Russia, Past and Present. Adapted from the German ('Das heutige Russland') of Lankenau and Oelnitz by Henrieta M. Chester. With map and illustrations

Front matter

RUSSIA, PAST AND PRESENT STREET I IV TASI-1 KENT. ( S" r-f A. 412.) {Frontispiece. ) RUSSIA, PAST AND PRESENT ADAPTED FROM THE GERMAN OF LANKENAU AND OELNITZ. BY HENRIETTA M. CHESTER. WITH MAP AND ILLUSTRATIONS. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLFDGE. LONDON : SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W.C. ; 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. ; 48, PICCADILLY, W. J AND 135, NORTH STREET, BRIGHTON. NEW YORK : E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. 1881. PREFACE, THE facts and descriptions in the following pages have been taken mainly from a work published in Leipsic in 1876 and the following year. This work, entitled "Das heutige Russland," was com piled from numerous sources by H. V. Lankenau and L. V. D. Oelnitz; and it is stated in the preface to the second volume that the first volume, which treats of European Russia, has been added to the libraries of all the Russian military seminaries for the use of the pupils in the higher classes.

The witness thus given by the Russian Government to the accuracy of the account justifies its adoption as the basis of " Russia, Past and Present." But as the authors have spoken very briefly of matters which are of the greatest interest to English readers, and as much has happened since the publication of their work, their statements have been supplemented by in formation gathered from the many trustworthy works which have recently appeared on European and Central Asian Russia. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. Page

Early Inhabitants — The Finns — The Heathen Slavs — The Varangians — Adoption of Christianity — Vladimir the Great — Yaroslaf I. — Internal Divisions — Ivan the Great — Ivan the Terrible — The Romanofs — Peter the Great — Elizabeth — Catherine the Great — Alexander I. — Nicholas — Alexander II. . . . . . . I

Chapter II. The Russian Empire

Extent — Population — Configuration — Russia in Europe — Rivers — Lakes — Forests — Seasons — Climate — Soil — Products — Manufactures — Locomotion — Population — Nationalities 21

Chapter III

The Government — Local Administration — Governments — The Zemtsvo — The Mir — The Volost — Judicial Proceedings — Police, Ordinary, Secret — Prisons — The Tchinovniks and Tchins — Serfs — Emancipation — The Nobility — Towns — Merchants, Burghers, Artisans — Army — Navy — Commerce — Exports — Imports — Public Debt — Revenue — Expenditure — Taxation . . 35

Chapter IV

The Army — The Navy — The Finances — Commerce — Railways — Post Office — Telegraph .... 58

Chapter V

The Russian Church — Cathedrals — The Black Clergy — The White Clergy — Deacons, Sacristans, &c. — Monasteries — The Nicene Creed the Authoritative Expression of the Faith — Sacraments — Liturgy — Finland and VI RUSSIA, PAST AND PRESENT. PAGE 77 Lutheranism — Schismatics — Sectarians — Education — Universities — Student Discontent— Literature — News papers — Painting — Sculpture — Music — Science .

Chapter VI. St

PETERSBURG. Situation — Nevski Prospect — The Neva — Winter Palace — St. Isaac's Church — The Founding of the City — Climate — Blessing the Waters — Easter — " Bride- Show " — Baths — Population — Peterhof — Tsarsko^- Selo 10:

Chapter VII. Finland And North Russia

Configuration of the Country — The Finns — Conquest of Finland — Agriculture — Character of the People — Clergy — Helsingfors — Revel — Sveaborg — Shores of the White Sea — English Ships in the Dwina — Archangel — Solovetsk — Nova Zembla — The Tundras — Fisheries — The Zyryans — The Samoyedes — Religion — Weddings — Karelians 116

Chapter VIII. The Plateau Of Valdai

Description of the Country — Novgorod — Capture of Novgorod by the Muscovites — Pskof — Great Russian Villages — Peasantry — Houses — Manufactories — Customs and Superstitions 147

Chapter IX. Moscow

The Appearance of the City — Early History — Conflagrations — The Kremlin — The Tower of Ivan Veliki — Bells — The Square of the Cathedrals — The Cathedrals — The Church of the Ascension — The Palace — The Kitai-Gorod — The Cathedral Vassili Blagennoi — Chasovena — Religious Sentiment — Pilgrimages — Fasts — Easter — The University — Gostinnoi Dvor — Beloi-Gorod — The Gipsy Quarter — Mercantile Class in Towns — Traktirs — Monasteries of New Jerusalem and Troitza Sergievsk .161 CONTENTS. VII PAGE 1 86 20O

Chapter X

Russian Liberalism — Moscow Students and German Philosophy — Slavophilism and Nihilism — Tendency of the Student Mind — Arrests of Nihilists .

Chapter XI. The Volga

Course of the Volga — Nijni-Novgorod — The Fair — Tartars — Tartar Houses — Marriages — Tchouvashes — Tcheremes — Votiaks — Mordvins — Tsaritzin — German Colonies — Steppes — Navigation of the Volga — Fisheries — Astrakhan — Kalmucks — Buddhism — Kirghiz .

Chapter XII. Little Russia And South Russia

History of Early Inhabitants — Cossacks — Zaporogians — Villages — Kharkof — Kief — The Pechersk Laura — South Russia — The Don Cossacks — Cossacks of the Black Sea — New Russia — Refugees — Babas — Locusts — Odessa 225

Chapter XVI. Grand Duchy Of Poland

Poland — Lithuania — The Jagellons — Insurrections — RUSSIA, PAST AND PRESENT. PAGE Population — Produce — Railways — Roads — Government Schools — Religion ■ — Inhabitants — Easter — Harvest Home — Character of People — Villages — Towns — Jews — Nobility — Polish Men — Women — Warsaw — University — Literature 277

Chapter XX. Siberia

Extent — Conquest of by Russians — Population — Mountains — Rivers — Roads, Railways, Trade-routes, and Telegraphs — The Fauna — Mines — Agriculture — Manufactures — Trade — Climate — Exiles — The Native Races — Governments — Western Siberia — Eastern Siberia . 356

Chapter XXI. Central Asia

The Boundaries — The Kirghiz Steppe — The Kirghiz — The Caspian Sea — The Sea of Aral — The Trans- Caspian Province — Khiva — Turkestan — Natives — Administration — Products — Occupation of Inhabitants — Tashkend — Samarcand — The Town of Turkestan — Khodjen — Khokand — The Province of Semiretch — Kuldja — The Kara Kum — The Turcomans — The Aims of Russia — The Future of Russia

Chapter I

Early Inhabitants — The Finns — The Heathen Slavs — The Varangians — Adoption of Christianity — Vladimir the Great — Yaroslaf I. — Internal Divisions — Ivan the Great — Ivan the Terrible — The Romanofs — Peter the Great — Elizabeth — Catherine the Great — Alexander I. — Nicholas — Alexander II. OUR information concerning the earlier inhabitants of Russia is derived solely from Herodotus, who, writing about 445 B.C., gives some account of the barbarous tribes with whom his fellow-countrymen, the Greek colonists on the Euxine, were brought into frequent contact. According to him, the broad plains watered by the Rha, the Tanais, the Borysthenes, and the Tyras, were occupied by the warlike Scythians. In the far north the Thyrsagetæ roamed through the forests in pursuit of game, and the intervening districts were inhabited by the Sarmatians, a race of agriculturists and shepherds.

Little trustworthy information can be obtained concerning the later fortunes of these ancient tribes ; but in the sixth century of the Christian era we find the great Slavonic family established in a tract of B country extending as far westward as the mouth of the Elbe, and southward to a line drawn from the northern shores of the Adriatic to the Black Sea. Tradition represents these Slavs to have been wor shippers of Svarog the Creator, and of a multitude of deities subservient to him, whom they propitiated by sacrifices, but to have had no regular priest hood. Though little is known of their manners and customs, it would seem that their family life was strictly patriarchal ; the father held supreme authority in his household ; a cluster of family communities formed a volost, which was governed by a head, and held the lands in common ; and in the centre of these lands was the grad or gorod, that is, the town, " the religious as well as political centre ; for in it were religious rites performed and sacrifices offered up."1 Mr. Ralston says that " Byzantine and other annals tell of them as a people strong, and fierce, and brave, exceedingly hospitable towards strangers, and tolerably tender to domestic slaves, but ferociously cruel in warfare, and lamentably indifferent to per sonal cleanliness ; who expected a widow to die on her husband's grave or pyre, and who deemed it the privilege of a mother to slay her superfluous daughters, the duty of a child to provide in a similar way for an aged parent."3 1 Ralston, " Early Russian History," p. 1S1. 2 Ib., p. 4.

THE VARANGIANS. 3 A branch of the Slavonic family was settled in the districts bordering on lake Ilmen, of which the city of Novgorod was the centre, and laid the foundation of the empire which now embraces the greater portion of eastern Europe. A little more than a thousand years have elapsed since the remarkable incident occurred which gave the name Russia to the empire, and formed the commence ment of its history. In 862, according to the Chronicler Nestor, the Slavonians, weary of their internal dissensions and revolutions, invited the Varangian Tribe, or family of Rus, to cross the sea and rule over them. In compliance with this request, the three brothers, Rurik, Sineus, and Truvor, assembled their kinsmen and companions, and took possession of the territories, which were henceforth called Russkaya, Russian.

On the death of Sineus and Truvor, Rurik became sole ruler in his city of Novgorod, which he trans formed into a fortress. Meanwhile two other Varangians, Ascold and Dir, with Rurik's con sent, seized Kief; and, having established them selves there set out on an expedition against Constantinople; but were unsuccessful owing to a violent and, according to the Greeks, a miraculous tempest which destroyed their ships. Ascold and Dir also attributed their defeat to the God of the Christians ; and are said to have asked for a B priest to teach them Christianity, and, on their return home, to have founded a Church on the high ground of Kief, the very spot where tradition says that St. Andrew the Apostle had preached the Gospel.1 The obscure history of these Varangians has long been a subject of learned strife.

According to one theory they were a Scandinavian nation ; according to another, Slavonians from some Baltic or Scandi navian settlement ; and according to a third, they were merely a band of adventurers, of various nationalities, in which the Scandinavian element was the greatest. Each theory has found earnest advocates; but there are two important points which do not admit of doubt, that with the advent of these Varangians the history of Russia properly begins ; and that these strangers were soon absorbed into the mass of their new subjects, and were so rapidly " Slavonized," that Rurik's grandson Sviatoslaf bore a distinctly Slavonic name. Rurik and his successors rapidly established their power in South Russia. Oleg, Rurik's brother and successor, sailed down the Dnieper, and having seized Kief and put to death Ascold and Dir made that city the capital of his kingdom.

On his death Igor, Rurik's son, came to the throne, but was killed in 1 Ralston, " Early Russian History," p. 15. ADOPTION OF CHRISTIANITY. 5 middle age by the Drevlians ; he left one son, during whose minority his mother Olga, as regent, governed the state with great wisdom and success. At the end of twelve years Sviatoslaf assumed the power. Olga visiting Constantinople embraced Christianity, but was unable to induce her son to follow her example. Sviatoslaf died in 972, but it was not until eight years afterwards that his youngest son Vladimir established himself as ruler of the kingdom. At first " nothing but a barbarian, wily, voluptuous, and bloody," he became at last a Christian ; and after his baptism married the Princess Anna, sister of the Greek emperors Basil and Constantine, and per suaded his subjects to adopt Christianity as the national religion.

It was in 988 that the kingdom became Christian ; and henceforward the extension of Christianity kept pace with the advance of the Russo-Slav race. It had not, however, been accepted without mature deliberation. The Church established at Kief by Ascold and Dir had little if any influence, and Olga's ■example had remained for the time inoperative. The Volga Bulgarians were anxious that the Grand Prince Vladimir should become a convert to Islam; but the report of the envoys whom he despatched to collect information concerning the rival faiths, was unfavour able to Mohammedanism: "We have visited the Bulgarians," they said, " and have seen how they bow down in their temples, and then sit down again and look to the right and left as if possessed. There is no cheerfulness among them, but a melancholy existence and an unpleasant savour ; their religion is not good."

Placed in the painful alternative of choosing between a religion which forbids wine and another which con demns polygamy, the Russ decided for the faith which did not interfere with his potations. The Boyards were also strongly in favour of the adop tion of Greek Christianity. They said to Vladimir, " Thy grandmother Olga, the wisest of women, would not have adopted the Greek faith had she not known it to be better than all others." After the introduction of Christianity the Russians used the translation of the Bible, made by Cyril and Methodius in the Illyrian or Servian dialect of their native town Thessalonica. From this time forward we find two recognized languages in use, the vernacular Russian, and the Church language, the Slavonic. In 1015 Vladimir died. He had founded schools in which the Holy Books were taught, and had lived a reformed life which Nestor the chronicler cannot sufficiently praise.

He was buried in Kief by the side of the Princess Anna his wife, and is honoured to this day as Saint Vladimir of the Orthodox Church. Yaroslaf I., the successor of Vladimir, ruled at Kief from 1019 to 1054, and " occupied a glorious INTERNAL DIVISIONS. 7 place among the princes of his time." 1 Though he was successful in war, and both extended and established the Russian power, his internal administration of the kingdom, and the compiling of the Russkaya Pravda, the first written code of laws in Russia, give him the best claim to the title of illus trious. In his reign the city of Kief reached the highest pitch of its splendour ; it was beautiful in its buildings, rich in its churches, and the admiration of the writers of the West.3 After the death of Yaroslaf I., the empire was greatly weakened by the partitions of the kingdom into Appanages.

The national custom appor tioned to each son of the reigning prince, as a descendant of Rurik, a portion of the royal patrimony as a separate principality, and made each one independent of all the others except the eldest, who reigned at Kief and was styled the Grand Prince. When the Grand Prince of Kief died, his son was not necessarily his rightful heir ; but his uncle, or brother, if he had one, or whichever of the princes was the eldest, succeeded. This old national law of the Slavs conflicted with the Greek law, which recognized the son as the heir of his father's possessions, and it was a continual source of civil wars. 1 Rambaud, " History of Russia," translated by Leonora Lang, vol. i., rj. 78. The references throughout are to this translation. - Ibid, vol. i., p. 80. It is impossible to give in a short space the names of the minor princes who succeeded each other during the 300 years after the death of Vladimir's son Yaroslaf.

The historian Karamsin himself confesses that to attempt it would be to lose oneself in chaos. But one thing is clear, that by their internecine struggles they so reduced the forces of the nation that great portions of the western provinces were seized and occupied by the Lithuanians, the Poles, and the German military orders. And finally in 1224, after a bloody battle on the Kalka, the Mongols made their way to the Dnieper, murdered their Russian prisoners, suffocated the Grand Princes Mistislaf, Andreas, and Alexander ; and, after celebrating a ghastly feast over their bodies, rode back again to their Asiatic homes. For thirteen years nothing more was heard of them; but in 1237 Batu returned with his Mongol forces, stormed and sacked Riazan, Moscow, and Vladimir, and in 1239 attacked Kief, burned the houses, palaces, and churches, and massacred or carried into captivity the inhabitants.

During the greater part of two centuries the Khan of the Golden Horde, whose head quarters were at Sarai on the Volga, exacted crushing tribute from the Russian princes, and held supreme rule over the country. One of these tributary Russian princes, Alexander Nevsky, the prince of Novgorod, shines conspicuously as a ruler and a commander. In IVAN THE GREAT. 9 1 24 1 he won the glorious victory of the Neva, from which he takes his name, over the German Knights with their Tchoud allies, and another victory over the Lithuanians ; and was honoured by Batu with the rank of Prince of Kief, and afterwards with that of Grand Prince of Vladimir, which was then the capital of Russia. It was through his mediation that the Khan pardoned the inhabitants of certain towns who had rebelled against extortionate taxation, and slain the tax-gatherers.

A desperate effort to shake off the hated Mongol yoke was made in 1380 by the valiant Grand Prince Dimitri, the son of Ivan II. ; but the Mongols reduced him to his former state of dependence, and laid in ashes Moscow, which had at this date supplanted Vladimir as the capital of Russia, as Vladimir had previously supplanted Kief. The rule of the Mongols in Russia came to an end through their wars with the Tartars. In 1480, when the successors of Timour Beyg had broken down the power of the Golden Horde, Ivan the Third, or the Great, succeeded in vanquishing both Mongols and Tartars, and driving them from the land. But the efforts of Ivan, "one of the firmest and wisest sovereigns of whom Russia can boast,"1 far from being confined to the deliverance of his country from a foreign foe, were directed to consolidating the Russian monarchy. 1 Ralston, " Early History of Russia," p. 108.

The wealthy commercial city of Novgorod, a member of the Hanseatic League, which had become to all intents a republic, and had for years maintained its independence, was conquered and deprived of its liberties. Pskof in like manner, a few years afterwards, submitted to Ivan's government. The system of appanages was abolished ; and all the pro vinces were welded into one empire, which Ivan governed under the title of Grand Prince. Ivan's marriage with Sophia Palæologus, niece of the last Christian emperor of the East, made him the heir of the Emperor of Byzantium, and opened a way for the entrance of Byzantine culture into Russia. In his reign the independence of the Church was established, and the native bishops were em powered to elect the Metropolitan. Under a ruler, who was a statesman and a lawgiver as wrell as a con queror, Russia became a vigorous kingdom.

Ivan, to save it from disruption and dismemberment and from the evils of a disputed inheritance, proclaimed his son Vassili or Basil his heir. Nor did his energetic endeavours to benefit his people end here. He did his utmost to bring civilizing influences to bear upon them. Together with the Greek emigrants, who accompanied his wife Sophia and "gave to Russia statesmen, diplomatists, engineers, architects, theo logians, and Greek books," came also Italians, and notably Aristotle Fioraventi of Bologna, who IVAN THE TERRIBLE. 11 became his architect, military engineer, and master of artillery ; Marco Ruffo, his ambassador in Persia ; Pietro Antonio, who built his imperial palace ; and the metal founder, Paul Bossio.1 Amongst other great works Ivan rebuilt the Kreml or Kremlin, a fortified inclosure in the form of a triangle, in solid white stone instead of wood, and surmounted it by high battlements and eighteen towers.

He died in 1505 ; and was succeeded by his son Basil IV., who reigned twenty-eight years, and carried on his father's policy of consolidating the empire under an autocratic ruler. Basil's son, Ivan IV, surnamed the Terrible, was four years old when he inherited the throne. He was the first to assume the title of Tsar or Autocrat of all Russia, and he reigned from 1533 to 1584. During his long minority the Boyards trained him in acts of cruelty, and developed all his evil passions. When he assumed the government, he acted with a savage barbarity such as the world has seldom seen ; and the massacre at Novgorod alone justifies the title of Terrible by which he is distinguished. Not content with conquering the factious Boyards, and crushing all opposition and intrigue, he put numbers of his subjects to death and deluged the country with blood.

Meanwhile he 1 Rambaud, " History of Russia," vol. i., p. 246. carried on wars successfully against the Swedes, Poles, and Tartars, conquered Kazan and Astrakhan, and made arrangements for the exploration and conquest of Siberia. By the establishment of a body guard of Opritchniki, "the thousand of the Tsar to sweep treason off Russian soil," he laid the foundation of a standing army. But war was not his only pursuit; German artisans, artists, and learned men were invited to Russia ; and a commercial treaty was concluded with Elizabeth Queen of England after the discovery of the sea-way to Archangel by English navigators. Ivan had in a fit of rage killed his eldest son ; and he was succeeded by his second son Feodor, who was feeble in body and mind, and more of a monk than a monarch. Feodor had a brother, Demetrius, who was an infant at the time of his father's death ; and whom Boris, the brother of Irene the Tsar's wife, murdered with the design of securing the throne to himself.

Consequently in 1598, when Feodor died, the family of Rurik the Varangian in the male line came to an end, having accomplished the work of founding Russian unity. Boris then seized the throne, and governed with such firmness as to attract the friendship of the Western powers. Serfdom, which had been long growing, was finally established by him. He died in 1605, after a short but troubled reign, leaving a son Feodor, whom he commended to his people as his successor. THE ROMA NOES. 13 A monk, called Gregory Otrepief, had some time previously declared himself to be Demetrius, the second son of Ivan IV., whom Boris had murdered. He asserted that he had been saved from assassina tion by the substitution of another child in his place. On the death of Boris he was at once proclaimed by the troops ; and after deposing and murdering Feodor II., the son of Boris, was hailed with joy as the descendant of Rurik.

Another pretender, Basil Chouiski, deposed this impostor after a reign of thirteen months ; and for a time perfect anarchy prevailed. In 1610 Vladislas, the son of Sigismund king of Poland, was elected Tsar by the Boyards, and the Poles took possession of Moscow in his name ; but they were driven out, and Vladislas abandoned the throne. The downfall of Russia seemed imminent. At last, in 161 3, the Boyards, having settled their dif ferences, agreed to raise to the throne Michael Romanof, then only seventeen years of age, the son of Philarete, Metropolitan of Moscow, and a descendant in the female line of the ancient imperial house. His moderation and love of peace fitted him to be the healer of the internal breaches of his kingdom, and to come to terms with his enemies without. Having yielded to the Poles Smolensk, Severia, and Tchernigof, he set to work to reunite and strengthen his divided nation.

He was so successful that his son Alexis, who reigned from 1645 to 1676, was able to recover from the Poles Smolensk and Severia, and to compel the Cossacks to acknow ledge the supremacy of Russia. In this reign trade routes to Persia and China were opened through Siberia. The reign of Alexis's successor, Feodor, was remark able for the settlement of the question of precedence, which had long been one of the plagues of Russia. An assembly of the higher clergy and Boyards decreed that the Books of Rank should be burnt, that disputes should be forbidden for the future, and that the penalty for disputing should be deprivation of nobility and of wealth. On Feodor's death in 1682, the relations of the first wife of Alexis claimed the throne for her son, the weak-minded Ivan, Feodor's brother, and pro posed to associate with him as co-regent his energetic sister Sophia, then aged twenty-four.

But the relations of his second wife proclaimed as Tsar his son Peter, then nine years old. The factions continued and Sophia remained in power until Peter attained his seventeenth year ; when he succeeded in making good his claim to the throne, and changed the title of Tsar to that of Emperor. The chief object of his life was to make Russia, which he found an Oriental state, European in its civilization. Though he had to contend with great opposition, he succeeded in PETER THE GREAT. 15 everything that he attempted. At the time of his death he had replaced the Strelsti, or national guard, by a regular army, composed of infantry and dragoons dressed in European uniform ; had added many fertile countries to his empire ; had facilitated internal com munication by high roads and canals ; had created a mercantile navy and founded seaports, thus opening the way to foreign commerce ; and had built St. Petersburg, which he made the seat of government instead of Moscow.

His special protection of manufactures, trade, and mining added to the wealth of the country ; so that, in spite of numerous and costly wars, the financial position of Russia was prosperous. With a view of effecting a great re formation in the Church, the supreme spiritual jurisdiction was transferred from the Patriarch to a body called the Holy Synod, of which the Emperor himself was president. Peter the Great was succeeded by his widow, the Empress Catherine the First (1725-1727); and at her death his grandson, Peter II., ascended the throne (1727-1730). The male line of the Romanofs having become extinct at his death, Anna, daughter of Peter the Great's half-brother Ivan (1730-1740), was chosen to succeed. Anna had nominated as her successor Ivan, then a child in his cradle, the grandson of her sister Catherine ; but in 1741 the infant Emperor was dispossessed, and Peter the Great's youngest daughter Elizabeth (1741-1762) was elected Empress.

The revolution which placed her on the throne was in great measure directed against the German influence which had preponderated during the previous reigns, and her elevation was looked upon as a triumph by the national party. Her nephew Peter III. next ascended the throne, but only to fall a victim within six months to a military conspiracy. These successors of the Great Peter pursued the policy which he had laid down for the guidance of Russia in his will, and, without adding much to the territory of the Empire, preserved its might and dignity. Peter III. was succeeded by his widow Catherine IL, the strong-minded Empress known as Catherine the Great, who reigned from 1762 to 1796, and extended her empire on the east throughout Siberia, and on the west by the acquisition of half of Poland.

She was succeeded by her son Paul, who began his reign by joining in the coalition created by Great Britain against the French Revolutionary party. He was suspected of having secretly entered into an alliance with Napoleon ; and, had he lived, he would have probably, in conjunction with him, embarked in the grand scheme which had for its object the total destruction of the English power in India. His murder, on the night of the 23rd November, 1801, broke up the coalition. NICHOLAS. 17 Paul's son, Alexander I., now ascended the throne. The earlier years of his reign were spent in wars against France, in which he was repeatedly beaten. But he increased his Empire by the annexation of Finland, East Bosnia, Georgia, and Bessarabia. After Napoleon's unsuccessful invasion of Russia in 18 12 he joined the Allies ; and in 1815 was confirmed by treaties in the possession of the annexed provinces, and also in his territories in Poland, to which he gave a constitution.

During the later years of his life a melancholy mysticism took possession of him; and, under the feeling that he was the victim of in gratitude, he took measures to repress the expression of liberal ideas which his early reforms had en couraged, but with which the Government no longer was in sympathy. Alexander died at Taganrog in 1825; and as his second brother, Constantine, had already relinquished his claim to the throne, the younger brother, Nicholas, succeeded. A man of iron will, great strength of body, marvellous power of work, and ardent love of military affairs, he was eminently fitted for despotic rule. The early liberalism of his predecessor found scant favour in his eyes. For thirty years he was the determined foe of liberal institutions, and 'the inaugurator of a system of despotism which allowed no vent for public opinion, and which bound a huge nation helplessly under his will and that of his C creatures." l At the same time he attempted certain important reforms, notably in collecting materials for the codification of the Law, and in making the tribunals of the country more active and expe ditious.