrison of the Kremlin was accompanied by a band. This seemed very inappropriate, and roused murmurings among the soldiers and inhabitants generally. The fiery Miloradovich, afterwards to die by the hands of a Dekabrist, turned with a rebuke to the general who commanded. " If a garrison on the surrender of a fortress is allowed to depart," answered the simple general, " it goes out with music. Such was the rule laid down by Peter the Great." "But did Peter the Great lay down the rule about the surrender of Moscow ? " cried out Miloradovich. '•' Bid your music cease." And thus Moscow, with her golden cupolas, after having been spared such an indignity for two centuries, was surrendered to an enemy once more. It had been in the hands of the Poles in 1612. On the 15th of September Napoleon gazed upon the city from the Sparrow Hills, especially the Poklonnaya. As he surveyed it through his telescope, he is recorded to have said, " There it is at last — that celebrated city. Now the war is finished." He sent Murat with some officers to arrange a triumphant entry for him. At the same time the congratula- tions he received, and the feeling that he had triumphed over all obstacles, seemed to cause him some emotion. At the Dragomilovski barrier he got off his horse and walked up and down. He seemed to have an idea that a deputation would come out to him from the city. He probably meditated the utterance of some of those sonorous and epigrammatic sentences which on previous occasions had resounded through- out Europe. He had doubtless many in readiness for the Russians, but they were destined to be uttered under less favourable circumstances. 304 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [ism The hours passed, but nobody arrived. He now began to lose patience, walking up and down in great agitation, and looking round on all sides. He frowned, took off and put on his gloves, and nervously squeezed his pocket-handkerchief. The searches made by those whom he sent had been use- less : the streets were all deserted. Not more than 10,000 inhabitants remained, and they had hidden themselves in their terror. The French officers succeeded at last in collecting some foreigners who were living in Moscow, and among them a French bookseller. These were all brought before Napoleon. " Who are you ? " said the Emperor, turning to the bookseller. " A Frenchman settled in Moscow." " That is to say, my subject. Where is the senate ? " " It has gone away." " And the governor ? " " He has gone away." " Where are the people ? " " There are no people." " Who is there in the city ? " " Nobody." " It can't be so." " I swear it is so, on my honour." " Be silent," and the Emperor frowned, and was himself silent. Then, in his anger, he ordered the deputation to be driven off. This striking scene has formed the subject of a picture by the painter Verestchagin. Napoleon, however, refused to believe that Moscow was deserted, and ordered a cannon to be fired as a signal for the troops to march into the city. Mounting his horse he himself entered by the Dragomilovski barrier. The soldiers at once made preparations to enter the city, and ranged themselves round the Poklonnaya Gora, where Napoleon then was, and also along the river Moskva. They had now before them the white-walled city, sparkling in the sunshine with its many- coloured cupolas and towers. It was indeed a picturesque sight. They waved their caps with joy and with shouts of delight obeyed the signal of the gun. Miloradovich meanwhile covered the retreat of the Russian army. It took some time to get out of the city, as the streets were blocked with abandoned goods. He proposed to Murat, who commanded the French avant 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 305 garde, to suspend hostilities for a few hours so as to give the French free passage. If this were not granted he declared that he would fight till the last man and- only leave smoking ruins. Murat agreed. The streets were thus quite empty when the French entered ; none but the very lowest class of vagabonds, beggars, and thieves remained, flitting about like spectres, ready for any acts of lawlessness. Many interesting accounts have been preserved by Russians who were witnesses of the scenes, among which we may mention several chapters in the memoirs of Herzen, and some striking diaries printed a few years ago in the Russkii Arkhiv. So much has been written on the French side that it is especially interesting to read how Russia confronted this terrible onset. As the French guard entered the Kremlin a strange scene was enacted. The first division was passing through the gates under the Nikolski tower when a peasant rushed out and laid hold of the leading officer, rolled him over in the mud, and fastened his teeth in his throat. The man seems to have taken him for Napoleon, thinking that none but the Emperor himself would be allowed to have the honour of riding first into the Kremlin. This unwelcome surprise was followed by a heavy fire from some concealed sharpshooters, and the French found themselves called upon to face a shower of bullets. The Polish Uhlans in the French service soon put an end to this, though the event gave rise to a feeling of great insecurity. The first night (15 th to 16th September) Napoleon spent in the Dragomilovskaya Sloboda, which was then a very poor quarter, consisting almost entirely of inns. He is said to have suffered a great deal from the filthiness of his surroundings, and to have been constantly waking his valet to pay attention to him during the night. He left the next day without paying anything, according to the right of the conqueror. On the 1 6th of September, in very disagreeable weather, he entered the Kremlin, where his guard was stationed, and u » 306 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 took up his abode in the palace. But now the snare into which he had allowed himself to fall became evident. When night fell it was observed that the Gostinii Dvor and the Karetnii Riad as well as other parts of the city were on fire. Soon a terrible conflagration was raging round the Kremlin itself, and was increased by the strong wind which had sprung up. Churches burst out into flame, to be followed quickly by the houses of rich Russian magnates, the bridges over the Moskva and the vessels on the river. From the windows of the palace the amazed Emperor saw a sheet of flame all round him ; Moscow was being destroyed. The Russians, after carrying off what they could, had left the emptied city to be given as a prey to the flames. " These are Scythians, indeed ! " he exclaimed. " Moscow no longer exists ; the Russians are burning it themselves ! What a people." Peril was not long in threatening the person of the Em- peror himself. He could now no longer stand at the windows, the panes of which were breaking all round him, while flaming fragments were blown on to the Kremlin, in the squares of which the ammunition had been piled up. Napoleon ordered the incendiaries to be seized where pos- sible ; and accordingly twenty-five miserable wretches were arrested and dragged before a military court. Of these twelve were shot in the square of the Kremlin, and the re- mainder sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. These fires had been undoubtedly carefully organised, and there is reason to believe that the city was set on fire by the express orders of Rostopchin. In the latter part of his life — in accordance with his strange paradoxical character — he seems to have denied having issued the order, but no one has given credence to this denial. It is certain that nothing has ever transpired to show that the step was directly ordered by the Tsar. Rostopchin may, however, have received and acted upon some secret hint from him. Alexander would scarcely have allowed it to become publicly known that he burnt his own capital. Some writers, however, still think that the fire was accidental. Rostopchin, they say, might have simplified 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 307 matters if he had been desirous of burning the city by setting fire to the powder preserved in the Kremlin. The fire had broken out in places where it was least to be expected ; and, in spite of the strict watch which was kept; the interior of the Kremlin itself as well as the stables of the palace burst into flames. Napoleon was compelled amid the smoke and stench of the burning streets to quit Moscow on the following day (September 16th) for the sake of fresh air. He made for the Petrovski palace, just outside the city, but had great difficulty in getting there although guided by a police-agent. He was now in a state of complete gloom, oppressed by the vast solitude and the all-devouring flames. He had, moreover, terrible forebodings of famine. The further he advanced the more the country was devastated, while the conflagration only came to an end on the 1st of October. The French troops were allowed to plunder the city. Rostopchin had arranged that the sacred furniture from the churches should as far as possible be removed, as also the Government archives. There had not been time, however, to carry off all the valuable things, and much booty re- mained for the invaders. The French, as. they had done elsewhere, seemed to take a special delight in destroy- ing the historical monuments of the country. Thus the cross was taken from the belfry of Ivan the Great and sent to France as a trophy, but before the invaders got out of the country they were glad to leave it behind. It was thrown into a lake, which was afterwards drained, and the historical cross was thus rescued and replaced in its old position. In the churches the most scandalous desecration took place : the bones of the saints were thrown out of their coffins, and the buildings stripped of all ornaments, from cupola to floor. In the Arkhangelski Sobor the Russians on their return found traces of orgies, the whole building being defiled with the stains of wine. In the Kremlin churches stores of oats, hay and straw had been piled up for the horses of Napoleon. In the Verkho-Spasski Sobor the altar had been used as a dining-table, and that of 3o8 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA t«« the Kazan Cathedral had been thrown out into the square, and a horse stalled in its place. Davoust, who lived in the Novodievitchii convent, and remained in the Kremlin so as to be at hand to present reports to Napoleon, used to sleep on the high altar in the cathedral of the Chudovo monastery. In the Petrovski and Danilov monasteries slaughter-houses were erected, and all the space within the walls was deluged with blood and defiled with the raw flesh of oxen. In the Bogoyavlenski monastery the French dragged about an aged priest by the hair of his head and beard in order to make him confess where the treasures were hidden. It was truly a terrible time for such of the clergy as were compelled to stay behind. In the Novospasski, the priest Nicodemus was made to kneel. On each side of him French soldiers stood with drawn swords, threatening him with instant death if he did not disclose where the valuable things of the monastery were concealed ; and the priest of the Sorokosviatski Church died of fright. As so many houses had been destroyed it was not easy for all the French soldiers to find quarters, and this would account for their occupation of the churches for themselves and their horses. The weather, which in the beginning of September had been somewhat wet, was now mild. The conflagrations had not been confined to the city, but had extended to the suburbs, where many of the splendid mansions of the Russian nobility had been burned. Rostopchin had himself fired his own country house, as Sir Robert Wilson has narrated in his Memoirs. Wilson accompanied the Russian army, and tells us how Rostopchin, who was a widower, gave him a torch, and entreated him to set fire to his late wife's boudoir, as he could not summon courage to do it himself. The autumn nights were now beginning to be cold. The French do not seem to have realised what was in store for them. The soldiers made large fires of icons, books, valuable pictures and furniture. Sometimes they made a path through the snow in the courts of the Russian houses by walking on the outspread backs of huge folios. Several valuable MSS. 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 309 were destroyed in this way, among others the original copy of the Slovo o polku Igoreve. In the Krasnaya Plotschad they practised shooting at marks, and the marks were generally icons. Napoleon himself, however, would seem to have set a good example to his soldiers as regards the treatment of the sacred buildings, and it is also to be remembered that the invading army comprised troops of many nationalities. In Smolensk, when he went into the Uspenski Sobor, he took off his hat, and caused the building to be respected. His orders were strictly carried out, and on the return journey of the French through Smolensk the sentry was the last person who left the cathedral. In Moscow he protected the Foundling Hospital, where lay about 2000 wounded men ; and in some of the churches he even allowed the services to be performed. Napoleon foolishly lingered five weeks among the ruins of Moscow, though he felt that he must retreat, and his only object now was to do so without dishonour. The foraging parties were able to procure but few supplies, in spite of treating the peasants everywhere with the greatest brutality. The latter were being constantly brought into Moscow in batches, there to be shot. They all died in the most stoical fashion, although these executions were ordained in terrorem t in consequence of the poor creatures having concealed their little property. In these savage reprisals many of Napoleon's allies acted more cruelly than his own troops — the Bavarians especially. But the nemesis was at hand. When Alexander heard of the burning of Moscow from a messenger sent by Kutuzov, he burst into tears, and exclaimed : " Oh God ! what misfortunes ; I conclude from this all that will happen to us ; that Providence requires from us great sacrifices— from me especially. I am ready to submit to His will. Tell the world, that, if I have not a soldier left, I will summon my faithful nobility and my good villagers. I will myself lead them, and employ every means which my empire can boast. Russia affords me more resources than my enemies think. But if it is decreed by fate and the Providence of God 310 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [ma' that my family should rule no longer on the throne of my ancestors, then, having exhausted all my resources, I will grow a beard and live on bread in the wilds of Siberia, rather than subscribe to the shame of my country and my good subjects, whose self-sacrifice I know how to value. God is now trying us ; let us hope he will not leave us. Either Napoleon or I — I or Napoleon ; but we cannot rule together. I have already learned his character ; he will deceive me no more." He might have said in the words of Shakspere — " I must perforce Have shown to thee such a declining day, Or look on thine ; we could not stall together In the whole world." The French Emperor vainly endeavoured to open nego- tiations with him ; the Tsar vouchsafed no reply to his overtures. On September 19th, when the conflagration had abated, Napoleon returned from the palace of Petrovski to the Kremlin. On his way thither he noticed how the French soldiers were wrecking such houses as remained standing, and throwing from the windows into the streets valuable pictures and furniture ; while they compelled their Russian prisoners with blows to load their vehicles with plunder of all kinds — plunder which eventually proved such a hindrance to them during the retreat. Napoleon had given orders that the Kremlin was to be kept clean, and was accordingly greatly annoyed at the filth which had been allowed to accumulate in his absence. During his occasional rides through the city the Russians hid themselves, but once near the Okhotnii Riad a troop of mendicants ventured to approach him up to their knees in mud, and entreated him for alms, but he paid no attention to them. At length, on the nth of October, an appeal to the in- habitants was issued : — "Peaceable inhabitants of Moscow, both masters and work- men, whom misfortunes have driven from the city, and you, 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 311 owners of land, whom an unfounded fear keeps away, listen. Peace is returning to this capital, and order is being restored in it. Your countrymen come boldly from their retreats. They see that they are respected. All acts of violence committed against them and their property are immediately punished. The Emperor protects them, and he considers none among you his enemies, except those who disobey his orders. He wishes to put an end to your sufferings, and will restore you to your homes and to your families. Respond to his benevolent measures, and come without any risk. Return with confidence to your dwellings ; you will soon find the means of satisfying your wants. Artisans and industrious workmen, return to your work : your houses and shops await you, and there will be troops to protect you. You shall receive the proper reward of your work. Peasants, come out of the woods where you have hidden yourselves through terror. Return without fear to your cottages in the sure conviction that you will find protection. Provision shops have been established in the city where the peasants can bring what they have to sell." Napoleon seems to have intended paying for all these commercial schemes by forged rouble notes. This was followed by the appointment of market days, and every possible attempt was made to restore the old current of trade. Both in coming into the town and going back to the villages the peasants were to be protected, notwithstand- ing that the blood of so many of them had previously been wantonly shed. But with all his efforts Napoleon seems to have been unable to make his troops respect his orders ; robberies were continual, and tradesmen and peasants alike profoundly mistrusted him ; meanwhile, continually trying to negotiate, through some high officers whom he had taken prisoners, he showed plainly enough that his position was an insecure one. He sent a special messenger to Kutuzov with a flag of truce, saying that he was really friendly to the Tsar and did not wish to fight with the Russians. He had only wished to enforce the Berlin decrees so as to prevent the English 312 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 enriching themselves at the public expense. The Russians, however, could not be made to appreciate the friendship of a man who had a drawn sword in his hand ; and as for the cause of the war they could not understand that in any way they were fighting for the English. The bearer of the flag of truce was sent back without an answer. Kutuzov was even forbidden by the Emperor to receive any offer of peace. It was at this time that Krilov composed his fable of the wolf in the dog-kennel. A Russian writer says that to the popular mind Napoleon had somewhat of the appearance of a wolf. He generally wore a long grey coat over his uniform, and a three-cornered hat with points which made him look to the peasants like a wolf with long ears. Meanwhile some Russian soldiers disguised as tradesmen made their appearance in Moscow. Kutuzov had sent them to spread reports among the French to the effect that the Russians were reduced to great extremities, that Platov was ready to play the traitor, and that there were still twenty-six regiments of Cossacks at Tarutino. These pseudo-tradesmen offered to furnish Napoleon with provisions at a cheap rate ; not, however, that there was any intention of doing so, but solely with the object of inducing him to protract his stay till the winter came on. Meanwhile they continued to make careful reports of the. condition of the French army. Napoleon was now daily falling deeper into the trap. The Russian guerilla bands were beginning to cause him great trouble. These consisted chiefly of desperate peasants, serfs, and regular soldiers under the irregular command of nobles and officers, and displayed for the most part a great amount of dexterity and boldness. Small detachments of cavalry, under the command of the ablest officers, moved quietly from place to place, and fell upon the French when the latter ventured out of Moscow in quest of provisions. All along the road from Smolensk to Moscow flying bodies of horse seized the supplies and arms of the enemy, and intercepted the messengers sent to and by Napoleon. Among these commanders was Captain Figner, a leader especially con- 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 313 spicuous for his prowess. He was a handsome, vigorous man of about twenty-four years of age, with bright eyes and a full face : he spoke French like a Frenchman and made use of it constantly to mislead the enemy. He frequently would lead his troop up to the very walls of the city ; when, having concealed his men somewhere in a wood, he would disguise himself as a French officer and set out to the enemy's front ranks. On one of these occasions, we read, he repri- manded the French patrols for their carelessness, telling them that a party of Cossacks had appeared close at hand. At another time he told them that the Russians were occupying such and such a village, and that it would be necessary to seek provisions in another direction. Thus he became acquainted with the movements of the enemy, and not in- frequently succeeded in leading them to where his own concealed troop could cut them to pieces. The name of Figner soon became well known to the French, and a large price was set upon his head. Napoleon even placed artillery to lie in wait for him on the Smolensk road, but nothing seemed to daunt his brave spirit. We hear of him attacking the bivouac of a French regiment, and taking prisoner the colonel and 50 men. His daily average of prisoners was from 200 to 300 men. Even when things went badly for him he understood how to get out of his difficulties. On one occasion, when surrounded in a wood with troops every- where in front of him and a vast morass in his rear, the French thought that he was in their power at last, and arranged their bivouac so that he could not escape. But Figner during the night managed by means of poles to put himself into communication with a neighbouring village, the inhabitants of which constructed a path over the marsh with planks and straw, and thus he effected his escape with all his horses and men. In the morning the astonished French could not conceive what had become of Figner and his troop. They tried to cross the marsh, but their horses sank up to their necks, and by the time they were extricated all trace of Figner was lost. Towards the end of September some 314 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [wis of these guerilla captains ventured to make an assault on Moscow : they forced their way in by the Tver barrier, and a sharp engagement took place. The inhabitants of the villages of course assisted these flying bands. They hid their families and provisions in the woods, and formed companies among themselves, choosing- retired soldiers for their leaders, and keeping close guard in the villages. Everyone who entered the village was closely observed and interrogated. Sentries were placed in the belfries of the churches to sound the alarm whenever the enemy appeared. The peasants were everywhere on the alert, and whenever the enemy showed themselves in small numbers did not hesitate to attack them, armed with weapons of the most miscellaneous character. The bodies of those who were killed were cast into pits and ponds. If the enemy were numerous, the peasants retreated further into the woods. Even to unarmed enemies there was but little quarter shown. The order had been given by the Ispravnik not to spare the French ; and, indeed, little encouragement was needed, even among the women, to wreak a mad vengeance; which is perhaps scarcely to be wondered at when we consider the sufferings they had undergone at the hands of the invader. Early on the morning of the 1 9th of October Napoleon left Moscow, riding out through the Kaluga Gate. Before taking his departure he vented his spite on the city. He ordered Marshal Mortier to blow up the Kremlin, and all the most important monuments and buildings, and to burn everything in the rear of the army as they advanced. In what condition the French army left Moscow we shall see later, from the accounts of eye-witnesses. The number of soldiers who set out from the ruined city was not less than 105,000, and with them were also families to the number of 10,000, for the most part of various nationalities, but chiefly French, who dreaded the popular vengeance if they remained behind. 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 315 On every side were to be seen vehicles of all kinds, loaded with the most promiscuous booty, of which the plate and ornaments from the churches formed a large portion. According to Labaume the long files of carriages extended for several leagues. When about ten versts from Moscow, Napoleon breakfasted. He boasted meanwhile that having sent the wounded from Moscow to Mozhaisk, on their way to France, he had rescued them from death at the hands of the barbarous Russians. He now began to feel anxious about the corps of Marshal Mortier, which had been left behind with orders to blow up -the city. His first idea was to march southwards to Kaluga, where he might get supplies and find fresh districts to ravage. He was now, however, making for the direction of Maloyaroslavetz. When the Russian general, Benningsen, who was stationed at Klin, heard of the departure of Napoleon from Moscow, and the orders that had been given for blowing up the Kremlin, he went in the company of Captain Narishkin with a flag of truce to Moscow 1 to do what he could to stop the destruction. But at the Tverskaya he was taken prisoner. At midnight on the 23rd of October, Mortier set fire to the arsenal of the Kremlin and other buildings. A violent explosion took place, followed by six others ; the dvorets was blown up, as was the granitovaya palata, a building closely adjoining the belfry of Ivan the Great, and the arsenal. The walls of the Kremlin were also injured in many places, but the churches there were preserved. So, too, was the Novo- dievitchii monastery. Here the French had lived as in a fortress, bringing with them large casks of wine. They offered no insults to the aged nuns, but as they left they scattered lighted candles about the building. A quantity of powder also was placed under the Sobor with a long fuse attached, and to this they set fire. The nuns, however, succeeded in ex- tinguishing the flames before they had spread very far ; and fortunately in the early morning, while passing the Sobor, they noticed the burning match and quenched it ; so that, owing to 316 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 what was an accidental circumstance, the whole monastery re- mained unscathed. Napoleon, still anxious to pose as a conqueror before Europe, now proclaimed to the world in a turgid bulletin that Moscow no longer existed. No sooner, however, had Mortier withdrawn his men from Moscow than it was occupied by the advance guard of the Russian militia under the com- mand of Prince Shakovski, They had been employed till then in transporting the wounded in great numbers between Klin and Tver. Shakovski used afterwards to tell how he entered the city by the Iverian Gate — the first of the returning Russians — with a small party of Cossacks, two orderlies, and a tchinovnik. He passed on foot a deserted chapel, in which, two months before, he had listened to a solemn service of intercession for the deliverance of Russia from her foes ; and stumbled at the very gates over the dead body of a Spaniard, to judge by the uniform. Orders had been given to the Russians to spare the Spaniards, inasmuch as at this time Spain was engaged in fighting against France. Shakovski was eager to enter the Kremlin, as it was already growing dark. He found the Spasski gates locked from inside, and the Nikolski gates obstructed by a broken piece of the wall. He accordingly climbed over by the help of. two hussars. He now called out to the Cossacks, who had just witnessed one explosion, and were hesitating, through fear of another, to follow him. They at once obeyed, and stood by his side in front of the burning palace, and the Granitovaya Palata, watching the last sparks expire in the darkness of the night. The writer of this interesting account goes on to tell how he went into the churches and caused the icons and the rest of the sacred furniture to be restored to their places as far as was possible. He also tells of the vast heaps of corpses and dead horses inside the Kremlin. These, however, were soon cleared away, for as the peasants came up with their carts to carry off any plunder which they could get, Count Benkendorf requisitioned the vehicles to remove the bodies to places 1812] THE REIGN OE ALEXANDER I. 317 where they could be buried, or in some other way got rid of so as to avoid a plague. After three days had been spent in this manner, preparations were made for the celebration of a solemn liturgy. Only one large church was found to be suitable, so the great bell of the Strastnoi monastery pealed forth the glad tidings over the ruined city. The tears burst forth from every eye when the bells, which had been the- glory and comfort of Moscow, were once more heard. The porches and passages of the churches were crowded. No such service had been celebrated since the famous time when Pozharski and Minin had driven the Poles from Russia in 16 12. After 200 years the country had once more experienced a terrible crisis. An eye-witness has recorded for us the impressive scene, how, when the choir sang, "Oh Lord of Heaven our Comforter," all present, magistrates, soldiers, nobles and peasants, even Bashkirs and Calmucks, fell on their knees ; their sobs blending with the holy singing and the pealing of the bells. We must now return to Kutuzov. On leaving Moscow he had stationed himself for a considerable time on the Riazan road ; having gone as far as the Moskva, he waited to see whether there was to be another engagement. He then went by way of the town of Podolsk to Tarutino, whither he was followed by Miloradovich. The latter would seem to have been very near trying conclusions with Murat; they at all events exchanged words. Murat spoke in a conciliatory manner, but Miloradovich replied that he must not talk to him or it would displease the soldiers ; and Murat appears to have thenceforward lost sight of the Russian forces. Kutuzov remained for nearly a month in the village of Tarutino on the road from Moscow to Kaluga, with the river Nara in front of him. It was an excellent defensive position, being intersected by pits and rivers; and in case of attack there was open ground before the army, extending for some versts. There he awaited the French, and received reports about their movements. Many other generals joined him here, and 318 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [isu the camp became the rally ing-place for the Russian forces. Here too was to be found the poet Zhukovski, the laureate of the war. Meanwhile Murat, with a force of about 20,000 men and 187 guns, passed through the villages Domedovo, Zherebiatievo, Kutuzovo, and so on to Krasnaia Pakhra. His march was harassed by the Cossacks, only one of whom, however, seems to have been slain by the French. About the 18th of October Orlov came upon him at the river Chenishna, near Podolsk, and a sharp engagement took place. Murat lost 500 killed and wounded, and 38 guns. The Russians took 1500 prisoners, as well as a standard. It was with difficulty that Murat cut his way through to Borovsk. This engagement has sometimes been called the battle of Viankovo. If the corps of Baggovut and Benningsen had come up sooner the whole advance guard of the French would probably have been annihilated. Kutuzov, however, does not seem to have set much value on this defeat of Murat's troops. He merely remarked that the Russians had begun to fight early. Their allies had not yet come, he said, alluding to the winter now fast approaching. Two un- happy French actresses who tried to effect an escape to the lines of Murat were captured in one of the villages and ill- treated. On the night of October 22nd a messenger came to Kutuzov at Tarutino from Dokhturov, with the news that Napoleon had quitted Moscow, and was retreating by the new Kaluga road. Kutuzov raised himself up in bed, and asked the officer to repeat his message. On hearing it he burst into tears, and immediately sent orders to Dokhturov to hasten with all pos- sible speed to Maloyaroslavetz : a most important move, which, as we shall see, eventually decided the issue of the war. The next day he marched in that direction with his own force. The French had come to Maloyaroslavetz by Fominskoe and Borovsk, the object of Napoleon being to secure for his troops a convenient route through the southern governments. At Maloyaroslavetz there were altogether only three sotnias of Cossacks. The fortifications were but trifling. When 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 319 Bikorski, the Mayor of the little town, heard of the approach of the French he burnt the bridge over the river Luzha, which flows through it. The commander of the French advance guard, General Delzons, immediately set about constructing a pontoon bridge ; but the place was saved by the ingenuity of one of the citizens named Bielayev. He conceived the * bold plan of holding back the invading force by flooding all the lower lands surrounding the town through which the French would have to go. Amid cheering he led the inhabitants to the dam, and by their help soon destroyed it. The liberated water at once rushed forth, and all the low-lying ground was flooded to the extent of seven versts. The pontoon bridge built by the French was dashed to pieces, and the debris carried down the river. -Thrown out in their cal- culations by this clever manoeuvre, the French were com- pelled to remain inactive for twenty -four hours while endeavouring to effect a crossing by other means, thus giving time for the Russian forces to assemble. The action of Bielayev had saved the half of southern Russia. The hetman Platov reached Maloyaroslavetz with the Cossacks of the Don, and immediately afterwards the corps of Dorokhov arrived. The town was already in the possession of the French, but Dorokhov's brigade of chasseurs drove them out at the point of the bayonet. The French renewed the attack, and then the whole corps of Dokhturov came up, and a severe engage- ment took place, the town changing hands no less than six times. The battle was fought under the very eyes of Napoleon, who fully realised the importance of the situation. For a long time Dokhturov had to struggle alone, but eventually Kutuzov with the main army made his appear- ance. Napoleon now moved up the division of Pino, the Italian Guard, and the corps of Davoust. There ensued a most sanguinary struggle in the streets of the little town among the burning houses. Kutuzov had sent Rayevski to help Dokhturov. The French were again in possession of the town ; the Russians several times had nearly driven them 32o A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 out, but were repulsed by a deadly fire from the batteries which Napoleon had posted on the left bank of the river. The troops from Tarutino now appeared on the Kaluga road, and Kutuzov, having surveyed the position, ordered Konovnitsin to drive the enemy out of Maloyaroslavetz. This the latter succeeded in doing, and occupied the greater part of the town. At eleven o'clock the engagement came to an end. At four o'clock on the morning of the following day, Platov, who with his Cossack regiments was on the left wing, 2 t £A£0~X>kIlOSljAVETZ. /S/Z. AZt JFr-er crossed the Luzha and quickly came along the main road on to the rear of the French. The quarters of Napoleon were about ten versts away, in the little town of Gorodnia. It was from this place that he watched eagerly to see if Kutuzov would come ; and he was not a little disconcerted when he saw the glitter of the bayonets approaching. It was at Maloyaroslavetz that Napoleon, while reconnoitring, was nearly taken prisoner by some of the Cossacks. As it was, they carried off some guns. On the 25th of October Napoleon halted in sight of Maloyaroslavetz in a state of perplexity. After much hesitation he thought of going to 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 321 Medin and Yukhnov. It seemed certain that he would now have to fight another great battle, as Kutuzov blocked his road. A general engagement was confidently expected on both sides. When he returned to his quarters he studied the map for about an hour without saying a word. He then announced his determination to go to St Petersburg, and even in his despatches to Paris professed to find the Russian weather very agreeable. But when he came to ask his marshals what they thought of the matter, Mouton said plainly that they must get back to France by way of Mozhaisk and Smolensk as soon as they could. And thus it came about that the delay caused by Bielaiev's manoeuvre had made the victory of Maloyaroslavetz possible. In the battle of the 24th of October about 6000 men were put hors de combat, and two of the French generals — the brothers Delzons — were killed. On the other side the Russians lost Dorokhov, who had contributed in very large measure to the victory. When information was brought to him that Kutuzov had moved his army to Kaluga, Napoleon sat by the fire for some time in meditation, and then ordered his troops to march by the road to Smolensk and Gzhatsk, thus pronounc- ing the death sentence of the French army. Instead of traversing regions where they could get provisions, they were now obliged to retrace their steps through devastated districts and ruined villages. From Borovsk and Maloyaroslavetz Napoleon now turned in the direction of Borodino, thus once more compelling his troops to traverse that field fraught with such terrible memories. The Russians were hanging on his rear. Witt- genstein advanced by the north, Chichagov by the south, and Platov and his Cossacks hovered behind. Kutuzov marched parallel with the French columns, wisely avoiding an engagement but perpetually harassing them. The sights which awaited them on the field of Borodino were truly appalling. The bodies of the slain still lay about in vast numbers, and in many cases the lives of the wounded had to all appearance been protracted for some time in x 322 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [wis great agony. At the town of Vereia on October 27th, Napoleon ordered the Russian prisoners, General Benningsen and Captain Narishkin to be brought to him. He received Benningsen with severity, because he concluded from his name that he was a Saxon or Bohemian, and told him that as he was his subject he ought not to be in the Russian service. He more than once gave orders for him to be shot, but each time rescinded the sentence. On the other hand, he praised Narishkin as a Russian for his good service to Russia. The prisoners were sent to Metz, but were rescued on the Russian frontier by a guerilla leader, Colonel Chemishev. Soon afterwards Napoleon left Vereia and proceeded to Gzhatsk. Now for the first time on any of his expeditions he rode in a vehicle, and wore a warm green pelisse (shubd) of Polish make. In the monastery of Kolotsk he inspected the French wounded who had been sent from Moscow, and expressed great displeasure at the way in which they had been robbed by their comrades. On October 29th Napoleon left Gzhatsk for Viazma ; the night of October 30th he spent in a church of the village of Velichevo. He now began to realise that he must make straight for Smolensk. He entertained the idea that abundance of provisions would be found there, for he had given directions for them to be stored. Platov with his Cossacks and Miloradovich with 20,000 infantry and cavalry had been sent by Kutuzov to pursue the French on their way from Gzhatsk. Kutuzov was himself following and had plenty of supplies. The rear- guard of the French army was simultaneously attacked on both sides by Miloradovitch and Platov, but unsuccessfully. The French entered Viazma and were followed soon after- wards by the peasants and guerilla bands under their leaders, Seslavin and Figner. The town was set on fire. Even so late as the fifties it showed signs of the ravages com- mitted. Wilson, who was an eye-witness, has given us a very graphic account of the destruction of this town. The French abandoned large numbers of waggons, and in order to facilitate their retreat, set fire to those parts which had 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 323 escaped in former conflagrations. In doing so great numbers of their own sick and wounded were burnt alive; in one church alone several hundred thus perished; and many of these had to endure the additional suffering of being first mangled by an explosion of shells. It was not known whether these had been left accidentally or by design. The Russians held the latter opinion that it had been purposely so arranged as to destroy them. The universal suspicion increased the ferocity of the promiscuous carnage. At Viazma 4000 French were killed and 3000 captured. A flag was taken as well as three guns. Towards the beginning of November the cold increased in severity. One of the Russian officers has recorded how a tall and lean German came to his tent and made an effort to warm himself at his fire. His face was as black as his clothing. His head was wrapped in rags, and his feet were in a sack. He only uttered " Have pity upon me and give me some bread." The officer allowed him to sit near his fire, enemy though he was. He expressed the greatest gratitude on getting a little biscuit soaked in hot water. He vehemently cursed Napoleon. Soon afterwards a Frenchman, also starving, came up and asked for something to eat. An axe was given him with which he was bidden to cut a piece of flesh from a dead horse that was lying not far off, but his hands were too weak to cut the frozen carcass. He threw down the axe in despair, and sank to the ground muttering, " It is clear I must die. v On the way from Viazma to Smolensk the great shrinkage of Napoleon's army became apparent. The cold was severer than the thinly-clothed French could bear ; the shoes of the horses, shod in the French way, slipped and became quite useless. The carts with the plunder from Moscow were now abandoned. Many famishing Frenchmen threw away their arms and spent the night round fires made on the hard ground. When these fires burnt themselves out, they were frozen to death, whereupon any surviving companions hastened to strip off their clothes and boots. Many sank down on the road and suffered -a similar fate. " Once,'' says 324 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [wis an eye-witness, "we found a fair-haired young officer in a thin blue uniform and three-cornered hat: his eyes were half-closed, his head was bent aside, and a deadly pallor was spread over his handsome face. He pressed his right hand to his heart but could answer nothing to our enquiries. Suddenly his eyes became fixed, and he expired before us. vAnd in France those who loved him were no doubt awaiting him." The peasants frequently treated the straggling soldiers with great cruelty, drowning them, and sometimes even burying them alive. The exasperation of the villagers, keen as it was, was increased by the burning of the villages by the retreating army. About the 6th of November a winter of unusual severity even for Russia set in. The wind cut like a razor, and the frost reached as low as 15°. Kutuzov welcomed its arrival in one of his addresses to his troops. He knew well what such a winter meant to the invaders. At this time Napoleon with his guard passed Dorogobuzh. They had frost now to 12 , and a deep snow fell. The corps of the viceroy, Eugene Beauharnais, was now detached from the main army, and turned to Dukhovstchina, with the view of uniting with the troops who had come from the Dvina. Owing to the deep snow they were hardly able to move. At every place where they rested for the night the men were frozen to death by hundreds, and eighty guns had to be abandoned. Everything now got into a state of confusion, and discipline altogether disappeared. The soldiers in this corps, many of whom were natives of Italy or of other warm countries, seemed petrified, and wandered about like shadows. As the corps was crossing the river Vop it was attacked by Platov with his Don Cossacks, and completely defeated. Sixty-four more guns were lost, as well as all the baggage, and the greater part of the men. They were now compelled to make for Smolensk. On November 10th the guerilla leaders, or partisans as they were called, Seslavin and Figner, fell on another important French detachment on the Dukhovstchina road, and destroyed 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 325 a great number, together with the commander and 200 officers, and they took 1000 prisoners. At length on the evening of the nth November, Napoleon entered Smolensk. Here he had hoped to find abundance of provisions awaiting him, but; as supplies had to be collected against the will of the Russians, it was not an easy matter to procure them. The inhabitants were mercilessly plundered, and shot down if they hesitated in giving up their whole possessions. At Smolensk, which is one of the most important strategic points hvRussia, there were 25,000 soldiers of the 9th corps under the command of Gerard, and another 25,000 forming half the corps of Victor. The supply of provisions consequently proved quite inadequate ; and rations were only furnished to the guards, the rest of the soldiers not being admitted into the town. Napoleon, when he heard to his dismay how the matter stood, is said to have ordered the commissioner to be shot for his negligence, but this did not make provisions more abundant. Moreover, the guerilla companies, which were very numerous, impeded the collection of supplies. In the district of Gzhatsk, a man named Samus, a hussar of the Elizavetograd regiment, who had been compelled to leave the army through a wound which he had received, raised a band of peasants and courageously attacked all Frenchmen getting forage. On the recommendation of Miloradovich he was made sergeant. There were other very valuable partisans in the neighbouring villages, who did a great deal to hamper the French movements. So also in the district of Youkhonsk and Roslavl great bravery was shown, and the Ispravnik of the latter- town was killed. Close by Smolensk lived two men who showed the spirit of true patriots — Colonel Engelhardt and a civilian named Shubin. The former helped the Cossacks in killing many French, and kept order in the neighbourhood. The latter, who was living on his estate, attacked the French and took twenty-one prisoners. One of these, however, escaped, and gave information of what had happened, Engelhardt was 326 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [ma brought prisoner to Smolensk and locked up in one of the churches. He was tried by court-martial, and sentenced to be shot. The sentence was carried out on the 27th of October. When he was brought behind the Molokhov gates, where he was to die, the French tried to persuade him to enter their service, as if they were in reality the masters of the country. They offered him the same rank in their own army. The Russian nobleman rejected with contempt the unworthy offer. He tore off the handkerchief with which they had bound his eyes and gazed steadfastly at the firing-party. A similar fate befell Shubin, and the same offers were made to and rejected by him. The monument erected to the memory of Engelhardt is still to be seen at Smolensk. The Tsar conferred pensions upon the relations of both these heroes. Meanwhile tidings reached Napoleon from all quarters that Kutuzov was marching upon Smolensk. He knew that it had been resolved at St Petersburg to pursue him as long as he remained on Russian territory. Several detachments of the Russian army were now returning from Turkey. The road to St Petersburg had been blocked at Polotsk, and the invader now more than ever realised that he had fallen into a trap. Napoleon stayed three days at Smolensk, and collected there the whole of his force. It was impossible, however, to remain in the city ; his only course was to retreat as soon as possible. Wittgenstein and Chichagov would soon join their forces. Miloradovich and Platov had forced Ney to fight ten battles in as many days. On the fourth day after coming to Smolensk Napoleon moved with his guards to Krasnoe, and ordered the remain- ing regiments to follow at once. The commander of the last regiment was ordered on going out of the town to burn every- thing which could not be carried away, and to blow up the walls and towers of the city. On the 17th of November, on a starry and frosty night, the last French regiment defiled out of Smolensk, once the great 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 327 frontier city of the Dnieper. At the same hour a glare was seen in the sky, and loud explosions were heard. No fewer than eight towers were blown up, and the old walls of the fortress were destroyed in many places. Some of these fissures remain to the present time. Many buildings which escaped the flames were demolished by the inhabitants themselves, who used the stones for building purposes. Smolensk thus became a heap of ruins, and the number of inhabitants was reduced to 700, 2000 sick and wounded of the French force being left to their fate. The last detachment of the French army which had de- stroyed the walls of Smolensk, under the command of Ney, had great difficulty in reaching Napoleon. With 8000 infantry, 300 cavalry, 12 guns, and 7000 unarmed men, surrounded on all sides by the Russians, Ney made a bold effort, expecting to find the Emperor at Krasnoe. Not many miles from this place they came upon the Corps of Miloradovich. An engagement took place and Miloradovich seeing the difficult position Ney was in, sent a flag of truce, proposing that he should lay down his arms. Ney, however, resolved to force his way through the Russian position at the point of the bayonet, with the result that he lost half his force, and was driven with the remnant to the Dnieper. Ney, however, did not lose heart. He collected his troops, to the number of about 3000, and, moving by cross roads to Orsha, got to the right bank of the Dnieper by crawling upon the thin ice. Everywhere his men were half buried in snow. In front, of Orsha he was met by Platov with his Cossacks. Destruc- tion now seemed inevitable, but Ney formed his men into two squares, sent his sharpshooters in front, and made for the village of Yakubovo. Here he occupied the houses, and defended himself with desperate obstinacy till a French detachment came from Orsha to his rescue. Under their escort Ney brought to Napoleon, who warmly commended the splendid feat he had accomplished, the remains of his corps, consisting of 900 men. There was severe fight- 328 A HISTORY- OF RUSSIA [wis ing at Krasnoe. According to the Russian accounts, they took at least 26,000 prisoners, among the number being six generals. They also captured 116 guns; the slain were never counted owing to the great depth of the snow. It was also difficult for the French to ascertain their losses accurately, as there were so many stragglers who had fallen out of the ranks or thrown away their arms, and others who had been killed by the guerillas. Napoleon now resolved no longer to await his last detach- ment, but retreated at full speed upon Orsha, still following the line of the Dnieper. This place is remarkable in the annals of Slavonic warfare, for it was here that the Russians had been defeated by the Poles in 15 13. The sufferings of the French now became greatly increased, and the cold more severe than ever. Many threw away their weapons, which were only an encumbrance, while, as the starving horses died by thousands, a great quantity of the cavalry had to be dis- mounted, and the artillery had v to abandon their useless guns. The starving men greedily devoured the horseflesh. Every- where was snow, everywhere the same pitiless sky, with the Russians ever pursuing them and cutting off the stragglers. Sometimes they would light fires, into which they leaped mad with agony. Their ranks were getting thinner and thinner. The French now began to lose all order and discipline. The men of different regiments and nationalities marched confusedly and rather after the fashion of an unarmed mob than disciplined troops. Their clothes were ill-fitted for such severe weather. Their feet were not properly protected, and suffered greatly from the frosts. Many were without boots. The wretched men arrayed themselves as best they could in their plunder, some wearing the heavy priests' dresses, but these only encumbered them, enfeebled as they were through insufficient food and constant marching. They wrapped their legs with rags and handkerchiefs, and the debris of female attire ; but the handkerchiefs became wet and stiff, and hin- dered them in walking. Sometimes Napoleon himself was to be seen, as Verestchagin has painted him, grotesquely 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 329 wrapped up in a woman's pelisse. The little towns through which the troops passed could not furnish any supplies of thick wearing apparel or boots. They had been plundered and burnt when the army passed through them at the beginning of the campaign ; and the tradesmen and peasants had carefully hidden whatever had been left. The Russians, meanwhile, were perpetually harassing them ; and the in- furiated villagers committed all kinds of atrocities, frequently burying their captives alive. In short, the invading army was rapidly melting away : the men died like flies from hunger and cold, while many were ready to take their chance in captivity. Kutuzov was wise, in that he forbore to engage Napoleon in a general battle. He was no match for the military genius of the latter. Fabian tactics alone could save Russia, which now seemed one vast charnel-house. In a field close by Vitebsk Napoleon reviewed his beloved guard. It consisted entirely of Frenchmen. The ranks were thinned, and the men looked worn out. The Emperor was dressed in a shuba, but his army was in rags. He still kept up his spirits in spite of the difficult journey before him. He was like a wolf at bay. From the cavalry which remained he formed a special regiment, but even in this detachment the men were soon obliged to eat their horses. On their way from Orsha there was a slight thaw. In order to hamper the Russians, who were following them, the French burnt the villages on every side, and so eager were they to do this that the leading regiments frequently left nothing for those that followed. In order to secure his passage over the Berezina, Napoleon ordered Marshal Oudinot at all costs to get possession of the town of Borisov, and Oudinot carried out his instructions. Chichagov, with 20,000 soldiers, was driven to the other bank of the Berezina, and on retreating destroyed the bridge behind him. He then established a powerful battery under the command of Dombrovski. Oudinot, meanwhile, spread abroad reports that Napoleon would cross below Borisov, and sent thither material for building a bridge, so as to 330 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 lead Chichagov to suppose that he would have to en- counter the French there. But Studianka was really the place at which Napoleon was aiming. Owing to some blunder, the Russian general had not perceived this. There was only one regiment of infantry and a battery of artillery on the spot. In this way Chichagov was led into error, and the French were saved. Some authorities have blamed the Russian general for not having obtained more information as to the nature of the place. He has not escaped the satire of Krilov. On the road from Studianka to Vileika the bridges had not been destroyed, and the roads of fascines across the marshes and the river Gai'na, which intersected the enemy's path, had been allowed to remain. On the road to Berezina Napoleon was joined by some regiments of Marshal Victor's corps. They had been sent - by him at the beginning of the war to watch the road leading to St Petersburg. These detachments do not seem to have suffered any privations, and were in pretty good order. This circumstance rejoiced Napoleon, but the detachments them- selves were overwhelmed with horror at the condition of the Grande Armee. On the 23rd of November Napoleon ordered a number of the French eagles to be burnt to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. He foresaw that the passage of the Berezina would be difficult. On the other side of the river were the Russian Soldiers from Borisov; and he did not wish to run straight into their arms. A ford was found at Studianka, sixteen versts higher than Borisov. Here he ordered the engineer, Eble\ to make a bridge. The river, which is described in the Russian authorities as narrow and slowly flowing between marshy banks with many windings, was then twice as broad and deep as usual owing to the floating ice : but the place was concealed from the Russians by a wood, and they failed to keep a careful watch. First of all, on a height commanding the passage, the French erected a powerful battery with fifty guns. Here was built on trestles the first bridge. On the z6th of November at 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 331 one o'clock in the day, Napoleon sent across it the division of Dumergues, consisting of 4200 infantry and 1400 cavalry. As they passed him they shouted, " Vive l'Empereur ! " They were followed by the Junior Guards. Another bridge was constructed at about zoo yards distance for the guns and waggons. In the night the bridges were twice broken, and three or four hours were consumed in the repairs. On the morning of the 27th of Novgrnber the Old Guard crossed. Napoleon, who, up till the time of passing over the bridge, remained in a ruined cottage which boasted no window, crossed the river about 1 p.m. and took up his quarters in a hamlet. On the 26th and 27 th of November he watched the passage of the other detachments, his place being at times taken by Marshals Murat, Berthier and Lauriston. When the passage of the river began, small parties of Russians had tried to stop the construction of the bridge, but Napoleon fully realised the crisis to which he had come. He directed the artillery to be employed, even to the last round of ammunition. At the discharge of the cannon the whole place seemed to shake, including the huge forests behind which lay the Russian troops. When some of the French soldiers hesitated to cross and remained behind the waggons, Napoleon ordered the waggons to be burnt. The Russians came up from Borisov on the 28th, and thereupon a fierce battle took place between them and Partouneaux, under the eyes of Napoleon. There were, however, plenty of his soldiers still on the bank to drive the Russians back into the forest. The battle lasted till night-fall, but during that day the French lost from 15,000 to 20,000 men. What remained of the soldiers of Eugene Beauharnais, Davoust, and Junot, with the. women and other fugitives, Napoleon gave into the care of Murat, and himself set out when there were 20 degrees of frost. By this time the Russian forces under Wittgenstein, Platov, and Yermolov were approaching. Ney, who commanded the rear-guard, led his detachment back across the bridges, leaving one division destined to certain destruction to protect them 332 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [wis from the advancing Russians. This division, amounting to 5000 men, was attacked on one side by Wittgenstein, and on the other by Platov, and finally laid down its arms. The remains of the corps of Ney now moved across the river, and after him came Murat's broken cavalry, with his infantry of whom only half had arms. Last of all came the remains of the corps of Davoust, and with them a disorderly mob of unarmed fugitives. Under the strain of such a host the bridges broke, and thousands, including women and children, were precipitated into the river. Some climbed on to the blocks of ice and endeavoured to keep themselves afloat. The bridges were repaired by men standing in the water, but the people again crowded them and fell into the river. Wittgenstein now attacked. He posted his batteries, and began to shell the fugitives. The French defended themselves with the courage of despair, but there was inconceivable panic on the bridges ; the crowds pressed and trampled on each other. The Russian artillery ploughed through whole ranks, until the- night put a stop to the fighting. Then under cover of the darkness the last soldiers forced a way for themselves among the seething masses of their unarmed comrades. . Many of these unfortunate creatures remained by the smoking heaps of the baggage. Here one might be seen stiffened by the frost ; another baked by a huge fire ; another had gone out of his mind, and could not be induced to stir from the place. Thousands were still crowding to get over, when the retreating rearguard set fire to both bridges, and the groans and curses of the sufferers were borne to the ears of Napoleon as he retreated. The prisoners taken were so numerous that they could not be counted. Men and women clothed in rags begged if it were but for a piece of bread, tendering in ex- change their watches, rings and money. The Cossacks, among other property, got possession of 40 pouds of silver which the fugitives had looted from the churches, and were taking 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 333 away with them. This was given to the Kazan Cathedral at St Petersburg, and from it was made an ikonbstas. It has been always a subject of controversy why Napoleon was allowed to leave Russia. Was Chichagov really to blame, or was it resolved to let Napoleon go in view of the fact that Russia would not have known what to do with him as prisoner? On the 31st of July Chichagov had been ordered to go to Volhynia to Tormasov through Yassy, Khotin, Stari Konstantinov and Dubno, and on his way he was to arouse the Hungarian Slovaks against Austria, which he was sup- posed to be able to do. The » armies united on the river Styr. They wished to cut the corps of Schwarzenberg from Austria. But after battles at Luck on September 22nd, and Riezhitsi on September 29th, the Austrians guessed his plan, and - retreated nearer to the frontier to Drogichino. The journey from the Berezina to the river Niemen, extending to almost 350 versts, was the most terrible and deadly for the French of the whole retreat. The frost reached 30° Reaumur. The breath was almost stopped by the cold, and it was hardly possible to speak. In one division of 10,000 men, 7000 perished by frost alone. If only a few Russian soldiers had been posted on the heights behind the Berezina, not a Frenchman would have reached Vilna. But the Russians themselves, although they had warmer clothes than the invaders, suffered a great deal from the intense cold. Many of the common soldiers had their hands and feet frozen off. They made heaps of the French dead as shelter from the violence of the bitter wind, but this did not help them much. The hungry and lean horses could scarcely draw the guns. Realising the imminent destruction of his army, Napoleon now began to think how he was to escape being personally captured. On December 3rd he arrived at Maledeczno, where he issued his famous bulletin. The truth could not be concealed any longer. This was the twenty-ninth bulletin which he had issued during the journey. On December 6th, without going to Vilna, he bade adieu to 334 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 his chief marshals, and told some of them that he was going to France for 300,000 more soldiers. But all Europe now knew of his gigantic failure. At Smorgoni he handed over the command of the army to Murat, and hurried out of the country, accompanied by a small detachment of Neapolitan cavalry. A little comedy was enacted on this occasion. Napoleon affected to wish to stay, and his generals urged him to go. Eventually he seemed to yield to their solicita- tions, but the farce had been all arranged beforehand. He was in his carriage with Caulaincourt, his Mameluke, and Captain Wasowicz, a Pole, who was employed as an interpreter. A sledge followed with Duroc and Lobau. Of this scene a humorous picture has been preserved. On the morning of the 13th of December, says Labaume, out of 400,000 men who had crossed the Niemen at the open- ing of the campaign, scarcely 20,000 repassed it, of whom at least two-thirds had not seen the Kremlin. The 80,000, to which some swell the number, is made up by including the regiments afterwards sent to assist Napoleon. Arrived at the opposite bank of the river, continues Labaume, like ghosts from the infernal regions, we looked behind us fearfully after crossing the bridge. The fugitives turned to the left to go to Gumbinnen for Lithuania. Many thought that they were to march to Tilsit, mistaking some orders which had been given. They were obliged to climb a great height, and in consequence a fine park of artillery which had lately come from Kovno had to be abandoned. It was at Gumbinnen that Ney, who brought up the rearguard of the retreating host, presented himself to his companions, but so smoke-dried and haggard, that at first they could not recognise him. In addition to other booty, six million francs in silver fell into the hands of the Russians. When the French soldiers arrived in Poland they dispersed like ordinary travellers. Soon afterwards the Cossacks entered Kovno and passed the Niemen, which was completely frozen over. They then spread themselves over the immense plains of Poland, where they massacred or made prisoners many 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 335 of the French soldiers, who, not thinking that the Russians would cross the Niemen, had imagined themselves to be now safe. Some of the fugitives escaped to Danzig. The Saxons, under Regnier, were routed and dispersed in a final engage- ment at Kalisch, and |Poniatowski and the Poles retired to Cracow, protected by Schwarzehberg. The Prussians were now the only hope of the French. These did nothing, how- ever, and York, their commander, even concluded a treaty of neutrality with Diebitsch. This the King of Prussia at first disavowed, but as soon as he was out of the power of the French, York was rewarded. Some of the fugitives took the road to Thorn : the vice- roy, Eugene Beauharnais, sent from Gumbinnen an order to Konigsberg that those of the 4th Corps who had taken the road to Tilsit should proceed to Marienwerder. The King of Naples (Murat) was very, coldly received by the authorities at Konigsberg. The star of the invader was no longer in the ascendant. Leaving, however, for a time the victims of this mad expedition, whether invaders or invaded, let us follow the flying Caesar and his fortunes. On the 10th of December Napoleon reached Warsaw, where he took up his quarters at the Hotel d'Angleterre. He immediately sent for his ambassador. This was De Pradt, the Archbishop of Malines, whom he had employed in various intrigues. He had sent him on one occasion to stir up the Polish diet at Warsaw. " Suddenly," said De Pradt, " the door of my study opened, and before me stood a man leaning on one of my secretaries. The head of the new comer was wrapped in a piece of black cloth. His face was concealed by his shuba ; his feet could hardly move in his heavy winter boots. ' Follow me,' said this terrible personage. I rose up and went to him ; it was Caulaincourt. ' What ! is that you ? ' I cried out ; ' where is the Emperor ? ' 'In the Hotel d'Angleterre ; he expects you.' ' Why did he not stop in the palace ? ' ' He does not wish to be recognised.' 'Whither are you going in such a dress?' 'To Paris.' 'And the army?' 'The 336 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 army,' said he, raising his eyes to heaven, 'the army does not exist any longer.' ' And how about the victory at the Berezina, and the six thousand Russians taken prisoners by General Bassano?' 'We crossed the Berezina, but we could not keep the prisoners.' 'M. le Due,' said I, taking Caulaincourt by the hand, ' it is time to think of our position ; the true servants of the Emperor ought to tell him the truth.' ' Yes ; it is a terrible calamity,' answered he. ' At all events I cannot reproach myself ; I prophesied it. Only, let us go ; the Emperor expects us.' " I hurried out of the house, almost ran along the streets, and finally stopped at the gates of the hotel. It was about half-past one o'clock. A Polish police officer was keeping guard. The proprietor of the hotel looked cautiously at me, thought for a minute, and then allowed me to enter. At the door I noticed a little carriage, rudely constructed, and in a very dilapidated state. Two sledges were with it. And this was what remained of so much splendour and magnificence, thought I at that moment. Before me a door opened into a little low-pitched room. Rustan (the. Mameluke) met me, and bade me come in. Preparations were being made for dinner : the Duke of Vicenza presented me to the Emperor and left me with him. He was in a small, cold apartment, with the windows half closed, the better to preserve his incognito. An awkward Polish maid-servant was meanwhile trying to make a fire with some green wood. According to his custom, Napoleon paced up and down the apartment. He had come on foot from the bridge of Praga to the Hotel d'Angleterre. He was wrapped in a handsome pelisse, with a fur cap on his head." After De Pladt, the ambassador, had expressed the satis- faction he felt on seeing the Emperor safely back again, he frankly put before Napoleon the condition of the empire. Only that morning De Pradt had heard of an affair on the Bug near Krislov, in which two newly raised battalions had thrown down their arms on the second discharge. He had also been informed that out of 1200 horses belonging to 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 337 these troops, 800 had been lost from want of care on the part of the new soldiers, and that 5000 Russians with many guns were marching on Zamosc. In conclusion, the Abbe began to speak of the wretched condition of the Poles, but Napoleon would not hear him to the end, and asked, in a quick way : " What has ruined them ? " " The bad crops of last year, your Highness ; all trade is at a standstill." At these words the eyes of Napoleon expressed annoyance. He went on to ask, " Where are the Russians ? " De Pradt told him. "And the Austrians?" The Abbe' answered that question also. " For two weeks I have heard nothing of them," said Napoleon. De Pradt then informed him of the sacrifices which the Grand Duchy had made (as Poland was then called), and then continued to speak of the Polish army. " I saw nothing of it during the whole campaign," Napoleon said. De Pradt explained the cause to him : " The army was divided, and in consequence of the division achieved but little." Napoleon wished Count Stanislaus Potocki and the Minister of Finance to be brought to him after dinner. When they congratulated him on coming safe out of so many dangers his only answer was, " Dangers are nothing at all ; agitation is life to me. The more trouble I have the better I am." He declared his intention of raising 300,000 men and, after having fought the Russians on the Oder, marching on the Niemen again. He then laughed at the Admiral Chichagov, whose name he said he could never pronounce. After a pause, he mounted the humble carriage and dis- appeared. As we have already seen, vast numbers of the French had been taken prisoners at Smolensk; at Kovno there were taken 15,000 more and 40 guns. Close by Kovno Platov had taken a great deal of the remaining baggage and their military chest. Had not Ney remained in his entrenchments till he was sure that the Cossacks could not attack him in the rear, not an invader would have escaped from Russia. It was calculated that the Russians had quite 200,000 prisoners, or vimoroski, frozen out, as they were called. Y 338 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 More than a thousand cannon were abandoned, a hundred standards, and an immense quantity of baggage. Huge piles of these cannons now adorn the public squares at Moscow. The iron cross of Ivan- Veliki, as has been said, was restored. English travellers who visited the country soon after the expulsion of Napoleon, have given us graphic pictures both by pencil and pen of the condition of Moscow when abandoned. Of the splendid palaces of the Menshikovs, the Apraksins, and others, only the ruined walls were to be seen. One writer says, "All was now in the same forlorn condition : street after street greeted the eye with perpetual ruin, disjointed columns, mutilated porticoes, broken cupolas, walls of rugged stucco black, discoloured with the stains of fire, and open on every side to the sky, formed a hideous contrast to the picture which travellers had drawn of the grand and sumptuous palaces of Moscow." It appears by the official accounts that before the fire the wooden houses amounted in number to 6591, and those built of stone or brick to 2567 ; of the former, when the French evacuated the city, only 2100 were remaining, and of the latter, 526. James, in his interesting " Travels," describes the field of Borodino as being literally strewn with caps, feathers, scabbards, pieces of camp kettles, scraps of uniform both French and Russian. The Russian Government caused large fires to be lighted upon the field and other places, in which the dead bodies were burnt. The statement, however, of a Russian historian will best enable us to realise what she had suffered in this war. At the time of the invasion the number of Russian troops stationed along the western frontier, from Finland to the Danube, amounted to 400,000 men ; during the time of the war large reserves were formed of recruits, a powerful militia was created, and the Cossacks of the Don were armed. These troops, who by degrees all came to take a share in the War of the Fatherland (ptechestvennaya voina) as it is called, were towards the conclusion of the campaign consolidated into one body under the flag of Kutuzov : but 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 339 Kutuzov did not succeed in bringing to the banks of the Niemen more than 100,000 men. In his main army, made up of the soldiers of Barclay de Tolly and Bagration and at last strengthened by the reserves, the militia, and the Cossacks, there were not as many as 40,000 men. Many of the last had been killed in fight, many perished unarmed in the towns and villages, being either burnt in their dwellings or cut down by the sword of the invader, or perishing through hunger, cold and disease. In the Government of Smolensk a census which was made in 18 16 revealed a deficiency of 60,000 peasants when compared to the census of 181 1. The losses of property were immense : all the towns and villages from Vilna to Moscow were devastated by fire and sword as if overwhelmed by a torrent of lava; the losses sustained by' private individuals in the Government of Moscow alone amounted to 280 millions of roubles. "And who," patheti- cally adds the Russian writer, " can estimate the loss of the historical monuments of our country ? " It would therefore seem to be unfair to blame the Russians for unseemly boasting when their poets, Pushkin, Lermontov, and others in many well-known productions, exult over the issue of this invasion. Hercules, indeed, fell powerless in the struggle and left his club as a trophy. Alexander does not seem, however, to have been satisfied with Kutuzov, although the latter naturally became the national hero. He said of him at Vilna : " Le vieillard doit itre content ; le. froid fa Men semi." Sir Robert Wilson, who accompanied the Russian army in the campaign, says that on the 26th of December (his birthday), Alexander sent for him and said : " General, I have called you into my cabinet to make a painful confession, but I rely upon your honour and prudence. I wished to have avoided ij, but I could not bear to appear inconsistent in your estimate of my proceedings, which I must be thought if my motives be not explained. " I must, however, first assure you of my great satisfaction with your conduct during your residence with my armies; 340 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1812 and also thank you for your correspondence, which in justice to yourself I have directed to be deposited in my archives. The consequences which have flowed from your devotion to my interests when the conference was proposed at Tarutino, were of great benefit to them, and your communications have enabled me to prevent much other mischief. " You have always told me truth — truth I could not obtain through any other channel. " I know that the Marshal (Kutuzov) has done nothing he ought to have done — nothing against the enemy that he could avoid. All his successes have been forced upon him. He has been playing some of his old Turkish tricks, but the nobility of Moscow support him, and insist upon his becom- ing the national hero of this war. In half an hour I must therefore — and he paused for a minute — decorate this man with the great Order of St George, and by so doing commit a trespass on its institution, for it is the highest honour and hitherto the pure'st of the Empire. But I will not ask you to be present. I should feel too much humiliated if you were so ; but I have no choice, I must submit to a controlling necessity. I will, - however, not again leave my army, and there shall be no opportunity given for additional misdirection by the Marshal. " He is an old man, and therefore I would have you show him suitable courtesies, and not refuse them when offered on his part. " I wish to put an end to every appearance of ill-will, and to take from this day a new departure, which I mean to make one of gratitude to Providence and of grace to all." Wilson adds : " His Imperial Majesty then said that he should distribute rewards to his generals and brave soldiers who had done their duty heroically; and that he had signed an act of amnesty and general pardon, so that everyone under his rule might participate in the joy he felt at the triumph of his country." This amnesty was full and com- plete, "embracing even all his Polish subjects who had joined the enemy." 1812] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER t. 341 "The past is condemned to an eternal oblivion and silence; all are prohibited from reviving any reference to these affairs. Those only who continue in the service of the enemy after the expiration of two months shall be condemned, never to return to Russia again." These words of the Emperor Sir Robert Wilson justly extols. Indeed the conduct of Alexander throughout the war seems to have been most noble. His proclamations are models of dignity and firmness. [l813 CHAPTER XII THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I.— Continued "VTAPOLEON soon quitted Warsaw and, passing through •^ Dresden in disguise, reached Paris on the 18th of December. He recovered his ardour, and raised a fresh army of 300,000 men in the beginning of 1813. But by this time Alexander was prepared to assume J:he offensive. By the 28th of February he had succeeded in inducing Frederick William of Prussia to sign the treaty of Kalisch by which he pledged himself to assist Russia. England was already willing to help v This was the sixth great coalition against Napoleon. We are compelled to omit those battles fought in Northern Germany in which the Russians were not concerned. They were, however, together with the Prussians, defeated by Napoleon at Liitzen and at Bautzen ; in the latter of these engagements Alexander commanded in person. Napoleon, however, agreed to an armistice at Pleisswitz on the 4th of June 181 3 ; and the Russians availed themselves of the opportunity to reinforce, and more than 60,000 fresh troops reached the seat of war from the south and the middle of Russia. Austria now, after considerable hesitation, went over to "the allies. After defeating Schwarzenberg at the battle of Dresden, Napoleon was himself completely routed by the allies at the great battle of Leipzig which lasted three days, October 16th, 18th, 19th — die Volkerschlacht, as it has been called. It was here that Prince Poniatowski, the nephew of Stanislaus the last King of Poland, was drowned in the Elster. The allies now marched steadily upon Paris. On the 28th of April 1813, Kutuzov died at Bunzlau, and was buried in 34» wu] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 343 the Kazan Cathedral at St Petersburg. At the close of the year the allied sovereigns offered peace to Napoleon; the boundaries of France were to be the Rhine, the Alps and the Pyrenees. These overtures, however, were rejected by Napoleon. In January 18 14 the allied armies entered French territory, and furnished Napoleon with occasion to display his great military talents. At Montmirail and again at Nangis the Russians were defeated, and although Schwarzenberg had merely to effect a junction with Bliicher, he nevertheless resolved to retreat. Napoleon was in reality relying upon his own masterly tactics and disagreement among the allies. Bliicher, however, with the approval of the Emperor Alex- ander, resolved to march on Paris. After a battle at Craon, which was indecisive, the combined forces of Russia and Prussia succeeded in defeating the French at Laon. Then came the two battles of Fere-Champenoise, and at length, after gallantly storming the heights of Montmartre where they lost many men, the Russians entered Paris with the other allied troops on March 31st, 18 14. These events culminated in the treaty of Fontainebleau, by which Napoleon consented to abdicate and retire to the island of Elba. It will be necessary to review these events briefly. The Tsar, having Prince Schwarzenberg on his right and the King of Prussia on his left, made his triumphant entry into Paris at the head of 50,000 men. Although the wealthy classes applauded, the bulk of the people were disaffected to the Bourbons. It was a performance only for the boxes : the pit and gallery were unsympathetic. On the 1st of April a declaration, countersigned by Nesselrode, told the French that the allied sovereigns would enter into no more dealings with Napoleon Bonaparte nor with any member of his family. Even the French acknowledge that the Tsar made a generous use of his rights as conqueror in view of the sufferings that Russia had undergone during the occupation of Moscow and the devastation of their territory. On his return to Russia Alexander was received with 344 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i8H rapture by his people. The Senate wished to confer upon him the title of " the Blessed," but he had the good sense to refuse such an appellation. It would be beyond the scope of this book to recapitulate all the enactments of the Congress of Vienna, which lasted from September 20th, 18 14, to June 10th, 1815. We must confine ourselves to those, which more immediately concerned Russia. Alexander insisted on retaining the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which he in- tended to re-establish as the constitutional kingdom of Poland. In this he was opposed by Lord Castlereagh who was apprehensive of the aggrandisement of Russia. Austria laid claim to the city of Cracow, declaring that she had been despoiled of it by the treaty of Schonbrunn. Eventually it was settled that Cracow, with a certain amount of territory appropriated to it, should form *"in independent republic under the protection of Austria, Prussia and Russia: and so it remained till 1846. A portion of Poland was assigned* to Prussia under "the title of the Grand Duchy of Posen (Poznan), and Danzig was also confirmed to her. The proceedings of the congress were suddenly interrupted by the return of Napoleon from Elba, and the brief campaign which followed, known as the Hundred Days. With these events, however, Russia had in reality nothing to do. Russia could not send her troops in time to be present at the battle of Waterloo. Afterwards when France was parcelled out among the armies of occupation,' Champagne and' Lorraine were the territories assigned to her. The Russian Emperor, who had during his whole life been largely influenced by the liberal views with which he had been indoctrinated by hi? Swiss tutor, Laharpe, had, as we have said, formed the plan of governing Poland as a constitutional monarchy. He was for a time much under the influence of Prince Adam Czartoryski. But it was obvious from the very first that such an arrangement would present great difficulties. The union between an ancient autocracy and the oligarchical constitu- tionalism of the Poles was unnatural, and was soon found to be so. In 1815 the so-called Holy Alliance was formed, and 1815] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 345 in this the Tsar found a scope for that religious mysticism which was a great element in his character, and which he owed in large measure to a strange enthusiast, Mme. de Krudener. The first Polish diet assembled at Warsaw in 18 18, and the Grand Duke Constantine, the Emperor's brother, was made commander-in-chief of the Polish forces. The Emperor was unfortunate in his plan of the formation of military colonies, which would seem to have been suggested by Arakcheev. This man had been enabled to maintain under Alexander the influence which he had enjoyed under Paul. His name, however, is to this day remembered in Russia with great hatred, although he cannot be said to have done so much mischief as Biren did in the reign of Anne. The idea of the military colonies seems to have been taken to some extent from the arrangement of the Austrian so-called military frontier. It was supposed that by settling certain regiments among the crown peasants the soldier colonist could work on the land and thus contribute to his own support. Thus there would be good centres for recruiting the army and a system of military training could be diffused over the country. The plan was gradually extended to the whole army. The colonies, however, became odious to the peasants, who saw in them military supervision brought to bear upon the relationships of private life. The system was first tried in 18 16 on a small scale at Smolensk, then in the governments nearer to the capital, and finally among the Cossacks in the south ; but everywhere it met with great opposition, especially among those last- named, who had always enjoyed peculiar privileges ; in fact serfdom among them had been unknown till the reign of Paul. Gradually, however, the ill-timed endeavours were allowed to drop. Arakcheev lost his influence when Nicholas came to the throne, and retired to his estate at Gruzino in the govern- ment of Novgorod, where he ruled his own peasants with true military despotism. There he established a kind 34<5 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [me of cult of the Emperor Alexander, who occasionally visited him. At the present time (1900) a voluminous life of that Emperor is in course of publication in Russia, the funds for which were bequeathed by Arakcheev at his death. Difficulties, too, soon began to be felt with reference to Poland. Alexander had at first acted with a liberal spirit. He had even appointed as viceroy General Zaionchek (Zajaczek), a retired Napoleonic officer. Those Poles who had served in the army of the invader had been all amnestied. But in reality all power was in the hands of the Grand Duke Constantine, a rigid martinet, and Novosiltsov, a very re- actionary Russian minister. More than three years had elapsed since a diet had been summoned. It soon became obvious that the Emperor, however benevolent his designs may have been, was unable to carry them out, and was sur- rounded by forces beyond his control. The liberal counsels of the minister Speranski were set aside, he himself was banished, his place being taken by Arakcheev and Novo- siltsov. This change of attitude on the part of Alexander was indeed remarkable. Some writers have not hesitated to explain his conduct by what they call his natural duplicity, and we know that Napoleon said of him that he was as false as a Byzantine Greek. But the truth seems to have been that his weak character was swayed hither and thither and too readily influenced by his sur- roundings. The reactionary period lasted till his death. He was the slave of a strange kind of religious mysticism, of which we have previously spoken, and to which the Slavonic character seems especially liable ; and he was, moreover, entangled in the political system of Metternich. The arrogant Arakcheev, who was generally called the "cursed serpent," had un- bounded power over his master. All the other ministers were insignificant in comparison with him. Through him alone the Emperor could be approached, and the most influential persons in the country were to be seen waiting in isle] the reign of Alexander i. 34? the ante-chamber of the favourite till such time as he chose to summon them. The young wife of Nicholas, afterwards the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, on coming to Russia, was astonished at the universal subserviency shown towards this favourite, and has recorded it in her Memoirs, parts of which have been recently published. According to the account which Arakcheev himself gave, the idea of the military colonies really originated with the Emperor ; but if such was the case, the favourite, to please his master, was not slow in carrying it into effect, and asso- ciating therewith many cruelties of which his master knew nothing. According to some authorities, even before the experiment in the government of Novgorod, a first attempt to form these colonies had been made as early as 1810 by plant- ing a battalion of musketeers in the government of Mogilev. Arakcheev wrote to tell his master that all was going well, when the plan was interrupted by the Napoleonic war. When peace was once more restored the scheme was revived, and a battalion of grenadier guards was settled in the govern- ment of Novgorod, on the river Volkhov. Everywhere, in spite of all opposition, orders for the formation of the military colonies continued to be issued, and before the end of the reign they were widely diffused over the empire, and com- prised fully a third of the army. The plan, however, was unanimously disapproved by the leading men of Russia, and the miserable peasants made all the resistance of which they were capable at Gruzino, the estate of Arakcheev; those who resisted were cruelly beaten. The villagers of the government of Novgorod sent a deputation to St Petersburg to complain to the Emperor, but Arakcheev caused them to be arrested before they could get an oppor- tunity of stating their grievances. When the Grand Duke Nicholas, afterwards Emperor, was returning tat St Peters- burg by way of Novgorod in company with his brother-in- law, Prince William of Prussia, afterwards the Emperor William I., the peasants again took the opportunity of 348 A HIST6RY OF RUSSIA [lsis complaining; but on this occasion also fruitlessly. Riots continued to occur not only among the peasants, but also among the soldiers quartered among them. These last were severely punished, as at Chugnev in 1819, where 275 men were compelled to run the gauntlet, of which some died. But in strange contrast to these fancied reforms were the efforts which were made at the same time to emanci- pate the serfs. Alexander was a humane man, and seems to have greatly encouraged plans of this sort. In the Baltic provinces in the years 181 7-19, emancipation of the peasants was introduced, but without any assignment of land being made to them. Alexander expressed his sympathy with all these measures. He praised the landowners, remarking that in their wish to set free their peasants, they were acting in the spirit of the times, and understood that the happiness of people was grounded on liberal ideas. The Emperor is even said to have written a paper on the gradual abolition of serfdom in Russia, although the ultimate fate of this document is unknown. In 1818 Alexander put forth a statement on this subject, but it appears to have been entrusted to the " accursed serpent," who contrived to get it shelved. As far back as the year 1807 Alexander had said to Savary, " I wish to bring the country out of that barbarous condition in which this trade in human beings keeps it ; I will say more ! If education were sufficiently developed I would destroy serfdom even if it cost me my life." Next to Arakcheev, the most influential person with the Emperor was Prince A. Golitsin. He also was steeped in mysticism. The more liberal professors were now banished from the Universities. Two other people who greatly en- couraged the Emperor in his reactionary views, were Michael Magnitski and Dimitri Runich. The most complete inquisitorial system was pursued with reference to the students. Parrot, the liberal professor of the University of Dorpat, had the courage to write a letter of 1818] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 349 remonstrance to the Emperor, but the protest remained without effect. Magnitski continued this mischievous inter- ference till Nicholas came to the throne, when he was dis- missed ; the new Emperor also refusing to see Arakcheev. Magnitski, however, was eclipsed by the extraordinary ecclesi- astic Photius. This man had set on foot a crusade against the liberal and somewhat Protestant tendencies of Alexander, and the permission given to the Bible Society to carry on its labours. Photius was anxious that a more Orthodox tone should prevail. Peter Spasski, for that was his name, as a layman, had assumed airs of great austerity. He was made archimandrite of the Yuriev monastery at Novgorod, and was very much assisted in his ministration by the rich Countess Orlov, a dfoote, who placed her vast wealth at his disposal. The masonic lodges were closed in Russia by his order. On one occasion the archimandrite anathematised Golitsin in such unmeasured language, that the latter sent in his resignation to the Emperor, who, however, refused to accept it entirely, and still kept him about his person. Admiral Shishkov was made Minister of Public Instruction. He also was a reactionary ; *his name frequently occurs in the literary history of the time. Notwithstanding the markedly liberal speeches which the Emperor had made in the Polish diet, he was destined to fall under the influence of Metternich and the Holy Alliance. In 1818 he talked of the introduction of constitutional government into Russia, and the restoration to Poland of those provinces which had been taken by the Russians in earlier times. The scheme of a constitution for Russia was even formulated in a paper, entitled, "Imperial Charter for the Russian Empire " (Gosudarstvennaya Gramota Rossiiskoi Imperii). Subsequent troubles, and the reaction- ary influences at work in the mind of the Emperor, seem to have prevented the realisation of this plan, although Speranski spoke of it as certain to come to pass. It exists, however, only as an historical document. The Polish insurrectionists found it among some Government papers in 1830, and in the following year caused 2000 copies to be struck off at Warsaw. 3 so A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1824 When Paskievitch took Warsaw he found about 1578 copies remaining, and sent them to the Emperor Nicholas, who caused them to be burnt in the courtyard of the arsenal. A German translation of this interesting document was printed in the Historische Zeitschrift for 1894, and N. Schindler has added it as a supplement to the fourth volume of his " Life of Alexander," recently published. Alexander took a part in the congresses of Aix-la-Chapelle, Tropau, Laibach and Verona, and threw himself entirely into the reactionary movements which those congresses dictated. Everywhere liberal ideas were to be crushed. Alexander even sent an army under Yermolov to Piedmont to suppress an insurrection ; but the Austrians settled matters there without the employment of Russian bayonets. The principles, how- ever, of the Holy Alliance prevented the Russian Emperor from assisting the Greeks in their noble struggles against the Turks. In fact all peoples were to obey their legitimate masters. Tricoupi tells us that the Greeks had relied at the outset on Russian interference. It had been the traditional policy of the Tsars since the time of Peter the Great to assist the rayahs. Both Vladimiresco and Ipsilanti pretended that Alexander was indirectly supporting them. The latter, how- ever, was more than ever under the influence of Metternich after the Congress of Vienna, and ceased to correspond, as he had formerly done, with his liberal-minded old tutor, Laharpe, who had returned to Switzerland. Mysticism now became more powerful than ever among the disturbing elements of the Emperor's mind. He took it into his head that he was being chastened for the sins of his youth. When the great floods occurred at St Petersburg in 1824 he regarded them as a direct visitation. In answer to the exclamation of an old man : " God punishes us for our sins," he cried aloud, before the assembled multitude: " No ! for mine." The idea of abdicating had now taken great hold of him. When alone in the company of his brother Nicholas and his wife, he would speak openly of looking to him as his heir. " I have resolved," he said, "to 1825] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 351 give up the duties imposed upon me, and to retire from the world." In the summer of 1825, a few months before his death, he told the Prince of Orange, who was then staying in St Petersburg, that he intended to abdicate. He had also, at the request of his brother Constantine, prepared the docu- ment by which the latter, with his consent, renounced the succession. When Prince Vasilchikov in 1824, on his re- covery from a fever, told him of the sympathy expressed by all St Petersburg, he remarked : " It is pleasant to believe this, but in reality I should not be unwilling to cast off this burden of a crown, which weighs heavily upon me." It is well known that he was deeply affected on hearing of the plots and secret societies existing at the time in Russia. When in 1821 he was returning to Russia, after a year spent out of the country, General Vasilchikov informed him of the existence of a political plot. " Dear Vasilchikov," said the Emperor, " you have been in my service since the beginning of my reign, and know that I have shared and encouraged these illusions and errors. It is not for me to punish." A paper was found after his death in which accounts of secret societies were given, and upon which he had made a few notes. But although Jie knew all these distressing facts, Alexander would not take any decisive step. Even the report of Sherwood he did not act upon. This man, who made himself so conspicuous as an informer, and revealed the plot of the Dekabrists, was an Englishman who had come out to Russia when quite young in a very humble capacity. As a reward for his services he was afterwards ennobled by Nicholas, and had the epithet Vierni (the faithful) added to his name. Meanwhile Arakcheev was prostrated through grief at the loss of his housekeeper, who had been murdered by the peasants at Gruzino on account of her cruelty. He still, however, retained his influence over his master ; and there were not wanting among the ministers those who con- sidered that the "cursed serpent" hastened the death of Alexander by sending him some very agitating reports. When 352 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [irai Nicholas came to the throne Arakcheev was dismissed, and spent the rest of his days at his estate. Although he attained the highest military position, it is recorded of him that he was never in an engagement. Grievous, indeed, and gloomy were the last days of the benevolent-minded Alexander. He told those around him that a ten pound weight lay on his heart, when he thought how much ought to be done for the inner prosperity of the country. Again, in spite of all the reactionary policy inspired by Metternich, or an Arakcheev, the Emperor felt that it was not for him to punish. To retrace somewhat our steps. At the beginning of the year 1818, the Emperor had visited the southern provinces of Russia, the Crimea, and the rising city of Odessa. This had been founded by Catherine on the ruins of a miserable Turkish village (Hadji-bey), and had been endowed with a name taken from classical tradition, for among the ancients there was an Odessus. One of the chief agents in its creation was the French dmigri, the Due de Richelieu, whose name is still remembered with gratitude in the city. He was assisted by another French kmigrk, Rochechonart. The Greek War of Independence broke out in 182 1, but, as already said, the Hellenes were destined to great dis- appointment. In a similar manner they had been deceived by Catherine II., for the efforts of Alexis Orlov had led to nothing, and they had been obliged to settle down again under the Turkish yoke. Nothing even was done when, on the 22nd of April 182 1, the Greek patriarch, Gregory, was hanged at Constantinople at the gate of the patriarchate, although this was an outrage to the whole Orthodox Church of which the Tsar was in theory the protector. The body, however, which had been cast into the Bosphorus, was secretly recovered and conveyed to Odessa, where it was buried with great religious pomp. It was plain, however, that nothing would be done for the Greeks during the rule of Alexander. The second diet of Poland opened on the 13th of Sep- 1825] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 353 tember 1820. The country was full of secret societies which did not escape the notice of the all-vigilant Novosiltsov. One of these was organised among the students of the University of Vilna, then in a very flourishing condition owing to the eminence of some of the professors. Among these students were the poet Adam Mickiewicz and his friend Thomas Zan. The former, destined to be so cele- brated, was in consequence of his connexion with this secret society, interned in Russia. Russia herself also had her secret societies, the most famous of them being that known as the Conspiracy of the Dekabrists, or Men of December, the month in which the insurrection broke out on the death of Alexander. The details of this plot were fully known to the Emperor in consequence of the efforts of the spy Sherwood. Alexander had married in early life a Princess of Baden ; the marriage had not been a happy one, and husband and wife had for some time lived separately, though latterly there had been a rapprochement. The Emperor was anxious that^ the Empress should leave St Petersburg for a time on account of her health and go to Germany. This she would not con- sent to do, and eventually Taganrog, at the mouth of the Don, was chosen for her. Alexander left St Petersburg ten days before the Empress (September 13th, 1825), who did not arrive until the 5th of October, and her health soon showed marked improvement. The Tsar took advantage of this circumstance to make a short tour in the Crimea. On this occasion he frequently spoke of his intended abdication. He was struck with the scenery of the peninsula, and declared that he had resolved to take up his abode there. On his return, however, to Taganrog he was seized with a fever and expired on the 1st of December. During the earlier years of Alexander's reign some wise and beneficent measures had been* carried out. The con- dition of the Serfs was much ameliorated. They were no longer allowed to be sold off the estate or by public auction ; occasionally in the Russian historical journals old notices z 3S4 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [lass are reprinted which were issued in the time of Paul, and show how full the whole system of serfdom was of all kinds of abuses. Alexander also accorded to the peasant oppor- tunities for becoming a trader should he so desire : and privileges were also given to tradesmen. Although education was so strongly repressed at the end of the reign, much had been done for it at the beginning. Among other educational establishments then founded was the Alexander Lyceum at Tsarskoe-Selo, where Pushkin was educated and to which he has consecrated so many beautiful verses. Universities were also established in St Petersburg, Kazan, and Kharkov. During the reign of Alexander Russian literature continued to make steady progress. Derzhavin, the laureate of Catherine, survived until 1816. But the classical school of which he was the coryphaeus had very much declined throughout Europe. A link between the old and new order of things was the visit paid by Derzhavin when very old to the Lyceum at Tsarskoe- Selo, and the pleasure which he took in listening to the verses of the youthful Pushkin. It reminds one of Pope being taken to see Dryden when old, whose mantle was to fall upon him. However much we may acknowledge the too rhetorical tendencies of Derzhavin, we cannot deny that he had a power- ful influence in the formation of a good style of Russian verse. The productions of Dmitriev and Batiushkov are rather weak : the latter, however, has considerable elegance, and in his writings we feel the breath of the new romanticism. He died as late as 1855, but had long ceased to write, having fallen into a state of imbecility. Zhukovski (born in 1 783) belongs to a certain extent to the reign of Alexander, but we shall discuss him at greater length when we come to speak of the brilliant galaxy of talent which adorns the reign of Nicholas. The poet fought in the Russian ranks in the Great War of the Fatherland, as it is called (Otechestvennaya Voina), and in his " Poet in the camp of the Russian soldiers " (Pievetz v' stanie russkikh voinov) he praises the Russian generals at Tarutino. The plays of Ozerov deserve some mention; he died in 1816 having shown a healthy tendency towards nationalism by 1825] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 355 choosing subjects for his plays from Russian history, e.g. Dimitri Donskoi. The first real Russian historian was Nicholas Karamzin (1766-1826), who began to write in the reign of Catherine, but attained his chief fame under Alexander. His great history (Istoria Rossiiskago Gosudarstvd), which, however, he did not live to carry farther than the election of Michael Romanov, began to appear in 1818. The author used to read it to the members of the Imperial Family in the " Green Walk " at Tsarskoe-Selo. Karamzin is deservedly noted for his style, which is flowing and elegant. He was the first to demonstrate how Russian prose should be written. He introduced a great many words of which the Russian language stood in need, and which its great strength and elasticity made of easy manufacture. He has been accused, and possibly with some justice, of throwing a false charm of refinement over the early Russian princes, who were rude soldiers, and nothing more; but this conception of history was characteristic of his age. The influence of Scott was making itself felt throughout Europe. The glamour of the novelist had begun to affect historians, as in the case of the French writers Thierry and De Barante. But the notes appended to the history of Karamzin show him to have been a great deal more than a mere rhetorical historian. He certainly was a researcher in the best sense of the word. Of his successors, Nicholas Polevoi, Sergius Soloviov, and Constantine Bestuzhev-Riumin, we shall speak more at length on a later page. The Emperor Alexander was a graceful man in society, of kindly and courtly manners, and it is pleasing to read, in the English, memoirs of the time, how much his affability was contrasted with the boorish manners of the King of Prussia when the allied sovereigns visited England in 1814. The Empress survived her husband only five months. The poor woman seems to have had but few personal attractions, to judge by the account given by Mme. Smirnov in her very entertaining Memoirs. She 356 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1825 describes her as having been a little lean woman, older than her husband, and with spots on her face. She appears also to have dressed in an old-fashioned style. The vivacious lady adds to her description that the Empress had a very bad complexion, and her countenance invariably wore a melancholy expression. The poor woman appears to have died of heart disease. The Emperor was clearly never destined to enjoy domestic happiness. Something sad and depressing seemed to attach to each detail of his life, even where there appeared to be most brilliance and prosperity. It was a realisation of the Russian proverb, " a jar of honey with a spoonful of tar." The life of Alexander puts us in mind of the heroes of the old Greek drama struggling to be noble but unable to resist the decrees of fate, and continually being driven into false position's, and made the instrument of calamity to others ; he would have made a good subject for a Thyestean poem. His character presents the strangest contrasts : at one time firm and manly, at another timid and swayed by every wind. In many respects it is a feminine character. The accusation of the insincerity which has been brought against him will not stand investigation : still more mistaken was the judgment of Napoleon that he was "false as a Byzantine Greek." The whole subject has received the fullest treatment in the work of Schilder, previously alluded to ; all available material has been there dealt with, ample funds having been provided by the legacy of Arakcheev, the Emperor's great admirer. The old literature has been supplemented from memoirs and private recollections. Nor does the author forget to investigate minutely the strange legend circulated among the peasantry touching his death. It is well known that when the body was brought to St Petersburg it was very much decomposed, and it was not considered advisable that it should be shown to the people, as was usually done. In consequence of this not only were ridiculous reports, which have been repeated by Western writers, circulated to the effect that the Emperor was 1825] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER I. 357 poisoned, but a belief became prevalent among the peasantry that he was not dead, but had become a hermit. He was supposed to be the same person as the Siberian hermit, who died at Tomsk in 1864, about ninety years of age, and was called Feodor Kusmich. There was much talk of his miracles and prophecies. When just before his death they asked him what his real name was, he said, "I was born among the trees ; if those trees looked upon me they would bow their heads." According to the very interesting memoirs of Prince Adam Czartoryski (edited by A. Gielgud, London, 1 888), the melan- choly of Alexander was caused by his having been concerned (although only indirectly) with the great plot which cost his father his life. This idea, in the words of the Prince, " settled like a vulture upon his conscience and paralysed his faculties." He also tells us that it was the fashion of the young men at the court to talk freely on the subject and to make satirical epigrams upon Paul's eccentricities. [1825 CHAPTER XIII THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. A LTHOUGH the succession to the Russian throne had ■**■ been made by Peter the Great to depend upon the will of the sovereign, this principle had, by the ordinances of the Emperor Paul, given place to primogeniture, as being more in harmony with the laws of other European states. The heir, according to this principle, was Constantine, who was born in 1779, but he had renounced his claim in 1822, or, according to some other authorities, as early as 1820. There had, however, been as yet no publication of the fact. Constantine was a man of whom few good things are to be said. He is reported to have treated the Poles with great brutality, and to have been a military martinet of the most aggravated type. His first marriage had been an unhappy one ; and he had obtained permission to divorce his wife, Anna Feodorovna, a princess of Saxe-Cobourg, and to marry a Polish lady, Julia Grudzinska, afterwards made Princess of Lowicz. The second wife, however, was a Roman Catholic, and was not a member of any royal family. Constantine was therefore disqualified for succession unless he repudiated her. But neither he nor his wife had the least ambition of reigning. He had executed a document renouncing his rights to the throne, but although this had been communicated to a family council nothing had been made known to the public. All the circumstances of this obscure arrangement were subsequently cleared up by official publications in 1857, after the death of Nicholas. The latter had proceeded to take the oath to Constantine as soon as the death of Alexander 358 1825] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 359 became known in St Petersburg ; but on the arrival of a courier from Warsaw conveying the renunciation of Con- stantine for the third time, Nicholas fixed the 26th of December as the day on which he would receive the oath of allegiance from the troops ; and Count Speranski, the former minister of Alexander, was ordered to draw up the proclama- tion. An organised insurrection now took place, being in a large measure the result of the numerous secret societies with which Russia was honey-combed. Advantage was taken of the confusion which prevailed, and the soldiers were informed that the Grand Duke Constantine had not resigned. The conspirators (including Ryleiev, Muraviev, Pestel, and others) had gone round to the various barracks and tampered with the fidelity of the soldiers, who were amazed at the confusion in which everything was involved. A terrible scene took place in the square of the Senate (Senatorskaya Plotschad), near the Cathedral of St Isaac. The soldiers, who had been misled by the conspirators, shouted " Long live Constantine," and when told to shout also for the Constitution (Constitutzia), thought that the wife of Constantine must be meant. Nicholas, who showed a great deal of presence of mind, appeared on the scene at an early hour in the uniform of the Izmailovski Regiment. The proclamation was read by him in a loud voice, but was only answered by murmurs, and a declaration that they would not give up their Tsar. During the struggle, and while shots were being freely interchanged, Miloradovich, who had seen so much service in the recent wars, was killed. The metropolitan of St Petersburg was now sent by the Emperor to harangue the rioters, but they would not listen to him. Missiles were thrown at him, and he was obliged to retreat into St Isaac's. The Emperor seemed to wish to avoid shedding the blood of the people, but at last orders were given to fire upon the rebellious mob. A great number were killed, and by nightfall all was quiet. The insurrection was quelled with equal facility in the other parts of the empire. At seven o'clock a great Te Deum 360 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [ism was celebrated to announce that the riot was over and that Nicholas had ascended the throne of his ancestors. The chief conspirators were one by one arrested ; they had displayed but little resolution, and had returned to hide themselves at home. Many of the most eminent men in Russia were mixed up with this ill-advised plot. Pushkin was in the house of his friends the Osipovs when the news came to his country-place Michailovskoe, near Pskov. It was by the merest accident that he was prevented from going to St Petersburg to take a share in the conspiracy. The same was also the case with Griboiedov, the author of one of the best comedies in the Russian language, " The misfortune of being too clever" (Gore ot uma). Both Pushkin and Griboiedov managed to destroy their compromising papers, and remained unmolested. Many of the ringleaders were sent to Siberia, among them being members of some of the most illustrious families in Russia. Five were hanged— Pestel, the son of a former governor of Siberia ; Rileyev, a poet of considerable merit, whose works were for a long time not allowed to be circulated in Russia; Sergius Muraviev Apostol, Bestuzhev Riumin, and Kakhovski, who had fired the fatal shot at Miloradovich ; on the 25th of July 1826, at three o'clock in the morning they were executed on the glacis of the citadel. Owing to an accident three of them had to be hanged a second time. Capital punishment was a rare event in Russia, and the executioner doubtless lacked the experience which he almost invariably has in the West. Many of the wives of the exiles asked leave to accompany their husbands, and some pathetic narratives have appeared of their adventures. In a letter from A. Voiekov to Princess E. Volkonski, which was printed in the pages of the Magazine Russkaya Starina, we get the contemporary view of the Govern- ment party on the subject of the Dekabrists. The out- break was cited as a proof of how little profit there was in knowledge, unless it was based upon honour and virtue. N. A. Bestuzhev, the writer tells us, fired at Colonel 1826] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 361 Sturler, and attacked with the butt end of his musket or stabbed the loyal soldiers; A. A. Bestuzhev, "a mad critic, an impudent fellow in society, a writer not without talents," gave himself out, we are told, as the adjutant of the Grand Duke Constantine. Moreover, Voiekov says that he declared that Constantine had been seized on the way, and that the Grand Duke Michael was in chains. He wounded and stabbed his opponents in all directions, and it appears from this letter that it was he who told the soldiers to shout for the constitution. Others mentioned are, Orestes Somov, who was taken with a pistol in^his hand ; and Wilhelm Kiichel- becker. Of the latter Voiekov says that he was a greater fanatic than Ravaillac or Karl Sand, the assassin of Kotzebue, and then adds the following remarkable words : " He was educated at the Lyceum at the same time as A. S. Pushkin, at the expense of the Grand Duke Michael, as also his three sisters, who were at that time receiving a pension from the bounty of his Imperial Highness.'' According to Voiekov, Kiichelbecker took aim at the grand Duke Michael with a pistol, but the soldiers snatched it from his hand. Kiichelbecker was assisted by his friends to escape, and might easily have got out of the country, but lingered at Warsaw, and was caught in an eating-house in the suburb of Praga. He was sentenced to penal servitude for twenty years. For some time he was at Schliisselburg, and was afterwards removed to Diinaburg (or Dvinsk, as it is now called). In 1835 he was sent to Barguzin, in Eastern Siberia. He died in 1840 while still in exile. A tender regret still clings to the memory of Prince Alexander Odoievski. He had been initiated into the secret society of the conspirators by Ryleiev, and was arrested the day after the outbreak of the 20th of December 1825. He was sentenced to deportation to Siberia, where he remained eleven years. In 1837 he was sent to serve as a common soldier in the Caucasus. In 1839 he was ordered to go on a military expedition to the eastern shore of the Black Sea, but died in camp on the 27 th of August, worn out by fatigue. 362 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i856 He was the author of some charming lyrics, many of which were written during his exile. Some of the Dekabrists were afterwards amnestied by the Emperor Alexander II. According to the official paper, five were degraded from the ranks of the nobility and sent to remote garrisons as common soldiers ; a hundred and eleven were condemned either to perpetual servitude, or if convicts only for a time, were to remain all the rest of their lives in Siberia ; and five were sentenced to death. Matters had been temporarily arranged between Russia and Turkey by the convention of.Akkermann in 1826, which confirmed the treaty of Bukharest. The question concerning the Greeks, which was now becoming more pressing than ever, still remained to be settled. The Emperor looked upon their struggle with the Turks as a matter of European interest, and refused to have it dealt with in an indirect way. He viewed the question very differently from his brother Alexander, and indeed all Europe had become disgusted with the cruel manner in which the Turks were carrying on the war. Nicholas wished to put a stop to a sanguinary struggle which seemed to threaten with complete extermina- tion an unfortunate people and one of the same faith as the Russians. On the conclusion of the Convention of Akkermann the privy-councillor Ribeaupierre set out for Constantinople and, together with the English ambassador, offered to the Divan, according to the protocol of March 23, 1826, the services of Russia and England in settling matters between the Turks and Greeks on terms suitable to both peoples. Greece was to remain under the suzerainty of the Porte, and to pay a yearly tribute, but she was to have the right of self-government by means of officials elected by the people and confirmed by the Porte. The French ambassador also supported the proposals of Russia, as did the English minister in accordance with instructions received from his government. In view of the embittered feeling of the Greeks, who had made up their minds rather to perish than to return to their 1827] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 363 former slavery, the Sultan might have shown some gratitude towards the European cabinets for their trouble in the matter. Mahmoud, however, would not hear of any mediation, and declared that it rested with him to execute or pardon dis- obedient slaves. He accordingly gave orders to the Turkish and Egyptian soldiers to devastate the Morea and the islands of the Archipelago. Bloodshed was renewed with incredible savagery. Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mehemet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt and the chief commander of the Ottoman forces, spared neither age nor sex; but burnt towns and villages, devastated cornfields, and tore up the olive trees by the roots. It seemed as though Greece was destined to become a desert. In fact the Turk committed the atrocities which he has perpetrated over again in Bulgaria and Armenia. Thereupon the other powers were willing to listen to the proposals of the cabinet of St Petersburg ; all Europe was astounded as she has been in our time with the Turkish atrocities. A complete account of this war does not belong to our pages. In spite of many deeds of prowess Greece was becoming gradually exhausted ; a state of things which was intensified when the Egyptians were called in by the Turks, and Ibrahim Pasha began to lay waste the Morea. The civilised world, however, was now getting tired of the continued bloodshed; and at length, by a treaty concluded in London on July 6th, 1827, between Russia, England and France, it was decided again to offer the mediation of the three powers to the Porte for a reconciliation with Greece on the basis of the St Petersburg protocol, with this addition, that if in the course of a month the Turks or Greeks should not have themselves brought their hostilities to a close, the Powers would compel them to do so with all the resources which they could command. Thus another month's agony was added to the sufferings of the unfortunate Greeks, who were so vastly outnumbered. In communicating to the Divan the terms of the proposal, the ambassadors of the three powers declared plainly that in case of the refusal of one or the other side the allied fleet 364 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [vM would be compelled to stop the prolongation of the quarrel, which was injurious to trade and was opposed to the moral sense of the European nations. The Sultan listened neither to threats nor persuasions, and the bloodthirsty Ibrahim continued his brutalities in the Morea. A large army committed every kind of atrocity on the mainland, while the powerful fleet of Turkish and Egyptian vessels threatened the islands. The allied fleets of Russia, France and England were already in the waters of the Archipelago, under the command respectively of Codrington, De Rigny, and Count Heyden. These admirals, in fulfilment of the orders of their governments, determined not to let the Turkish fleet go on to devastate the islands, and compelled it to enter the harbour of Navarino. Ibrahim procured an interview, at which, in consequence of their firm language, he promised to suspend hostilities for three weeks till he had received fresh instructions from Constantinople. But he very soon broke his word; numerous regiments of the Turco-Egyptian army were dispersed over the western part of. the Morea with the intention of completing the devastation. The allied admirals, seeing from their ships the glow of the distant conflagrations, at once sent a joint letter to Ibrahim in which they reminded him in strong language of the agreement he had made, and required an immediate answer as to whether he intended to keep his promise. The letter was not accepted, under the pretext of the absence of the chief in command and ignorance as to where he was to be found. These, of course, were direct lies intended to gain time for the completion of his work, and the admirals determined to adopt decisive measures. They resolved to enter the harbour of Navarino, hoping, by assuming the offensive, to compel Ibrahim to withdraw his troops from the Morea. The Ottoman fleet numbered 66 warships, with 2200 guns, and crews amounting to 23,000 men. It had taken a horse-shoe formation, supported on the wings by batteries erected on either side the entrance of the bay. A Turkish 1827] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 365 and an Egyptian admiral were in command. Ibrahim was on the shore. The allied fleet consisted of 27 ships of war (among them 8 Russian), with 1300 guns, and crews of 13,000 men. Admiral Codrington took the chief command, as being the senior in rank, and on October 20th, 1827, led it into the harbour in two columns. The right column con- sisted of English and French ships; the left of Russian. Both columns were to enter in order and anchor in front of the Ottoman fleet. The first column being nearer the TV^i.V-A.MrN'O. 182,7. -A.UA.e.a.TLe.et. m- r-bfess of °^c t. e r-i. «*" J bay, got in front of the left, went into the harbour with sails set, and cast anchor before the Turkish vessels. In order to explain the cause of their movements Codrington sent an officer to the Turkish admiral. The envoy was re- ceived with a discharge of musketry, and fell pierced by bullets.- Another officer was sent, who met with the same fate. Immediately guns were fired from an Egyptian cor- vette on the French frigate, which answered with a volley. The battle had now begun. More than 2000 guns kept up a continual fire, the vessels themselves being hidden in clouds of smoke. Then, in the mist, and under a cross fire from the batteries on shore, the Russian squadron 366 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1827 entered the harbour. Amid showers of bullets, it quietly took up its appointed station on the left; and anchoring within range, opened a murderous fire upon the Turks. Admiral Heyden's vessel, the Azov, commanded by Captain Lazarev, got engaged with three frigates, and in a few hours destroyed them; and others met with similar success. In about four hours' time all was over. The Ottoman fleet was annihilated, as it had been at Chesme in 1770, and was to be again at Sinope in 1853. Of all the ships of which it consisted, only one frigate and some smaller vessels remained, the rest being destroyed by fire, or becoming the prizes of the conquerors. The Turks were almost twice as strong as the allies as regards the number of ships, guns and men. The victory of the latter was due to their bravery, skill, and a rare unanimity of action; Russians, English and French outvying each other in deeds of daring. Mahmoud, on hearing of the destruction of his fleet at Navarino, became more violent than ever. The ambassadors of the allied powers lost all hope of persuading him to accept the treaty of London, and left Constantinople. This was at once followed by the reading in all the Turkish mosques of a hati-sherif for a universal arming for faith and country. The Sultan proclaimed that Russia was the eternal, unchanging foe of Islam ; that she was meditating the destruc- tion of Turkey, and that the insurrection of the Greeks had been of her causing. It was she who was the real concocter of the treaty of London, so destructive to the Ottoman Empire. She had in reality only been trying to gather her foes together. For the space of four months the Russian Government allowed these thunders to pass unnoticed. It was not without hope that the embarrassed Sultan would come to his senses when the public opinion of Europe was so clearly against him. Not that Turkey ever cared for the moral side of public opinion, as we have lately seen in the case of the Armenian massacres. But she has shrewdness enough to watch to see if that public opinion will become an active force. But all hopes of re- conciliation were vain ; Turkey even took active measures to annoy Russia ; to impede as much as possible her trade in the 1828] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 367 Black Sea, and to induce the Persians to break the treaty they had recently made. The struggle now assumed wider dimen- sions. The independence of Greece was at length acknow- ledged by the Turks, and a king was found for her in the person of Otho, the son of the King of Bavaria, whose reign, however, cannot be considered to have been a successful one, though it is true he laboured under very great difficulties. He succeeded to a country full of ruined cities, and to subjects demoralised by centuries of barbarism. The crown had been first offered to Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, but that astute politician had declined such a damnosa hareditas, and preferred to wait for the rich little kingdom of Belgium. But the discussion of these matters does not belong to our history, nor can we speak of the first President of Greece, Count Capo d'Istria, who was afterwards murdered in the streets of Nauplia, in consequence of a private feud. War between Russia and Turkey broke out in 1828, each Power accusing the other of not having observed the Treaty of Bukharest. Turkey declared that Russia had fomented the Greek insurrection, and caused the troubles in Moldavia and Wallachia. Russia, on the other hand, accused the Porte of having stimulated the Circassians to revolt, and also hav- ing fostered the resistance of Persia. A careful plan of campaign had been prepared. Turkey was to be attacked on all sides, by land and sea. Immedi- ately after the declaration of war, Prince Wittgenstein placed himself at the head of an army of 150,000 men, and, on the 7th of May, crossed the Pruth in three columns. The provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, their capitals, Jassy and Bukharest, being taken, were administered by a Russian governor. The object of Wittgenstein was to cross the Danube, and to strike a decisive blow in the plains of Bulgaria or Rumelia. Paskievitch was instructed to make an incursion from the Caucasus into the Asiatic dominions of Turkey, so as to draw away her forces from Europe. Prince Menshikov with a separate detachment, was to take Anapa, and Admiral Greig, with the Black Sea Fleet, was to silence 368 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1828 the forts on the Bulgarian, Rumelian, and other eastern coasts ; while Admiral Heyden with" the squadron which was in the Archipelago, was to close the Dardanelles so as to prevent reinforcements coming from Egypt to Constantinople. The Russians had thus seized the Danubian principalities, as they were called, without firing a shot, and seemed to have been welcomed by the inhabitants. These unfortunate principalities had in old times experi- enced as melancholy a fate as the Baltic provinces. They were governed by Phanariot Greeks sent by the Turks, who, as they could only hold office for a short time, and were liable to lose their lives by palace intrigues, plundered the principalities, and kept the native population in a condition of slavery. In our own day, after many perils, we see these provinces enjoying considerable prosperity. The middle column, entrusted to the Grand Duke Michael, proceeded to Braila, hoping to take the fortress, which was an important strategical position : and thus the rear of the army beyond the Danube was made safe. Below Braila, opposite to Isakcha, the troops of the left column were concentrated to cross the Danube, then much more of a Turkish river than now. This column was numerically stronger than the others. Here the Russians had a very difficult task, owing to the un- usual rising of the river in spring. The surrounding country was more or less inundated. The left bank, being lower, had become an impassable marsh. In order to reach the banks of the river, and make a bridge across it, it was necessary to construct earthworks. The soldiers, cheered by the presence of the Emperor, who shared in the toils of the expedition, worked busily, and made a dam extending about five versts. The Turks also did not remain idle. The more mounds the Russians made, the more batteries their enemies planted; threatening, by a cross fire, to prevent a bridge being thrown over the river. The Russians, however, were assisted by a fortunate circumstance. Some Zaporozhian Cossacks at the mouths of the Danube, had long lived under the protection of the Porte. They had not changed their faith, however, and 1828] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 369 when they were brought before the Emperor they were so well received that they expressed their readiness to return to their former allegiance. Many light vessels came to be at the disposal of the Russians. Two regiments of chasseurs, in the boats of the Zaporozhians, sailed across the Danube, got possession of the Turkish batteries, and raised the Russian flag on the right bank. Immediately after them crossed in perfect order all the soldiers who had been appointed to commence operations in Bulgaria. The Emperor, who directed the passage himself, sailed across in a Zaporozhian boat, steered by the hetman. The Turks, unwilling to meet the Russians in the open field beyond the Danube, shut themselves up in the fortresses which had served them as defences in their previous wars with Russia. The chief ports defended besides Braila, were Silistria, Rustchuk, Varna and Shumla (Shumen). Each had a large garrison under a skilful commander, the fortifications being in excellent repair. Shumla, which was almost impregnable on account of its position, was held by 40,000 of the best Turkish troops under the command of the Seraskier Hussein Pasha. Behind the Balkans was stationed the Grand Vizier with the reserve of the army to defend Constantinople. The Russians resolved to make straight for Shumla and try whether the Seraskier could be drawn into an engagement. They hoped by the destruction of this force to open a route beyond the Balkans. The small fortresses south of the Danube, Isakcha, Tulcha, Manchin, Girsova and Kustendji (now Costanza), lying on the Russian route, could not detain them; they were taken one after the other by separate de- tachments. But the stubborn defence of Braila on the left bank of the river, in the rear of the Russian army, compelled the latter to remain for some time near the Wall of Trajan. On the fall of Braila the army again moved forward. The soldiers marched in an insufferable heat, over a country so bare and sandy that the most trifling supplies had to be carried with them. ' The unwholesome water produced 2 A $7o A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1828 diseases ; the horses and cattle died by thousands for want of provender. The Turks were, however, defeated, and the Russians entered Shumla. Their hope of an engagement was not gratified. Hussein remained immovable. To take Shumla by assault or by a regular siege was difficult ; at all events much bloodshed was to be expected, and in the case of failure it would be neces- sary to retreat across the river. Owing to the paucity of troops it could not be surrounded and so deprived of supplies. On the other hand, if Shumla was left unmolested and the march continued over the Balkans they would have an entire army in their rear which could fall upon them in the passes of the Balkans, while the Vizier would be attacking them in front. The Emperor accordingly ordered Wittgenstein to remain under the walls of Shumla so as to keep a watch upon Hussein. Meanwhile the detachment of Prince Menshikov, which had already threatened Anapa, was to occupy Varna, with the co-operation of the Black Sea fleet. The corps of Prince Stcherbatov was to take possession of Silistria. The capture of the first fortress secured the supply of provisions from Odessa by sea ; the fall of the second was considered necessary to ensure winter quarters for the Russian army beyond the Danube. - The siege of Varna lasted two months and a half. The small detachment of Prince Menshikov proved insufficient to take a first-class fortress in so strong a position, and with a garrison of 20,000 men under the command of the Sultan's favourite general. In vain did the Black Sea fleet, even under the eye of Nicholas, threaten the place from the sea. The city did not surrender. The Russian works were soon moved up to the walls, and through the apathy of Omer Vrione, the Turkish general, who was sent to relieve the place, it was eventually taken on the nth of October. Its capture ensured supplies for the Russian troops in Bulgaria, and at the same time deprived Shumla of its strategic import- ance. The route to Rumelia across the Balkans was now 1828] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 371 open on the side of the sea, but the winter coming on early determined the Russians to defer decisive measures till the ensuing campaign. Prince Wittgenstein retired across the Danube, having left strong detachments in Varna, Bazartchik and Pravodi. Meanwhile marvellous events were happening in the Caucasus. The Russians succeeded in getting possession of almost impregnable fortresses, although they had but a handful of men. Acting as he did on the defensive in Europe, the Sultan meant to strike a vigorous blow in Asia. At the very beginning of the war he ordered the Seraskier of Erzerum with an army of 40,000 men to make incursions in various directions upon Russian territory beyond the Caucasus. Russia was at that time in a very awkward posi- tion. Her main force had already passed the Danube, and the troops of the Caucasus had recently returned from the Persian war, worn out with continual fighting and sickness. Not more than 12,000 men could be mustered; provisions and military stores were exhausted ; the means of transport and the- artillery were alike inadequate. The Mussulman provinces, roused by the instructions sent by the Sultan, only awaited the arrival of the Turks, their co-religionists, to rise against the Russians en masse. Everywhere was agitation, and everywhere treason. There was need of a clear head and great military skill to ward off the dangers which threatened the army of the Caucasus. But Paskievitch displayed extra- ordinary energy. He was to be found everywhere. With 12,000 men he marched into Asiatic Turkey and surprised the enemy by appearing under the walls of Kars, a celebrated fortress even then. It was remembered that Nadir Shah had retired from it, having unsuccessfully besieged it-four whole months with 90,000 men. The attempts of the Russians to take it in 1807 had also been fruitless. Paskievitch, however, took it by storm in less than four days. The Turkish soldiers sent by the Seraskier to invade Georgia on the side of Kars retired to Erzerum. Mean- while danger threatened the Russians on the other frontier 372 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1828 About 30,000 Turks were being massed on the frontiers of Guria, a Georgian province, and on the road to Akhaltsik, under two celebrated Pashas. Paskievitch, hastening to anticipate them under the walls of Akhaltsik, was delayed by an unexpected obstacle. The plague broke out among his men, nearly every regiment being affected. After a delay of three weeks to recruit his forces, he moved rapidly on Georgia and took two important fortresses. The troops had a most difficult passage over the mountains, which were considered impassable, and after suffering greatly from the heat reached Akhaltsik, at the same time as the two pashas appeared under its walls. They had come from Erzerum with 30,000 men. Paskievitch at once attacked and defeated both. He drove their troops into the forests, got possession of four fortified camps and all their artillery, and was thus enabled to turn the Turkish guns against Akhaltsik. Akhaltsik had been founded by the Circassians — a very mountain stronghold amidst the defiles. It had become a rallying-place for the rebels of various creeds and races, and was celebrated throughout Asia Minor for the warlike spirit of the natives. The city included within its walls 50,000 inhabitants, who traded with Erzerum, Erivan, Tiflis and Trebizonde. It had belonged to the Turks for three cen- turies, no foreign flag during that period having been seen on its walls. Tormasov had been unable to take it. The town is practically a fortress hanging on a precipitous rock, the houses being built like fortresses, and the inhabitants trained to feats of arms — every one a soldier. Feeling confident in his strength, the Pasha of Akhaltsik, when called upon to surrender, answered proudly that the matter must be decided by the sword. He remained firm, although the Russian batteries kept up a continual fire on the place during three weeks. Meanwhile the scanty sup- plies of the Russians were exhausted, and only two alter- natives presented themselves : either to abandon the siege, or to take the place by storm. If the siege was raised, there would be much rejoicing among the enemies of Russia, both 1828] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 373 open and concealed. If, on the other hand, they attempted to take it by storm, the whole army might perish in the struggle with an enemy five times as strong. Paskievitch had the courage to attempt the latter course. On the 26th of August, at four o'clock in the afternoon, the storming column, led by Colonel Borodin, commenced the assault, and after incredible resistance forced its way into the town. Here a desperate struggle awaited them. It was necessary to carry by storm each house in succession, and every step in advance was dearly bought. The battle lasted all night in the midst of a conflagration which extended over the whole city. Several times fortune seemed to favour the enemy, who were very numerous. The Russian commander, however, skilfully kept back the weakest of his columns, sent regiment after regiment into the engagement, and was eventually victorious. On the morning of the 28th of August the flag of St George waved over the fortress of Akhaltsik. The conqueror hastened to stop further bloodshed, and gave protection to the vanquished. He established order in accordance with the customs of the people, and having restored the ruined fortifications, turned the city of Akhaltsik into a strong position of defence for Georgia on the side of Asiatic Turkey. The taking of Bayazid, at the foot of Mount Ararat, by a separate detachment, made the district of Erivan also secure. Thus in less than two months, with the most limited means at his disposal, Paskievitch had carried out the orders of his Government, and the threatened invasion of the Russian dominions in the Caucasus was averted, the invading forces scattered, and the pashaliks of Kars and Akhaltsik were in the possession of the Russians. The successes of the Muscovite arms in Europe in the year 1828 had not led to similar results. In spite of the many and decisive victories of the Russians, both by sea and land, the taking of two principalities, of the greater part of Bulgaria, and a considerable part of Anatolia, the capture of 14 fortresses and 30,000 prisoners, the Sultan still refused to listen to any 374 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i8» terms. He had no doubt many English and French advisers who urged him to continue to hold out; and owing to an unexpected event, he was still further confirmed in his resolution to prolong the war. At the end of January 1829, Griboiedov, the Russian ambassador at Teheran, was murdered, with a great part of his suite, by a fanatical mob. Before the outbreak of the war with Turkey, Russia had had a quarrel with Persia. In 1826 she had declared war. Abbas Mirza, the heir to the Persian throne, had invaded the province of Elisavetspol with 50,000 men. The Mussulman populations in the Caucasus rose at his approach, but Madatov had succeeded in defeating the Persians, and Paskievitch and Benkendorf were also victorious. At last the Persians sued for terms, and in the result the provinces of Erivan and Nakhivan were ceded to Russia by Persia by the Peace of Turkmanchai in 1828. To return to the duel between Russia and Turkey. The Persians had been greatly irritated by the losses which they had sustained as the result of the recent peace; and the imeute in which Griboiedov was killed, was in reality a result of that irrita- tion, though nominally caused by his having shelteredsome Christian women at the Embassy. We must find room for a few remarks on this interesting man. His work is among the literary glories of the reign of Alexander I., and his comedy, Gore ot uma (lit. " Grief out of Wit," or as we may translate it, " The misfortune of being too clever "), is still read with enthusiasm by the Russians. He was a friend of Pushkin, who says that Griboiedov had a presentiment of his fate, and has described how when travelling with the army of Paskievitch he met the body of his deceased friend being conveyed to Tiflis for burial. Griboiedov had married a Georgian beauty, Nina Tchavtchavadze, who, although made a widow at a very early age, never took a second husband, although, as we were assured at Tiflis, she had many offers. But, as we have said, there was in reality a • very bad feeling between the Persians and Russians. The Shah had already begun to mass his troops on the Russian frontiers. The Sultan 1829] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 375 naturally at once opened negotiations with him ; but his schemes were rendered abortive by the victorious Paskie- vitch, who put a stop to the war. The latter gave Abbas Mirza, the heir to the throne, to understand that the destruc- tion of the Russian Embassy at Teheran would be followed by very serious consequences for Persia ; that a new war with Russia might hurl the dynasty of the Kadjars from the throne, and that the only way to atone for what had been done, and to avert the dangers which threatened him, was to ask pardon of the Tsar by means of one of the Persian princes for the unheard of insolence of the Teheran mob. Although such a proceeding was very humiliating to the proud oriental spirit, Abbas Mirza persuaded the Shah to consent, and the eldest son of Abbas, Khozrev Mirza, at a grand audience, in the presence of the court and the whole diplomatic corps, asked the Tsar to forgive the occurrence. Although thus deprived of the co-operation of Persia, the Sultan still hoped to set matters right by his own efforts. We must not forget the kind of man about whom we are writing. One of the most sanguinary of the Turkish sultans, Mahmoud has left a terrible reputation for his recklessness of human life. It was he who murdered the unfortunate patriarch Gregory, and mowed down the Janissaries. Mahmoud now made preparations for renewing the war ; it was to be a war d outrance. The force concentrated at Shumla was increased by some thousand regular troops sent from Constantinople, and the order was given to the new vizier, Reschid Pasha, cost what it might, to retake Varna from the Russians, and drive them out of Bulgaria. For Erzerum a new Seraskier was appointed, with unlimited powers. Hahki Pasha, a commander of known skill and bravery, was also sent to assist him. He was com- missioned to arm 200,000 men in Anatolia ; to get possession of Kars and Akhaltsik : and to threaten the Russian posses- sions in the Caucasus. The Emperor on his si<% in- creased the forces stationed on the Danube, and Paskievitch being ill, entrusted the command to Count Diebitsch. The corps of Paskievitch was also to be strengthened. 3/6 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i8» Both commanders were ordered to take prompt and decisive action. In the spring of 1829 Diebitsch crossed the Danube and laid siege to Silistria, which the Russians had not succeeded in taking during the previous campaign, owing to the early winter. The commander-in-chief marched to this stronghold, first, because he wanted to make secure the Russian opera- tions beyond the Danube, and also in order to decoy the vizier out of Shumla. The active Turkish commander, taking advantage of the absence of the main body of the Russian army, naturally attacked the Russians, who were stationed at Pravodi and Bazartchik. In the middle of May the vizier came out of Shumla with 40,000 of his best soldiers and besieged Pravodi, then occupied by General Kuprianov. The chief in cornrrfand was General Roth, who at once informed Diebitsch that the vizier had quitted his impregnable position. Diebitsch had expected this to happen, and, handing over affairs at Silistria to General Krasovski, himself moved on the Balkans with a great part of his army. Without a moment's hesitation he pushed forward, carefully concealing his move- ments, and on the fifth day was in the rear of Reschid, thus cutting him off from Shumla. The Vizier, meanwhile, did not suspect the danger, and quickly occupied himself with the siege of Pravodi. When at length he became aware of the presence of a Russian force in his rear he took them for a small detachment of the corps of General Roth, who had ventured to block his way to Shumla. He directed his troops to annihilate the trivial (as he considered it) force of the enemy, but discovered that Diebitsch himself awaited him in the defiles of Kulevcha. Reschid then realised completely the danger of his position, but he did not lose all confidence and resolved to cut his way through the Russian lines. He led the attack quickly and boldly, meeting everywhere with a vigorous resistance. In vain did the Turks throw them- selves with the madness of despair upon the steady Russian columns, and cut their way into the infantry and cavalry. The Russians could not be shaken. Towards noon occurred 1829] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 377 a lull in the fighting, through the exhaustion of both sides. Diebitsch, making use of a favourable moment, recruited his exhausted forces by bringing up fresh regiments, and in his turn fell on the enemy. The battle was renewed with a terrible cannonade on both sides. It did not long remain uncertain. The Turkish guns were silenced by the vigorous fire of the Russian batteries directed by the chief of the staff, General Toll. No sooner had the Turks begun to give way than Diebitsch moved his infantry to the front, and they advanced with the bayonet. The steadiness and rapidity of the attack threw the Turks into confusion on all sides. They took to flight and dispersed over the mountains, leaving on the field about 5000 slain, together with their baggage, artillery, and standards. The Vizier himself escaped being taken prisoner through the swiftness of his horse, and with great difficulty got into Shumla with less than half of his army. The conquerors encamped within sight. The victory at Kulevcha had very important consequences. The Vizier had been completely beaten, and felt anxious about the fate of Shumla itself. He therefore concentrated his forces as much as possible there, and so left the defiles of the Balkans unprotected. The defences of the coast-line were also weakened. Diebitsch resolved to take advantage of his negligence, and only waited till Silistria should fall to cross the Balkans. When it was at length taken, through the activity and skill of General Krasovski, the commander-in- chief led the corps against Shumla, and commissioned Krasovski to blockade the Vizier. He himself, with the rest of the army, moved rapidly to the mountains. The advanced corps of Roth and Riidiger had cleared the way for him, and had driven the enemy from all the positions he wished to take up. They forced the passes of Kamtchik, and came into the valleys of Rumelia, in our own days so deluged with Bulgarian blood. Diebitsch followed directly. Krasovski in the meantime showed such skill at Shumla, that Reschid Pasha for some days took his corps for the entire Russian army, and only found out that Diebitsch had 378 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1829 crossed the Balkans when the latter had already traversed the most dangerous defiles. In vain did he attempt to attack Diebitsch in the rear ; Krasovski kept him closely blockaded in Shumla. Meanwhile the naval forces in the Black Sea and in the Archipelago, co-operating with the land forces, had got pos- session of the seaports in Rumelia, Inada and Ainos, built in the midst of the small Greek settlement, which is surrounded by> Bulgarians. In the fertile valleys of Rumelia the expe- dition of Diebitsch found itself in a comparatively easy position. The few Turkish regiments were powerless to oppose him ; he seems, however, to have lost a great many men through sickness. At length on the 19th of August, four weeks after having crossed the Balkans, the Russian forces came in sight of the minarets of Adrianople. The campaign of 1829 in Asia had been equally success- ful. Paskievitch had concentrated all his forces in the neighbourhood of Kars, for many years such a bone of contention between Russia and Turkey, and now finally be- longing to the former. The forces of Paskievitch amounted to 18,000 men, and among them were Mussulmans enlisted in the districts which a short time before had been conquered by Russia. Paskievitch succeeded in occupying the import- ant city of Erzerum, the Seraskier of which place had collected 50,000 men with the view of recovering what had been lost in the preceding year, and invaded Russian terri- tory. With this object he had sent his companion Hakhi Pasha to Kars with half of the army. Paskievitch seized the opportunity to defeat them separately before they could reunite. He marched across the high snow-covered range of Saganlung, and came upon Hakhi Pasha, who had fortified a camp in an almost impregnable position. The Seraskier was about ten versts away, and to him Diebitsch directed his attention, putting him to flight, after a short conflict. He then turned against Hakhi Pasha, and took him prisoner with his entire force. The two camps of the enemy, with all the stores and artillery, were the substantial result of this victory. 1829] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 379 In a few days' time Paskievitch made his appearance under the walls 'of Erzerum. The Seraskier wished to defend the city, but the inhabitants trusting in the clemency of the con- queror, surrendered. In these engagements, if we carefully read the details, we find the same terrible story of the suffer- ings of the Armenians which has been heard in our own days. The Seraskier having thus surrendered as prisoner of war, the army of Turkey had practically ceased to exist. But a new Seraskier was sent by Mahmoud, who collected the scattered troops as well as he could. Paskievitch defeated him under the walls of Baiburt, and had already made his plans for penetrating into the interior of Anatolia, when his vic- torious career was checked by the news that peace had at length been made. Mahmoud had been forced to submit. This blood-thirsty ruler, who presented the terrible spectacle of a man with the instincts of a savage, and with all the latest methods of destruction at his command, was like a tiger at bay. The losses had been very great on both sides. On the 14th of September 1829 the treaty of Adrianople was signed. By the terms of this treaty Russia confirmed her right of interfering in behalf of the Orthodox Christians in Turkey. This concession has been censured by some of our extreme Russophobes, but seems to us to have been in the highest degree beneficial to civilisation and to humanity. Their condition had been for a long time deplorable. In the selfish attempts to preserve the integrity of Turkey (as the phrase ran) our western pseudo-philanthropists had turned their eyes away from the sufferings of their co-religionists. We have only to read such works as the Memoirs of the Pole, Michael Czaikowski, who became a Turkish general under the name of Sadyk Pasha, to see what kind of life the rayahs led under the Turks. Of all their conquests the Russians only retained Anapa and Poti as important harbours on the Black Sea coast. Possessed of these, however, they were better able to check the active, though secret, Turkish slave-trade, as they had been endeavouring to do since the treaty of Kutchuk- 380 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1829 Kainardji. The Russians also occupied Sukhum Kale, Redout Kale, and some other places which were important as affording a secure communication with Georgia. They also retained Akhalkalaki and Akhaltsik, two very strong positions. The Sultan, on his side, was to grant facilities of trade to the Russian merchants and to allow trading vessels to pass the Dardanelles. A large sum also had to be paid by him to indemnify Russian merchants for their losses since 1806. Moldavia, Wallachia, and Serbia were to have certain rights conceded to them, and thus these provinces were gradually released from the degrading Turkish yoke, and a new era dawned for them. Their subsequent history till they were completely emancipated is merely a record of con- tinual efforts on the part of the Turks to shuffle out of their obligations. In consequence of this treaty the Bulgarians may be said to have been practically discovered. When Schafarik published, in 1826, his world-famous book on the languages and literatures of the Slavonic peoples, he knew so little about the Bulgarian language that he classified it as a dialect of Serbian. The Bulgarians had sunk into the lowest condition of slavery. The Malorussian scholar Venelin, who travelled in the wake of the Russian army, revealed them to Europe. His adventures among them are exceedingly interesting ; so timid had they become that he found them very shy in communicating anything about their language, popular songs, or customs. They seemed to imagine that all information on the point would in some way or other be used against them. Lastly, to speak of the effects, of this great treaty of Adrianople, the Turks were to recognise the inde- pendence of Greece as the Powers had agreed. Thus for the subject peoples of Turkey the treaty of Adrianople can only be considered as one of the most glorious events in history. Their subsequent fate will be frequently before us in the course of our narrative. With regard to Greece, the Sultan, even after the annihilation of his fleet at Navarino, had only been prepared to grant the same privileges as had been conceded to Moldavia and 1830] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 381 Wallachia ; but after the Russians had crossed the Balkans, the ferocious Mahmoud was thoroughly terrified, and agreed to all the terms which the allies proposed. Finally, on February 3, 1830, the treaty of London was signed, which provided for the recognition of Greece as an independent sovereignty under the protectorate of the three Powers, and with the same territories as were marked out in the previous protocol, with the exceptions of Acarnania, a part of ^Etolia, and some islands. This was an unfortunate arrangement, because it left Janina and Thessaly still under Turkish rule, to say nothing of the important island of Crete. Janina is in the hands of the Turks to the present day. Thessaly was not ceded to the Greeks until the treaty of Berlin, and Crete has only recently been liberated from Turkish rule after much bloodshed. The towns of Greece at that time were mostly in ruins, and Athens, which now boasts 100,000 inhabitants, had then only 300. It was not long before Turkey became entangled in a quarrel with her vassal state, Egypt. The former had fairly well carried out the stipulations of the treaty of Adrianople. But now Mehemet Ali, the Pasha of Egypt, seeing that the Sultan was in great difficulties, aimed at overthrowing his rule. He was the son of a poor Roumeliot, and in his earlier days had been engaged in the tobacco-trade, but having entered one of the Roumelian regiments, was sent with other soldiers to Egypt. He soon acquired influence through his great talents and his capacity for intrigue, and thus gradually worked his way to the position of Pasha ; that being a com- paratively easy rise in a country where such matters depend not upon birth and social position, but on the mere caprice . of those in authority. This had been confirmed by the Sultan in 1805. Mehemet introduced many Western im- provements and completely revolutionised the condition of the country. He also proceeded to rid himself of the Mame- lukes in a very inhuman way. The Egyptian fleet had been destroyed at the battle of Navarino, but Mehemet, with 382 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i83i astonishing activity, fitted out another, and as a reward for his assistance in the struggle with the Greeks, received from the Sultan the island of Crete. In the year 1830 he had more than thirty ships of war, among them eleven ships of the line, and a regular army of 130,000 men. Feeling now his own strength, and seeing the Porte weakened by internal rebellions and foreign wars, he con- ceived the idea of throwing off the suzerainty of the Sultan. Under various pretexts he discontinued his payments of tribute and refused to assist Turkey in the last war with Russia. In 1 83 1 he broke out into open rebellion. A powerful Egyptian force, led by Ibrahim Pasha, the son of Mehemet, entered Syria, a country under the rule of the Porte. Mehemet Ali declared that the Syrian Pasha, Abdullah, was his personal enemy, and that as he had failed in obtaining protection from the enfeebled Porte he had resolved to seek satisfaction with his own sword. In vain did the Sultan offer his media- tion. Ibrahim kept on his course, and captured the Syrian towns one after another. Finally, he took the well-fortified post of Acre, got Abdullah into his power, and became master of all Syria, a rich and populous country, abounding in forests for shipbuilding purposes and suitable for com- merce. Mahmoud avoided a war with his powerful vassal, but declared him a rebel, who had deceived the Prophet and his lord. This step, which would at one time have been efficacious, was now inoperative. Mehemet Ali paid no atten- tion to the threats of his suzerain, and called the Sultan himself a renegade from Islam. It therefore only remained to subjugate the rebel by force. A considerable body of ■ Turkish troops moved from Asia Minor to the Syrian dis- tricts, and was completely defeated in the passes of the Taurian mountains. Mahmoud now sent another and stronger force, under the command of his best general, the Vizier Reshid-Pasha. . Ibrahim engaged with him near Koniah, in Asia Minor, and after a sanguinary contest gained a complete victory. The Turkish soldiers fled in all 1831] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 383 directions, the Vizier himself being severely wounded and taken prisoner. The Sultan found himself now without an army and the road to Constantinople was open. The advance regiments of Ibrahim took Smyrna and appeared in the neighbourhood of Broussa. The Sultan . appealed in his difficulty both to England and France, but neither power would help him. They contented themselves with making overtures to Mehemet AH, which proved abortive. On receiving the news of the revolt in Egypt, the Russian government had ordered their consul to quit Alexandria. The Sultan expressed himself grateful for Russian inter- ference. General Muraviev was then sent to Alexandria, and orders were given to the Black Sea fleet, as soon as notice had been given by the Russian ambassador to the Porte, to proceed to the defence of Constantinople. General Muraviev was received in Alexandria with special honours. Mehemet AH promised to submit to the Sultan, and in the presence of the Russian general sent an order to Ibrahim to put an end to hostilities. Meanwhile the Sultan, who had received no tidings of the results of Muraviev's mission, was panic-stricken by the threatening movements of Ibrahim at Broussa, and entreated the Russian ambassador, Buteniev, to obtain some troops from Russia to help him. Accordingly the squadron of vice-admiral Lazarev was despatched from Sevastopol to the Bosphorus. It was already at sea when General Muraviev brought to Con- stantinople the comforting news of the consent of the pasha to submit to the will of his suzerain. At the same time Ibrahim informed the Porte that, in obedience to the orders of his father, he had stopped all further advance of the Egyptian army, and had halted at Kutachia. The Sultan was grateful to Russia, but the matter did not end there. Orders had already been sent by the Russian ambassador to Vice-Admiral Lazarev to return to "Sevastopol with his squadron when the Sultan ascertained that Ibrahim, in spite of the promise given to his father and his own assurance, had renewed warlike operations in Asia Minor, had taken posses- 384 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mm sion of Magnesia and had defied the authority of the Turks in Smyrna. Mehemet Ali himself, also, was manifestly raising fresh troops for the reinforcement of his son. In fact all these promises were so many instances of Oriental duplicity. For- tunately Vice-Admiral Lazarev, who had not met the courier sent by Buteniev, came with his squadron into the Bosphorus and cast anchor in sight of Constantinople. He had brought five vessels of the line and two frigates. The appearance of the Russian squadron under the walls of Constantinople at such a decisive moment threw the inhabitants into great excitement, and caused much perplexity in the Divan. Neither the English nor the French governments watched these movements with satisfaction. The French ambassador, Admiral Roussin, even threatened the Sultan with a rupture with France if the Russian ships were not sent away from the Bosphorus. But Mahmoud paid regard neither to the murmurs of the people nor the difficulties of the Divan nor the threats of the French. Russia seemed the only power who would do anything for him ; and the Ruosiah squadron remained before Constantinople. Indeed, at the request of the Sultan it was strengthened. Twenty Russian ships under the command of Count Orlov were at anchor off Buyukdere, and 10,000 infantry were encamped on the Asiatic shore at Unkiar-Skelessi under the command of General Muraviev, ready to meet the victorious Ibrahim. It was thus a complete triumph for the Russians, who had contrived to play over the other powers. In England and France, as may be imagined, no little commotion was caused by the appearance of these new allies. The Emperor Nicholas, however, persevered in his plans ; and eventually Mehemet Ali recalled his forces from Asia Minor; a Russian officer conducted Ibrahim to the confines of Syria, and as soon as the Egyptian army had crossed the Tauric mountains the troops of Muraviev were embarked, and the fleet returned to Sevastopol. By this means Russia procured from the Sultan the treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi (August 8, 1833); under which the Turks 1833] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 385 stipulated to the Russians to close the Dardanelles to all foreign vessels whatever. By the influence of England and France a treaty was made between Mehemet Ali and the Sultan, with which the Russians were not concerned. They had in reality gained all they wanted. Mehemet Ali remained Pasha of Egypt, and received in addition Syria, with Damascus and Aleppo. Revenues were assigned to his son Ibrahim Pasha from the district of Aden, in Asia Minor. But. the Eastern Question seems destined to be eternal. The Sultan, constrained to yield to his rebellious vassal a considerable portion of his empire, was more than ever anxious to crush him. Mehemet Ali on his side knew that he could rely upon France, and was resolved to throw off all semblance of vassalage. The rebellious spirit which he continued to manifest left the Sultan no alternative but to renew the appeal to arms. But in vain. His forces were annihilated by the splendid victory of Ibrahim at Nisibia, on the banks of the Euphrates. This was a final and richly deserved blow to the man who had shown throughout such reckless disregard of human life and suffering. Mahmoud died in 1839. Soon afterwards the Turkish fleet, at Alexandria, went over to the enemy through the treachery of the Kapudan-pasha, and Turkey was now left without either ships, money, or men. The triumphant Mehemet Ali demanded from Abdul Medjid, Mahmoud's feeble-minded successor, the dismissal of his enemy the Vizier, and for himself hereditary rule over Egypt, Syria, Aden and Crete. He supported his demands by threatening to take possession of Constantinople. All the Powers, with the exception of France, now felt the necessity of taking decisive measures to restrain the man who was threatening to destroy the peace of Europe, to use a favourite but somewhat meaningless phrase. The ambas- sadors of the Great Powers at Constantinople accordingly informed the Porte that their Governments had agreed to put a stop to this new development of the Eastern question ; and proposed to the Sultan that he should submit the question to European arbitration. A conference took place in London 386 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1840 between the representatives of the five Powers, England, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, and it seemed probable that an agreement would have been arrived at but for the obstinacy of France, which still supported the pretensions of Mehemet Ali. Finally, on July 15, 1840, without the ac- quiescence of France, the Powers agreed to the following terms : Mehemet Ali was to be hereditary ruler of Egypt ; the southern part of Syria was to be given to him, but only on the condition that he recognised the suzerainty of the Sultan and paid him tribute. All the other territory which was not in the pashalik of Egypt, the northern part of Syria, Aden, and Crete were to be restored to the Porte, as was also the fleet in the course of ten days. In the case of refusal it was agreed that no terms should be made with him, but that he should be brought to his senses by force of arms. The united fleets of EnglariH and Austria were, in that case, to blockade the coasts of Egypt and Syria ; and the Russian fleet was to protect Constantinople in the event of an attack on the part of Ibrahim. Mehemet Ali, relying upon the assistance of France, rejected these terms, and the decisive action of the Powers saved Europe from a general war. The Anglo-Austrian fleet quickly got possession of the fortresses on the Syrian coast, Beyrout, Said, Tyre and Acre; and threatening Alexandria itself, compelled the Pasha to listen to terms. The Sultan was loth to yield him the hereditary possession of Egypt. This, however, the Powers forced him to do. Mehemet consented to pay tribute to the Porte. The French reluctantly acquiesced in this arrangement. We must now retrace our steps somewhat to describe the great Polish insurrection of 1830. The Poles had not escaped the contagion of the French outbreak, which had again driven the Bourbons from the throne. There had been an incon- sistency from the beginning in the union of a constitutional government with the patriarchal regime of Russia. The Poles probably did not understand constitutionalism in the same sense as we do, as the country when independent had always been dominated by an oligarchy. Many of the more thinking 1830] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 387 Poles looked with misgiving upon the outbreak, among them Adam Czartoryski, Prince Radziwill, and Chlopicki, who re- alised how many circumstances had to be taken into account before the insurrection could be successful. On the other hand, there were not lacking advanced democratic spirits, such as Lelewel, the historian, who were prepared for any issues. On the 24th of May 1829, Nicholas was crowned at Warsaw. He opened the diet with a speech in the French language. Some complaints were made on this occasion, chiefly relating to the non-publication of the debates of the diet, the restrictions of the freedom of the press and the arbitrary conduct of the Grand Duke Constantine. Nor indeed was it to be expected that a high-spirited people like the Poles, conscious of a great past (for they had been at one time the most important power of Eastern Europe), should settle down into the dependency of a province. Undoubtedly, too, the Grand Duke had sanctioned many capricious arrests, and was a martinet with something of the spirit of his father Paul. The revolution had been carefully planned, and the students of the University played a conspicuous part in it. On the 29th of September 1830, rockets were fired from various places in Warsaw, and an attempt was made to seize the Grand Duke Constantine at the Belvedere palace ; and many Russians and persons well affected to Russia were massacred as they hurried to the palace to announce the out- break of the insurrection. It appears that there had been a plan to seize Nicholas and hold him as a kind of hostage when he last visited Warsaw, but the plot had come to nothing. The troops fraternised with the people, and the chief command was entrusted to General Chlopicki, who had seen a good deal of service under Napoleon. He was the idol of the people of Warsaw on account of his tall stature and military bearing. He was most reluctant, however, to take the office, and seems to have nourished the idea of a reconciliation with Nicholas on the understanding that the Polish constitution should be more accurately observed. 388 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1831 Meanwhile the Grand Duke, who had retired from Warsaw, continued his retreat from the kingdom. The Poles suc- ceeded in raising an army of 90,000 men. On the 5th of January 1831 they published a manifesto setting forth their grievances. A few days afterwards a force of 120,000 men under Diebitsch entered the country. The Russian commander issued a manifesto, calling upon the Poles to lay down their arms, to which they replied by declaring at a tumul- tuous meeting of the diet that the Emperor Nicholas had forfeited his title as King of Poland. It was not long, how- ever, before Chlopicki quarrelled with his colleagues, and resigned his authority. As general he was replaced by Prince Michael Radziwill, and the government was entrusted to a committee consisting of five members, the chief of whom was Prince Adam Czartoryski, among them being the impetuous Lelewel. The Poles were successful in some of the first battles, especially that of Grochow on February 25th, 1831, but the losses on both sides were very great. Five thousand Poles were killed ; while of the Russian army, the chief officers, and more than 10,000 men were put hors de combat. The Poles, however, were not able seriously to impede the march of Diebitsch on Warsaw. There was, moreover, a division in their camp; and Skrzynecki, who had been elected in the place of Radziwill, showed great hesitation. Cholera, too, made its appearance in both armies. The Poles now were at great pains to win the sympathies of Europe to their cause, but they did not succeed in obtain- ing any effectual assistance. Much was hoped from France, as the Poles had fought in the ranks of the French, and had formed a large contingent of the army which invaded Russia. It was expected that the new and revolutionary government would do for them what the Bourbon would not. From Eng- land also nothing really helpful could be gained. Although a Whig ministry was in power, the real reason of our not helping the Poles was a suspicion of France. The exact words of the 1831] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 389 reply which the Poles received are very curious, as showing what was thought of Russia then, and how much the feeling was to change afterwards. "The policy of England ought to be not to weaken Russia, as Europe might soon again require her services in the cause of order, and there was no wish that Poland should become a French province of the Vistula." Prussia, as usual, was the mere tool of Russia, and helped her in the war as much as she could. Austria expressed herself as willing to assist Poland, but did not arrive at that determina- tion until it was too late. The Pope declared himself able to do nothing. On the 26th of May, the Poles under Skrzynecki, were defeated at Ostrolenka. It had cost them 7000 men, and the Russian loss was also very great ; so that Diebitsch made no effort to pursue the defeated Poles. He shut him- self up in his camp at Pultusk, where he was (June 10th) carried off by cholera. In the course of a few weeks the Grand Duke Constantine also expired at Vitebsk ; and his wife died soon afterwards. The command of the Russian army was now given to Paskievitch, who marched on Warsaw. In that unfortu- nate city there occurred on the 15 th of August another massacre of suspected persons who had been detained in prison. It is curious to find Lelewel, the democratic his- torian, justifying these excesses. Paskievitch now appeared at the gates of Warsaw with 12,000 men and 400 guns. On the 4th of September he sent General Dannenberg with a proposal of capitulation to the Polish Government. After much bloodshed and an heroic defence, which lasted from five o'clock in the morning till late into the night, the city surrendered on the morning of the 7 th September. The unhappy country was doomed to pay dearly for this insur- rection. Shortly after the Russians entered the capital an amnesty was published, from which certain persons were excluded, viz.: 1. The authors of the revolution of the 29th of November. 2. The members of the Polish Govern- ment. 3. The deputies who supported the act of the separa- tion of Poland from Russia. 4. The assassins of the night 39Q A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [18»2 of the 15th of August. The Polish flag, the white eagle which they had borne to so many victories, was abolished. The Polish army was incorporated with that of Russia ; the higher schools and the University were suppressed, and the libraries, including the celebrated Zaluski library, so rich in manu- scripts and early printed books relating to Poland, were carried off to St Petersburg. At length on February 26th, 1832, Poland was declared a Russian province, and the constitution which had been granted by Alexander I. was abolished. But even further disasters were to befall the unhappy country. Prince Czartoryski, in his valuable Memoirs, has left us some curious pictures of the state of feeling with regard to Poland at the time. He found but a cool reception in England, which country he had some difficulty in reaching, being very nearly captured by the Russians at Cracow. The German states stood in great awe of the Slavonic Empire, and obeyed its dictates in a very servile fashion. Lord Palmerston was icy and disingenuous. Earl Grey told him that the interpretation of the treaty of Vienna would depend a great deal upon Austria and Prussia. While, however, in aristocratic circles the Prince received the cold shoulder, his cause was popular among the people. A dinner was given to him in 1832, at which the poet Campbell made a speech. The Russian ambassador to the Court of St James was at that time Prince Lieven, whose wife wrote some very interesting memoirs. He complained to Lord Palmerston that Earl Grey had invited to his house the "president of the rebel government." Prince Adam was soon afterwards introduced to Brougham : he found that the sympathies of that versatile man for the Poles had somewhat cooled. Prince Adam was not, how- ever, completely discouraged. He prepared a memorandum which discussed in full the rights of Poland according to the treaty of Vienna. Lord Palmerston informed him that representations had been made to the Russian Government anent the fulfilment of the treaty. The Russian answer to these representations came at the end of January 1832. It 1838] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 391 was courteous in tone, but rejected the English interpretation of the treaty, and submitted that Russia had a majority in her favour, inasmuch as Russia, Austria and Prussia were on one side and only England and France on the other. The language of Austria and Prussia was hostile to Poland in the extreme. So matters rested for the time, but we shall see that the Polish question was again brought up at the time of the Crimean War. The next important measure of the reign of Nicholas was the reconciliation of the Uniate with the Orthodox Church. In order to thoroughly understand this it is necessary to consider under what circumstances the Uniates first arose. In the middle of the fourteenth century Russia had lost her eastern provinces to the rising Grand Duchy of Lithuania, then under very powerful rulers. Of course prior to that period a consolidated Russia cannot be said to have existed, but the eastern provinces, which had been acquired by Lithuania, were Russian in language and had adopted the Greek faith ; Kiev, the chief city, being the very metropolis of Russian orthodoxy. While these provinces were under the government of the Lithuanian princes, their religion does not seem to have been interfered with. But in 1386 Jagiello, the Lithuanian prince, married Jadviga, the Polish heiress, and became a good Roman Catholic under the name of Ladislaus. The members of the Greek Church were soon interfered with by the Roman Catholic clergy, and matters became worse when the Order of Jesuits was founded and the great religious reaction took place. These indefatigable missionaries poured into the Russian provinces, and every effort was made to secure the adherence of the inhabitants to Rome. In these- conversions the celebrated Jesuit Skarga was very active, and successful on account of his great eloquence. In 1594 four Orthodox bishops, those of Luck, Pinsk, Chelm and Lemberg, undertook to bring their flocks into harmony with the see of Rome. The metropolitan of Kiev lent them a hearty co-operation. These prelates assembled at Brest-Litovsk (to give it its present Russian 392 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [18S8 name), and got permission from the Pope, on their accept- ing the chief points of the Council of Florence, to use the Slavonic language in their liturgy and to retain certain points of discipline of the Eastern Church. Hence .they were called Uniates. When these provinces came back to Russia, as they did gradually, their new masters were anxious to restore the old faith ; and many efforts in that direction had been made during the early part of the nineteenth century. On the death of their metropolitan, Bulgak, in 1838, the time seemed to have come for the fusion of the churches. In the following year the Russian Greco-Uniate bishops, under the leadership of Joseph Siemashko, addressed a memorial to the Tsar in which they expressed their readiness to return to the Orthodox Church. The Uniates are now chiefly to be found in Galicia, and the city of Lemberg may be regarded as their head- quarters. During a great part of the reign of Nicholas Russia was occupied with a series of engagements with the Circassians. Her great advantage in this part of her dominions has been, as it has been with the English in India, the fact that the various races which inhabit the Caucasus, some Christian and some Mohammedan, are incapable of co- operation, and have no solidarity. They speak different languages, and have different customs, and are more often engaged in petty wars with each other than with a foreign foe. The Lesghian Shamyl, who led the mountaineers against the Russians, showed great administrative and military capacity. The English have often indirectly sup- ported the Circassians. A vessel called the Vixen was captured by the Russians in 1836 in an attempt to land a cargo of arms for the insurgents. It was among the Tchetchens and the Lesghians that the great struggle took place, owing to the preaching of a fanatic, Mollah Mohammed. Yermolov, the Russian governor, repressed the agitation as best he could. The plan of the Mollah was to unite the Mussulmans in a religious war against the Russians. His 1845] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 393 scheme was taken up by two men of a more military character, Ghazi-Mollah and Mollah-Shamyl. The insurgents soon numbered 3000 men, and had fortified such a strong position at Himri that the Russians were for some time unsuccessful in their attacks upon it. But finally, although its position seemed so impregnable, they contrived to penetrate - it. Ghazi-Mollah was killed and Shamyl wounded, and the Russians imagined that they had pacified the fierce mountaineers. But the place of Ghazi-Mollah was taken by Hamsad Bey, who declared himself his heir and successor, and got together a force of 12,000 men. He was, however, assassinated in 1834. It was then that Shamyl, the hero of the Mohammedan Caucasus, showed himself in tiis true dignity as soldier prophet and statesman. He had been the friend of Ghazi-Mollah, and had been thought killed at the sack of Himri. When, therefore, he reappeared among his people he was considered to be under the special protection of heaven. While Shamyl was endeavouring to raise the Mohammedans against the Russians, the latter were not idle. General Grabbe succeeded in taking the fortified aoul of Akulcho, but by the self-sacrifice of his followers the prophet managed to escape. His reappearance among them only confirmed the idea of his miraculous preservation, and his influence was further increased by the severe defeat which he inflicted upon General Grabbe, who attacked him in his new fortress at Dargo in 1842. The baffled commander was recalled and under the regime of the new governor, Neidhardt, Shamyl succeeded in even further developing his power. He established a complete political organisation, and created twenty provinces to be governed by naibs. He went about with a guard of 1000 men, and established in 1841 a cannon foundry at Veden. In 1844 Vorontsov was sent as governor to the Caucasus. The new commander resolved to surround the district occupied by Shamyl with strong outposts, and gradually to draw the cordon tighter. In 1845 Dargo was taken, and Shamyl, thoroughly divining the plan of his enemy, tried to break 394 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1846 through the iron circle by which he saw himself every day more narrowly encompassed. But under this new system of tactics his power gradually declined. Pursued from retreat to retreat, he managed to elude the Russians for thirteen years longer, when he was at length captured and interned in Russia. The seizure of the English vessel Vixen by the Russians, which we have already spoken of, was an incident of this war. A feeble attempt was made at the time of the Crimean War to rouse the Caucasus against Russia, but it led to no result. We shall speak of it more in detail later. Nicholas was now at the very height of his power. By the treaty of Unkiar Skelessi (June 9, 1833) Turkey had become his complete vassal: the Sultan undertook, if the Tsar was attacked, to close the Dardanelles, and each guaranteed the security of the other's dominions. Austria and Prussia were entirely guided by Russian policy, and Sweden was powerless. In 1846 an insurrection had broken out in Galicia, in the course of which the peasantry murdered many of the landed proprietors. According to some writers, this outbreak was encouraged by the Austrian government. It formed _the subject of one of the most powerful productions of the Polish poet Ujejski. Although the independence of Cracow had been guaranteed by the treaty of Vienna, Nicholas did , not hesitate to march troops into the city to put down the insurgents. Cracow had remained for some time in the hands of the revolutionary party. People fired upon the Austrian soldiers from the windows of the houses, but in many cases they paid very dearly for it, as the angry troops killed all whom they found. The shooting is recorded of a beautiful young woman who had fired from a window. According to the Russian narrative of N. Berg, who has written a full account of this uprising, the details of which are but little known, a certain Kajetan Rzuchowski was chosen the leader of the insurgents, on account of his being a veteran of the army of Kosciuszko. A very vigorous address, too long to be quoted, was read to the crowds assembled in the streets, An idea of it, however, 1849] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 395 may be formed from the following sentences : " There are twenty millions of us : let us rise as one man and no one will overpower our strength. We shall have such liberty as never has been known on earth. We shall attain a condition of society in which each will enjoy the fruits of the earth in proportion to his services and capabilities." The main leader of the revolutionary movement throughout was a certain Tissowski. Paskievitch, who was then the governor (Namiestnik) of Poland, sent troops against the town under General Paniutin. They reached the city by the 3rd March, and the following proclamation was issued : — " Inhabitants of the City of Cracow, — A powerful Russian army has come to re-establish peace, which has been dis- turbed in your city. Make haste to receive it within your walls so that it may protect the innocent. Everybody who lays down his arms will be spared. But whoever is seized with arms will he put to death ; and if the defence of the city is persevered in, it will be mercilessly delivered over to fire and sword. I announce this by order of his highness the governor of the kingdom of Poland, Field-Marshal the Prince of Warsaw." The city capitulated. Tissowski surrendered, and managed at first to escape, but was caught and imprisoned in Konig- stein. Nicholas then withdrew his forces, leaving Austria to annex Cracow and the territory assigned to it, and receiving in compensation a small piece of land between the Austrian town of Brody and the Russian Vladimir. The French revolution of 1848 threw almost the whole of Europe into a commotion, but the armies of Nicholas re- mained at first inactive, with the exception of a trifling inter- ference in the Danubian principalities. In 1849 the Russians assisted the Emperor of Austria in his efforts to quell the uprising of his Hungarian subjects. We shall not be able here to do more than record the main facts of the Hungarian insurrection. Kossuth had persuaded the Hungarian diet to order a levy of 200,000 honveds (or national troops) and the issue of forty-two million guldens in 396 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1849 paper money. Count Lemberg, who had been appointed by the Emperor of Austria governor of Pesth, was murdered by the insurgents on the bridge of that city. Kossuth now ruled nearly the whole of Hungary as president of the committee of national defence. Windischgratz, the Austrian general, had some trifling successes over Gorgei, who commanded the Hungarian army, and the Ban of Croatia Jellachich sup- ported the Austrian party. By degrees the Hungarians met with more and more success, although the Roumanian and Slavonic populations in the country were not sympathetic. The Magyars took Buda, which was held for the Austrians by the brave Hentzi, a Swiss, who preferred to be killed rather than surrender the fortress. The position of the Austrians now became a difficult one. The Magyars sur- rounded them, and they had no allies. Their forces had, in fact, been twice swept out of Hungary. Perplexed and humili- ated, the Austrian government now turned to Nicholas with a request for help. He had long been the arbiter of the fortunes of Eastern Europe, and boasted that he was the champion of authority. But it was probably the fact that numbers of Poles were fighting on the side of the Magyars which determined the Tsar to intervene. To say nothing of others, there were the two generals, Bern and Dembinski. Bern had been one of the most efficient in the great struggles at Warsaw before it surrendered. It was for Nicholas the house of a neighbour on fire, and perilously near to his own. But we know that he afterwards regretted his action. We are told that on one occasion on looking at the statue of John Sobieski at Warsaw, he said : " That man and I made the same mistake. We both saved Austria." The latter power showed a certain measure of ingratitude a little later on, when she practically sided with the allies in the Crimean War ; but at the same time afforded them no solid help. One of the terms of the assistance to be given was that the Russians were to act independently of the Austrian troops. In 1849 the Austrian Government had appointed a new commander of their forces — Haynau, who has acquired in 1849] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 397 history such detestable notoriety. The military movements of the Russians were settled as follows : — Hungary was to be attacked through the passes of the Carpathians. At Dukla, in Galicia, Field-Marshal Paskievitch was already in command. General Liiders was to act against Transylvania ; General Paniutin was to go to Pressburg to co-operate with the Austrian army ; and General Sass was to employ his detach- ment in drawing off the Magyars from their close pursuit of the Austrians. The Russian troops amounted to 190,000. According to some accounts the insurgents had 200,600. The first en- counter between the Magyars and the Russians took place on May the 16th. In Transylvania Liiders resisted the attacks of the insurgents. The Roumanians were in sympathy with the Russian invaders. On the 19th of July the Magyars occupied the Rothenthurm pass of the Carpathians, but were completely defeated by the Russians. Liiders now took Hermanstadt, and made a movement in the 'direction of Segesvar (Schasburg). Here took place on the 31st of July the battle in which fell the poet Petofi, who had acted as Bern's adjutant. Bern himself barely escaped with his life, and on the Russian side General Skariatin was killed at the very beginning of the engagement. The battle was partly fought in a field of maize. Meanwhile the detachment of General Paniutin, which acted as a kind of reserve for the Austrian forces, gained a brilliant victory near Pressburg. Gorgei had resolved to attack the Austrian corps, and the divisions of Polt and Herzinger had been in great peril at the village of Pered. But General Paniutin came upon the Magyars and drove them across the river Waag. The Austrians were thereby enabled to march against the city of Raab, which they were not long in taking. To make sure of getting supplies the field-marshal moved his forces to Tokay. The Cossacks swam the river Tissa (Theiss) and took the city. But the movements of the Russian army became very much hampered, and cholera now 398 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [18« raged among their ranks. It was the same calamity as had happened to the army of Diebitsch in Poland. A' this time the insurgents, to the number of 60,000 were near Komorn, under the command of Gorgei, having the Austrian army in front of them. Wishing to prevent the junction of Gorgei with the detachment of Vysocki, by a march through Pest or Waitzen, the commander-in-chief left General Paniutin at Komorn with the Austrian army, and stationed the chief part of the Russian forces on the banks of the Danube. General Paniutin again assisted the Austrians in the en- gagement at Komorn. The harassing movements of General Sass compelled him to hasten to the town of Waitzen, but there they attacked the Magyars with great success. The Austrian commander-in-chief allowed Gorgei to avoid a de- cisive battle. Paskievitch had intended to get the Hungarians between two fires, and thus conclude the whole matter at Waitzen. Gorgei marched along the left bank of the Danube, and after the Russians had been successful at the village of Tur, retreated to Losoncsa. At the village of Miskolcz the Magyars again suffered a repulse. Eventually, on the 13th of August 1849, Gorgei laid down his arms at Villagos to General Riidiger, in the Russian service. After having endured much obloquy for this step, the Hungarians, by a deputation sent to the aged General a few years ago, acknow- ledged that no other course was open to him. Unfortunately he and Kossuth had never been on good terms. Gorgei had aristocratic prejudices, and hoped from the very beginning to be able to arrange matters with the house of Habsburg. Kossuth was, on the other hand, more of a democrat. There can be no question of any treason in the conduct of Gorgei. Some of the unfortunate Hungarian generals when led to execution bore ample testimony to that. The Hungarian campaign was now at an end. But it cannot be said to have been of any service to the Russians in spite of the bravery they had shown. The pretensions of the Tsar Nicholas, to be looked upon as the great protector of law and order in Europe, led to the jealousy of the other 1851] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 399 powers. Many of the Hungarian leaders, including Kossuth and Bern, escaped into Turkey, and found refuge in Widdin. The fate of the generals who were captured was terrible. On the 6th of October twelve of these insurgent officers were hanged at Arad, and Count Batthyany was also shot at Pesth. It was impossible to hang him, because in his attempts at suicide he had inflicted on himself a severe wound in the neck. All Europe rang with stories of the brutalities of Haynau, and having imprudently ventured to England in 185 1 this miscreant was nearly murdered by an infuriated mob. The Emperors of Russia and Austria demanded the extra- dition of the fugitives. But this was firmly refused by the Sultan, whom Sir Stratford Canning encouraged in this atti- tude. The Emperor of Russia reiterated the demand, and a British fleet actually appeared in the Dardanelles. Finally the Emperors agreed to be satisfied if the fugitives were removed further into the Turkish dominions. They were transferred accordingly to Kutayah, where they remained until the middle of the year 185 1, when the Americans placed a frigate at the disposal of Kossuth, and those of his companions who wished to go. Some Hungarians remained in Turkey, having accepted the faith of Islam ; among these was the celebrated Bern, whose career had been so chequered. Bern burned with the deepest hatred of the Russians. He had been an in- surgent in the war of 1 830-1, and had the good fortune to escape its consequences. It was the policy of Kossuth to employ foreign generals, so as to avoid as much as possible rivalry on the part of the native leaders. Mutual jealousies, however, greatly hampered the success of the Hungarian arms. Bern had displayed a marvellous command of resources in Transylvania. He had been struck with the capacity of the young Magyar poet, Alexander Petflfi, and had made him his aide-de-camp. The appointment, however, seems never to have been ratified by the central Government. By many of the Hungarian generals Bern was held to be altogether too much of a free-lance. We have already spoken of the 400 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [lass death of Petofi at the battle of Segesvar. This has been doubted, but it seems clear that nothing definite was heard of him afterwards. Bern became a Turkish pasha, but did not live long in exile. He died of a fall from his horse while riding in the suburbs of Aleppo in 1850. But as far as Russia was concerned all these struggles were to be thrown into the shade by the great war with England and France on the Oriental question. England had for a long time been occupied, through her able Minister, Sir Stratford Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, in baffling the movements of Russia in the East. France, which in the year 1852 had made overtures for an alliance with Russia, had now become estranged from her. Nicholas personally disliked Louis Napoleon, and disapproved of the revolutionary government from which his authority had sprung. Nor did he like the programme of the French Emperor, who was now just fresh from the coup d'itat, and spoke in one of his pro- clamations as if he intended to repudiate some of the conditions which had been forced upon France by the treaty of Vienna. Even while the French Emperor was urging the advance of the allied fleets to the Dardanelles, there is good reason to think that he was making overtures to the Emperor Nicholas for an alliance on the basis of common hostility to England. The question of the Holy Places was an after- thought. The policy of the Turks was dictated by Lord Strat- ford de Redcliffe. Under his guidance the Sultan rejected the points demanded by Menshikov, who accordingly left Constantinople on the 12th of May 1853. The chief point in dispute was the right of Russia to interfere for the protection of the Orthodox Christians. The Tsar in the meantime was holding those conversations with Sir Hamilton Seymour, our Minister at St Petersburg, which have since become so famous, and in which he marked out the future distribution of the territories of the Sick Man. His overtures to England to the effect that she should have Egypt, while he appropriated Constantinople, were rejected. Later times have not been 1851] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 401 wanting in indications that much of what the Tsar said was destined to be prophetic. On the 3rd of July the Russians crossed the Pruth, and entered the Danubian principalities. England and France, however, did not declare war against Russia till March 24th, 1854. The first hostile encounter of the Russians and Turks took place at Isakcha, near Toulcha, on the Danube, on October 23rd, 1853. At this time Lord Aberdeen was Prime Minister, and viewing his conduct in the light of subsequent events, we cannot but feel that he acted with great prudence. The concessions which Menshikov demanded from the Porte in the matter of the Eastern Christians at Jerusalem were by no means unreasonable. There was great probability that at the beginning the matter might have been arranged. The English Govern- ment refused to allow a fleet to be sent to the Dardan- elles, as they were urged to do immediately on the departure of Prince Menshikov. The French Emperor, however, who was using England as a catspaw, complicated matters, by at once despatching the Toulon fleet to Smyrna. He probably wished to embroil England and Russia, and to make any peaceful solution of the question impossible. We have already seen how he was throughout solely bent on serving his own ends. Lord Aberdeen, who had all the caution and prudence of a Scot, was continually being urged by the hot- headed politicians and military men of his time to rash action. Even after the Russian troops had entered the Danubian principalities the English cabinet was unanimously of opinion that efforts should be made in conjunction with France, Austria, and Prussia to discover some terms upon which Turkey and Russia might come to an agreement. The English draft convention, however, which the belligerent powers might well have accepted, did not find favour with Louis Napoleon. The European diplomatists then set to work on the basis of a French draft convention, which eventually became the celebrated Vienna Note. This Note, however, although recommended by the four Powers, and accepted by the Tsar, was rejected by the Turks. They 2 c 402 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i854 were willing to accept it in a modified form, but the desired modifications were not such as the powers felt disposed to urge, and they were, of course, as had been expected, rejected by Russia. The Russian refusal was couched in courteous terms, and gave as a reason the reluctance of the Tsar to allow the Turks to change a document which had been prepared by the four Powers and accepted by him. Athough it subsequently appeared that the Note had not been in- terpreted in exactly the same way by Russia, yet peace still might have been secured had it not been the real wish of the Sultan that the matter should end in war. In this resolution some of his western advisers confirmed him ; and the Porte determined to declare war if a pacific settlement was not arranged within a certain time. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the great elchi, as he was called, at that time a Turcophile, but destined to change his opinions afterwards, now stepped forward with a fresh Note, which he declared would suit the Turks, and yet virtually contained what Nicholas demanded. Lord Aberdeen asserted that to ensure the acceptance by the Porte of the new Note as presented he considered it essential that it should be accompanied by a declaration that if it were not adopted the four Powers would not " permit themselves, in consequence of unfounded objections, or by the declaration of war, which they had already condemned, to be drawn into a policy inconsistent with the peace of Europe, as well as with the true interests of Turkey itself." Aberdeen, in a letter to Gladstone, showed that he rightly grasped the situation : "The Turks, with all their barbarism, are cunning enough, and see clearly the advantages of their situation. Step by step they have drawn us into a position in which we are more or less committed to their support. It would be absurd to suppose that, with the hope of active assistance from England and France they should not be desirous of engaging in a contest with their formidable neighbour. They never had such a favourable opportunity before, and may never have again." Aberdeen thought that peace might 1854] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 403 still be preserved if the Turks were required to suspend active hostilities during the progress of the negotiations. Instructions to this effect with one slight (but, as it turned out, fatal) addition made by Lord John Russell, were at once despatched to Lord Stratford. If the Turks signed the newly proffered Note before hostilities began there was good reason for believing that it would be accepted by Nicholas. Those, therefore, who desiredwar, and that Turkey should have the support of England and France, were anxious that hostilities should have been commenced before the Note was considered. Lord John Russell had foolishly inserted in the paper the words, "within a reasonable time," and Lord Stratford allowed the Turks to interpret a reasonable time to be a fortnight, which was wholly inadequate. When Lord Strat- ford reported the slow acquiescence of the Turks it was too late. Blood had been shed, and Russia was not likely to accept the Note. Aberdeen's letter to Palmerston (Sir Arthur Gordon's Life, p. 235) is a splendid document, and shows a complete understanding of the Turkish character and the Turkish position in Europe. He says : " If the war should continue and the Turkish armies meet with disaster, we may expect to see the Christian population of the Empire rise against their oppressors, and in such a case it could hardly be proposed to employ the British force in the Levant to assist in compelling their return under a Mahommedan yoke." Had the life of Lord Aberdeen been prolonged he would have seen the Beaconsfield government sending back to Turkish misrule the enfranchised Macedonians. The wise counsels, however, of Aberdeen came too late ; the war had actually begun. • The Turks now crossed the Danube, and the British fleet entered the Bosphorus on November 4. Omar Pacha, the renegade Croat Michael Lattach, won the battle of Oltenitsa (on the left bank of the Danube), but it would seem that on this occasion the Turks greatly outnumbered the Russians. Even then peace might have been obtained, but the wrath of the English was aroused by the great naval battle of Sinope, 404 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [mi November 30. In this splendid victory the Turkish fleet was destroyed, and those who speak of the battle as a massacre may be referred to the admirable remarks of Sir Arthur Gordon in this connection : " Looked at in the light of after years, there was nothing in the battle of Sinope to justify the outcry of horror which it called forth. Russia and Turkey were at war — a war declared not by Russia but by Turkey. When nations are at war, an attack on the fleet of one belli- gerent by the fleet of the other is not only justifiable, but to be expected. Nor does the number of ships sunk or cap- tured, the completeness of the victory, or /the fact that the enemy's fleet was at anchor in one of its own ports affect the legitimate character of the action. Less than thirty years before an English fleet, in conjunction with those of France and Russia, had destroyed the Turkish navy in a Turkish harbour, and that at a time when both England and. France were at peace with Turkey. But that ' untoward event ' had been as much lauded and rejoiced over in England as the untoward event of Sinope was denounced and shuddered at. The English public did not trouble itself to enquire into the legal or technical character of the transaction. It had taken the Turks into its friendship, and now saw its friends worsted. It dubbed the battle a massacre, and called for vengeance." On January 4, 1854, the British and French fleets entered the Black Sea. Turkey had tardily subscribed the Note. Even then the Emperor Nicholas still hesitated. He was willing to accept five of the seven proposals, but with certain reserves. Here, however, when fresh negotiations might have been entered upon, Austria was found to disagree. She rejected the Russian reservations as inadmissible, and pro- posed that their rejection should be followed by a summons to Russia to evacuate the Principalities. Lord Aberdeen agreed to this, and the summons was despatched, but the English government had the mortification of finding that it was only diplomatic support which was intended, and England and France were left alone to declare war against Russia on March 28, 1854. 1854] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS 1. 40$ Already, on the 5th of January, the Turks had gained the battle of Citate, a place on the left bank of the Danube, almost opposite to Vidin, and in Roumanian territory. From the outset concerted action between England and France had been difficult, owing to the uncertain policy of the French Emperor, which did not inspire any confidence. The strings were pulled for the most part by Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, who had long ruled at Constantinople, and it seems pretty clear that the largest share of responsibility for the war must rest upon his shoulders. It was taken up in the country by enthusiasts and newspaper politicians. Very little was really known of the past history of either Russia or Turkdy. To the majority of Englishmen England was going to rescue the Bulgarians and Serbs, who were so attached to Turkey, from the onslaught of a cruel despot who had come to ravage their homes. Desperate attempts were made to render the cause of Turkey and the Sultan popular. Those who are old enough to remember the war will call to mind the absurd books which made their appearance at the time, many of them being mere collections of malignant anecdotes about Russia. Creasy's " History of the Turks," which had considerable vogue, where it is not directly copied from Von Hammer, is a political pamphlet written on behalf of the Turks, and cannot be read now without a feeling of amusement in the light of later events. Even the poet laureate caught up the cuckoo cry, and gave us a spasmodic poem, of which the philosophy is very much inferior to the verse. According to him the great remedy for an age, in which the cheats of trade were rampant, was to go on a blood-shedding adventure. We have digressed thus much in explaining the origin of the Crimean War, because it has been so much misrepre- sented, and because the character of Lord Aberdeen has been traduced. Subsequent events have shown that he was a far-sighted politician. Up to this time the war had been mainly in what were then styled the Danubian principalities, now the kingdom 4o6 A History of Russia [mm of Roumania. This territory has for centuries formed one of the cockpits of Europe. The Russians entered the Dobrudzha, a somewhat dreary tract of land lying on the right bank of the Danube, consisting chiefly of marshes, and inhabited by Tatars. By the treaty of Berlin (1878) this has been given to Roumania in lieu of the piece of Bessarabia which she was forced to cede to Russia. Geographically the Dobrudzha (so called from the name of one of its former princes) belongs to Bulgaria. The aspect of affairs, however, began to look every day more threatening, and it was clear that great complications were arising. A deputation of Quakers who visited the Tsar with the hopes of even yet preventing a war, were received by him most affably, and came back with the impression that Nicholas was a man of many virtues. On the 10th March the Baltic fleet sailed from Spithead under Admiral Sir Charles Napier. Napier was a fine sailor of the old school. He un- fortunately indulged in some bombastic phraseology at a banquet given to him before setting out, when he talked about being soon in St Petersburg. This was afterwards remembered to his discredit. On the 28th of March Eng- land and France declared war. England may be said to have drifted into it without any very settled plans, and the Emperor Napoleon eagerly clutched at it, as tending to con- solidate his newly-founded dynasty. He was also chafing at small indignities which he had met with from the Tsar. On the 14th of April the Russians began the siege of Silistria (in Bulgaria), where the impending defeat of the Turks by the Russians was averted by the assistance afforded by two young Englishmen, Nasmyth and Butler, who joined the Turks on their way back from India. There were also many Poles fighting on the Turkish side. In this battle was killed one of the sons of the Russian historian Karamzin. On the 22nd of April the bombardment of Odessa began ; here, however, but little damage seems to have been done, the allies having scruples about attacking a purely commercial and undefended port. A memorial of the English attack may still be seen in a cannon ball imbedded in the monument erected on the 1854] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 40; beach to the Due de Richelieu, a French emigre, whose great share in the founding of the city has been already referred to. On the 1 2th of the following month the English steamer, the Tiger, ventured too near the coast, and was captured. Captain Gifford was on this occasion wounded in the leg, and taken prisoner. He died of his wounds, and is buried in the cemetery of Odessa. The first English prisoners were treated with great courtesy, and as at that time little was known of the country in England, the narrative of the imprisonment of one of the captives (Lieut. Royer) was read with much interest. In the Danubian provinces fortune continued to alternate between the Russians and the Turks, and the war dragged on with nothing decisive happening. The English fleet effected but little in the Baltic. Too often we were engaged in burning defenceless villages and destroying property. Thus Sulivan (Life by his son, 1896) regrets the wanton destruction of private property by Admiral Plumridge. Some wonderful seamanship however was dis- played in Captain Hall's expedition in the White Sea, where we appear to have committed the mistake of attack- ing the Solovetski monastery. On August 16th in this year the fort of Bomarsund, on the Aland islands, was taken. Finally the expedition to the Crimea was determined uponr The English army had been for some time encamped near Varna, where it had lost many men by disease owing to the unhealthiness of the place. The allied forces seem to have been imperfectly acquainted with the condition of things in the Crimea. However on the 25th of August the expedition was announced. It was hoped that Russia would prove most vulnerable in this part of her dominions, it being considered to be largely populated by aliens. Moreover, this was the only point where Russia could be . attacked, because both Prussia and Austria were then neutral, and allowed no pas- sage through their dominions. Great ignorance prevailed in England at that time about the strength of Russia. Writers in the newspapers talked of the Crimea being taken from the Russians and handed back to the Turks. They also con- 408 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1854 sidered that the populations of the Caucasus were homo- geneous and had political solidarity, and that the Georgians, who had endured Moslem persecution for centuries, would fight side by side with the Turks. It is hardly possible for the present generation to realise what ignorance prevailed on these questions. But we were destined to learn many things from the Crimean war. Although the allies were in reality so ignorant of the character of the Crimea, they seem to have entertained the idea of a siege of Sevastopol, without perhaps exactly realising how strong the place was. The Duke of New- castle, who was Secretary for War, wrote to the commander of the British forces on the 29th of June 1854 that he was to concert measures for the siege of Sebastopol, and added that the difficulties of the siege would rather increase than diminish by delay. A few days after the invasion of the Crimea had been determined upon, occurred the ill-advised attack of the English upon Petropavlovski in Kamchatka. The allied fleets had been for some time at San Francisco and Honolulu, and after five weeks' voyage from the latter place appeared off Petropavlovski, on the extreme western coast of Kamchatka. The Russians had been well informed by spies of our intended arrival, and were fully prepared to meet the allies when they came. Matters, however, were greatly complicated by the suicide of Admiral Price, who was in command and who shot himself in his cabin just as the action was about to commence. He was an old man and the responsibility is supposed to have unnerved him. The Russians, partly no doubt in consequence of the confusion in which everything was placed, succeeded in inflicting severe loss on the in- vading party. On the 5 th of September the allied armaments began to leave Varna, and on the 16th they landed in the Crimea. 21,000 English, 29,000 French, and 6,000 Turks disem- barked at Eupatoria, and the Crimean War had in reality begun. It has been said that the more convenient landing- 1854] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 409 place which had been marked out by the English was appropriated by the French who shifted the buoys. Certainly perfect unanimity was far from prevailing among the allies. General Hamley, and other reliable authorities, tell us of the miserable condition in which both the English and French troops were from the ravages of cholera. It had broken out just as the expedition was about to sail. Out of three French divisions, it destroyed or disabled 10,000 men, and our own regiments while in Bulgaria lost between five and six hundred. It also attacked the crews of some ships who put out to sea vainly hoping to avoid it. When embarking the troops were so enfeebled that they moved slowly from their camp, and as they were for the most part too weak to carry their knapsacks they were borne for them on pack-horses. The flotilla of the English was led and escorted by the naval Commander-in-Chief, Admiral Dundas. The Russian fleet when the allies entered the Black Sea lay in the fortified harbour of Sevastopol, one of the finest in the world. Their fleet consisted of fifteen sailing line-of-battle ships, some frigates and brigs, the Vladimir, a powerful steamer, and eleven of a lighter class. If the Russian fleet had ventured out to attack the allies while crossing the Black Sea it might have inflicted great havoc, but the risk would have been very great. The divisions of infantry were commanded by the Duke of Cambridge, General BentincK, Sir Colin Campbell, Sir de Lacy Evans, Sir George Cathcart, and others. The Light Brigade of Cavalry was commanded by Lord Lucan. The Commander-in-Chief was Lord Raglan, who was at that time sixty-six years of age. He had served on Wellington's staff, and had lost an arm at Waterloo. He was a brave and competent man, but owing to the long continuation of the "piping times of peace," had hitherto no chance of developing his military talents. The news of his death during the campaign was received in England with the deepest regret : all Englishmen felt that he had died as a martyr at his post. Sir George Brown had been a dis- 4io A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i854 tinguished Peninsular officer, but since that time had been engaged chiefly in official work. Sir De Lacy Evans had fought in the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns. He had had later experience of practical warfare than some of his colleagues, having served in the British Legion in Spain. Sir George Cathcart had been on Wellington's staff at Quatre Bras and Waterloo. Sir Colin Campbell had seen much service in India. Most of the French generals had earned their spurs in Algeria, which was for the French army a training ground analogous to that which India had been for England, and the Caucasus for the Russians. The commander-in-chief of the French was he who went by the name of St Arnaud. It will be remembered that Kinglake, in his book in defence of Lord Raglan, has intro- duced the marshal in a very unfavourable manner as Jacques Arnaud Le Roy, one of the tools of Louis Napoleon in the coup £itat. Hamley speaks more favourably of him. He calls him " a gallant man . . . but frothy and vain-glorious in a notable degree, and much too anxious to represent him- self as taking the chief part to be a comfortable ally." How- ever this may have been, the early death of St Arnaud prevented him from displaying any of his disagreeable qualities. Other French commanders, of whom much was subse- quently heard, were Pellisier, Canrobert, and Bosquet. Menshikov was the Russian commander-in-chief, afterwards to be succeeded by Gorchakov. It was owing to Menshikov's carelessness that the Russians suffered their repulse at the Alma. He was lineally descended from the favourite of Peter the Great, whose picturesque career has been described on an earlier page. The great engineer, whose fortification of Sevastopol justly raised him to a very high position among military scientists was Todleben. We shall meet with him later, figuring amid the sanguinary engagements around Plevna. Two other Russian commanders are especially noteworthy — Admirals Nakhimov and Kornilov, whose graves may now be seen in connexion with the fortifications of the Malakhov. 1854] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 411 On the 1 9th the advance of the armies began, the French being on the right next the sea. They moved straight for Sevastopol. The intervening country was level and grassy, and well adapted for the march, despite the absence of roads. Hamley, who was present throughout the campaign, and from whose excellent account of it we have occasionally drawn, mentions, the first sight which the English had of St Arnaud. He was returning from a visit to Lord Raglan, and passed along the English front, "a tall, thin, sharp-visaged man, reduced by illness, but alert and soldier-like." In less than ten days St Arnaud was dead. The allied forces now moved across some grassy ridges, and the valley of the Alma lay before them. On September 20th, 1854, was fought the famous battle of the Alma, named after the river on which it was fought, which signifies, in the Tatar language, an apple. The Russians were defeated, as we have said, in a great measure through the bad generalship and negligence of Menshikov. The heights descend to the sea so abruptly that the Russian general seems to have relied upon them as natural defences, and placed most of his men and guns further inland near the high road. The French stormed the heights, and the ships of the allies, keeping as close as they could to the shore, poured volleys of shot into the enemy. The English were somewhat confused by the burning of the village of Burliuk, in front of them ; but gallantly crossed the river and carried the Russian redoubt. Menshikov, how- ever, was able to retire in tolerable order, and to carry off his guns. Military critics do not greatly praise the tactics of the allies. If Menshikov had displayed better generalship, with such a strong position he must certainly have succeeded. It would perhaps have been an advantageous thing for the allies to have marched straight upon Sevastopol, so that no time might be gained for the Russians to put it into a state of defence. Hamley, however, thinks that an immediate attack upon Sevastopol would have been not only a desperate but a fruitless enterprise, except on the condition that the allied 412 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [lad fleet could take a part in the attack. Had some of our ships engaged the forts, had the rest passed in and attacked the vessels of the enemy while the allied army stood on the heights above ready to descend, it is conceivable that Sevas- topol might have fallen. Hamley, in criticising the battle, at which he himself was present, says that it showed a singular absence of skill on all sides. The Russian general displayed great incompetency, he tells us, in leaving the issues of the cliffs unclosed, in keeping his reserves out of action, and in withdrawing his artillery and not using his cavalry. On the other hand, the part played by the French was not proportionate either to their force or their military repute. Of the two divisions brought at first on to the plateau, one brigade, that nearest the sea, together with all the Turks, never saw the enemy. With regard to the English, the General says there was no unity and no concerted plan, and our troops suffered accordingly. According to all accounts the English were quite ready to march, but St Arnaud and the French delayed them. During the three days which were allowed to pass between the battle of the Alma and the commencement of the march, no time was wasted by the Russians. Sevastopol is a place of unique strength, possessing a land-locked harbour; in fact its capa- cities in that direction were first pointed out by a Captain Mackenzie in the Russian service. General Todleben, the Russian engineer, was now to make his name famous, as he was afterwards to do in the attacks on Plevna. To bar the mouth of the harbour, Menshikov was obliged to sacrifice the Black Sea fleet. By this abandonment the Russians gained 18,000 sailors who could be employed in the batteries, and the valuable services of Admirals Nakhimov and Kernilov. The splendid talents of Todleben compensated to a certain extent for the incapacity of Menshikov. The former may perhaps be styled the only man of genius who came to the front on either side during the war. Thus when the allies came they found the enemy ready to receive them, and as 1854] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 413 the city was open on the northern side, in the direction of the Isthmus of Perekop, by which they could communicate with the mainland of Russia, it was only by an assault that it could be taken. Meantime the English were also active in Asiatic Turkey. General Williams reached Kars, and set about fortifying it. On the 26th of September the English took possession of Balaklava, which they made their headquarters. It was situated about six or seven miles from Sevastopol, on the southern coast of the Crimea. Three days afterwards, at the age of fifty-three, died the somewhat enigmatical Marshal St Arnaud, who had been in ill-health during the whole campaign, and had rather retarded the movements of the army. He had probably owed his position more to the circumstance that he was a supporter of Louis Napoleon in the coup cP6tat than to any special military talent. Meanwhile Todleben was actively fortifying the beleaguered city, and the English and French as actively getting ready the trenches, the traces of which can be clearly seen by the traveller even now, though nature " with a hand of healing " has long since resumed her power over these ruins where English, French and Russian met in deadly grapple. On the 17th of October the bombardment began, to which the Russians replied vigorously. In a few hours Todleben repaired all the mischief which had been done. On the 25th of October took place the Light Cavalry charge, famous for ever in history and song, but otherwise a great military blunder. It abundantly proved, what no one would dispute, the bravery of the British troops, but also showed what reckless men had the management of things, and how little knowledge of the science of war they possessed. It is only by the study of Kinglake's book that this heroic episode, so terrible in jts effects, can be understood. Lord Cardigan and Lord Lucan were brothers-in-law, but not, it appears, on speaking terms at the time. An order was sent by the latter for a body of the light dragoons, to the number of about 600 men, to endeavour to recapture some Turkish guns. The 414 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1854 order was brought by a certain Captain Nolan, a man of talent, who had served in the Austrian army, and had written a good book on cavalry manoeuvres. When Cardigan hesitated to carry out an order which at the first blush appeared to him an absurdity, Nolan merely reiterated the order, and interpreted it in the way in which it pleased him best. The men, led by Cardigan, accordingly rode into sheer destruction, with the Russian guns surrounding them on every side. So amazed were the Russians at the whole pro- ceeding that they thought at first the affair was a feint, a mere stratagem to divert their attention. When, however, they realised the blunder that had been made, they attacked their assailants from all quarters, and out of that brilliant body of men only a few more than a hundred escaped. History will probably at a future period speak more decisively and more critically of the matter ; but Kinglake has not hesitated to tell us that if Cardigan had not ridden so quickly out of the hell into which they had plunged, he might have rallied the men, and more would have been saved. This wonderful charge, which however tactically weak, must be felt to have brought much glory upon the English arms, is described at great length by General Hamley. The order given by Lord Raglan to begin with was vague. Lord Lucan did not understand its purpose, and Nolan, who was an enthusiastic believer in the power of cavalry, ventured to interpret it as signifying that the English should endeavour to recapture some guns which the Russians were carrying off. Lucan accordingly gave the order to Cardigan, and the ride began. As soon as the brigade was in motion Captain Nolan rode obliquely across the front of it, waving his sword. Lord Cardigan thought that he was undertaking to lead the brigade. What his exact intentions were will never be known, for a fragment of the first shell fired by the enemy struck him in the breast. His horse turned round and carried him back, still in the saddle, through the ranks of the 13th, when the rider, already lifeless, fell to the^round. The brigade, when the charge was over, had lost 247 men in killed and wounded. 1854] ,THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 415 Close to the ditch of the field-work on the last hill of the ridge on our side lay the body of Nolan on its back, the jacket open, the breast pierced by the fatal splinter. An hour before the division had passed him on the heights, where he was riding near the staff conspicuous in his red forage cap and tiger-skin saddle. Passing over minor incidents, we now come to the great battle of Inkermann, fought in the early morning of November S, 1854. In the misty dawn the bells of the churches in Sevastopol could be heard. A solemn mass was celebrated ; the English leopards were to be driven into the sea. The Grand Dukes Michael and Nicholas had come to be present at the battle. The English had been suffering many priva- tions in their camp caused by the bad management, which seemed universal. Gradually the outlying pickets were driven in, and swarms of grey-coated Russians, hardly distinguish- able in the mist, were seen pouring upon them from all quarters. Inkermann may be classed among those battles in which the splendid mettle of which the English soldier is made has had to contend with insufficient military know- ledge on the part of his superior officers. The slaughter of the Russians was no doubt great; but how great was also that of the English ! Several officers of high rank were killed, including Sir George Cathcart. The Guards also lost some of their most conspicuous officers. It was a battle in which there was hardly any room for tactics. Separate parties engaged each other, but there was no general plan of the battle. We, however, held our ground. Probably the French exaggerate when they assert that we should have been defeated had it not been for their timely aid. General Hamley thus criticises Inkermann : " This extra- ordinary battle closed with no final charge nor victorious advance on the one side, no desperate stand nor tumultuous flight on the other." The Russians melted away, as it were, from the field ; the English were too few and too exhausted, and the French made no effort, to convert the repulse into a rout. 416 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1865 The gloom of the November evening descended upon a field strewn with the dead and dying. The Russians are said to have lost 12,000 men in this battle and 256 officers. The English lost 597 killed, of whom 39 were officers, and 1760 wounded, of whom 91 were officers. The French are computed to have lost 13 officers and 130 men killed, and 36 officers and 750 men wounded. The Russians were now reduced almost entirely to the defensive. The city was still admirably fortified by Todleben. All were struck by the rapidity with which he formed new works. The allies were amazed at the creation of the white works, as they were called (the Selinghinsk and Volhynian redoubts), which were to defend the approaches to the Malakhov (February 2, 1855). Menshikov was now recalled, and Gorchakov was sent in his place. The English fleet this year did not carry off trophies in any way commensurate with its strength. It was not able to attack Cronstadt, and when the attempt was made in the following year (1855), the fortifications had already been greatly strengthened. The winter of 1854-5 was a severe one, and was felt more than ordinarily so in the neighbourhood of the Black Sea and in the trenches. Our men were badly housed and badly fed, and many of the wounded suffered a great deal from the want of necessaries. This was all owing to bad management, as vessels loaded with supplies were in the harbour. The siege dragged on. But the strength of the Empire was being gradually exhausted. By February 50,000 Russians were already hors de combat, and among thenf Komilov, the most illustrious victim. The troops arrived in the Crimea worn out by the long marches and the miserable roads. In January Sardinia joined the allies. This little country had in reality no grievance against Russia, with whose Eastern policy ^he had not been brought into collision ; but it was part of a plan of Cavour's, so that something might be done for Italy if the Italian question could be introduced into the 1855] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 417 great European conference which was sure to follow the termination t)f the war. The Aberdeen Ministry, owing to its supposed dilatoriness, had been forced to resign. Some thought that Lord Aber- deen, like so many of the good old Conservatives of the period, was sympathetic with Russia. And, indeed, it was rather difficult for them tp understand that they must suddenly execute a volte face. Nicholas and his Russians in the old time had been considered the very pillars of good govern- ment. When the Poles in their death struggles in 1831 had appealed to the English, they were told that this country did not want a French outpost established on the Vistula. Old Conservative gentlemen were seen attending great functions blazing with Russian orders. They had occasionally visited the Emperor and were hospitably entertained by him. Cer- tainly the Tsar had a wonderfully genial manner, which won the hearts of those who came in contact with him. We have recently some pleasant recollections of this sort in the memoirs of Sir Charles Murray. Nicholas was genial and hearty to young persons, and never forgot the face of an acquaintance. We cannot wonder, therefore, that he had many friends in our country. The traditions of the English had been decidedly pro-Russian before this unfortunate war. It was they who had stood with us in our struggles with Napoleon, who had acquired almost the mastery of Europe. Nicholas seems to have relied too much upon the sympathies of an English party. It was reported that he said when the Crimean war was just breaking out, " I am sure my old friend Aberdeen will not be against me." But in reality Aberdeen had shown throughout true patriotism and a far- seeing policy. On February 5 the new Palmerston ministry came in, under the leadership of a man who had a reputation for a spirited foreign policy. But on March 2 the great Emperor died There does not appear to be the least truth in the report which some people then and afterwards attempted to circulate that the Emperor died a violent death either by the hands of 2 D 41 8 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1855 others or his own. In a very raw spring he had foolishly exposed himself, and was hurried to his grave by a chest disease. If we scrutinise the annals of the house of Romanov we shall find that its members' have not been a long-lived face. Alexander, Constantine and Michael, the brothers of Nicholas, did not live to be old men, nor were his sons and daughters long-lived. Thus after a few days' illness the great Tsar expired. On his death- bed he said to the Tsesarevich: "Thou seest at what a time and under what circumstances I die; thus it has seemed good to God ; it will be hard for thee." He enjoined him to emancipate the serfs^-a necessary measure, but one which would shake Russia to the centre. Thus died the Emperor in the fifty-ninth year of his age. Hesleeps with the other Tsars in a tomb of white marble in the Petropavlovski Church at St Petersburg. He had married, as previously stated, Charlotte, the daughter of King Frederick William of Prussia and sister of . the Emperor William I. (t i860). On her entry into the Greek Church she received the name of Alexandra Feodorovna. The children of this marriage were as follows: — (1) Alexander, who succeeded; (2) Constantine, f 1892 ; (3) Nicholas, t 1891 ; (4) Michael; and three daughters : Maria, who married Maximilian, Duke of Leuchtenberg, and died in 1876; Olga, who became Queen of Wiirtemberg, and died in 1892; and Alexandra, who married Frederick of Hesse-Cassel, and died in 184.4. The character of Nicholas comes out clearly in his reign ; he was the embodiment of an autocrat, a man of fine command- ing presence and of an iron will. He seems, however, to have been capable of generous actions, and was, according to all testimonies, devoted to his family. In his reign another complete codification of the Russian laws took place, the last one having been in the time of Catherine. In territory Russia gained the eastern coast of the Black Sea, and some Persian provinces. Although the age of Nicholas has always been spoken of as one of repres- sion. and reaction, and certainly the censorship was allowed to 1855] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 419 have great power, it was ornamented by a brilliant series of writers, whom Russia has hardly been able to match since, to mention only such names as Pushkin, Zhukovski, Gogol, and Bielinski. In pursuance of the plan which has been previously followed before quitting the reign of Nicholas, we will say a few words about some of the most eminent. 'Alexander Pushkin was born at Moscow in 3799, and was killed in a duel in 1837. He early became a writer of poetry, and even in his Lyceum days had lisped in numbers. In a brief notice like the present it would hardly be possible to give anything like a detailed account of his writings, for although his life was short, he produced a great deal; We see the influence of Byron in his earlier poems : the narrative in verse, then so popular throughout Europe. His "Ruslan and Liudmila " is a graceful reproduction of some of the old folk tales of Russia. Pushkin turned his attention to them at a time when they were generally ignored. The furore for this kind of literature is quite of modern origin. Probably the great charm communicated by the picturesque history of Karamzin made people in Russia begin to think of these things. In the " Gypsies " (Tsigani) we have a very spirited sketch of the wild life led by these denizens of the steppes. " Poltava " tells the story of Mazeppa, but from a different poitit of view from that of the tale made use of by Byron. Besides these there is the wonderful " Evgenii Oniegin " with its sparkling verse, in which Pushkin has caught the Byronicand Italian manner. Every style of poetry is found in this rhymed novel — satire, pathos, character-painting, and description. There is also a good play by our author on Boris Godunov, a very picturesque figure in Russian history. This is interesting also in another way, as the first attempt to produce a Shaksperian drama in Russian, with the proper neglect of the unities. Pushkin, a hot-tempered man, with oriental blood in his veins, was killed in a Miserable dispute with a young foreigner, who only died a year or so ago in 420 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i865 Alsace. The reign of Nicholas, however, was not only to boast the chief Russian poet, but also him who is confessedly the second in rank — Michael Lermontov. The life of Lermontov (1814-1841) was as meteoric as that of his predecessor. He was an officer in the army, and his muse was inspired by the scenery of the Caucasus, where a great part of his life was spent. To this influence his best poems are owing as the "Demon" and the "Novice" (Mtsiri, a Georgian word). He was also the author of many lyrics of great beauty which are universally known in Russia. He was killed in 1 84 1 in a duel in the Caucasus at Piatigorsk. His antago- nist was a certain Martinov, whom indeed the poet had pro- voked into challenging him. Lermontov felt the influence of the old Russian bilini, and has imitated them with great success. To the reign of Nicholas also belongs Koltsov (1809-1842), a man of inferior education, and son of a tallow merchant, but who contrived in a marvellous manner to imitate Russian popular poetry. In some respects he re- sembles Burns, but he is wholly lacking in the humour of the Scotch poet. He possesses, however, something of his pathos and happy natural expressions of rustic life. Some of his poems enjoy great popularity in Russia. Krilov (1768-1844) has made himself known by his clever fables, which have become celebrated throughout Europe. After those of Lafontaine they are certainly the best in any litera- ture, and the fable seems more in its native country amid the semi-oriental Russians than amid the «legant, dainty courtiers of Louis XIV. The fable is the literature of auto- cracy, where a writer may put into the mouths of animals those free sentiments which he cannot put into the mouths of men. Krilov certainly resembles Lafontaine in one point : he abounds in clever distichs and curt phrases, which have passed into proverbs. He really belongs more to the reign of Alexander than that of Nicholas. To the reign of the latter certainly must be assigned the celebrated Russian critic, Bessarion Bielinski, the greatest whom the country has pro- duced up to the present time. He died in 1848, aged thirty- 1855] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 421 eight years. From his time a higher conception of art has existed in Russia ; his criticism of Pushkin is a very finished piece of writing. The novel gradually found a place in Russian literature ; at first by way of translations. Strange to say the Russians of the eighteenth century enjoyed Richardson, Fielding, Smollett and Sterne, in this way. The writing of original novels seems first to have been stimulated by the immense popularity of Sir Walter Scott. We need not trouble ourselves about those of Bulgarin, whom Pushkin lashed so unmercifully. Lazhechnikov and Zagoskin are not quite forgotten even now; they showed a certain skill in telling a story. But a brilliant genius was to appear in the person of Nicholas Gogol (1809-185 2). There is much in him that reminds us of Dickens, but neither author could have imitated the other. The chief writings of Gogol, those in which the impress of his genius is most conspicuous, precede those of Dickens in order of time, and certainly the English author never heard of his Russian antitype, whose name has been very slow in its travels to our island. In his Dutch style of painting of the personal appearance of his characters and their surroundings, and his little quiet strokes of humour, Gogol and Dickens are very much alike. Manilov and Sobakievich in the " Dead Souls," could certainly have been painted by Dickens, and are in his manner. So also the story of the cloak and the quaint sufferings of the poor clerk, are very Dickensesque. Dickens would have described in the same picturesque way the sleepy antiquated house in the " Old-Fashioned Proprietors " (Starosvetskie Pomietschiki) when in the hot afternoons the doors lazily turned on their hinges, each uttering a different and appropriate sound. In others of his tales Gogol reminds us of Edgar, Poe ; he loves to go to the land of magic and improbabilities. He is seen in all his strength in this way in such writings as " Vii " and "Christmas Eve.'' With Gogol begins the great series of Russian realistic novelists, extending to our own days. He was followed by Turgueniev, Dostoievski, and Leo Tolstoi, and has a worthy successor in such a novelist 422 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1855 as Chekhov, now living. The other three will be discussed later on. We have spoken already of the Russian historian Karamzin. Oustrialov wrote a very useful, if not brilliant, history, and Granovski, who was a professor at Moscow, and friend of the novelist Turgueniev, was a man of considerable repute. He was one of the few Russians who have dealt with the history of any other country but their own. The great changes which have come over Russian literature must be discussed in the reign of Alexander II. Before quitting the authors of the reign of,Nicholas some- thing more must be said of Zhukovski, who, although he was very vigorous in the time of Alexander, seems to be far more the poet of the reign of Nicholas. He was appointed Russian tutor to the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, when she came to the country. Zhukovski died at Baden in 1852. His services to Russian literature were immense. Although his published works consist chiefly of translations, he conferred a great benefit by showing of what elegance and harmony the Russian language was capable. His translations are mostly from English and German; from Byron, Moore, Gray, Schiller, Uhland and Gothe. He may be said to have paved the way for Pushkin, a man of more original genius, but not of more elegant style. One excellent change was introduced in the reign of Nicholas. Russian was now the court language. The Russians were growing ashamed of using a foreign tongue, and living in a state of pupil- lage. It would be curious to ascertain when the absurd fashion of speaking French came in. Peter the Great and the members of his family used nothing but Russian. The only other language which that Tsar understood was Dutch, and we must remember that Dutch had much importance in his time, as the language of navigation and trade. The naval words in the Russian language are either taken from English or Dutch, as a glance at a dictionary will show. The letters of the Empresses Anne and Elizabeth are in Russian, as we see in the Collection of those of the Imperial 1855] THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS I. 423 family, published at Moscow in 1862. The Frenchifying of the court really seems to date from the reign of Catherine II. Alexander wrote a great number of letters in French, as did also Nicholas certainly at one period of his reign. We even ' have aristocratic persons, like the celebrated Princess Zenaida Wolkonskaya, beginning as authors in French, and later on turning to their native language. [T855 CHAPTER XIV THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II "\ X 7"HEN the new Tsar ascended the throne he found the ' * country in a very critical condition. Russia was being exhausted by the drain upon her. The English, although their efforts had not been crowned with any very brilliant results, were well furnished with the sinews of war; the French had got tired of the campaign which now dragged on. A new element was added by the appearance of 15,000 Sardinians in the field. The English had some success in the Black Sea, and Kertch was taken. Previous to this on March 22 the Russians made a great sortie from Sevastopol, which was ultimately driven back. Sometimes clothed in the long grey coat of the ordinary soldier there fell dead into the trenches some officer whose high rank eould only be guessed by the decorations underneath it. On April 4th a second Baltic fleet left Spithead; the Russians, however, had profited by the experience of the pre- ceding year and had carefully fortified many exposed places. The English were annoyed when later on this fleet returned hav- ing accomplished so little. A great deal of fighting took place about the rifle-pits in the beginning of May. Towards the end of that month the allied fleets entered the Sea of Azov, but it must be confessed their achievements there did not add much to their glory. It was of little use to destroy some fishing stations and to sack the museum of Kertch. Better work was done by cannonading Taganrog but it led to nothing. About this time occurred in the Baltic what is sometimes incorrectly described as the Hango massacre. The Russians complained that the English chose their own places for land- 1865] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 425 ing prisoners and seized the opportunity when they did of taking soundings and sketching fortifications. There seems, however, gpod reason for thinking that the Russians did not really see the flag of truce (Life and Letters of Sir B. J. Sulivan, 295). The fall of Sevastopol was now approaching. On the 6th of June took place the third bombardment, the^« d'enfer as they were called at the time. The hill styled the Mamelon was soon afterwards taken. In Sevastopol itself the Russians had suffered greatly, and two of their most dis- tinguished naval commanders had been killed, Admiral Nakhimov, the hero of Sinope, and Admiral Kornilov. The places of their death are accurately marked among the many graves lying in that valley of the shadow. On the 18th of June the English and French were repulsed from the Mala- khov and the Redan. The arrangements had been badly made, the rockets were fired in a confused manner, and the assaulting parties did not go forward simultaneously. The raw recruits were not able to hold their position, and leaped back from the embrasures. Many brave men gave up their lives there, among others Colonel Lacy Yea. On the 28th died Lord Raglan, the English commander-in-chief, a noble- minded man to vindicate whose memory Kinglake wrote his book. Raglan was perhaps too old a man to undertake such an expedition, but he thought it his duty to do so, and he gave up his life as truly for his country as if he had met his fate in the field of battle. In the Baltic at the beginning of August took place the capture of the fort of Sveaborg which protects Helsingfors ; but it had no practical results, just as the conquest of the Aland isles in the previous year had none. In the Crimea the Sardinians won the battle of the Chernaya (Black River), 10th of August. It is interesting to think that the great novelist, Tolstoi, fought in the Russian ranks on that occasion. How easily might the chance shot of an Italian peasant have deprived the world of the masterpieces " War and Peace " and " Anna Karenina." Finally, after three days of terrible bombardment, the Malakhov was taken by assault (Sept. 8) and Sevastopol be- 426 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i856 came untenable. The Russians abandoned the southern side of the city. They were seen in the night hurrying with their ammunition and stores across a bridge of boats. They left to the English and French only blood-stained ruins and no attempt could be made to occupy the place, which afforded no protection. As some compensation for the humiliation which she had undergone Russia had been able to take Kars from the Turks (Nov. 25) although it had been bravely , defended by Colonel Fenwick Williams. The so-called Mingrelian expedition of Omar Pasha ended in a complete failure ; he found the people whom he imagined he was going to raise against the Russians wholly unsympathetic. But the French were getting tired of the alliance ; they had accomplished their object, and all things looked to peace. There was a certain jealousy of England throughout. The representatives of England, France, Austria, Russia, and Turkey signed the preliminaries of peace (Feb. 25th, 1856). The final peace was signed at Paris on the 16th of April. Russia gave back Kars to Turkey, and regained the places in the Crimea which had been taken by the Allies. She renounced the protectorate of the Danubian principalities, which were to receive a new organisation under the suzerainty of the Sultan and the control of Europe. She renounced also all pretensions to a protectorate of the Christian subjects of the Sultan ; and she submitted to a rectification of her frontiers, i.e. she ceded a portion of Bessarabia to that state which was afterwards to become Roumania, although at the time entitled the Danubian principalities. Russia also lost her right of having ships of war in the Black Sea, and she was not to fortify the Aland Islands. Some of the signatories of the treaty were anxious that a clause should be inserted whereby the Sultan should stipulate that his Christian sub- jects should enjoy religious freedom. This was mainly suggested by England; but to save the susceptibilities of the Sultan, it was announced that this declaration proceeded from "the free inspiration of his sovereign will." The Powers, on the other hand, agreed in no way to interfere 1856] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 427 in the government of Turkey. Moreover, the integrity of the Ottoman Empire was guaranteed. Such were the terms of the Treaty of Paris, which,, for selfish reasons, abandoned the Christians to the tender mercies of their Mohammedan masters. Forty-three years have elapsed since it was signed, and it may be truly said that all sthe Powers who were co-signatories of it have repudiated it. It is rather amusing to see how few of the conditions have been held binding. Kars now belongs to Russia. The Danubian principalities have now become the kingdom of Rouma'nia, entirely independent of the Sultan. The portion of Bessarabia, which had been ceded to Roumania, has been taken back again by Russia, and Roumania has received a kind of compensation by accept- ing the comparatively worthless province of the Dobrudzha, with its. Tatars. Russia has acquired the right of having ships of war in the Black Sea, and Sevastopol is rebuilt as a military and naval fortress. The Sultan has never made the slightest effort to concede any privileges to his Christian subjects, and even if he had attempted anything of the kind would not have been able to carry it out. His signature, as far as that part of the treaty went, was a lie. Russia, by this treaty, receded for a time from the position which she had held in Europe. But she has completely regained it in our own days. Now freed from war, she began to set herself about building up again the fabric of her social life. There was an enormous reaction after the Crimean War, which had humiliated the nation, and liberal ideas began to prevail. The next great step was the Emancipation of the Serfs. Serfdom in Russia, as in all Slavonic countries, is a modern institution. In Poland and Bohemia it dates from the fifteenth century; in Russia from the close of the .six- teenth, and we may say even later. It was Boris Godunov who first chained the serf to the soil, for economic reasons solely, as Chicherin shows. But he was not legally fixed to the soil till the Ulozhenie, or Ordinance of the Emperor 428 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [i86i Alexis, in 1649. Peter th e Great did something to amend his position, as we have seen, and there was a gradual, but, it must be confessed, slowly developed desire to give him liberty altogether. It was felt that this must be done, but no monarch seems to have had the courage to carry through such a great economic revolution. On his death-bed Nicholas had enjoined it upon his son, and in 1861 the Act of Emancipation was carried. Twenty-two millions of human beings received their freedom. The landlords were to be paid an indemnity, and released their serfs from their seigniorial obligations, and the land of the village commune became the actual property of the serfs. The indemnity was paid by the help of sums advanced by the government, and an interest of six per cent, was added ; in forty-six years' time the government was to be entirely reimbursed. This great economic revolution was carried with com- paratively few outbreaks on the part of the peasants. In some districts of Russia, as, for instance, the Government of Kazan, there were riots among the peasants, who could not understand how it was that they had to pay for land which they had always regarded as their own. It is just in the same way that the Irish peasant cannot understand why he has to pay rent. Special commissioners were ap- pointed, and district judges, to arrange the complicated questions between the proprietors and the peasants. These riots were soon quelled, although they were frequently taken advantage of by Anarchists. Two ardent labourers in this great work were Yuri Samarin and Cherkasski. The Schlakhta, or petite noblesse of Russia, seemed to have suffered the most, as they were in the habit of employing their peasants as domestics, and were thus deprived of their services. Alexander II. surrounded himself with liberal coadjutors, as if to break as much as possible with the old order of things. Valuyev became Minister of the Interior, Reutern of Finance, Dmitri Milutin of War, and Golovnin of Public Instruction. In 1864 the law was promulgated by 1863] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 429 which the Zemstvos were created. These are provincial assemblies, consisting of representatives of the landed pro- prietors, the artisans and peasants, who regulate the inci- dence of taxation, and settle 'matters affecting public health, roads, and other provincial needs. A great deal was done for education, and the universities were made practically independent. Besides the schools in which Latin was taught, other more practical institutions were (bunded, something like the modern schools among ourselves. It is interesting to see that the same subject has been vehemently discussed in Russia as has been agitating the teaching of this country. In both there has been a tendency to throw off the shackles of medievalism, which in Russia seem even more intrusive than among ourselves. The finances also of the country, which had been greatly embarrassed by the Crimean war, now under -judicious management, began to ameliorate. In 1 87 1 Russia was financially sound. In 1863 broke out the second great Polish insurrection ; the country had for some time been in a disturbed condition. To draw a simile from the celebrated poem of Mme. Rostop- , chin, the wife, although many presents had been made to her,' hated her compulsory marriage with the Baron, her husband. The repression exercised by Nicholas had not been successful ; her political life being apparently extinct, Poland had clung to her religion and language. At the commencement of his reign (April the 21st, 1856), Alexander had made a memor- able speech to the deputies of the nobility at Warsaw. He had said that he wished the past to be forgotten, but he concluded his speech with the memorable words: "Gentle- men, let us have no dreams ! " In the same year Prince Michael Gorchakov appeared as governor, and commenced a mild rigime. Offers were made to the Polish emigrks to return, under somewhat favourable conditions, but few availed themselves of the offer. Scattered throughout Europe, especially in France, Switzerland and Eng- land, they formed a considerable body, and might roughly be divided into two classes : the whites or moderates, who looked 430 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1863 up to Prince Adam Czartoryski as their head, and the red or revolutionary party. Adam Czartoryski had, however, died in 1861, and his place had been taken by his son Ladislaus, also now deceased. Those of the" nobility who had remained in their native country lived quietly on their estates, and secretly did what they could to unite their countrymen. The Russians, however, did not interfere with them unless they entered into communication with the emigris. They continued as of old to exercise a certain patriarchal government on their estates — the kind of government which always soms congenial to the Slav, till he has been brought under other influences. The condition of the peasants was that of complete serfdom. There was, however, a society among the nobles, the chief of which was Prince Andrew Zamojski, who were bent upon improving the condition of the land and the peasants upon it, and this was called the Agricultural Society. Prince Andrew Zamojski was a man of liberal ideas, who had been educated in the University of Edinburgh. So popular did this society become, that it soon numbered more than 5000 supporters. Zamojski managed to keep it for some time without coming into direct collision with the Government, but it soon became evident that its development would be interfered with. For some time there had been a restlessness in the country, and political manifestations began to take place in the streets. The churches were filled with people in mourning, who sang the pathetic Polish hymn, Boze, cos Polske ! On a service being held in commemoration of the battle of Grochow^riots occurred, and some of the spectators were killed. When the funeral of the victims took place one hundred thousand persons followed the procession. Alexander was willing to make many concessions to the Poles ; he established muni- cipal councils at Warsaw and in other cities of Poland. The Marquis Wielopolski, a Pole, was appointed Director of Public Instruction, and Polish was to be the official language of the ancient kingdom. On the other hand, on the 6th of April 1861, the Agricultural Society was suppressed. The Poles seemed apathetic about the concessions of the Emperor. A 1863] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 431 large gathering of the people took place, and was fired on by the Russian troops. It does not seem clear whether this deplorable event resulted by accident, or whether the Russians mistook the purpose of the Poles in singing the celebrated war song of Derribinski, Jeszcze Polska nie zginela. The government, however, still hoped to be able to arrange matters, and General Lambert was now appointed Viceroy, charged with a mission altogether conciliatory. He allowed the celebration at Horodlo, near Lublin, of a grand fete in honour of the ancient union of Poland and Lithuania. The anniversary of the death of Kosciuszko (the 15th of October) saw the churches thronged ; with people, and led to the arrest of large numbers. Gerstenzweig, the governor of the town, committed suicide in consequence of the reproaches of General Lambert, who was recalled, and replaced by General Liiders. This administration also proved a failure, and the Grand Duke Constantine, the Tsar's brother, was appointed Viceroy in 1862. Meanwhile the extreme party had been very active. On the 27th of June an attempt was made upon the life of General Liiders, two attacks were made upon the Grand Duke Con- stantine, and two upon Wielopolski, but they were all un- successful. The moderate party in the country seemed to feel no sympathy with the changes introduced. The more concessions made to them the more their demands seemed to grow. Thus even those who were prepared to accept the Tsar's reforms required that Lithuania and the eastern pro- vinces should be reunited to Poland. On the night, of January 15, 1863, a number of persons obnoxious to the government were seized in their beds and forced to serve in the Russian army. The Insurrection now broke out, and was directed by a secret committee at Warsaw called Rzad (the government). The proceedings of this institution were mysterious, like those of the Fehmgerichte. No one could tell whence their pro- clamations emanated, but they were widely diffused and struck terror. The extreme Russian party was especially angry at 432 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1868 the attempt of the Poles to claim Lithuania as Polish. It had been in its earliest days Orthodox, and most of the governments which composed it were of Little Russian nationality. As the Russians made so little progress in ' putting an end to the insurrection, the Emperor sent for Count M. Muraviev, a veteran, who had been wounded at Borodino, and a£ the time of his appointment was sixty-seven years of age. He nominated him dictator of the whole north- western district, and his headquarters were to be at Vilna, where he arrived on the 26th of May 1863. At that time the rule of the Russians was at a very low ebb throughout the country. According to the account of a Russian writer the military received the new governor joyfully, but the civil authorities, most of whom were Poles, with visible dis- pleasure. The Jews were on the fence, as the saying is, waiting to see what would happen. The Roman Catholic clergy spoke of all attempts at quelling the insurrection as likely to fail, and declared that the insurgents were compara- tively few in number and insignificant. Soldiers were now distributed by Muraviev over the whole district, and the villagers were fined if it was found that any among their number had joined the insurgents. There were also fines to be paid by all those who wore mourning. Sentences on leaders of bands were pronounced and carried out at once. Thus two priests were executed in one week for complicity in the insurrection. The landed proprietors found themselves in a very awkward position. The bands of the insurgents visited their estates, and if they would not help them frequently put them to death. Sometimes the Russian soldiers found an unfortunate gentleman hanging by the neck in his own drawing-room. On the other hand, if they helped the rebels in any way they were executed by the Russians. They received orders from the St Petersburg government to reside on their estates, and were held responsible if any dis- turbances took place upon them. The peasants in many places were formed into a rural guard, for it is well known that frequently they showed no sympathy with the insurrection. 1863] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 433 The Russians had 87,000 men in Poland, against whom the insurgents' were powerless in spite of their bravery. Indeed all thinking persons are agreed that this last great Polish insurrection was ill-planned and never had a chance of success. Owing to the frontier in the direction of Prussia being sealed and everything being done to impede the insur- gents, most of the fighting took place on the borders of Galicia. The Poles contended with enormous difficulties ; they could never take a town, as they had no artillery for the purpose. They trusted rather to the dense forests with which the country abounds. They were for the most part undis- ciplined,' except when they were returned emigris who had seen foreign service. They frequently had no muskets, but were armed with pikes, scythes, and even sticks; The Russians on the other hand had the benefit of the latest weapons. Moreover the insurgents had hardly any medical appliances, and wonderful stories are related even in the Russian accounts of their firmness amid unparalleled sufferings. The bands of insurgents generally consisted of priests, small landowners, petty officials, and peasants without land. Marian Langiewicz succeeded in getting a band of 3060 men, and after fighting for three days was forced to cross the frontier into Galicia. Meanwhile the Secret Committee was very active and was directed by a Council of five. Armed agents were appointed to carry out the secret decrees of the Govern- ment (Rzad) by assassination. This Government even had its special seal which was affixed to all its documents. The emissaries who carried out the orders for putting obnoxious people to death were called stiletchiki, because they carried secret daggers. Their first victim was the secretary of Wiel- polski, who was killed as a spy. A singular case was that of the Jewish spy Hermani who was stabbed in the Hotel de l'Europe at Warsaw, a building full of secret passages and interminable labyrinths. His treachery to the cause of the insurgents had been proved by one of the secret emissaries visiting the house of the governor-general, disguised as u Russian tchinovnik, during his absence and opening his 2 E / 434 - A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [ism cabinet with false keys. Muraviev at Vilna got up a petition among the nobility there to show their reconciliation with the government. The head of these nobles was a certain Domejko. The Rzad at once sent its sicarii from Warsaw to Vilna with the object of killing some of the more loyal of the nobles, and an attempt was accordingly made upon the life of Domejko. As this incident was one of the strangest in the insurrection we will describe it at greater length. One morning Domejko was sitting in his study, reading the- newspaper, when an unknown person, unobserved by any one, crept behind him and inflicted a heavy blow upon his shoulder, probably aiming at his heart. The wound was so unexpected and so sudden that Domejko neither succeeded in uttering a cry nor calling for assistance; and thus the would-be murderer was able to glide away unobserved. All that the nobleman could remember was that the unknown individual was very fair-haired. According to the doctors the wound, though a very painful one, was not mortal but it would take some time to heal. Meanwhile all efforts to dis- cover the assassin were fruitless, at which Muraviev felt great vexation. Some months afterwards two young men came out of the town to the Vilna railway station about two hours before the departure of the train to Warsaw. They were both dark- haired men and carried travelling-bags. This early arrival attracted the attention of the police official at the station, and he asked them in what direction they purposed going. To Warsaw was the reply. " Then why are you here now, when the train will not go for two hours ? " At this question one of them became somewhat confused, but the other answered confidently that they had -settled with their landlord and did not wish to stay any longer in their lodging, and not knowing what to do tHey had come to the station. When the police officer asked him to show his passport be became confused ; at first turned pale and afterwards red. The passports were examined and seemed in order. When the official asked the man who was confused why he had come from Warsaw to 1863] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 435 Vilna he was in such agitation that he could not answer, but finally said, that he had arrived there to get work. "And what is your trade ? " The young man here seemed to lqge himself, began to stutter and with difficulty could blurt 01ft that he was a cabinet-maker. " And where did you live at Vilna ? " " In Niemetzkaya Street at the house of one Levin." The police-officer at once sent a subordinate to ascertain whether the young man actually lived in that house. In half an hour's time the policeman returned with the answer that in the house specified no such lodgers were known. The confusion which these young men showed, the false reference given and the premature arrival at the station caused the police-officer to look upon them with suspicion ; he ac- cordingly arrested them. When the details of the arrest were communicated to Muraviev he at once said that one of these was the man who had attempted to kill Domejko. He ordered them to be detained and examined apart. Some time now elapsed. Nothing could be got out of them although in their statements they frequently contradicted each other. Muraviev, however, still felt convinced that one of them was the culprit. When he was informed that they were both dark-haired, whereas the would-be assassin of Domejko was fair, Muraviev ordered them to be taken to a bath and their hair especially to be washed. After three baths the man who appeared at first confused turned out to be fair- haired, and when he was confronted with Domejko the latter declared positively that it was he who inflicted the wound. After a long obstinacy he confessed that he was a barber from Warsaw, and was ordered by the Rzad to kill Domejko. He was accordingly sentenced to be hanged. The execution took place August 18th, 1863, and seven of his confederates were hanged with him. By the month of June the insurrec- tion had seemed to get weaker in the district. In November 1863 tranquillity was restored in the north-western part of the country. Thereupon Muraviev occupied himself with settling the peasants on the land, and releasing them from the heavy barstchina or corvee which was due to their masters. 436 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [ism He closed some of the monasteries, and established schools where Russian was taught. He then left the country having eajrned the hatred of the Poles more than any other Russian. He died suddenly in 1866. But let us trace the insurrection in other parts of the country. The chiefs of the insurgents were hanged when captured. Such was the fate, among others, of Mackiewicz, a priest ; Narbutt, the son of the historian ; and Sierakowski, who had been an officer in the Russian service. They all met their fate with unflinching courage. Meanwhile the Rzad was as active as ever. They seem, as far as their secret proceedings have been unravelled, to have met in a room of the University. They issued newspapers, and no one could discover who printed them. When the Emperor offered an amnesty they issued a decree forbidding anyone to pay attention to it. They levied taxes which were scrupulously paid, and they continued to get possession of large sums from the Government treasury. All these successes of the insurgents put the Government, as administered by Wielo- polski and the Grand Duke Constantine, in very poor con- trast with the success of Muraviev. On the 25th of July Wielopolski resigned and retired to Dresden; the Grand Duke Constantine was recalled a month afterwards, and Count Berg was made dictator. He began by forming a police of 3000 soldiers and sixty officers, divided the city into districts, and each officer had to know what was going on in the houses of his district. The next occurrence was an attempt made on the life of Count Berg from the windows of the Hotel de l'Europe, which was the property of Count Zamojski. It was sacked and for a time converted into a barracks. The furniture was thrown out of the windows and there perished, among other things, some valuable oriental manuscripts and a pianoforte which had been used by the great Polish composer Chopin. The last engagement of the insurrection took place at Opatovo, in the Government of Radom (February 22, 1864). By May 1864 the insurrection was suppressed ; the Russians succeeded in apprehending the 1864] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 437 five heads of the Secret Committee and they were executed. This rash outbreak, for it c*n be called nothing else, had cost Poland dear. The title of Kingdom of Poland has now dis- appeared from all official documents ; and the Governments are sometimes spoken of as the districts by the Vistula. The University of Warsaw has been completely Russified, and the Government Schools also. In order to secure the allegiance of the peasant an ukaze of March 26th, 1864, gave him the complete possession of the land of which he had been the tenant. The corvees were abolished. Some of the restrictions enacted with reference to the use of the national language have been relaxed under the present Emperor Nicholas II. In 1864 an end was put to the war in the Caucasus. Shamyl had surrendered to Prince Earatinski as far back as 1859. He was sent to live at Kaluga with a pension of 10,000 roubles. The Circassians emigrated in large numbers to the Turkish dominions, where they formed a somewhat lawless element of the population. Many were planted among the Bulgarians, but the altered climatic conditions produced epidemics among them. They died in great numbers. It was the intolerable persecutions endured from these barbarians which drove the Bulgarians into revolt. It was in 1866 that the great Circassian immigration took place. These miserable pilgrims arrived in great numbers, to the utter perplexity of the Turkish authorities. Eighty thousand came to Varna alone. A great many died on landing. A reliable account of them has been furnished by Mr Barkley in his " Bulgaria before the War," from which we propose to make a few extracts, as our readers will thereby realise how difficult it was for the Russians to come to any arrangements with such people, and how idle it was for the English to talk of making them into a kind of independent nation, which should act as a bulwark against Russia. The word Circassian is used among us in the loosest possible sense, and is made to include all the motley populations of the Caucasus — Lesghians, Abkhasians, and even Georgians and Mingrelians. It is only by reading such books as 438 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [im« Erckert on the races of the Caucasus that we can realise the multiplicity of their languagfc and how little solidarity they really possess. Lord John Russell indiscreetly remon- strated in his official capacity with the Russians on the supposed expulsion. To this the Russians answered with a good deal of aplomb, that the Circassians had been invited to leave off their marauding habits, and to settle down as agriculturists, and that lands had been allotted to them for the purpose. Moreover, when Lord John pointed to the depopulation of the country as a sign of its bad government, he was reminded that if the diminution of the number of inhabitants was a sign of misrule, he must apply the same principle to Ireland, the population of which had declined by one-half. Mr Barkley says of them: "They are a race of marauders and cattle-lifters, and the whole of them may be said to live by theft. They had not been in the country a month before they were at their favourite occupation, and before six months were over nearly all the men were mounted, though when they landed they had not money to buy food to stave off starvation. The old residents, both Christian and Mussulman, had at once to take precautions for the protec- tion of their beasts, and for the first time in Turkey each village had to keep a strong patrol on the alert all night." Yet, as Mr Barkley continues to tell us, these picturesque thieves would steal a horse or a cow under the very nose of the Turkish guard, and could rarely be caught. If, how- ever, they were caught they were shot down like dogs and buried in the nearest hole. But even the dead were not safe. So poor were the Circassians that, as our author tells us, they dug up corpses for the sake of the rags in which they were buried. And yet these were the men whom some of our English Turcophiles would fain have elevated into heroes. These were the men who elicited the warmest sympathies of such one-sided enthusiasts as Mr Laurence Oliphant. The Turk is a lazy man, but his laziness is as nothing compared with that of the Circassian. At the close of the Crimean War, the 1866] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 439 First Lord of the Admiralty (Sir Charles Wood, afterwards Lord Halifax), in replying to the charge that the Government had deserted the Circassians (Proceedings of the House of Commons, May 3, 1856), showed that the English had at last awoke to the knowledge of what the Circassians really were. He avowed that he had discovered the populations of Georgia, Mingrelia, and Imeretia to be in favour of the Russians. How could it possibly be otherwise ? Speaking of the hill tribes, he confessed that they were like the Highland cattle-lifters, with no idea of union or po-operation, but with each man's hand against another. Nothing would have been more difficult than to establish a common govern- ment with which any negotiations could be opened. To return, however, to the Bulgarians, we must bear in mind this last load of suffering heaped upon them. Their condition had been gradually getting worse ; no security for life or the purity of the family. The brutal government of the renegide Greek, Midhat Pasha, further complicated matters. This ruffian, who was at one time an idol in fashion- able London society, but eventually met with his deserts, committed great cruelties as Pasha of Rustchuk. He was a complete type of the modern Turk. He built a pretended orphanage asylum, which he turned into a hotel, and made a pier, which soon subsided into the Danube. According to Mr Barkley, he hanged everybody he suspected, and the roads were filled with miserable peasants dangling in the air. We cannot wonder that such a man paved the way for the great Bulgarian outbreak, of which we are shortly to hear. In 1865 the Russians under Chernaiev gained possession of Tashkent; in 1898 this famous soldier died. On the 16th of April 1866 took place the attempt of Karakosov upon the Tsar. Up to that time no man of the people had been found guilty of such a'crime, and the deed created a profound impression. It was followed by reactionary measures, and the Slavophile party gained the ascendant. They had been foremost in advocating the complete Russification of the 44Q A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1867 Empire. Many efforts in this direction were now made in the Baltic provinces, where, however, it must be remembered that the German element is very much in the minority, whatever dignity may be assigned to it as the language of culture.' In these latter days we have seen the University of Dorpat becoming more and more Russified, and the name of the city, which was Lettish, restored to that which it had in the earliest times, Yuriev. The Asiatic dominions of Russia were now increasing with rapid strides. In 1867 Tashkent was formally incorporated with the Russian empire. The district of the Amour had been acquired as early as 1858, and the flourishing port of Vladivostok had been built. In 1868 Samarkand and Bokhara were acquired. During this period the anarchists had become more troublesome in Russia. The mild counsels of such men as Herzen, who edited the Bell (Kolokol) for many years in London, were no longer of any influence. A great preacher of the new doctrine- was Bakunin, who may be said to have been the founder of Nihilism in the sense in which it is understood now, although the word itself is believed to have been invented by Turgueniev. Bakunin escaped from Siberia, and joined Herzen in editing the Kolokol. The consequence, however, of this was that the paper began to decline, and its sale fell off to such an extent that it was soon given up. During the rest of the reign of Alexander we shall find the Nihilists very active, and terminating their conspiracies by the murder of one of the most benevolent sovereigns who ever occupied the Russian throne. Napoleon III., after the treaty of Paris in 1856, showed a great inclination to be on good terms with the Russians. He had fulfilled his wish, he had given some prestige to his new empire, founded upon trickery and bloodshed. England, however, had gained but little by the Crimean War. Russia was only temporarily checked. In constituting herself the protector of Turkey, England was obliged to lean upon the broken reed of many delusive hopes ; Turkey was to be 1876] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 441 regenerated ; equal religious freedom was to be granted to all her subjects ; and a variety of other fantastic notions were in vogue. The unnatural union between a country of progress and constitutionalism like England with a worn-out oppressive despotism had somehow to be explained away. Our statesmen have at last, even the most conservative, awoke to the idea that the future of Eastern Europe lies with the Slavonic races, and that they must be reckoned with. Lord Salisbury enunciated a bitter truth, of which he had at last become conscious, when he said that we had " put our money on the wrong horse." We only wish his metaphor had been a more dignified one, and somewhat more worthy of a statesman. In 1874 the Russians adopted the German system of com- -1 pulsory military service from all members of the community. In 187 1 Russia regained her former rights in the Black Sea, of which she had been deprived after the Crimean War. This concession was the result of the understanding between Bismarck and Russia. France was in a state of exhaustion, and England powerless. The next Russian conquest in Central Asia was to be Khiva. The g reat war with Turkey was now to break out. It was a recrudescence of the eternal Eastern question, the constant struggles of races who look for civilisation from the west, against Asiatic barbarism. It began with the appearance_ of Russian volunteers in Serbia in 1876. The Serbs fought bravely, but of course were no match for their foes either in numbers or discipline. Moreover, the Turkish army has always enjoyed the advantage of the training of western adventurers and mercenaries. It was in one of the first battles that Nicholas Kireyev, a young man of excellent premise, perished. As the Serbs at length were losing ground everywhere, and the Turks invading their territory, the Russians stepped in as their natural allies. The whole Balkan peninsula was in a state of ferment. The insurrec- tion in Bulgaria had been repressed 'by the Turks with great cruelty, and all Europe resounded with the accounts of the massacres which they had committed. The Bui- 442 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1877 garian uprising had taken place immediately after the out- break in Herzegovina. The revolutionary committee was active in Bucharest, and it was there that the youthful Stambulov first made himself conspicuous. At the close of 1875 the Turkish Bashi-bazouks were plundering and murdering everywhere, and fruitless attempts at peace were made at the Constantinople conference in December 1876 and January 1877. On this occasion, as on many others, the Turks were misled by the sympathy of their English sup- porters, to whom they assigned greater influence than they really possessed. Among the proposals at this conference were the increase of the territory of Montenegro, the rectification of the frontiers of Serbia, and the local autonomy of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria, with Christian members in the governing body. Turkey proposed to offer as ample satis- faction the sham constitution concocted by the renegade Greek, Midhat Pasha. «*. On the 24th of April 1877, Russia declared war at Kishenev against Turkey, and on the 22nd of June the crossing of the Danube by the Russian troops began. It lasted four days. Turkey was also invaded on the side of Armenia. The European army was under the command of the Grand Duke Nicholas, brother of the Emper,or, and Generals Nepokoi-shitski and Levitski for chief officers. The Russians had already made a treaty with Roumania, whereby they were granted a free passage through that country. They were spread out along the left bank of the Danube, having the Roumanian army on their extreme right, opposite to Viddin. There were some Turkish monitors at hand, but they seemed powerless, and two of them were blown up by Russian torpedoes before Matchin. The river was crossed at Sistova, and 'the great effort was to advance upon Shipka in the Balkans. To mislead the enemy, General Zimmermann forced the passage of the river to the north of the Dobrudzha, and built a bridge on June 22 nd, while a furious cannonade kept the Turks occupied from Rustchuk to Nikopoli. Thanks to their pre- cautions, and the secret being well guarded, the Russians 1877] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 443 succeeded in passing the river, and landing at Zimnitsa on the night of the 26th of June. They now occupied Sistova, and at night their pontoons passed under the cannon of Nikopoli without being observed by the Turks. One Russian corps now covered Rustchuk, and extended along the Yantra ; the other deployed towards the Vid, and seized Nikopoli on the 1 6th of July. Meanwhile an advance guard, under the command of General Gourko, hastened to occupy the import- ant pass of Shipka in the Balkans. Gourko passed through the defile of Hankoi without opposition. He suddenly ap- peared on the other side of the Balkans, in the valley of the Tundja, and taking in the rear the Turkish positions at Shipka, carried them, after a trifling reverse (July 19th), and thus in the space of twenty days the Danube had been crossed, the passage of the Balkans forced, and the route opened to Adrian- ople and Constantinople. But suddenly these brilliant suc- cesses suffered a check. Osman Pasha of Viddin, by forced marches, had come on the Russian right, and had fortified Plevna (Pleven), a place strong by nature. The Russians made their first attempt to carry these lines, but the assault was repulsed with great loss under the very eyes of the Emperor. There were 20,000 Turks in the position, and their fortifications are said to have been planned by a very skilful Italian engineer, for accurate accounts show that Osman was inactive. Moreover the Pasha was in direct communication with Sophia and was well furnished with provisions. On the. 29th of July a second attempt was made, but although the Russians fought with great bravery, they could only carry the first lines and were finally repulsed. The fields around were covered with the dead and wounded, and the Turks could be seen stabbing the latter as they lay on the field. They are a people who are not studious of taking .prisoners, as witness the sad fate of the young English volunteer, Hughes, in the late war in Thessaly. Suleiman Pasha also made his appearance on the Tundja with 35, 000 men, with a view of retaking Shipka, and the army under Mehemet Ali at Rustchuk now began to move. 444 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1877 The Russians were therefore obliged to concentrate them- selves, and in order to do so they retired to the north of the Balkans and fortified the Shipka Pass. All their efforts were now directed against Plevna, and they called their allies the Roumanians to assist them. The consequences of this move- ment were terrible to the Bulgarians, especially in the eastern part of what was afterwards called Eastern Roumelia, but has now been definitely annexed to Bulgaria.' The Bashi-bazouks overran the whole country between the Maritsa and the Shipka Pass and reduced it to a wilderness, including the town of Eski Zagra, now Stara Zagora. Most of the inhabitants, however, escaped over the mountains into the territory occupied by the Russians. The cities of Kalofer and Sopot were also burnt after the flight of the inhabitants. T^e fate of Karlovo was even more terrible. This lovely spot, which would seem marked out by nature for rural happi- ness and peace, was the scene of much bloodshed. The inhabitants, both Christian and Turkish, had in a way admitted the Russians in order to avoid having their terri- tory devastated. But on the Russians evacuating the place, the Mussulmans who had arranged the reception conjointly with their Christian neighbours betrayed them into the hands of the Bashi-bazouks. These Bashi-bazouks (lit., Mad-heads) are not, as some people have imagined, a kind of irregular Turkish soldiery, but village and town ruffians who follow the armies for the sake of murder and plunder. Of the citizens 864 were put to death. These unfortunate men were dragged to Philippopolis, some dying on the way, tried by court martial, and hanged in various parts of the town. Their sad fate has been graphically described by their fellow- prisoner Ivan Geshov, who survived this bath of blood, to be one of the first Bulgarian finance mihisters. In Sliven (Slivna) peasants were hanging on each side of the streets as the troops of Suleiman entered. The prisons were full, and suspected persons were everywhere executed. The Turks now began an attack on the Russian position at Shipka, August 21, which lasted five days. They had almost 1877] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 445 succeeded in opening the route to Trnovo, but Sulieman was unable to withstand the Russian reinforcements, and could not make himself master of their works. Meantime Mehemet Ali was able partly to keep the Russians in check on the Yantra. The Russians made a third attack on Plevna (Sep- tember n), but although Skobelev succeeded in carrying the Turkish redoubts, in consequence of the inadequate number of his troops this third attack failed. It was calculated that in the three attacks the Russians had lost 30,000 men. We must now turn to the campaigns in "Asia. The army had entered Turkish territory in four columns under the command of Loris Melikov. They first marched upon Batoum along the coast of the Black Sea, the other three went to Kars and Erzerum. by different routes. The column on the route to 'Batoum was soon obliged to retire before the Turkish attacks ; the latter had undisturbed access to the Black Sea, and had disembarked Circassian emigrants to raise the Caucasus. On the left, Bayazid was taken without resistance (April 20th); Ardahan was taken after twelve days' fighting ; and the blockade of Kars com- .menced on the 4th of June. The Turkish general, Moukhtar Pasha, retired, and awaited reinforcements. But Melikov was repulsed while trying to force his position at Zevin (June 25th), and Moukhtar thereupon raised the blockade of Kars and forced the Russians to retreat, having gained an advantage over them at Kizil Tepe (August 25th). The Russians fought bravely, but were outnumbered. They sent for more troops, and Todleben, who had defended Sevastopol, was summoned, like another Suvorov, to the front. Todleben completely changed the plan of action. He had it 2,000 men at his disposal, and thought that Plevna ought rather to be starved out as the number of Turkish outworks was so great. His first thought was to cut off Osman Pasha's communications. On the 24th of October, after a battle at Gorni Dubniak, he took 4000 prisoners, and cut off the communication between Plevna, Orkhanie, and Sofia; the Roumanians at the same time established them- 446 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1W8 selves on the line to Riachovo. Osman was now completely surrounded, and Gourko concentrated his forces in the direc- tion of Orkhanie. When he had exhausted his provisions Osman made a sortie, and was obliged to surrender with his 40,000 men. Plevna fell on the 12th of December. Gourko crossed the Balkans on December 25, occupying four days in the passage. Meanwhile, in Asia Minor, the Turks began to have tKe same bad fortune. Moukhtar Fasha was beaten by Loris Melikov, and forced by a series of battles into the defiles of Deve-Boyum which protect Erzerum. Kars was taken, and the investment of Erzerum also began. At the commencement of the next year the Russians advanced through the Balkans to Roumelia. Although the cold was intense, Gourko on the right turned the position of Arab- Konak and got possession of Sofia. He had meanwhile been joined by a Serbian detachment, and now marched by way of the valleys of the Tundja and the Maritsa to Adrianople. At Shipka 35,000 Turks laid down their arms. On the 15th of January Gourko took Philippopolis; before surrendering it the Turks cut the throats of all the unfor- tunate Bulgarians who remained in prison. The place had long been little more than a human shambles. During the years 1877 and 1878, in the provinces of Philippopolis and Adrianople alone, 16,632 Bulgarians had been put to the sword, 623 hanged, 65 burnt to death, 925 churches, schools, and shops, and 40,860 inhabited houses were destroyed and plundered. Of 129 churches in the province of Philippopolis, 103 were reduced to ruins. It has been calculated that about 180 Bulgarian captives in Turkish prisons were strangled. Suleiman Pasha, worsted by Gourko at Philippopolis when the Russians took it, was driven into the Rhodope Mountains. He was altogether a brutal man, as the description given of him by Mr Geshov in the account of his captivity shows. He thirsted for the blood of his prisoners. On the 20th of January AdriaAople was taken. The Turkish governor had been displaying great cruelty there, and had hanged some miserable Bulgarian refugees; 1878] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 447 one a doctor, who had attached himself to the hospital where he worked in attendance on the Turkish sick and wounded. " He was taken thence," Lord Bath tells us, " with the red crescent on his arm, and hanged with his fellow citizens." On the 31st the Russians were at Silivri and Rodosto on the Sea of Marmora. They were now at the very gates of Constantinople. On the 14th of February the Turks made proposals for peace. Meanwhile the English fleet had appeared in Turkish waters and passed the Dardanelles on February 1st. The foreign policy of the country was at that time directed by Lord Beaconsfield whose' Turcophile proclivities are well known. He had spoken of the Sultan as an amiable young man in a trying position who was worthy of our sympathies. Meanwhile the Grand Duke Nicholas moved his troops to San Stefano to the very gates of Constantinople. On the 3rd of March i878,he signed the treaty of San Stefano with the Turkish diplomatists, Safvet and Sadullah ; the terms of this memorable treaty were the independence of Serbia, Tsrnagora (Mon- tenegro), and Roumania, and addition of territory to the two former. The Sultan had in reality never been able to exercise any authority over the Montenegrians, as these fierce moun- taineers -had repelled all attempts at subjugation. A prin- c^ality of Bulgaria was created tributary but autonomous. Reforms were to be granted to Bosnia and the Herzegovina, and these provinces were to be occupied and put under the administration of Austria. This was the great feature of the treaty in so much as it brought Austria as a factor into the Balkan peninsula, Roumania received the Dobrudzha, and Russia regained the piece of territory at the mouth of the Danube which she had lost by the Treaty of Paris. In Asia she gained Batoum, a very important port, Ardahan, Kars and Bayazid, and an indemnity was to be paid her of 360,000,000 roubles. European Turkey was reduced to a mere strip of territory and had only three towns of any size left, Salonika, Adrianople, and Constantinople. England and Austria were both dissatisfied with these arrangements. 448 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1878 Among us the Turcophile party was then much stronger than at present. The English were never more active than they were at that time in pursuing their inconsistent and somewhat selfish policy of taking the lead in the West in all religious and political progress, and at the same time keeping as far as they could their fellow Christians in the East under the galling bondage of aliens in race and religion. The selfish anti-slavonic policy of Austria was also very pronounced at the time. She has been forced in the hour of peril in recent times to interpret her political position much more sanely. At the instigation of Bismarck, a man who always showed a supreme contempt for the rights of humanity, a conference was summoned at Berlin. The treaty of San Stefano was now considerably modified. Bulgaria was made much smaller in the Western portion and was to pay tribute to the Porte. The country south of the Balkans was restored to the Turks but received a certain autonomy and took the name of Eastern Roumelia, which, however, it was to have but a short time. Beaconsfield is said to have been very anxious that the Turks should have Bourgas, which was now practically their only port on the Black Sea. Montenegro, Servia, and Rbumania received additions of territory. The first country had the port of Dulcigno allotted to it. Servia received Nigh, which is now the second largest city in that country. Tne Roumanians were obliged to cede to Russia the portion of territory at the mouth of the Danube and received in exchange a barren part of the Dobrudzha, where the climate is remark- ably unhealthy and the population consists chiefly of Tatars. Thus the weak country was despoiled and Russia, which the Turcophiles professed to hate so much, was augmented. Bayazid and the territory of Alashgeid in Asia were to go back to Turkey, but the Russians kept their other conquests and their frontier was considerably advanced. The great feature of this treaty was undoubtedly the in- troduction of Austria into the Balkan peninsula. By pro- tecting Bosnia and Herzegovina she kept open a door for herself for the future occupation of Salonica. 1878] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 449 The account of the administration of Bulgaria by Russian officials belongs to Bulgarian history. By the terms of the treaty of Berlin (July 27, 1878), Macedonia, which had been rescued by Russian blood so lavishly shed was handed back to the Turks on condition that certain reforms should be executed. It has been, however, the same wearisome story of continual promises as futile as those made at the time of the Treaty of Paris. Turkey will not and cannot execute any reforms. She remains as she always has been, a barbarous power alien to the European system. By the creation of the province of Eastern Roumelia and the restoration of Mace- donia to Turkey, a very short-sighted policy was adopted by the English. The formation of such a small state would cause it to be powerless. Had they really been anxious to create a strong Bulgaria that could defy Russia, they should have followed the plan of the treaty of San Stefano. On the 18th of September 1885, the governor of Eastern Roumelia, an irresolute old man, was escorted in derisive ceremony out of the city of Philippopolis and the province was permanently united to Bulgaria. In the same way Moldavia and Wallachia were also joined, after they had been kept separate by the Treaty of Paris. The protectorate of Austria over Bosnia and Herzegovina must be looked upon as actual ownership. When these provinces first came into her power a certain number of the population resisted, but under the able administration of the Governor Kallaj perfect tranquillity reigns. Christian and Mohammedan are enabled to live in unity. The beautiful scenery of the country (only to mention such a place as Jajce) is yearly attracting tourists, and instead of torrents of blood and pyramids of skulls which were too often the only symbols of Turkish rule, we now find the comforts and appli- ances of civilized life. Finally we must say something of the additions to Greece. She also received a large accession of territory, including Thessaly with its capital Larissa. Although by a foolish war with the Turks she ran the risk of losing some of her recently 2 F 4SO A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [imi acquired territory, the European powers compelled Turkey to evacuate the provinces she had occupied, and last year (1898), Crete was declared autonomous. Although only twenty years have elapsed since the signing of the Treaty of Berlin we shall see that it has already undergone considerable modi- fications. In 1 88 1 Skobelev, who had been the great general of the Bulgarian war, took Geok Tepe and Askabad. The Russians were now gradually making themselves masters of Turkestan. The latter part of the reign of Alexander II. was disturbed by many plots against his life. On April 16, 1866, Karakazov shot at him at St Petersburg as already mentioned, and the attempt might have succeeded had not a peasant named Komisarov-Kostromski pushed away the assassin's arm. In the following year a Pole, named Berezowski, attempted the life of the Emperor at Paris while he was on a visit to Napoleon III. In 1878 Metzentsev, the head of the gendarmerie at St Petersburg, was killed ; and in the following year three attempts were made upon the life of the Emperor, which were nearly successful. Soloviov aimed a pistol at the Tsar for which he was executed, and attempts were made to blow up part of the Winter Palace and to wreck the train by which the Emperor was travelling in the South of Russia. On the . 1 2th of March 1881 Alexander was killed by a hand grenade on the bank of the Catherine Canal at St Petersburg. Before this time a mine had been discovered under the Malaya Sadovaya, by which street the Emperor was to pass. It had been dug with great labour as all the earth had to be secretly moved away in bags. A shop had been hired from which the mining was begun, and at this shop one of the female conspirators ostensibly sold butter and eggs. On the day of his murder the Emperor was proceeding from the Mikhailovski riding-school when a shot struck the carriage. Getting out to enquire what was the matter the Emperor was hit by a hand grenade and desperately wounded ; he had only strength to cry out : Vozmi ifdvoriets, tarn umeret, take me to the palace to die there. Zhelnikov, the conspirator who had thrown the bomb, 1881] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 451 was himself killed by the explosion. Another confederate blew out his brains as soon as he was arrested. The con- spirators were found to be six in number and were condemned to death ; one a Jewess, Jessa Helfmann, was sent into banishment. The others : Zhelabovski Sophia Perovskaya, who by letting fall a handkerchief, had given the signal to the assassins ; Kibalchich, Risakov and Mikhailov were sentenced to be hanged. On the 15 th of April 1881 they suffered death on the Semenovski Place near St Petersburg. Sophia Perovskaya was a woman of undaunted courage and met her fate with a spirit worthy of a better cause. Thus perished Alexander II., a man of amiable character if not of great strength of mind, in whose reign Russia certainly made considerable constitutional progress. To him she owes the establishment of the mirovoi sud and the zemstvo, but before all other things the emancipation of the serfs. It is well known also that he was about to summon a national sobor or parliament which had existed in the old times, but had been in abeyance since the days of the Emperor Feodor at the close of the seventeenth century. This would have been a direct step towards constitutional government. Alex- ander had married a princess of Hesse Darmstadt. He was succeeded by his second son Alexander, the eldest having died at Nice. Besides the heir to the throne he had the following children. Vladimir born in 1847, Alexis in 1850, Sergius in 1857, Paul in i860, and a daughter Mary, born in 1853 and married to the Duke of Edinburgh. It has already been said that in spite of the reactionary measures which characterised the reign of Nicholas, and the severity of the censorship, it was a period of great literary brilliancy. The tradition was to be prolonged to a consider- able extent during the reign of Alexander II. After the death of Bielinski the two most prominent critics were Alexander Druzhinin and Pavel Annenkov. The former died of con- sumption, having only reached the age of thirty-nine years. He had shown, however, great literary activity, and is interest- ing to Englishmen as having laboured to make his countrymen 452 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [1881 acquainted with our literature. He translated three of Shake- speare's plays, King Lear, Coriolanus, and Richard III., and a series of essays appeared by him entitled "Johnson and Boswell," pictures of literary manners in England in the second half of the eighteenth century. He also wrote an interesting work on Crabbe, in which he gave large extracts from his poems. Crabbe, " nature's sternest painter, but her best," as Byron said, is an author who would take with the Russians. The severe pictures of rustic life are quite in their style, and seem to have stimulated such poems as those of Nekrasov. There was a natural reaction after the false idyllic poetry of last century. At Moscow the Slavophiles were for some time in full power, Khomiakov and the two Aksakovs. They were in opposition to the Zapadniks or Westerns. The great theory of the Slavophiles was that there was nothing to learn from the West, which was worn out and corrupted. The tradition of the Russian novel was admirably sustained by Turgueniev (1818-1883), in many respects the greatest of the Russian novelists. His genius was first evident in the Zapiski Okhotnika, or " Memoirs of a Sportsman," but culminated in Dvorianskoe Gniezdo, "A Nest of Gentlefolks." He is conspicuous for his exquisite female portraits. No man also better understood the Russian muzhik. In 1881 died Feodor Dostoievski, who has described with so much vigour his Siberian exile; the result of his having foolishly joined the conspiracy of Petrashevski. An astonishingly pathetic novel by him is his Biednie Liudi, " Poor People." Tolstoi is still living, and has made a great reputation not only by his extraordinary descriptive power, as witness the marvellous panorama unrolled before us in " War and Peace," but also his strange socialistic views, and the austerity of his life. An eminent English critic considered his " Anna Karenina " the best novel ever written in any language. Other Russian novelists of considerable merit were Grigorovich and Pisarev. Gleb Uspenski and Zlatovratski are still living. Saltikov, the author of the very clever " Provincial Sketches," who wrote 1877] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 453 under the nom de guerre of Stchedrin, died in 1889. He was in his own time one of the most original writers whom Russia has produced. Some interesting accounts of his last days will be found in the Memoirs of Dr Bielogolovoi, published a year or so ago, which have now gone into a third edition. Among the latest novelists of undoubted talent are Garshin, now dead ; and Anton Chekhov, whose tales are sometimes appalling from their realism. A clever writer of comedies was Ostrovski, whose works are beginning to be known in England. His Burya, "the Storm," is a powerful piece, dealing with middle-class life, the most diffi- cult of all to treat artistically. The most serious tragedy in modern times since the Boris Godunov of Pushkin has been the trilogy composed by Count Alexis Tolstoi, also the author of a novel Kniaz Serebriannoi. Tolstoi, like Pushkin, saw what dramatic capabilities the story of Ivan the Terrible and his son presented. The greatest poet since the days of Pushkin has been Nicholas Nekrasov (t 1877), author of many striking sketches, in which the hard life of the Russian peasant is faithfully drawn. His longest poem is entitled Moroz Krasni JVos, " Red-nosed Frost," the title of which is taken from a Russian saying. Of this there is a good English translation. Nekrasov has a wonderful poem also on the poor broken soldier who returns to his native village. Among the Malo- Russians arose the extraordinary poet Taras Shevchenko, half artist, half lyrist, whose life was as varied and tragic as his poetry. Born a serf, he was only emancipated when a young man by a sub- scription among friends, who admired his artistic talent and purchased him from his master. While spending a fairly pleasant life afterwards in literary and other coteries, he had the misfortune to get mixed up with some secret societies in consequence of which he was sent to serve in Siberia as a common soldier. He endured this miserable condition of life for some years, but was at last pardoned through the influence of some friends in the milder reign of Alexander II. Shevchenko has left us some very striking poems in the 454 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [imo Malo-Russian language or dialect. They must be read with such writings as the Taras Bulba of Gogol, if we want to know what Cossack life really was. In 1861, died at Voronezh, Ivan Nikitin, who has left some poems of great merit, one of the best of which is Burlak, the name given to a boatman who plies his trade on the Volga. Nikitin was one of the poets who have come from the people, and deserves (in a measure) to be ranked with Koltsov, who was his fellow-townsman. Some strange phenomena in this way have been witnessed in Russia. Two other poets are also to be reckoned as belonging to this class, Ivan Surikov and Spiridon Drozhzhin. Surikov died of consumption in 1880 ; his life was passed in poverty. Drozhzhin is fortunately still living. He was born in 1848, and has had a very chequered career. It is impossible, however, to find room here for anything like an enumeration of recent Russian authors, such as Maikov, Fet (Shenshin), Polonski, and Plestcheev among the poets. In 1897 Polonski died. Soloviov left a large History of Russia in twenty-eight volumes, and valuable historical works were produced by Ustrialov and Bestuzhev-Riumin. Nor have the Russians been behind hand in art, as witness the names of Verestchagin, Ankolski, and Ai'vazovski; or in music, as Glinka, Dargomizhki, Chaikovski, and Rubinstein testify. In the last few years Russia has been making immense strides in the domain of physical science, for which indeed the Russian nature seems to show great capacity. It would be impossible in a short work like the present to do any more than name some of the leading men. The highest position has been gained by the great chemist Mendeleef, who began his studies at St Petersburg, and concluded them at Heidel- berg. He has shown his originality by the new method which he has introduced into chemistry. He has applied to the mathematical analysis which has had such excellent results in astronomy. Mendeleef has proved that the chemist can discover by mathematical calculations new simple 1880] THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER II. 455 substances, exactly as the astronomer discovers new planets. This great man was born in Siberia, where his father, a Russian officer, was quartered. He had the misfortune to lose him at an early age, but all the care and expenses of his education were provided by the labours and self-sacrifice of his mother. The son, in the dedication which he has prefixed to his great work, has shown how grateful he felt to this excellent woman. The dedication is so characteristically Russian that we cannot forbear adding it. " This work is dedicated to the memory of a mother by her son. This mother by great self-sacrifice was able to educate her son. She trained him by her example, and kept him in the right paths by her love. To devote him to science, she brought him from Siberia, exhausting her small means and wearing herself out in doing so. When she died, she left him the follow- ing admonition as an inheritance : Avoid Latin fraud, persevere in labour, and seek scientific truth with patience. This woman understood how trumpery is rhetoric, and how science, peacefully and without violence, dissipates all pre- judices, and substitutes for them liberty, the well-being of the generality, and inward happiness. The son has always thought it a sacred duty to carry out the wishes of his mother." The opus magnum of Mendeleev is his " Principles of Chemistry," of which there is an English translation. A few years ago the Professor received the degree of D.C.L. from the University of Oxford. The name of Pirogov is widely known throughout Europe as one of the most eminent surgeons whom the world has seen. He first made a great reputation at the time of the Crimean War. One of the methods employed in human anatomy is named after him. He has now been for some time dead. Professor Ilya Mechnikov has since 1880 devoted himself especially to micro-biology. After having been professor at the University of Odessa, he has been appointed to carry on the work of the late M. Pasteur in France. Russia has also produced some celebrated mathematicians, such as Ostrogradski, and the late Mme. Kovalevskaya, who was Pro- 45<5 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA [iM7 fessor of Mathematics at the recently founded University of Stockholm. Sonia Kovalevskaya was an extraordinary genius, and the publication of her Memoirs a short time ago by her friend left a great impression in the civilised world. She had received a prize from the French Academy for her mathematical work. Other eminent mathematicians have been Lobachevski, remarkable for his original views on geometry which caused him to gain a European reputation ; Chebychev, and Zolotarev, the last, however, committed suicide at an early age before he had been able to prove his great talents to the world. Finally, before quitting the subject of the latest Russian authors, mention must be made of Katkov (born 1820, died 1887), who, as editor of one of the most popular Russian journals, wielded immense power among his countrymen. We have already briefly alluded to the Russian painters. A few words must be devoted to Verestchagin, a man of astonishing genius and one who has carried realism in art to its utmost limits. His pictures of life in Bokhara and the newly-acquired possessions of Russia in Central Asia first attracted attention. These were followed by his very realistic representations of the Russo-Turkish War, and the horrors of the Shipka Pass. He has recently ex- hibited in London his pictures of the Napoleonic expedition in 1812. The painting's of Verestchagin seem to serve the purpose of bringing the horrors of war home to us. His picture of a pyramid of human skulls dedicated to all conquerors who have been, who are, and who shall be, is not to be forgotten when it has once been seen. Ivanov, who died young, was a great painter of sacred subjects. Aivazovski, who has recently died, is celebrated for his landscapes and sea views. It is in the painting of scenery that many Russian artists have excelled. CHAPTER XV SUMMARY OF THE REIGNS OF ALEXANDER III. AND NICHOLAS II. (1881-1899) 'T'HE facts of the reign of the Emperor Alexander III. ■*■ must be briefly narrated as they are so recent, but owing to the great strides made by Russia in this period it seems necessary to say something about the condition of the country. Alexander II. was succeeded by his second son of the same name, the eldest son having died at Nice in 1865. The new sovereign was an amiable and honest man, but he adopted the advice of reactionaries. Nor indeed can we wonder at this policy, if we remember the results of the liberal tendencies of his father. The country was full of plots, and a kind of bodyguard of the Emperor's person was formed by volunteers from the Russian aristocracy. The young Emperor found reactionary advisers in Count Dmitri Tolstoi, Pab iedonostse v, and Katkov. He had married the daughter of the King of Denmark, who, on entering the Greek Church, became Maria Feodorovpa. The Nihilists were still active; an attempt was made in 1881 to kill Cherevin who was the coadjutor of the minister of the interior. Strelnikov, procuror-general, was killed at Kiev in 1882, and Sudeikin, a high police official, the same year. The Russian colonisation of Asia advanced with giant strides ; Merv and Pendjeh being added to the Russian possessions in 1884 and 1886, and in the latter year the Transcaspian railway was opened. On the 29th of October 1888 occurred the mysterious railway accident at Borki, on the Kursk Kharkov line, in which several persons were killed and the Imperial family nearly lost their lives. Some see in this 458 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA occurrence simply an accident, but others look upon it as an attempt of Nihilists. The number of the police was increased, and in the large towns the owners of houses were responsible for the behaviour of their tenants; they were forced to exercise such a sur- veillance that no suspected persons could enter the houses, no contraband books were to be introduced, nor explosive materials. The dvornik or porter must keep watch over that part of the street which is immediately in front of the house where he is employed. During this reign also the Jewish question became a burning one. It is calculated that there are five millions of them in Russia, and they are only allowed to inhabit certain governments. They have latterly emigrated in great numbers to the United States, Brazil, the Argentine Republic, and other countries. In the year 1891 alone more than 10,000 quitted Russia. Poland, completely weakened by the failure of the insur- rection of 1863, remained tranquil. Poles were, however, forbidden to purchase land in Lithuania, and an ukaze was issued preventing foreigners from purchasing immovable property in Poland. The object of this is said to have been to keep Germans from settling in the country. One of the most extraordinary developments of modern times is the commercial growth of the town of Lodz, which is situated in the government of Piotrkow, and numbers 315,209 inhabitants, being one of the largest cities of the empire. Great efforts were made, and have been continued to the present time, to Russianise the Baltic provinces. In order to understand the condition of affairs there we must examine into the ethnological elements of this part of the empire. According to the most trustworthy accounts, the prevailing population is Esthonian, Curonian, or Lettish, the Germans (landlords or tradesmen and artizans in towns) being only 3*5, 6"8, and 7*6 per cent, respectively of the population. Prince Kropotkin says that in the three provinces, Courland, Esthonia, and Livonia, Riga included, they hardly amount to 120,000 out of 1,800,000 inhabitants. The Russians have introduced ALEXANDER III. AND NICHOLAS II. 459 their language as the organ of education, and the University of Dorpat has been Russified. Moreover, the name of the city has reverted to that which it anciently had — Yuriev. In 1888 a great festival took place in the ancient city of Kiev to commemorate the nine-hundredth anniversary of the introduction of Christianity into Russia. Many ecclesiastics of foreign communities sent sympathetic telegrams, among others the Archbishop of Canterbury and the celebrated Roman Catholic Bishop of Djakovo, Strossmayer. The latter on account of this received a public rebuke from the Emperor of Austria. Meanwhile the Russians, as will be more minutely described in the chapter on their progress in the East, advanced in their Asiatic colonisation. The Transcaspian railway, ■ which originally terminated at Samarkand, has now (1899) been carried as far as Andizhan. Russia has extended her pos- sessions till she has reached a point a little north of Herat. She is now separated from British India by the natural frontiers of the Hindu-Kush and from China by the Kizil Yart. In 1890 the heir-apparent, now the Emperor Nicholas II., took a long tour in Eastern Asia. It was during this journey that the great Siberian railway was begun. Although the natural bias of the Emperor Alexander III. - was towards autocracy, he was not sympathetic in all points with the policy of Bismarck. He discovered that the courts of Vienna and Berlin had concluded another treaty to which he was not a party. He also was displeased at the efforts made by Austria to push her influence in the Balkan Penin- sula in which she was assisted by Bismarck. It has been said that Russia had made a secret stipulation with Austria that she should take Bosnia and Herzegovina. It seems to us that by so doing she would be adopting a suicidal policy, and weaken her hegemony of the Balkan States, to attain which she had already shed so much blood and lavished so much treasure. In Bulgaria she had at one time lost influence. Alexander of Battenberg had been forced to 460 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA resign, and had not succeeded in making himself a persona grata to the Tsar. His government of the principality, at first so vigorous and promising, had become feeble. Sub- sequent revelations have enabled us to understand this change. He was already suffering from the exhausting disease which was soon to carry him off. His successor, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg, was elected in opposition to the Tsar, but eventually made peace with him. The whole object of Stambulov in the marriage he arranged between Prince Ferdinand and a lady of the house of Habsburg was distinctly anti-Russian. The Russian minister was for a time withdrawn from Sofia in consequence of this hostility. The only firm ally of Russia in the Balkan was Prince Nicholas of Montenegro, who paid several visits to Alexander and was welcomed by him in very flattering terms. Two of his daughters married princes of the Russian Imperial family, a third married a member of the family of Karageorgevitch, the rival candidate to the Servian throne with the Obrenovitches. Another daughter has married the King of Italy. Roumania which had fought on the side of Russia in the Bulgarian campaign and whose troops had greatly distinguished themselves at the siege of Plevna, was more and more drawn towards Austria by economic reasons. In March 1881 Charles of Hohenzollern had caused himself to be crowned at Bukharest. Milan of Servia also was crowned king of that country in the following year. He too showed Austrian leanings. In 1883 Alexander of Battenberg had got rid of the Russian ministers and found himself constrained to adopt a more national policy. In 1885 Eastern Roumelia, as it was called, was annexed without bloodshed to Bulgaria as we have previously described. Upon this taking place the incapable Milan of Servia pretended that the aggrandisement of Bulgaria destroyed the equilibrium of the Balkan states. He accord- ingly invaded the Bulgarian territories with a large army. Alexander of Bulgaria, although he was inferior in numbers, encountered him at Slivnitsa on the 19th of November 1885, ALEXANDER' III. AND NICHOLAS II. 461 and completely defeated him. The Bulgarians now invaded Servia and won another victory at Pirot. In spite, however, of his great services Alexander of Battenberg was seized in bed on the night of August the 21st, 1886, by conspirators of the Russian party, and made to sign an act of abdication. He was then conducted across the Danube into Bessarabia and from thence to Lemberg in Austrian Poland. But Bulgaria protested against this put- rage and the concocters of the plot. Battenberg was invited to return. The attempts of the Bulgarian prince to mitigate the wrath of Alexander III. were fruitless. The latter plainly told him that he did not approve of his return, and at the same time would not make any statement as to his future intentions. He simply said that he should act in conformity with the interests of Russia. The prince saw that all opposi- tion was useless, he nominated a regency, one of the members of which was Stambulov, addressed a proclamation to the people and retired from the country (Sept. 7, 1886). After an interregnum of nearly a year Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg was elected, a grandson of Louis Philippe, but he was not recognised by any of the powers ; and the post of Russian minister at Sofia remained vacant. Stambulov was now the leading man in the country; he was a native of Trnovo and it is said had begun life as the waiter at a restaurant. He was a violent and unscrupulous man ; he put many persons to death in arbitrary fashion, and in one of the blood feuds so frequent in these countries he was afterwards murdered. Such was the state of things in Bulgaria. On the 1 2th of December the Transcaspian railway was opened. Russia in this way found herself completely deserted by the Balkan States, which had been encouraged by Austria and Germany. It thus resulted that she looked to an. alliance with France. In the year 1887 t0 °k place the death of the eminent publicist Katkov, who had been allowed in his journal to preach almost a crusade against Germany. The Emperor of Russia had on two, if not more, occasions 462 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA prevented the outbreak of another war between Germany and France. His sympathy with the latter country now became open. In the month of July 1891 the French fleet under the command of Admiral Gervais visited Cronstadt. ' On the 4th of August fifty-five officers and twelve sailors accompanied Admiral Gervais to Moscow and were very cordially received. Two years afterwards a Russian squadron, commanded by Admiral Avellane, returned in France the visit of Gervais. The Russian fleet came to Toulon and was received with a series of magnificent fetes. Avellane and his officers also paid a visit to Paris. In 1 89 1 the heir-apparent Nicholas, the present Emperor, made his tour, and while at Vladivostok the first turf was dug for the formation of the Siberian railway, which has since advanced with such giant strides. In the year 1893 the eminent musician Chaikovski died of cholera, from imprudently drinking a glass of iced water. In this year the heir-apparent Nicholas was betrothed to the Princess Alice of Hesse-Homburg, the grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. In 1894 the part of the Siberian railway between Cheliabinsk and Tomsk was opened, and trains began to run. Towards the end of the year 1894 Europe suddenly learned that the Emperor Alexander was very ill. He suffered, among other maladies, from disease of the heart, and his ail- ments were probably aggravated by the life of continual agitation which he had been compelled to lead ; grave political complica- tions and Nihilist plots on all sides. The unhappy Emperor was frequently heard to exclaim that he envied the Russian muzhik, who could live in peace with his wife and children. Alexander was a man with a genuine detestation of war. He could never forget the horrors he had witnessed during the campaign in Bulgaria, in which he accompanied his father. He did all he could to make his children detest war. He used to dwell upon the frightful sufferings which he had witnessed, and used to say, " May God keep you from ever seeing war, or from ever drawing a sword." Perhaps it is in consequence of these teach- ings that his son Nicholas II. inaugurated the Council of Peace ALEXANDER III. AND NICHOLAS II. 463 at the Hague. He died at Livadia in the Crimea, whither he had gone for the benefit of his health, on October 22, 1894,- and was succeeded by his son Nicholas (born in 1868), who married on the 26th of November the same year the Princess Alice, who became in the Greek Church Alexandra Feodorovna. During the period in which the present Emperor has reigned, he has seemed anxious to carry on the policy of his father in regard to France. Count Shuvalov was appointed governor of Warsaw, and some of the severer laws in force there have been relaxed. In fact the Emperor seems to promise to govern Poland in a milder fashion than had been done since the insurrection of 1863. Shuvalov was succeeded in 1897 by Prince Imeretinski, since deceased. In this year also Russia was visited by the late President Faure. The Siberian railway has been successfully carried on. Three daughters have been born to the present Emperor. Other events of importance have been the making of a railway from Vologda to Archangelsk in 1897. It is reputed to be the most northerly railway in the world. The press laws seem to have been revived in Russia lately with a good deal of severity, and several journals and magazines have been temporarily suspended. The mission of Russia at Washington was in 1898 changed into an embassy. On the 28th of June the King of Roumania, with the heir-apparent Ferdinand, visited St Petersburg. This was no doubt a journey of importance, since Roumania had shown to a certain extent Austrian leanings. On the 16th of August the famous Russian General Chernaev died at his estate Tabishki, in the government of Mogilev. To him the Russians owed the conquest of Turkestan, and he was one of the heroes of the Serbo-Turkish war. On the 24th of August the Tsar somewhat startled Europe by his proposal of a Peace Congress, which took place at the Hague. Recently Lord Salisbury has declared that terms have been arranged with Russia on the subject of China in a satisfactory manner, but up to this time we have not been furnished with details. There are, however, many clouds in the horizon, especially in 464 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA Finland, where the Russian governor, Bobrikov, appointed last August, is not popular, and the Finns are displeased with the conscription which is being introduced. Finland had, from the time of her annexation to Sweden by the treaty of Noteberg in 1323, a position in which she enjoyed equal rights. But she was gradually forced into a subordinate rank, although she does not seem to have had such an abnormal position as the Baltic provinces when belonging to Sweden, where in reality Swedish rule never asserted itself. We have seen in what resulted the efforts of Patkul to protect the rights of his fellow-citizens. John III. of Sweden raised Finland to the position of a grand duchy, on account of the services of the Finns against Ivan the Terrible. At the corona- tion of Charles IX. (1607) the youthful Gustavus Adolphus, heir to the crown, carried the standard of Finland as Grand Duke of Finland. In spite, however, of the services which the Finns had rendered in the wars with the Russians, they were badly treated. The country was governed as a de- pendency, and became the prey of Swedish extortioners. Moreover it suffered again severely from the incursions of the Russians in the time of Boris tGodunov, which were only put a stop to by the peace of Teusina (1585). Then, however, broke out the civil war between the partisans of Sigismund III., at that time King of Poland also, and Duke Charles. Finland was very serviceable to Sweden in the Thirty Years' War. It had suffered, however, greatly by the incessant fighting, and many districts were altogether depopulated. Further miseries were to be added during the foolish government of Christina. In her reign we are told that " two-thirds of the country and one-third of the revenue had been given away to noblemen living in Sweden, who were for the most part foreigners." Finland had become the great area of the Swedish aristocracy for plunder. Matters became even worse in the reign of Charles X. in consequence of his wars with Poland. The Finnish troops were taken from the country, which was thus left unpro- tected, and was invaded by the Russians, who took the ALEXANDER III. AND NICHOLAS II. 465 part of John Casimir, the King of Poland, who claimed the crown. The war, however, was put an end to by the Peace of Oliwa in 1660. No sooner were the Swedes released from their difficulties than they began to encroach upon the privileges of their Finnish brethren, and to treat them as the weaker partner. Finland was again exploited by greedy officials, and the trade of the country was paralysed owing to the monopolies granted to the Swedish markets. Perhaps in some respects the English acted in the same way to their Irish fellow-subjects, but indeed toleration and generosity in these matters are but things of yester- day. Under the absolute rule of Charles XI. Sweden enjoyed twenty years' peace. Finland, to a certain extent, profited by this. The king, however, never visited the country, and a law was passed in 1689, by which the Finns were excluded from the rank of officers in the army. It seems to be acknowledged that about this time efforts were made to suppress the Finnish language ; we shall see that it never held up its head till the country had been annexed to Russia. The turbulent reign of Charles XII. nearly led to the complete exhaustion of Finland. After the battle of Narva in 1700, in which many Finns fought, the country was again emptied of troops. Thus Finland became for the third time the prey of the Russians, who ravaged it during the seven years between 17 14 and 1721, as has already been described in our narrative. The Swedes did nothing for the Finns, and there was even a scheme to make Prince of Finland, Charles Frederick of Holstein, the nephew of Charles XII., who had married the daughter of Peter the Great. The results of this marriage have already been described. After the peace of Nystadt in 1721, by which the greater part of Finland was given back to Sweden, the country fared no better. Only one of its harbours, Abo, obtained the right of trading with foreign countries. Even the number of Finnish representatives at the Swedish diet was diminished ; Stockholm alone had as many repre- sentatives as all the Finnish towns put together. 2 G 466 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA / In the year 1741 the Swedish faction called the "Caps," carried on negotiations with the view of making Finland autonomous under Russian protection. The " Hats '' showed great contempt for the Finns, and gave as one of their reasons for declaring war against Russia in 1741, that, even if they failed, the only result would be the devastation and loss of Finland. The whole of Finland was now occupied and administered by the Russians for two years (1742-43). In the reign of Elizabeth hopes were aroused that Fin- land would be made autonomous, but the Empress looked forward to its incorporation with the Russian Empire. In the treaty of Abo (1742), Sweden offered to cede Finland to the Empress Elizabeth if she would consent to the choice of an heir to the throne who was agreeable to the " Hats." During the struggles between the "Hats" and "Caps" which followed, Finland received very unjust treatment. The seaports in the country which had the right of trading abroad were limited to three; native Finnish officials were replaced by Swedes, and it was even proposed to substitute Swedish forces for the Finnish militia. On the accession of Gustavus III., Finland met with better treatment. The king resolved to support the Finnish nobility. Things were going on well when the king quarrelled with Sprengporten, and the side of the latter was upheld by those who wished to make Finland autonomous, and the queen-mother, who wished to see her favourite son, Duke Charles, made an independent grand duke of Finland. To carry out these plans Sprengporten entered the service of Russia, against which power Gustavus had declared war. The details of this struggle have been made familiar to the reader in previous chapters. The fate of Finland was ultimately sealed by the foolish attempt of Gustavus IV. to disobey Napoleon's Berlin decree. The circumstances of the conquest of Finland have already been narrated. It has been thought advisable to show the exact relations in which Finland stood to Sweden in old times, and to thereby make clear how it was possible to separ- ate it from Sweden with such apparent ease. The nationality of the Finns had in fact always been more or less depressed. CHAPTER XVI THE SPREAD OF THE RUSSIAN DOMINION IN ASIA T^HE development of the great empire which the Russians -*- have founded in Asia is of so much importance in the history of the world and the progress of civilization that we propose to devote to it a special chapter. The first Russian acquisition upon this continent was a portion of Siberia (Sibir), which was acquired in 1582 by the robber chief Yermak. For his offences he had been condemned to death, but was pardoned for his services in acquiring this territory for Russia. But the country had been previously visited by traders. In 1 587 Tobolsk was founded. This was built near the native town of Sibir, which no longer exists. In 1604 Tomsk was founded. The deportation of criminals to Siberia seems to have begun at the close of the sixteenth century. Thither, too, was deported the great bell of the city of Uglitch as a punishment, because the assassination of the young Tsar Dimitri had taken place there. In 1647 the Cossack Dezhnev first sailed across Behring Straits. , The next portion of the continent over which the Russians acquired influence was what is now collectively called Georgia. Some of the princes of that country had avowed themselves Russian tributaries quite early. Thus Alexander II., in 1587, had acknowledged the suzerainty of Feodor Ivanovich. In 1538, Levan, ruler of Mingrelia, took the oath of allegiance to the Emperor Alexis, and in 1653 Imeretia became a Russian province. To return to Siberia, in 1658 Nerchinsk was founded, 467 468 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA situated on the river Nercha. From this place, Khabarov set forth to annex the district of the Amour, but the territory was given back to China in 1689. It was not to be regained by Russia till 1858. In 1669 Irkutsk was founded. It lies on the right bank of the river Angara, opposite to the mouth of the river Irkut. In 1697 the Russians annexed the penin- sula of Kamchatka with its mixed population of barbaric tribes. In 1723 the western shore of the Caspian Sea was acquired from Persia. In 1783, Heraklius, the king of Georgia, accepted the Russian suzerainty. We have already spoken of the misfortunes of this king, who lived to a great age, and suffered much at the hands of his Mohammedan neighbours. The provinces over wluch he ruled were Kartha- linia and Kakhetia. In 1801, on the death of the king, Georgia was incorporated with Russia. This was a very valuable acquisition for the latter power. The city of Tiflis has risen from its ashes under Russian rule, and in connection with the Russian railway system bids fair to become one of the most important cities in Asia. Mingrelia followed the fate of Georgia (Gruzia) in 1803. In 1807 Erivan was taken, and by the treaty of 1828 Erivan and Nakhichevan were definitely incorporated with Russia. In 1856 the district of Eastern Siberia was organised. In 1858, by the treaty of Aigun, the valuable district of the Amur was annexed to Russia. At the same time, in order to guarantee her position towards China and Japan, Russia signed the treaty of Tian-Tsin with the former and Yeddo with the latter power (August 19). The following year saw the complete subjugation of the Caucasus by Prince Baria- tinski. Gunib, the headquarters of Shamyl, was captured and he himself taken prisoner. There were, however, occa- sional outbreaks lasting till the year 1864. In 1865 Tashkent was taken by General Chernaev ; the whole district was annexed in 1867. It was in this year that the Russians sold to the United States the territory of Alaska in North America, which belonged to them. In 1868 the historic cities of Samarkand and Bokhara came into the possession of the THE RUSSIAN DOMINION IN ASIA 469 Russians ; Khiva followed next in 1873. In 1840 an expedi- tion had been undertaken against this city by General Perovski, but it was unsuccessful. In 1876 the Kuril Islands were given to Japan in exchange for the peninsula of Sakhalin. This has since been used by Russia as a convict settlement. In 1 88 1 Skobelev took Geok Tepe, and brought to an end the expedition to Akhal Tekin. This eminent soldier died in 1882. He was born at Riazan in 1843. Geok Tepe was one of the chief towns of the Turkomans. Askhabad sur- rendered without striking a blow on January 30th. The cession of Merv was merely a matter of time. In 1884 four Khans of the country came and volunteered to put themselves under Russian protection. The English saw this progress of the Russian arms with jealousy and dis- pleasure, but took no hostile steps against Russia. General Annenkov now busied himself with the carrying out of the great Transcaspian railway. This was accomplished in the midst of astonishing difficulties. At one time the vast moving sands of the desert seemed on the point of burying the workmen ; at another they were threatened by the inundations of the Amour-Daria (the Oxus). The line at first extended as far as Samarkand, the extreme limit of the conquests of Alexander the Great towards the north, and the old capital of Ghengis Khan and Tamerlane. Here was preserved the celebrated Cufic Koran which now forms one of the treasures of the Public Library of St Petersburg. The opening of this line took place on May 17th, 1888. In 1885 General Komarov defeated the Afghans at Kushk (March 30th). The English, viewing with jealousy the approach of the Russians, are accused by French and Russian authors of having stimulated the Afghans to en- counter the Russians. In 1886 the inhabitants of Pendjeh submitted to the Russians as the people of Merv had done. But matters were now partially arranged with the English Government. The treaty of July 22nd, 1887, fixed the limits of Afghanistan, and left in the hands of Russia the pass of Zulfikar and the course of the Mourghab as far as 47o A HISTORY OF RUSSIA Merushak. The line of the frontier was drawn close to the north of Herat. In the year 1886 an important change was introduced in one of the Russian acquisitions. Batoum was declared to be no longer a free port. This valuable port was ceded to the Russians by the Treaty of Berlin, as we have already seen; one of the characteristics of which was that while affecting to weaken Russia, it really handed over to her all that she desired. Batoum is now the great port for her Circassian possessions, being so much superior to Poti. It is fast becoming a handsome city, on the ruins of a little dirty Turkish town. In 1887 a treaty was signed with Great Britain regulating the Afghan frontier. In 1891 some troops, under the command of Colonel Yanov, crossed the Pamirs, and advanced even beyond the Hindu-Kush. In 1892 they returned and established themselves at Sarkad (on one of the upper branches of the Amour-Daria). They thus seized all the district of the Pamirs between the Transalai and the Hindu-Kush, recognising the rights of the Afghans to the course of the Amour-Daria only below Sarkad. On the other hand, they paid no attention to any Chinese rights over the Eastern valleys and plateaux, and fixed the chain of the Kizil Yart as their limit. These are, indeed, geographical frontiers clearly marked out. The Kizil Yart separates them from Kashgar, which is governed by the Chinese, and the Hindu-Kush and Karakorum (the old Mongolian capital) are the limits to Northern India. The English accordingly have assumed the sovereignty of the tribes in the valleys, and on the 27th of February 1895 tne position of Russia and England was accurately marked out. In 1 89 1 the first turf was cut by the heir to the throne, now the Emperor Nicholas II., of the new Siberian railway, destined to unite Vladivostok and the extreme possessions of Russia to the capital. It is now practically finished between Cheliabinsk and Vladivostok, with a branch line to Khabarovsk and another to Port Arthur. On the side of the Pacific the Russians were everywhere active. China was compelled to recognise the independence of THE RUSSIAN DOMINION IN ASIA 471 Corea, and Russia concluded a treaty of commerce with the latter power. In 1895, at the conclusion of the war between China and Japan, the latter country was prevented from taking possession of Corea. Russia was now busily pushing her interests in the extreme East. In 1897 a consulate was established in Siam, and on the 9th of December the Transcaspian railway was extended as far as Kokand. On the 27th of March, of the year 1898, an agreement was signed between Russia and China, whereby the latter cedes to the former for twenty-five years, which, by mutual consent, may be prolonged, Port Arthur and Talian Van, with the surrounding territory, and leave was granted to carry thither a branch of the Siberian railway. This port is of great importance to Russia. Much opposition was raised in England; and the English succeeded in procuring from the Chinese the port of Wei-hai-Wei, about the value of which very opposite opinions have been held. On the 15th of April the village of Nikolskoe, in the South Ussurian District, was changed into the town of Nikolsk-Ussuriski. On the 28th of May the Emir of Bokhara, Mir-Seid-Bahadur-Khan, arrived in St Petersburg. On the 29th of the same month occurred the extraordinary rising in the Margelan district of the province of Fergan of a Mohammedan band of mutineers under a Mullah named Ishan Mohammed AH Khalif, who preached a holy war against the infidels. It is currently reported that papers were found upon the conspirators which •showed that they had been tampered with by emissaries from Constantinople. The mutineers fell upon the Russian camp at night in a time of profound peace, when many of the officers were absent on leave; twenty-two were killed and sixteen wounded in the camp, and the two regiments would have been annihilated had it not been for the heroism of a Georgian officer in the Russian service who was surprised in bed, but contrived to rush in his shirt from his tent with a revolver in each hand and succeeded in giving the alarm to his comrades. He managed to shoot down many of his opponents, but himself received some grievous wounds. The 472 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA Russians executed the Mullah and a few of the ringleaders. At first he had escaped from their pursuit, but was afterwards captured. The speech which he made before he was hanged was eminently characteristic of the Oriental, and is not with- out its signification for our own countrymen when dealing with Mohammedans. He acknowledged that the Russians had made no attempt to tamper with his religion, or to molest his countrymen in their mode of life. He said he was convinced that Oriental habits were so incompatible with those of the west that he felt himself justified in organising the insurrection. On the 30th of June the extreme eastern Cape of Siberia was named Dezhnev in honour of the ad- venturous Cossack who has already been mentioned in this chapter. Thus by the genius and enterprise of General Annenkov the capitals of Peter tbe Great and Tamerlane have been united. The only interruptions are the crossing of the Caspian, which lasts from fifteen to eighteen hours, and the journey from Vladikavkaz to Tiflis, which is in the centre of the line from Poti to Bakou. The idea has been enter- tained of a railway from Vladikavkaz to Gori, but it would require some very expensive tunnelling to traverse the Caucasus. It now takes only ten days to get from St Petersburg to Samarkand. There is a regular service of steamers between Odessa, Sevastopol and Batoum. D < d a - z .~ II v 5*3 5? 3 "3 J •a ii r ■< . u o -3=2 k-«- < OS z o -<00 U3 C/3 o a o ro o si H .- •s UJ5 < 5 5 -■ « II ° s C4 ■4 .* -a , 3 fri o Olga Karl F. Wiirteml- ■1- — D •< o^g ho ii a RIA = ke of tenber tn 00 £3 — B 04 < aj: H ■f- en j M j < Ed •< tn — K -X 3 o a — a < a w < . lj -> 04 O-S* -JjOO s u w .s-*- — Q a < « -t i-3 o <£ > o<2 z h-4 < — ^ 00 ■ H^ 3 t- - hH ■< z-i- &3 ^ a o o 1 < OS < z B • •J < -8a — o — H < en . o 2 E- 1-1 < -83 fc-K ■i a : O INDEX Abdullah, 382 Aberdeen, Lord, 401, 402, 403 Abbas Mirza, 374, 375 Abo, 65, 187 Adlerkreuz, 283 Adrian, 79, 97 Adrianople, 61, 379 Afghans, 85 Afrosinia 81, 83 Aga Mohammed, 277 Aigun, 468 Aivasovski, 456 Aix-Ia-Chapelle, 172 Akhalkalaki, 380 Akhalsik, 372, 373 Akhmet III., 56, 137 Akkerman, 361 Akulchb, 393 Aland Islands, 66 Alberom, 69 Aleksandrenko, 101, 183 Alexander I., 272-357 Alexander II., 424-456 Alexander III., 284-451, 457-463 Alexander K. of Poland, 8 Alexander of Battenberg, 459, 460, 461 Alexandra Pavlovna, 241 Alexis Mikhailovich, 1-4, 27, 77, 79. 9°> '32 . v c „ Alexis Petrovich, 15, 57, 64, 80, 108 Algarotti, 102 Alma, 411 Altrandstadt, 40 Altschau, 130 Amsterdam, 73 Andizhan, 459 Andruszowo, 6 Ankerstrom, 83, 236 Anne Ivanovna, 10, 11, 54, 77, 98, 109, "3> i2'-'53> J 59 Anne Leopoldovna, 108, 165 Anne d. of Peter the Great, 88, 89, 108, 113, 121 Annenkov, 45 1 Anspach, 278 Apraksin, 50, 58, 66, 70, 86, 104, 105, 113, 118, 124 Apraksin, 177 Arad, 399 Arakcheev, 258, 259, 345, 346, 347 Archangel, 17, 34 Ardahan, 447 Arkhipich, Timothy, 1 1 Armenians, 88 Armfeldt, 65 Askabad, 450 Astrabad, 87 Astrakhan, 38, 87, 145 Augustus II., 27, 41, 45, 52, 64, 68, 90 Augustus III., 127, 141, 216 Austerlitz, 279 Avril, 15 Azov, 17, 18, 27, 29, 35, 41, 46,48, 59, 6o, 61, 146 B Bagration, 289 Baireuth, 73 Bakchisarai, 147 Baku, 72, 87 Bakunin, 440 Balaklava, 413 Baltic, the, Barante de, Barclay de Tolly, 287, 294 Barguzin, 361 Bariatinski, 124 Barkley, 437, 438, 439 Batory, 5, 89, 209, 292 Batiushkov, 354 Batoum, 447, 470 e, 35? 476 INDEX Bafthyany, 399 Baturin, 44, 45, 112, 113 Beaconsfield, Lord, 447 Beauharnais, Eugene, 33 1 Beauplan, 5 Bebring, 113, 116 Bekovich, 85, 86 Belgrade, 148, 151 Benbow, 21 Bender, 30, 52, 56 Benningsen, 272, 273, 322 Berenger, 203 Berezina, 41, 331 Berezov, 72, 117 Berezowski, 450 Berg, 436 Berlin, 64, 73 Bernadotte (Charles John), 285 Berthier, 330 Bessarabia, 50, 58 Bestuzhev, 168, 180 Bestuzhev, 360 Betski, 254 Bibikov, 188, 311 Bielaiev, 319 Billings, 226 Biren, 55, 121, 125, 127-155 Bismarck, 61, 459 Bogdanovich, 243 Boilean, 101 Bokhara, 85, 440 Bomarsund, 407 Bomelius, 99 Borga, 283 Borisov, 329 Borki, 456 Borodino, 295, 296, 297, 321 Bosnia, 459 Botta, Marquis, 156, 169 Braila, 58, 368 Brancovan, 56, 58, 63 Branicka, Countess, 234 Bremen, 67, 70 Brest, 140 Briansk, 42, 145 > Bridge, Sir Cyprian,' 106 Brown, Edward, 6 Brown, Lyde, 74 Bruce, 68, 71 Bruce, Countess, 170 Bruce, P. H., 184 Briihl, Count de, 177 Brunswick, 61 Brunswick, Duke of (Anthony Ulrich), 109, 128,153, 161, 166 Buckinghamshire, Hobart, Earl of, 202 Bug, 50 Bukharest, 287 Bulgaria, 459 Bulgarians, 439 Burnet, Bp., 22 Burtsov, 94 Butler, 406 Buturlin, 28 Caligula, 256 Campbell, 390 Capo d'Istria, 367 Cardigan, Lord, 413 Carlyle, 65, 73, 93 Carmarthen, Marquis of, 21, 23 Carr, 211 Casimir, John, 6, 140, 465 Casimir (posad), 40 Caspian, the, 72 Castlereagh, 344 Cathcart, Sir G., 416 Catherine, Ivanovna, 10, II, 108, 121 Catherine I., 57, 66, 67, 90, 92, 108, 112, 113 Catherine II., 56, 58, 65, 75, 97, 100, 117, 119-169, 241 Chappe d'Anteroche, 252 Charles II., 4 Charles IV., Emperor, 101 Charles VI., Emperor, 81, 147 Charles XL, 27, 465 Charles XII., 27, 34, 37-64, 68, 69, 295. 46S Charles Albert of Bavaria, 157 Charles, Archduke, 278 Charles of Hohenzollern, 460 Charlotte of Wolfenbiittel, 57, 64, 81 Chebycher, 456 Chechela, 45 Chekhov, 422 Cheliabiusk, 462 Cherkaski, 124, 128 Chemaiev, 439 Chemaya, 425 INDEX 477 Chernichev, 176 Chernigov, 12 Chesme, 224, 225 Chetardie, de la, 159, 163, 165 Chichagov, 235, 288, 289, 321, 333 Chlopicki, 387 Christian, August Prince, 170 Christina, 404 Chugnev, 348 Churluli, 56 Circassians, 437 Citate, 405 Clarke, Ed., 258 Codrington, 364, 365 Collins, 4 Constantine (Pavlovich), 275, 358, 387. 389 Constantinople, 59 Cook, 93, 189 Copenhagen, 81 Corberon de, 220 Cossacks, 103, 114 Courland, 31, 37, 241 Coxe, 217 Crabbe, 452 Cracow, 31 Cramer, 118 Craufurd, Earl of, 150 Crawford, D., 17 Cray, 162 Crimea, 43, 147 Cronstadt, 69 Croy, Due de, 28, 29 Cruys, 105 Czaikowski, 379 Czartoryski, Adam, 273, 357, 390 D Daghestan, 87 Dago, 72 Dalziel, 4 Damiens, 93 Danube, 56, 57 Danzig, 108, 141, 257 Dashkov, Princess, 142, 194, 195, 196, 204 Davoust, 279 Deane, John, 105 Delille, 1 35 Dembinski, 396 Demetrius, the False, 12, 43 Demidov, N., 133, 134 Denmark, 27, 53, 64 Deptford, 21, 22, 116 Derbent, 87 Derzhavin, 243, 354 Desna, 44 Dezhnev, 466, 472 Dickens, Guy, 173 Diderot, 200, 204, 250, 251 Diebitsch, 377, 378 Dmitriev-Mamonov, 12 Dnieper, 43 Dniester, 57 Dobroe, 41, 43 Dobrudzha, 406, 442 Dokhturov, 279, 318 Dolgorukaza, Catherine, 118 Dolgoruki, Feodor, 117 Dolgoruki, Ivan, 120, 121, 151 Dolgoruki, James, 92, 93 Dolgoruki, Michael, 9, 28 Dolgorukov, Gregory, 90 Domejko, 434, 435 Don, 43, 47 Doroshenko, 6 Dorpat, 32, 35, 36, 440 Dostoievski, 421 Douglas, 179 Dresden, 80, 289 Drissa, 289 Druzhinin, 450 Duchatelet, 176 Duderhof, 55 Dugdale, 226 Dukhovstchina, 324 Dulcigno, 448 Dvina, 42 Eble, 330 Egel, 72 Edgeworth, d', Abbe, 261 Ehrenberg, 8 1 Ehrenskiold, 66 Ehrestfer, 32 Elbing, 180 Elisavetgrad, 230 Elizabeth (Petrovna), 74, 77, 93, 108, in, 118, 120, 161 Elmo, St, 81 Elphinstone, 225 478 INDEX Engelhardt, 325 Erivan, 468 Eski Zagra, 444 Esthonia, 27, 54, 72 Esthonians, 458 Eugene of Savoy, Prince, 144 Evelyn, John, 21 Eylau, 280 Falconet, 103, 251 Feodor, Alexievich, 4, 7, 13 Fere-Champenoise, 343 Ferdinand of Saxe - Coburg, 460, 461 Fergan, 471. Fermor, William, 179 Fessing, John, 20 Figner, 313 Fili, 299 Finch, 151, 157, 160, 161, 162, 166, 187 Finland, 27, 42, 54, 65 Finns, 33 Fleming, 64 Fletcher, Giles, 78 Florence, 392 France, 12, 24, 73 Franche, Comte, 218 Francis II., 257 ' Frederick William D. of Courland, Frederick of Hesse (afterwards K. of Sweden), 70 Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp, 88 . Frederick IV., 53, 65 Frederick I. (of Prussia), 54 Frederick II., 157, 162, 194, 218 Frederick William, 64, 65, 73 Frederick William II., 237 Frederikshald, 69 Frederikshamm, 283 Friedland, 281 Galatovski, 79 Galatz, 50 Galicia, 57, 193 Gangud, 66 Gedymin, 6 Gemauertshof, 44 Geok Tepe, 450, 469 George I., 71, 113 George, Prince of Denmark, 156 George (Tsrni), 285 Georgia, 67, 276, 277 Gerstenzweig, 431 Gervais, 462 Geshov, 44 Ghika, 150 Gifford, 407 Glebov, 83 Gliick, 34, no Godunov, Boris, 7, 79 Gogol, 79, 421 Golitsin, Basil, 12, 13, 16 Golitsin, Dmitri, 101, 124 Golitsin, Michael, 35, 49, 66, 71, 104, 113 Golitsius (the), 7 Golovin, 19, 28, 35 Golovchino, 4, 43 Golovkin, 104, 113, 1 18, 123 Gonta, 208 Gorchakov, 416 Gordon, Alexander, 18 Gordon, Patrick, 3, 12, 13, 14, 25, 75 Gordon, Thomas, 69 Gorgei, 398 Gori, 472 Gomi Dubniak, 445 Gortz, 68, 69, 70 Grabbe, General, 393 Granovski, 422 Gregory XIII., 77 Gregory the Patriarch, 352 Greig, 325, 367 Grengam, 71 Grey, Earl, 390 Griboiedov, 360, 374 Grimm, 170, 200 Grochow, 388 Grodno, 38, 39, 40, 238, 240 Gross-Jaegersdorf, 178 Grudziuska, Julia, 358 Gudiach, 44 Gunib, 468 Gunning, 208 Gustavus Adolphus, 51, 61, 102, 464 Gustavus III., 68, 83, 219, 234, 235. 466 INDEX 479 Gustavus IV., 241, 277, 466 Gyllenborg, Count, 158 H Haddington, 274 Hager, Lorenz, 40 Hague, the, 20, 64, 463 Hakhi Pasha, 378 Halifax, Lord (Sir C. Wood), 439 Hamley, 409-415 Hampton Court, 23 Hango Head, 108 Hardouineau, 271 Harrington, Lord, 162 Harris (Lord Malmesbury), 220 Hatton, Sir Christopher, 208 Haugwitz, 277 Hawkesbury, 274 Haynau, 396, 399 Hedwig, Elizabeth, 155 Hedwig, Sophia, 88 Helen (of Poland), 8, 75 Helmet, 33 Helsingfors, 65 Henry VII., 205 Henry of Prussia, Prince, 215 Hentzi, 396 Hermani, 433 Herzegovina, 459 Herzen, 440 Hesse Darmstadt, Prince of, 139 Hesse Darmstadt, Princess of, 256 Hesse Homburg, Prince of, 146 Heyden, Count, 364 Hochkirchen, 188 Hogland, 106 Holland, 24 Holstein, 27, 64, 88 Holstein, Duke of, 114, 115 Horn, 95 Horodlo, 431 Hughes, 443 Hummelsdorf, 33 Hungary, 395, 400 Hussein, 85 Hyndford, Lord, 171, 186 Ibrahim Pasha, 363, 382-385 ■ Ignatiev, 83 Imeretia, Alexander, Prince, 28 Imeretinski, Prince, 463 Ingria (Ingermanland), 27, 72 Inkermann, 41 5 Innocent XI., 24 Ipsilante, 350 Irkutsk, 469 Isakcha, 401 Ishan Mohammed, 471 Ispahan, 86 Ivan Alexievich, 4, 7, 9, 10, 108 Ivan III., 75 Ivan IV., the Terrible, 4, 12, 17, 27. 33. 78. 89. 99. 136 Ivan VI., 108, 139-205 Ivanov, 456 Izmaelov, 197 Izmaelovo, 10, 11, 121 J Jadwiga, 6 Jagiello, 6, 391 Jansen, 18, 19 Jassy, 57 Jellachich, 376 Jena, 280 John III. of Sweden, 464 Johnson, Dr, 46, 73 Jones, Paul, 251 Joseph II., 210 Joubert, 263 Juel Just, 53 Jutland, 64 K Kagul, 222, 223 Kaiserling, 26 Kakhovski, 360 Kalish, 39, 342 Kallay, 449 Kalofer, 444 Kamchatka, 113, 134, 135, 408, 409 Kantemir, Antiokh, 56, 60, 63, 86, 100 Kantchansk, 269 Karakasov, 439 Karamzin, 247, 355 Karkus, 33 480 INDEX Karlovo, 444 Kars, 371, 426 Katkov, 456, 4S7, 46' Kannitz, 174 Kazan, 105, 1 16 Keith, 179, 191, 197 Kellin, 46, 47 Kertch, 424 Kettlers, the, 119 Khabarovsk, 470 Khemnitser, 243 Kheraskov, 243 Khiva, 85, 441 Khotin, 149 Khrustchov, 128 Kiev, 6, 12, 38, 46, 72, 77, 130, 459 Kikin, 83 Kilinski, 238 Kinglake, 413, 414 Kireyev, 441 Kishenev, 442 Kizi-Kermen, 18 Klin, 315 Klingspor, 283 Klissovo, 88 Kneller, Sir Godfrey, 23 Knight, C, 247 Kochubei, 41 Kokand, 471 Koltsov, 454 Komarov, 469 Koniah, 382 Konigsberg, 19, 81, '180 Konigseck, 45 • Koporie, 35, 66 Korb, 24 Kornilov, 412, 425 Kosciuszko, 238, 239 Kossakowski, 238 Kossuth, 394 Kotishikhin, 75 Kotzebue, 275 Kovalevskaya, Sonia, 456 Kovno, 289, 357 Krasnoe, 326, 327 Krasovski, 377 Kraushar, A., 271 Kremlin, 9 Krilov, 243, 312, 420 Krizhanich, 75 Kronshlot, 36 Kiichelbecker, 361 Kulevcha, 376, 377 Kunersdorf, 181 Kura, 138 Kurakin, 240, 256 Kurbski, Prince, 33 Kushk, 469 Kusmich, Feodor, 357 Kustendji (Constanza), 369 Kiistrin, 180 Kutaisov, 269, 298 Kutayah, 399 Kutuzov, 272, 278, 286, 312 Kutchuk-Kainardji, 227, 237 Lachta, 90 Lacy, 131, 141, 146, 147, 159 Ladoga, Lake, 34, 90 Ladoga, old, 83 Lambert, Gen., 431 Lambert, Mme., 94 Langiewicz, Marian, 433 Larissa, 449 Lazarev, 366, 383, 384 Lazhechnikov, 421 Lee, Nath,, 22 Lefort, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 194 Lefort (Saxon Envoy), 1 14 Lehwald, Marshal, 178 Leibnitz, 84, too Leipzig. 342 Lelewel, 389 Lemberg, Count, 395 Leontiev, 123 Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, 367 Lermontov, 12, 188, 420 Lesghians, 87 Leslie, 4 Lestocq, 127, 161, 165, 185 Leszczynski, Stanislaus, 39, 41, 45, 52, 59, 61, 62, 69, 91, 112, 140 Leszczynski, Maria, 140 Letts, 33 Levan, 467 Levashev, 137, 138 Levitski, 442 Liesnoie, 44 Lieven, Prince, 390 Lilie, 106 Lilienstedt, 71 LitHuania, 39, 41, 89, 39 1 Livadia, 462 INDEX 481 Livonia, 17, 27, 31, 33, 34, 42, 43, 55 Lobachevski, 456 Lodz, 458 Lomonosov, 243 London, Treaty of, 381 Lonnrot, 284 Lope de Vega, 243 Lopukhin, Evdokia, 15, 80, 108, "5. Lorraine, 144 Louis XIV., 420 Louis XV., 73, 74, in, 148 Louis XVIII., 261 Lovat, Lord, 45 Lowenhaupt, 37, 41, 42, 43, 44 Liibecker, 42, 65 Lucan, Lord, 413 Ludolf, Henry, 22, 100 Ludolf, Job, 22 Luthol, 118 Lynar, Count, 156, 158 M Macartney, Sir George, 8, 203 Macdonald, 262 Macedonia, 449 Macieiowice, 239 Mack, 277 Mackenzie, 412 Mackiewicz, 436 Magnan, 120, 151 Magnitski, 348 Mahraoud, 363-385 Makarov, 129 Malodeczno, 336 Maloyaroslavetz, 43, 318, 319 Malta, 24, 261, 271 Malzahn, [64 Mannstein, 121, 124, 143 Mansurov, 212 Marburg, 65 Mardefeldt, 39 Maria Aleksievna, 82, 83 Maria, Feodorovna, 273 Maria, Wife of Alexander III., 257 Maria Theresa, 157 Marienburg, 33, 34, 116 Marienwerder, 54, 119 Massena, 263 Matchin, 442 2 H Matveov Artemon, I, 2-9 Maurice (of Saxony), 119 Mayerberg, 9, 75 Mazanderan, 87 Mazeppa, 41, 42, 50, 114 Mechnikov, 455 Mecklenburg, Karl Leopold D. of, 108 Megret, 69, 70 Mehemet Pasha, 56 Mehemet AH, 381-386 Melikov, Loris, 445 Mendeleef, 454, 455 Mengden, Julia, 156, 159, 167 Menshikov, 18, 20, 29, 31, 32, 34- 67, 92, 104, no, 112-117 Menshikov, Alex., son, 116 Menshikova, Mary, 116, 117 Menzen, 33 Merv, 457 Michael (Romanov), 12, 54 Michaelovskoe, 360 Michelson, 212 Mickiewicz, 217, 291, 353 Midhat Pasha, 439, 442 Miklosich, 38 Milessino, 259 Miloradovich, 303, 359 Miloslavskis, I, 7 Minin, 317 Minitski, 130 Mir Mahmoud, 86, 87 Mirovich, 204-5 Mitchell, 178-181 Mittau, 19, 37, 119, 121, 261 Mogila, Peter, 79 Mohilev, 43, 44 Moldavians, 56 Moliere, 8, 54 Mollendorf, 236 Mordvinians, 97 Mortier, 315 Moscow, 19, 25, 33, 42, 115 Mozhaisk, 298 Miiller, Gottfried, 135 Muller, Peter, 91 Munich, 127, 131, 197 Muota, the, 267 Murat, 296, 305, 317, 330 Muraviev, Apostol, 360 Muraviev, M., 432-436 Muthen, 267 482 INDEX N Nachimov, 412, 425 Nadir Shah, 137, 145 Nancy, 140 Napier, Sir Charles, 406 Napoleon, 43, 46, 103, 288-337, 35° Napoleon III., 400, 441 Nappo, 66 Narbutt, 436 Narishkin, Cyril, 9 Narishkin, Ivan, 9 Narishkina, Natalia, 2 Narishkins (the), 7 v Nartov, 21 Narva, 28, 30, 31, 36, 37., 50, 95, 464 Nasmyth, 406 Natalia, s. of Peter the Great, 8, 67 Natalia, d. of Peter the Great, 108 Natalia (Aleksievna), 81, 108, 114, 118 Natalia (Aleksievna), w. of Paul, 207 Natalia (Dolgorukaya), 72 Nekrasov, 452 Nepokoishitski, 442 Nerchinsk, 467 Neugebauer, 84 Neva, 34 Ney, 279, 331, 332 Nice, 457 Nicholas I., 21, 275-418 Nicholas, II., 459 Nicholas of Montenegro, 460 Niemen, 178 Nienshantz, 35, 107 Nieszawa, 228 Nikitin, 454 Nikon, 14, 211 Nolan, 412, 413 Norris, 67, 71 Noteburg, 34, 35, 464 Novgorod, 30, 151 Novgorod, Nizhni, 11, 36, 42 Novikov, 244, 245, 246 Novosiltsov, 276, 353 Nowy Troki, 292 Nystadt, 71, 74. 89, 105, 159, 466 Nyschlot, 66 O Oakes, 215, 216, 219 Ochakov, 18, 147, 151, 257 Odessa, 352, 406, 407 Odoievski, 361 Ogleby, 39 Okhotsk, 134 Oliphant, 438 Oliwa, 464 Oltenitsa, 403 Omar Pasha, 403 Oranienbaum, 196 Oranienburg, 66 Ordin-Nastehokin, 3 Orenburg, 211 Orlov, Alexis, 196, 198, 199, 257, 352 Orlov, the Countess, 349 Orlov, Gregory, 195 Orsha, 327 Ostermann, 68, 71, 72, 90, 105, 113, 114, 118-167 Ostrolenka, 389 Ostrovski, 453 Otho of Bavaria, 367 Oudinot, 329 Oxford, 21, 22 Ozarowski, 238 Pahlen, 272, 273 Palmerston, Lord, 390 Panin, P., 188 Paniutin, 397 Paris, III, 426 / Parrot, 348 Pasek, 52 Paskievich, 350, 367, 371, 389, 395. 397 Pasvan Oglu, 285 Patkul, John Reinhold, 27, 40, 52, 93 Paul, 84, 202, 240, 254 Peipus, Lake, 33, 36 Pelim, 155 Pendjeh, 457 Penn, W., 22 Pereislavski, Lake, 13 Perekop, 16 Perevolochna, 50 Perovskaya, Sophia, 451 INDEX 483 Perry, 7, 19, 21 Persia, 85 Pestel, 360 Peter the Great, 1-108 Peter II., 81, 108, 112 Peter (Petrovich), 82' Peter III., 89, 93, 97, 120 Petersburg (St), 22, 36, 64, 71, 102 Petofi, 399 Pfuhl, 289 Philippopolis, 446 Photius, 349 Piper, 49, 50 Platov, 298, 325, 337 Plelo, Count de, 142 Plevna, 443 Plumridge, 407 Pobiednostsev, 457 Poland, 24, S3, 89, 237, 387-391 Polevoi, Nicholas, 355 Polonski, 454 Polotski, 43 Polotski, Simeon, 8, 79 Poltava, 30, 46, 47, 49, 53, 84, 88 Pomerania, 63 Poniatowski, Michael, 238, 239 Poniatowski, Stanislaus, 191, 217, 238, 240 Pool, Gerrit Claesz, 20 Pope, 101 Poprisk, 44 Port Arthur,' 470 Posselt, 25 Possevin, 89 Potemkin, 207, 237 Pozharevats, 150 Pozharski, 317 Pradt, de, 335 Prascovia (wife 'of Ivan), 55 Prascovia Ivanovna, 10, II Preobrazhenskoe, 16 Pressburg, 280 Price, Admiral, 408 Prokopovich, Feofan, 77, 78, 184 Prozorovski, 12, 286 Prussia, 53 Pruth, 57, 86 Pskov, 31, 32, 34, 35, 42, 59 Pugachev, 208-213 Purtsi, 28 Pushkin, 41, 58, 187, 214, 232, 260, 354. 419 R Raab, 397 Raab, Karl, 106 Radistchev, 209, 247, 248 Radoskovice, 40 Radziwill, Michael, 388 Raglan, Lord, 409, 425 Ranenburg, 165 Rapino, 59 Ravaillac, 361 Ray, 106 Rayevski, 319 Razumovski, 115, 186 Razumovski, Cyril, 177, 195 Reinsdorp, 211 Rennskjold, 50 Repnin, 90, 223 Resht, 87 Retusari, 107 Rheims, 101 Riazan, 79 Ribeaupierre, 362 Richelieu, Due de, 74, 352 Rieshetilovka, 52 Riga, 19, 34. 37, 38, 52. S3 Rigny, de, 364 Rimski, Korsakov, 263 Riviere, de la, 253 Rochechonart, 352 Rogerson, Dr, 242 Romadonovski, 26 Rome, 24 Romna, 44 Rondeau, 84, 118, 127 Rdnne, 58 Ropscha, 198 Rostock, III Rostopchin, 302, 306 Rostov, 17 Roumanians, 445, 460 Roumelia, 460 Royer, 407 Rulhiere, 194, 200, 252 Rumiantsov, 81, 88, 188, 225 Runich, 348 Russell, Earl, 403, 438 Rustchuk, 369 Ryleiev, 135 Saardam, 19, 116 Sablukov, 255, 272, 273 48 4 INDEX Saltikov, 453 Saltikov, Peter, 180 Saltikova, Prascovia, IO Samaria, 428 Samarkand, 440, 459 Samoilovich, 6 San Stefano, 447, 449 Sapieha, Prince, 114 Sardinians, 424, 425 Savary, 349. Saxony, 64 Scheltinga, 106 Schleswig, 70, 88, 138 Schlippenbach, 31, 32, 33 Schliisselburg, 34, 83, 155 Schonborn, 81 Schonbrunn, 344 Schwarzenberg, 277 Schwerin, m Segesvar, 397 Seniavin, 285 Serbs, 56, 441 Sevastopol, 408-426 Seymour, Sir H., 400 Shakhmat, 87 Shakloviti, 14 Shakovski, 316 Shamyl, 392, 394, 436 Shavirov, 58, 59, 60, 104 Shein, Aleksei, 18, 19 Shemahia, 86 Sheremetiev, 18, 23, 24, 28, 29, 31, 64, 72, 92, 104, no Sherwood, 351, 353 Sheshkovski, 192 Shevchenko, 453 Shipka, 443 Shirvan, 87 Shishkov, 199, 256, 349 Shubin, 325 Shubinski, 98 Shumla (Shumen), 369 Shuvalov, 182 Shuvalov, 463 Siberia, 49, 471 Sicily, 24 Siemashko, 392 Sienkiewicz, 5 Sieverski, 43 Sigismund III., 6 Signier, 69 Silesia, 115 Silistria, 369, 406 Sinclair, Malcolm, 130 Sinope, 404 Sirensk, 33 Skaania, 53 Skarga, 6 Skariatin, 397 Skavronskaya, M., 35, no, in Skavronskaya, Sophia, 114- Skavronski, Samuel, no Skobelev, 445, 450, 469 Skoropadski, 46 Skrzynecki, 388 Smirnov, Mme., 256, 355 Smirnov, 97 Smolensk, 10, 12, 42, 43, 293, 326, 327 Smorgony, 40, 293 Sobieski, John, 6, 51, 140, 396 Sokovnin, 20 Solovetski, 407 Soloviov, Sergius, 355 Sophia Aleksievna, 4, 5, 7-75, 112, 125 Sophia of Auhalt, Zerbst, see Catherine II. Sophia, wife of Ivan III., 175 Sosva, JY7 Sozh, 44 Soult, 279 Sparrow Hills, 303 Speranski, 346 Spithead, 23 Staehlin, 1, 21, 91, 95 Stambulov, 460, 461 Stavuchani, 149 Stenbok, Magnus, 53, 65 Stettin, 64, 67, 70, m, 170 Stockholm, 52 Stolbovo, 102 Strafford, 163 Strahlenberg, 49 Stralsund, 61, 63 Strasburg, 16 Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord (Sir Stratford Canning), 400 Stromfeldt, 71 Strossmayer, 459 Stuarts, 69 Studianka, 350 Sulieman Pasha, 446 Sulivan, 407, 425 Sumarokov, 123 Sumarokov, 184, 243 INDEX 485 Suvorov, 117, 188, 239, 240, 254, 260-269 Sveaborg, 425 Swart, du, 187 Swedes, 33 Sylvester, 75 Tabriz, 137 Tacitus, 195, 196 Taganrog, 19, 47, 59, 353 Tahmasp, 86, 87, 137 Talietsin, 197 Talma, 285 Tamerlane, 472 Tarakanov, 187 Tarki, 87 Tarutino, 313, 317, 321, 354 Tashkent, 439 Tatars, 14, 146 Tatistchev, Basil, 184, 246 Tavan, Island of, 18 Tavlintses, the, 87 Teplov, 198 Teusina, 464 Thianges, Chevalier de, 140 Thierry, 355 Thorn, 52, 180 Thugut, 264 Tiberius, 254 Tiflis, 277, 468 Tikochino, 38 Tilsit,- 28 1 Timmermann, 15 Tissowski, 395 Tobolsk, 116, 155, 467 Todleben, 182, 276 Todleben, 412 Tokay, 198 Tolstoi, "8 1, 86, 113 Tolstoi, Dmitri, 425, 456 Tolstoi, Leo, 421, 425 Tomsk, 462, 466 Tonnigen, 88 Torgau, 64, 81 Tormasov, 288, 333 Tott, de, 226 Toulon, 462 Trafalgar, 280 Trankvillion, 79 Travendale, 88 Trediakovski, 129, 143, 183 Treiden, B. T. von, 126 Trnovo, 445 Trubetski, 124 Tsikler, 20 Tuchkov, 298 Tula, 133 Tulcha, 369 Turgueniev, 254, 421, 452 Turkey, 89, et seq. Tuscany, Duke of, 24 Tyrawly, 170 U Ujejski, 394 Ukraine, 42, 43, 53 Ulrika (of Sweden), 70, 71, 158 Unkiar-Skelessi, 384, 394 Ustrialov, 46, 422 Vandal, 163 Varna, 369, 437 Vasilievski Ostrov, 37 Vasitchikov, 351 Venelin, 380 Venice, 24, 56 Verestchagin, 300, 301 Verestchagin (painter), 329, 436 Viankovo, 318 Viazma, 322, 323 Viborg, 58, 72 Vienna, 24, 51 Vietinghof, 126 Villagos, 398 Villeneuve, 149 Vilna, 94, 288, 291, 353, 434 Vitebsk, 43, 293, 329 Vladikavkaz, 472 Vladimir, 6 Vladimiresco, 350 Vladivostok, 462 Voiekov, 360 Voinarovski, 41, 92, 135 Volhynia, 41 Volinski, A., 72, 85, 86, 101, 128, 129 Volskonskaya, Z., 423 486 INDEX Volkonski, Nikita, 143 Vologda, 17, 463 Voltaire, 69, 253 Von-Visin, 244 Voronezh, 46, 47, 133 Vorontsov, 58 Vorskla, 46 Voznilsin, 19 Vsesvatskoe, 123 W Waliszewski, 60 Wallachians, 56 Walpole, Horace, 204 Warsaw, 31, 64, 238 Weierburg, 81 Weber, 80, 84 Wenden, 33, 67, 70 Werden, Karl von, 108 Wesenberg, 33 Westphalia, Jerome, K. of, 289 Whitworth, Sir Charles, 242 Wielopolski, 430 William III., 20, 22, 23, 79 Williams, Charles Hanbury, 173, 179, 190 Williams, Fenwick Wilmanstrand, 159 Wilson, Sir Robert, 308, 339 Windischgratz, 396 Winterfeldt, 164 Wisniowiecki, Michael, 140 Wittgenstein, 331, 367 Wolmar, 33 Wrangel, 159 Wiirtemberg, Princess of, 216, 256 Yagushinski, 105, 123, 125, 217 Yamburg, 35, 66 Yanovski, 55 Yantra, 443, 445 Yarensk, 17 Yaroslavl, 192 Yarovovo, '57 Yavorski, Stephen, 79 Yermak, 467 Yermolov, 331, 350, 393 Yeropkin, 128 Young, 243 Yuriev, 36, 440 Yusuf Pasha, 60 Zabielin, 94 Zagoskin, 421 Zajaczek, 239 Zamojski, Andrew, 430 Zan, 353 Zavadovski, 216, 219 Zhelezniak, 208 Zimmermann, 442 Zhukovski, 354, 422 Zolotarev, 456 Zorich, 220 Zorndorf, 180 Zubov, 272, 273 TURNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH. A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS OF METHUEN AND COMPANY PUBLISHERS : LONDON 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. CONTENTS FORTHCOMING BOOKS, POETRY, BELLES LETTRES, ANTHOLOGIES, ETC. ILLUSTRATED AND GIFT BOOKS, HISTORY, . BIOGRAPHY, TRAVEL, ADVENTURE AND TOPOGRAPHY, NAVAL AND MILITARY, GENERAL LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE, THEOLOGY, FICTION, BOOKS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, . THE PEACOCK LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SERIES, SOCIAL QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY CLASSICAL TRANSLATIONS, EDUCATIONAL BOOKS, 16 17 '9 zt =3 2 4 26 "7 27 32 42 44 44 OCTOBER 1901 October 1901 Messrs. Methuen's ANNOUNCEMENTS Belles Lettres DANTE STUDIES AND RESEARCHES. By Paget Toyn- bee, D. Litt., M.A. DemyZvo. 10s. 6d. 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'Amongst all the innumerable English editions of the "Imitation," there can have been few which were prettier than this one, printed in strong and handsome type, with all the glory of red initials.' — Glasgow Herald. J. Keble. THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. By John Keble. With an Intro- duction and Notes by W. Lock, D.D., Warden of Keble College. Illustrated by R. Anning Bell. Second Edition. Fcaf. Zvo. 3s. 6d. Padded morocco. 55. ' The present edition is annotated with all the care and insight to be expected from Mr. Lock.' — Guardian. ©Sforo Commentaries General Editor, Walter Lock, D.D., Warden of Keble College, Dean Ireland's Professor of Exegesis in the University of Oxford. THE BOOK OF JOB. Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by E. C. S. Gibson, D.D.,Vicarof Leeds. Demy Zvo. 6s. ' The publishers are to be congratulated on the start the series has made.' — Times. ' Dr. Gibson's work is worthy of a high degree of appreciation. To the busy worker and the intelligent student the commentary will be a real boon ; and it will, if we are not mistaken, be much in demand. The Introduction is almost a model of concise, straightforward, pre- fatory remarks on the subject treated.' — Athcn&um. General Editor, A. Robertson, D.D. THE XXXIX. ARTICLES OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Edited with an Introduction by E. C. S. Gibson, D.D., Vicar of Leeds, late Ibanoboofcs of Gbeologs Principal of King's College, London. Principal of Wells Theological Col- lege. Second and Cheaper Edition in One Volume. Demy Zvo. xzs. 6d. We welcome with the utmost satisfaction 30 Messrs. Methuen's Catalogue a new, cheaper, and more convenient edition of Dr. Gibson's book. It , was greatly wanted. Dr. Gibson has given leological students just what they want, and we should like to think that it was in the hands of every candidate for orders.' — Guardian, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF RELIGION. By F. B. 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Being Thirty. six Sermons for Festivals by John Tauler. Edited, with an Introduc- tion, by A. W. HUTTON, M.A. 32 Messrs. Methuen's Catalogue 3LeaJ>ers of iReliflion Edited by H. C. BEECHING, M. A. With Portraits, Crown &vo. y. 6d. A series of short biographies of the most prominent leaders of religious life and thought of all ages and countries. The following are ready CARDINAL NEWMAN. By R. H. HUTTON. JOHN WESLEY. By J. H. Over- ton, M.A. BISHOP WILBERFORCE. By G. W. Daniell, M.A. CARDINAL MANNING. By A. W. Hutton, M.A. CHARLES SIMEON. By H. C. G. Moule, D.D. JOHN KEBLE. By Walter Lock, D.D. THOMAS CHALMERS. By Mrs. Oliphant. LANCELOT ANDREWES. By R. L. Ottley, M.A. AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY. By E. L. Cutts, D.D. WILLIAM LAUD. By W. H. Hutton, M.A. JOHN KNOX. By F. MacCunn. JOHN HOWE. By R. F. Horton, D.D. BISHOP KEN. By F. A Clarke, M.A. GEORGE FOX, THE QUAKER. By T. Hodgkin, D.CL. JOHN DONNE. By Augustus Jessopp, D.D. THOMAS CRANMER. By. A. J. Mason. BISHOP LATIMER. By R. M. 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