The History of Russia from the earliest times to 1877 ... Translated by L. B. Lang [with additions and emendations by the author] . ... With illustrations

Preface

. This Translation of M. Alfred Rambaud's ' Histoire de la Russie ' (Paris, 1878) contains a number of emendations by tbe Autbor. M. Rambaud has also written many additional pages : on Russian ethnography ; on the Esthonian Epic ; on the early relations of England and Russia ; and on the Em peror Paul's project of attacking England in India. The Translator has to express a grateful sense of M. Rambaud's constant and courteous aid. In whatever is hasty or inaccurate in these volumes, he has no share. The Translator has compiled Genealogical Tables, of which M. Rambaud has approved. The French book has no index, and an attempt has been made to supply this deficiency. The Translator regrets that, by a too close following of the French spelling of ancient tribal names, new varieties have been introduced, where variety was already too plentiful and confusing. There seem, for exanrple, to be about thirteen ways of spelling " Patzinak." A A VOL. I.

PREFACE.

. list of some of these names as here printed, and of the forms used by Dr. Latham (' Russian and Turk,' London, 1878), is subjoined. De. Latham. Tchouvach s Tshuvash. Tcheremiss Tsherimis, Mordvians Mordvins (otherwise Mordwa). Tchoud Tshud. Dregovitch Dragovitsae, Dregoviczi. Polovtsi Polovcszi. Iatvegues Yatshvings. Patzinaks Petshinegs. Zaporogues Zaporogs. CONTENTS. THE BEGINNINGS OF EUSSIA.

Chapter I. Geography Of Russia

Eastern and Western Europe compared : seas, mountains, climate — The four zones — Eussian rivers and history — Geographical unity of Eussia Pages 1-16

Chapter II. Ethnography Of Russia

Greek colonies and the Scythia of Herodotus — The Eussian Slavs of Nestor — • Lithuanian, Finnish, and Turkish hordes in the 9th century — Division of the Russians proper into three branches — How Eussia was colonised .. .. 17-38 CHAPTEE III. PRIMITIVE RUSSIA: THE SLAVS. Eeligion of the Slavs — Funeral rites — Domestic and political customs : the family, the mir or commune, the volost or canton, the tribe — ■ Cities — Industry — Agriculture. 39-49 CHAPTEE IV. THE VARANGIANS : FORMATION OF RUSSIA ; THE FIRST EXPEDITIONS AGAINST CONSTANTINOPLE, 862-972. The Northmen of Eussia — Origin and customs of the Varangians — The first Eussian princes : Eurik, Oleg, Igor — Expe- VI CONTENTS. ditions against Constantinople — Olga — Christianity in Eussia — Sviatoslaf — The Danube disputed between the Eussians and Greeks Pages 50-69 PEINCELY eussia.

CHAPTEE V. THE OLOVIS AND CHARLEMAGNE OF THE RUSSIANS : SAINT VLADIMIR AND IAROSLAF THE GREAT, 972-1054. Vladimir (972-1015) — Conversion of the Eussians — Iaroslaf the Great (1016-1054) — Union of Eussia — Splendour of Kief — Varan gian-Eussian society at the time of Iaroslaf — Progress of Christianity — Social, political, literary, and artistic results 70-92 CHAPTEE VI. RUSSIA DIVIDED INTO PRINCIPALITIES SUPREMACY AND FALL OF KIEF, 1054-1169. Distribution of Eussia into principalities — Unity in division — The successors of Iaroslaf the Great — Wars about the right of headship of the royal family, and the throne of Kief — Vladimir Monomachus — Wars between the heirs of Vladimir Monomachus — Fall of Kief 93-111 CHAPTEE VII. RUSSIA AFTER THE FALL OF KIEF POWER OF SOUZDAL AND GALLICIA, 1169-1224.

Andrew Bogolioubski of Souzdal (1157-1174), and the first attempt at autocracy — George II. (1212-1238) — Wars with Novgorod — Battle of Lipetsk (1216) — Foundation of Nijni- Novgorod (1220) — Eoman (1188-1205) and his son Daniel (1205-1264) in Gallicia 112-127 CONTENTS. VII CHAPTEE VIII. THE RUSSIAN REPUBLICS: NOVGOROD, PSKOF, AND VIATKA, UP TO 1224. Novgorod the Great — Her struggles with the princes — Novgorodian institutions — Commerce — National Church — Literature — Pskof and Viatka Pages 128-145 THE INVASIONS FEOM THE 12th TO THE 14th CENTUEY. CHAPTEE IX. THE LIVONIAN KNIGHTS: CONQUEST OF THE BALTIC PROVINCES BY THE GERMANS. Conversion of Livonia — Eise of the Livonian knights : union with the Teutonic knights 146-152 CHAPTEE X. THE TATAR MONGOLS : ENSLAVEMENT OF RUSSIA. Origin and manners of the Mongols — Battles of the Kalka, of Eiazan, of Kolomna, and of the Sit — Conquest of Eussia — Alexander Nevski — The Mongol yoke — Influence of the Tatars on the Eussian development 153-180 CHAPTEE XL THE LITHUANIANS : CONQUEST OF WESTERN RUSSIA (1240-1430).

The L ithuanians — Conques t s of Mindvog ( 1 240-1 2 6 3), of Gedi m in (1315-1340), and of Olgerd (1345-1377) — Jagellon — Union of Lithuania with Poland (1386) — The Grand Prince Vitovt (1392-1430) — Battles of the Vorskla (1399) and of Tannenberg (1410) 181-192 CONTENTS. VIII MUSCOVITE EUSSIA. CHAPTEE XII. THE GRAND PKINCES OF MOSCOW : ORGANISATION OF EASTERN RUSSIA (1303-1462). Origin of Moscow — Daniel — George Danielovitch (1303-1325) and Ivan Kalita (1328-1341) — Contest with the house of Tver — Simeon the Proud and Ivan the Debonnaire (1341- 1359) —Dmitri Donskoi (1363-1389) — Battle of Koulikovo — Vassili Dmitrievitch and Vassili the Blind (1389-1462). Pages 193-227 CHAPTEE XIII. IVAN THE GREAT, THE UNITER OF THE RUSSIAN LAND (1462-1505). Submission of Novgorod — Annexation of Tver, Eostof, and Iaroslavl — Wars with the Great Horde and Kazan — End of the Tatar yoke — Wars with Lithuania — ■ Western Eussia as far as the Soja reconquered — Marriage with Sophia Palæologus — Greeks and Italians at the Court of Moscow .. 228-248 CHAPTEE XIV.

VASSILI IVANOVITCH (1505-1533). Annexation of Pskof, Eiazan, and Novgorod-Severski — Wars with Lithuania — Acquisition of Smolensk — Wars with the Tatars — Diplomatic relations with Europe .. .. 249-258 CHAPTEE XV. IVAN THE TERRIBLE (1533-1584). Minority of Ivan IV. — He takes the title of Tzar ( 1 547) — Conquest of Kazan (1552) and of Astrakhan (1554) — Contests with the Livonian Order, Poland, the Tatars, Sweden, and the Eussian aristocracy — The English in Eussia — Conquest of Siberia 259-300 CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTER XVI. MUSCOVITE RUSSIA AND THE RENAISSANCE.

The Muscovite government — The kin and the men of the Tzar — The prikazes — Rural classes — Citizens — Commerce — Domestic slavery — Seclusion of women — The Renaissance : Literature, popular songs, and cathedrals — Moscow in the 16th century Pages 301-334 CHAPTEE XVII. THE SUCCESSORS OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE : FEODOR IVANO- VITCH AND BORIS GODOUNOF (1584-1605). Feodor Ivanovitch (1584-1598) — The peasant attached to the glebe — The patriarchate — Boris Godounof (1598-1605) -r- Appearance of the false Dmitri 335-351 CHAPTEE XVIII. THE TIME OF THE TROUBLES (1605-1613). Murder of the false Dmitri — Vassili Chouiski — The brigand of Touchino — Vladislas of Poland — The Poles at the Kremlin National rising — Minine and Pojarski — Election of Michael Eomanof .. .'. 352-370 CHAPTEE XIX. THE ROMANOFS : MICHAEL FEODOROVITCH AND THE PATRIARCH PHILARETE (1613-1645).

Eestorative measures — End of the Polish war — Eelations with Europe — The States-general 371-384 CHAPTEE XX. WESTERN RUSSIA IN THE 17TH CENTURY. The political union of Lublin (1509), and the religious Union (1595) — Complaints of White Eussia — Risings in Little Eussia 385-397 CONTENTS. X CHAPTEE XXI. ALEXIS MIKHAILOVITCH (1645-1676) AND HIS SON FEODOR. Early years of Alexis — Seditions — Khmelnitski — Conquest of Smolensk and the Eastern Ukraine — Stenko Eazine — Ecclesiastical reforms of Nicon — The precursors of Peter the Great — Eeign of Feodor Alexievitch (1676-1682) .. Pages 398-427

CHAPTER XXII. PETER THE GREAT

: EARLY YEARS (1682-1709). Regency of Sophia (1 682-1689) — Peter I. — Expeditions against Azof (1695-1696) — First journey to the West (1697) — Revolt and destruction of the streltsi — Contest with the Cossacks : revolt of the Don (1706) ; Mazeppa (1709). 428-456 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Rurik ........ Frontispiece. Crown called " The Cap of Monomachus " . . To face 105 Ivan III. . ,230 Ivan IV 266 Cloth Crown called " The Cap of Siberia " . „ 297 Michael I ,,372 VOL. I. C ERRATA. Page 64, line 22, for " money " read " honey." 80, ,, 26, for " floored with gold " read " with their golden ground." 196, „ 14, for " brothers " read " sons." 251, „ 29,/or " This fertile country," read " His fertile country." 254, „ 14, after " Smolensk " insert " and." 267, „ 28, /or " uncle" read " grandfather." 275, „ l,/o^* *' Lithuania " read " Livonia." 283, „ 12, for " bloody " read " desperate." 290, „ 10,/or "and Carelia" read " in Carelia." 300, „ 2, for " foreign successors " read " successors foreign to his race. Sampson Low, Martton, SearU .VftinV^jflon

CHAPTER I. GEOGRAPHY OF RUSSIA.

Eastern and Western Europe compared : seas, mountains, climate — The four zones — Russian rivers and history — Geographical unity of Eussia. EASTERN AND WESTERN EUROPE COMPARED : SEAS, . MOUNTAINS, CLIMATE. Europe may be roughly divided into two unequal parts. If we give 4,000,000 square miles to the whole of Europe, only 1,800,000 belong to the western, 2,200,000 to the eastern part. The former division is shared between all the monarchies and republics of Europe, Russia excepted ; the latter is united under the Russian sceptre. Nature, not less than policy or religion, has established a strong op position between the two regions, between Eastern and Western Europe. The shores of the latter are everywhere broken up by inland seas, pierced by deep gulfs, jagged with peninsulas, isthmuses, capes, and promon tories ; islands and crowded archipelagos are thickly sprinkled along the coasts.

Great Britain and the VOL. i. b <7 I Greek peninsula particularly, which have a coast line out of all proportion to their area, contrast with the impenetrable compact mass of Eastern Europe. This strongly-marked outline of the western lands is the characteristic feature of European geography, while the immense spaces of which Russia is com posed seem the continuation of the plains and plateaux of Northern and Central Asia. No doubt Russia is washed by many seas : in the north by the Icy Ocean, which bites deep into the country through the great fissure of the White Sea ; in the south by the Caspian, the Sea of Azof, and the Black Sea ; in the north-west by the Baltic and the gulfs of Bothnia, Finland, and Livonia ; but, with all these seas, it has only a comparatively meagre share of sea-board.

While the rest of Europe has about 15,525 miles of coast, Russia, with a much more considerable surface, possesses only 5514 miles of coast ; and of this nearly half (2680 miles) belongs to the Icy Ocean and the White Sea. Now, these two seas are only navigable during a few months of the year, from June to September, at furthest. The Baltic, in its two most northern gulfs, freezes easily ; armies have been able to cross on the ice, with all their artillery and supplies ; navigation is stopped from the month of November to the end of April. The Caspian often freezes, especially in its northern half, which includes Astrakhan, its most flourishing port. The Sea of Azof, here and there, is little better than a marsh. It may be said that, with the exception of the Euxine, the Russian seas have an anti- European character ; they cannot be of the same use as our western seas.

From this point of view Russia is worse endowed by nature than any other European country ; compared with the privileged lands of the West, she might be styled continental Europe, in opposition to maritime Europe. Western Europe, so jagged in its contour, is no less broken in its surface. Without speaking of the vast central mass of the Alps, there is not one European land which does not possess, either in its length or breadth, a great mountain system forming the scaffolding or the backbone of the country. England has her chain of the Peak and her Highlands ; France has her Cevennes and her central support in Auvergne ; Spain her Pyrenees and the Sierras; Italy her Apennines; Germany her ranges in Suabia, Franconia, and the Hartz ; Sweden her Scandinavian Alps ; the Greco-Slav peninsula has the Balkan and Pindus.

What mountains Russia possesses, on the other hand, are banished, as it were, to the extremities of her territory. She is boimded on the north-west by the granitic system of Finland, C/ut\ on the south-(3st*t by the branches of the Carpathians, ' to the south by the rocky plateaux of the Crimea with the Yai'la and the Tchardyr-Dagh (5183 feet), by the Caucasus, extending over 687 miles, where Elburz (18,000 feet) surpasses by more than 2000 feet the highest mountain in Europe, Mont Blanc. To the east is the Oural range, the longest chain of mountains (1531 miles) in Europe or Asia, running parallel to the meridians of longitude, with peaks 6233 feet high. In the Tatar language, the word Oural signifies girdle, but it is not only the Ourals which may be called the mountain girdle; all the mountains of Russia deserve this name.

They bound her, they confine her, but have only a slight influence on the configuration of her interior and the distribution of her waters. From the Carpathians and the Caucasus only secondary rivers flow, while B the four great Russian streams take their rise in hills not 300 feet high.* We must observe also that none of these mountains form a separate system ; they are nearly all fragments of systems belong ing to other countries. The empire of the Tzars is thus a huge plain, which is continued on the west by the level lands of Poland and Prussia, and on the east by the limitless steppes of Siberia and Turkestan, and is in striking contrast with the rugged and multiform soil of the west. From this point of view, Russia may be defined as the Europe of plains, in opposition to the Europe of mountains.

Uniformity of surface is never quite complete, and Russia does present inequalities of soil, though these are far less notable than the depressions and eleva tions of the West. In the faintly-marked soil of Russia, we must notice, in the centre of the country, a kind of square table-land, called the central plateau, or the plateau of Alaoune, from the name of its northern part. The north-eastern angle is formed by the heights of the Yalda'i plateau, where the hills are 300 feet high ; the western side of the central plateau by the small hills of the Dnieper, which extend as far as the Cataracts ; the southern side by the heights which reach from Koursk to Saratof; the eastern side by the sandy stretches which extend along the right bank of the Yolga and the Kama ; the northern side by the undulations of the land which separate the basin of the Yolga from the rivers that drain into the Icy Ocean.

The central plateau is besides divided into two unequal parts by the deep valleys of the Upper Yolga, of the Oka, and their tributaries. Considerable depressions correspond to this swell- * 1100 feet above the level of the sea. - * " » ing in the centre of the Russian plateau : — 1. Between the plateau of the Valdai and the north east slope of the Carpathians lies a deep valley, in which during the quaternary age the Baltic and Euxine mingled their waves. It is traversed on the north by the southern Diina or Dwina, and the Nie men ; on the south by the Dnieper, and its affluents ; it reaches its lowest level in the wide marshes of Pinsk. 2. Between the low rocks on the right bank of the Volga and the spurs of the Oural (obchtchii sirt), the soil gradually sinks throughout the whole length of the Volga, and reaches the level of the sea at the Caspian, which is 80 feet lower than the Black Sea : here are the steppes of Kirghiz, the lowest part of European Russia, formerly the bed of a great inland mere which was gradually dried up, and of which the Caspian, the Lake of Aral, and other sheets of water are only the remains.

If the Caspian could only regain the level of the Black Sea, a large part of this sterile plain, now covered with saline efflorescence, would be inundated anew. 3. The third great depression of the Russian soil is the slope of the north, covered with lakes and marshes, where the frozen toundra are lost amongst the ice-fields of the Polar Ocean and the White Sea. 4. The region of the lakes Saima, Onega, Ladoga, which is con tinued by the sandy tracts of the Baltic, and which forms a series of deep cavities, where the waters of the Baltic and the White Sea must once have found a meeting-point. From the fact that Russia, taken as a whole, is only a vast plain, it follows that her surface is swept by Polar winds, which no mountain barrier keeps out, for the Oural chain runs in a direction parallel to their course.

From the fact, again, that Russia is only washed by seas, small in proportion to the extent of the land, it results that the temperature is modified neither by sea-breezes, which in the West warm in winter and refresh in summer, nor by the aerial and marine current of the Gulf Stream, which finally expires on the coasts and on the mountains of Scandinavia, without being able to influence the shores of the Baltic. In parallel latitudes this Scan dinavian mountain-chain makes a notable difference between the Norwegian and the Swedish-Russian climate. Russia then, like the interior of Asia, Africa, or Australia, has to undergo the effects of a purely con tinental climate. The first of these effects is a violent contrast between the seasons. The Russian plain is subject in turn to the influences of Polar regions and to those of Central and Southern Asia, of the deserts of ice and the deserts of burning sand.

" Under the latitude of Paris and of Venice," says M. Anatole Leroy-Beaulieu, " the countries situated to the north of the Black Sea and the Caspian have the temperature of Stockholm in January, and the temperature of Madeira in July. At Astrakhan, in the latitude of Geneva, it is by no means rare for the temperature to vary from 70 to 75 degrees * in a period of six months. On the coasts of the Caspian, in the latitude of Avignon, the cold descends to 30° below freezing ; in summer, on the contrary, the heat rises to up wards of 40°. In the steppes of the Kirghiz, in the latitude of the centre of France, the mercury is sometimes frozen for whole days ; while in the sum mer the same thermometer, if not carefully watched, bursts in the sun. Near the shores of the Sea of Aral these extremes of temperature reach their maxi- * Centigrade. mum ; there are intervals of 80°, perhaps of 90° centigrade, between the greatest cold and the greatest heat."

Even at Moscow, they have had cold of 33° and heat of 28° ; at St. Petersburg, the temperaure may shift between the extremes of from 30° to 35° of cold to 31° of heat. The second consequence of the continental climate of Russia is that the winds do not reach the country till they have lost on the way part of their humidity. Russia suffers generally from dryness. At Kazan the rainfall is only half that of Paris ; it is for this reason that Russia contains so many barren and unwooded plains, while this absence of forests all through the south is, in its turn, an obstacle to the v^ formation of hills and springs and to the development of a healthy moisture. St. Petersburg, situated on the 60th parallel of northern latitude, is the most northern capital of the whole world. The longest day in this city lasts 18 hours 45 minutes ; the sun rises on that day at 20 minutes to 3, and sets at 25 minutes past 9, but the twilight is prolonged to the moment of dawn.

For two months there is no night. The shortest day is 5 hours 47 minutes ; the sun rises at 5 minutes past 9, and sets at 8 minutes to 3. The Aurora Borealis is frequent in the north of Russia, while the mirage is often seen in the steppes of the south. Russia being a country of plains, the geological beds of which the soil is formed are nearly always horizontal ; no raising of the soil has broken them, rent the beds of stone, and driven the fragments through the layers of mould or sand. It follows that, except in the neighbourhood of mountains, stone is very scarce in Russia. This fact has had much influence on the economic and artistic development of the country. The people were obliged to build with other materials than in the West. The public build ings were everywhere of oak and pine, or of brick ; the old churches, the palaces of the Tzars, the ramparts of the towns, were of wood ; of wood are the present houses of the citizens, and the isbas of the peasants.

Russian villages, and most of the towns, are a collection of combustible materials : hence the fires which break out periodically, and justify the saying that Russia, as a rule, was burned every seven years. Buildings of such materials cannot assume the colossal proportions of the castles of the Isle de France, or of the Rhenish cathedrals ; the old churches of Russia are small. It is only since the conquest of the Baltic and the Black Sea that the empire has had cities of stone. Peter the Great gave Russia her first stone capital. From the geological point of view, then, Russia may be defined, according to the expression of M. Solovief, as the Europe of wood, in opposition to the Europe of stone. RUSSIAN RIVERS AND HISTORY. In a country so extensive and so destitute of sea board as Russia, rivers have an immense importance, and with rivers Eastern Europe is well endowed.

It is her watercourses which prevent Russia from being a continent closed and sealed, like Africa or Australia. In place of arms of the sea, she has great rivers which penetrate to her centre, and have sometimes almost the proportions of seas. In the level plains they have not the impetuous current of the Rhone, they flow peacefully through great beds cut in the sand or clay. The rivers were for a long while the only means of communication. When the Russian princes wished to make a progress through their dominions, or begin a campaign, they had either to take advantage of winter, which from the Dnieper to the Oural gave them a flat surface for their sledges, or await the thaw and follow the course of the rivers. Boats in summer, sledges in winter, were the only means of conveyance ; in spring, the thaw and floods, which transformed the plain into a marsh, brought the raspoutitsa (the season of bad roads).

Commerce followed the same routes as war or government. The rivers which, in Russia especially, are " the roads that run," explain the rapidity with which we see the characters of Russian history traverse immense spaces, and go as easily from Nov gorod to Kief, from Moscow to Kazan, as a French king from his good city of Paris to Rheims or Orleans. The rivers are the allies of the Russians against what they call " their great enemy " — space. Russian conquest or colonisation has everywhere followed the course of the waters ; it was on the banks of the Oka, the Kama, the Don, and the Volga, that the Russian element of the population chiefly gathered, the aboriginal races everywhere retreating into the thickness of the primitive forests. The plateau of Valdai is the dominant point in the river-system of Russia.

It is near this plateau, in the lake Volgo, that the Volga, which ultimately falls into the Caspian, takes its rise. In this neighbour hood also are the sources of the Dnieper (flowing to the Black Sea), the Niemen, the Dwina, which falls into the Baltic, the Velikaia, a tributary of the Peipus, the rivers forming lake Umen, and those which feed the lakes Ladoga and Onega, whence rises the Neva. The hydrographic centre of Russia being at the north-west angle of the central plateau, it follows that the slopes are turned to the south and to the east ; a disposition which has had its influence on the development of the national history. This history, indeed, begins in the north-west, near the Valdai plateau ; on the Pei'pus and the Umen the old commercial cities of Pskof and Novgorod are esta blished.

What is their opening to the sea ? Not the Narova, which falls out of lake Pei'pus, and of which the course is broken by cataracts, but the network of rivers and lakes which terminates in the Neva, the Thames of Russia, a river of little length but immense breadth, on which St. Petersburg, the Novgorod of the 18th century, was afterwards to be built. In primitive times Novgorod was safer in the centre of this network of rivers and lakes than she would have been on the Neva. By the Volkhof her vessels sailed from the Umen to the Ladoga, and by the Neva from the Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland, and the great Baltic Sea. Other small rivers put her in communication with the lake Onega and the White Lake (Bieloe-Oze'ro) ; by the Soukhona and the northern Dwina she had relations with the White Sea, where later the port of Arkhangel arose.

By the tributaries of the Dwina the Novgorod explorers penetrated deep into the northern forests, peopled by aboriginal races, on whom they imposed tribute. The watersheds between the slope to the White Sea, the basin of the Novgorod lakes, and the basin of the Volga, are scarcely marked at all. The rivers seem to hesitate at their rise between two opposite courses : some of them never make up their minds, like the sluggish Cheksna which connects the White Sea and the Volga. This interlacement of the water system, which makes the northern Dwina, the Neva, the Niemen, and the southern Dwina mere prolongations of the Volga and the Dnieper, and puts the four Russian seas in unbroken communication, is in itself a sufficient explanation of the extent of the conquests and great commercial position of Novgorod the Great.

On the Dnieper, Russia, to rival the Russia of Novgorod, founded at a very early date the Rouss of Kief. She too followed the line marked out for her by the course of the Dnieper, which neces sarily led her to the Black Sea and the Byzantine world. It was by the Dnieper that the fleets of war de scended against Constantinople ; it was by this river too that Greek civilisation and Christianity reached Kief. The Dnieper, which had made the greatness of Kief, hastened its decay. As a medium of com munication it was imperfect. The celebrated cata racts below Kief formed an insurmountable barrier to navigation, and consequently the city could not remain the political and commercial capital of Russia. The Don, notwithstanding its length of 621 miles, has had little influence on the evolution of Russian history.

During the whole period of the growth of the nation it remained in the power of the Asiatic hordes. In later years it fell, with Azov, into the possession of the Turks. The sandy shallows near its mouth would in any case have proved fatal to its commercial importance. The Dwina and the Nie men also remained till the 18th century in the hands of the native Finns and Lithuanians, or of the German conquerors. The river, par excellence, of Russia is the Volga, — the " mother Volga," as the popular singers call it. If the Neva, with the great lakes which feed it, may be compared to the St. Lawrence, the Volga may be compared to the Mississippi. With a length of 2336 miles, it has a course 250 leagues longer than that of the Danube. Many of its tributaries may be reckoned among the great rivers of the world.

The Oka, with its 633 miles of length, surpasses the Meuse and the Oder; the Kama, 1266 miles long, outvies all other European rivers except the Danube ; for the Elbe is only 643 miles, the Loire 681, and the Rhine 812 in length. The junction of the Volga and Oka at Nijni-Novgorod is like the meeting of two arms of the sea ; it is an imposing spectacle to contemplate from the hill on which the upper town is built, while the lower town or the fair, with its 100,000 fluc tuating inhabitants, spreads its buildings on the banks of both rivers. The Volga, which near Iaro slavl is 2106 feet broad, has a breadth of 4593 above Kazan ; towards Samara sometimes it decreases to 2446 feet; sometimes it spreads, with its tributary streams and lateral branches, over a breadth of 17 miles. At the Caspian it divides into seventy five branches, forming numerous islands, and its delta spreads over 93 miles.

This immense river, the waters of which abound with fish as large as sea-fish, — sturgeon, salmon, lampreys, — and where the sterlet sometimes weighs 1073 pounds, would be the wonder of Europe, if it was not frost-bound during many months in the year. But at the thaw the ports, the dockyards, the wharves, are full of life. Two hundred thousand workmen flock from all parts of Russia to its banks. Fifteen thousand ships and 500 steamboats plough its waters. Kostroma, Nijni-Novgorod, Kazan, Simbirsk, Samara, Saratof, Astrakhan, are filled with noise and movement. The whole life of Russia seems concentrated on the Volga. The basin of the Volga and its tributaries embraces an extent of surface nearly treble that of France. The basin of the Oka alone has three times the extent of the basin of the Loire.