The empire of Russia; from the remotest periods to the present time

Preface

The world is now too busy to read voluminous history. The interminable details of battles, and the petty intrigues of courtiers and mistresses, have lost their interest. In this volume it has been our object to trace perspicuously the path which Kussia has trod from earliest infancy to the present hour. The career of this empire has been so wild and wonderful that the historian 'can have no occasion to call in the aid of fancy for the embeUishment of his narrative.

The author has not deemed it necessary to incumber his pages with notes to substantiate his statements. The renowned Russian historian, Karamsin, who wrote under the patronage of Alexander I., gives ample authentication to aU the facts which are stated up to the reign of that emperor. His voluminous history, in classic beauty, is unsurpassed by any of the annals of Greece or Eome. It has been admirably translated into French by Messrs. St. Thomas and Jauffret in eleven imperial quarto volumes. In the critical citations of this author, the reader, curious in such researches, will find every fact in the early history of Eussia, here stated, confirmed.

There are but few valuable works upon Eussia in the English language. Nearly all, which can be relied upon as authorities, are written either in French or G-erman. The writer would refer those who seek a more minute acquaintance with this empire, now rising so rapidly in importance, first of all to Karamsin. The " Histoire Philosophique et Politique de Eussie Depuis les Temps les Plus Eecules Jusqu'au Nos Jours, par J. Esneaux,"

VI PREFACE.

Paris, five volumes, is a valuable work. The " Histoire de Eussie par Pierre Charles Levesque," eight volumes, is discriminating and reliable. The various volumes of William Tooke upon Eussian history in general, and upon the reign of Catharine, contain much information.

It is only since the reign of Peter the Great that Eussia has begun to attract much attention among the enhghtened nations of Europe. Voltaire's life of this most renowned of the Eussian sovereigns, at its first publication, attracted much notice. Since then, many books have been written upon fragments of Eussian history and individual reigns. From most of these the author has selected such events as have appeared to him most instructive and best adapted to give the reader a clear conception of the present condition and future prospects of this gigantic empire. The path she has trod, since her first emergence into civilization from the chaos of barbarism, can be very distinctly traced, and one can easily count the concentric accretions of her growth. This narrative reveals the mistakes which have overwhelmed her with woe, and the wisdom which has, at times, secured for Eussia pe^ce and prosperity.

In writing these histories of the monarchies of Continental Europe, the author has no wish to conceal his abhorrence of aristocratic usurpation. Believing in the universal brotherhood of man, his sympathies are most cordially with the oppressed masses. If the people are weak and del^ased, the claim is only the more urgent upon the powerful and the wise to act the part of elder brothers, holding out the helping hand to those who have fallen. The author feels grateful for the reception which the first number of this series, the Empire of Austria, has received from the American public. He hopes that this volume will not prove less interesting or instructive. In the course of a few months it will be followed by the History of Italy.

CONTENT S.

Chapter I. Parentage And Birth Of Russia

PAGE

Primeval Russia. — Explorations of tub Grkekb. — Sotthiatt Intasion. — Character OF THE Scythians. — Sarmatia.— Assaults upon the Roman Empire. — Irruption of tub Alains. — Conquests of Trajan.— The Gothic Invasion.— The Huns — Their Oiiaractee and Aspect. — The Devastations of Attila. — The Avars — Results of Comminglings op these Tribes. — Normans. — Birth OP THE Russian Empire — The Three Sovereigns Ruric, Sineous and Truvor. — Adventures op Ascolod and Die. — Introduction of Ciieirtianity.— Usurpation OP Oleg. — His Conquests. — Expedition against Constantinople IT

Chapter II. Growth And Consolidation Of Russia

Expedition to Constantinople. — Teeaty with the Empeeoe. — Last Days of Oleg. — His Death. — Igoe assumes the Scbptee. — His Expedition to the Don. — Descent upon Constantinople. — His Defeat. — Second Expedition. — Pusillanimity of the Greeks — Death of Iqok. — Regency of Olga. — Her Chaeac- TBE. — Succession of Stiatoslaf. — His Impiety and Ambition. — Conquest of BuLGAEiA.— Division of the Empire. — Defeat, Ruin and Death of Sviatos- LAF. — Civil Wae. — Death of Oleg. — Flight of Vladimir. — Supremacy of Taropolk 35

* chapter III.

KEIGNS OF VLADIMIR, TAROSLAF, TSIA8LAF AND VSEVOLOD.

Flight of Vladimir.— His Stolen Bride.— The March upon Kief.— Debauchery of Vladimie. — Zealous Paganism. — Introduction of Christianity. — Baptism IN THE Dnieper. — Entire Change in the Character of Vladimir.— His Great Reforms.— His Death.— Usurpation op Sviatopolk the Miserable.— Accession of Taroslaf.- His Administration and Death.— Accession of YsiASLAF.— His Strange Reverses— His Death.— Vsevolod Ascends the Throne.— His Two Flights to Poland.— Appeals to the Pope.— Wars, Famine AND Pestilence. — Character of Vsevolod 51

Vm CONTENTS.

Chapter IV. Teaks Of Wae And Woe

From 1092 to 116T.

PAQB

PLOEABLB Condition of Russia.— Dbatii of Sviatopolk.— His Chakactee. — Accession of M onom a qite.— Curious Festival at Kief,— Energy op Mono- MAQUE.— Alarm of tjie Emperou at Constantino ple.-^Houroks of War. — Death of Monomaque.— His Eemarkable Character.— Pious Letter to his Children, — Accession of Mstislaf. — His Short but Stormy Keign. — Struggles for the Throne. — Final Victory of Ysiaslap. — ^Moscow in the Province OF Souzdal.— Death of Tsiaslaf. — Wonderful Career op Eostislap. — KisiNG Power of Moscow. — Georgievitch, Peincb of Moscow 68

CHAPTER Y.

MSTISLAF AND ANDEE.

Centralization of Power at Kief. — 'Death of Eostislaf. — His Eeligious Chaeactbe. — Mstislaf Tsiaslavitch Ascends the Throne. — Proclamation of the King. — Its Effect. — Plans of Andre. — Scenes at Kief. — Return and Death OF Mstislaf. — War in Novgorod. — Peace Concluded Throughout Kubsia. — Insult op Andre and its Consequences. — Greatness of Soul Displayed dy Andre. — Assassination of Andre. — Renewal of Anarchy. — Emigration from Novgorod. — Eeign of Michel. — Vsevolod III. — Evangelization of Bulgaria. — Death of Vsevolod III. — His Queen Maria

CHAPTER YI.

THE GEAND PRINCES OF VLADIMIR, AND THE INVASION OF GHENGHIS KAHN.

Accession of Georges.— Famine.— B.vttlr of Lipetsk.— Defeat of Georgf^

His Surrender.- CoriSTANTiN Skizes the Scepter. — Exploits of Mstislaf. —

ImKEOILITY Ob- CONSTANTIN— Df.ATII OF COXSTANTl?:. — GkORGES III.— INVASION

OF Bulgaria.— PaooKESs ok the Monarchy.— Right of Succession.— Commerck OF THE Dnieper.— GuENGHiK Kuan.— -His Rise and Conquests.— Invasion of Southern Russia. — Death of Ghenghis Khan. — SrrcoEssioN op his Son Ougadal — March op Batl — ^Entrance into Eussia. — Uttek Defeat op the Russians. 104

CHAPTER YII.

THE SWAT OF THE TARTAR PRINCES.

Eetkeat op Georges II.— Desolating March op the Tartars. — Capture of Vladimir.- Fall of Moscow.— Utter Defeat of Georges.- Conflict of Toejkk. — ^Marcii of the Tartap.s toward the South.— Subjugation of the Polov-

Contents

PAGB

T8I.— Capture op Kief. — Humiliation of Taeoblaf. — Oveethbow of tub Russian Kingdom. — Haughtiness of the Tartars. —Keign op Alexander. — Succession op Taeoslaf.— The Ebcgn op Vassult.— State of Cheistiakitt. — Infamy of Andre. — Struggles "with Dmitri. — Independence of tub Principalities.—Death op Andre 121

CHAPTEE YIII.

Chapter I. Paeentagb And Birth Oe Russia

Peimeval Russia. — Explorations of the G-eeeks. — Soytiiian Intabion. — Chaeactek OF THE Scythians. — Saematia. — Assaults upon the Roman Empire. — Iekttption of the Alains. — ConquestsofTeajan.— The GoTDic Invasion. —The Huns. — Tueiu Cuap-actee and Aspect.— The Devastations of Attila. — The Avaes.— Results

OF COMMINGLINQS of THESE TkIBES. — NORMANS. — BlETH OF-THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.—

The Three Sovereigns Rueik, Sineous and Truvor. — Advbntubrs of Ascolod AND Die. — Introduction of Christianity. — Usurpation of Olbs. — His Conquests.— Expedition against Constantinople.

THOSE vast realms of northern Europe, now called Russia, have been inhabited for a period beyond the records of history, by wandering tribes of savages. These barbaric hoides have left no monuments of their existence. The annals of Greece and of Rome simply inform us that they were there. Generations came and departed, passing through life's tragic drama, and no one has told their story.

About five hundred years before the birth of our Saviour, the Greeks, sailing up the Bosphorus and braving the storms of the Black Sea, began to plant their colonies along its shores. Instructed by these colonists, Herodotus, who wrote about four hundred and forty years before Christ, gives some information respecting the then condition of interior Russia. The first gi-eat irruption into the wastes of Russia, of which history gives us any record, was about one hundred years before our Saviour. An immense multitude of conglomerated tribes, taking the general name of Scythians, with their wives and their children, their flocks and their herds, and their warriors, fiercer than wolves, crossed the Volga, and took posses-

18 THE EMPIBK OF RUSSIA.

sion of the whole country between the Don and the Danube. These barbarians did not molest the Greek colonies, but, on the contrary, were glad to learn of them many of the rudiments of civilization. Some of these tribes retained their ancestral habits of wandering herdsmen, and, with their flocks, traversed the vast and treeless plains, where they found ample pasture. Others selecting sunny and fertile valleys, scattered their seed and cultivated the soil. Thus the Scythians were divided into two quite distinct classes, the herdsmen and the laborers.

The tribes who then peopled the vast wilds of northern Europe and Asia, though almost innumerable, and of different languages and customs, were all called, by the Greeks, Scythians, as we have given the general name of Indians to all the tribes who formerly ranged the forests of Iforth Amei'ica. The Scythians were as ferocious a race as earth has ever known. They drank the blood of their enemies ; tanned their skins for garments ; used their skulls for drinking cups ; and worshiped a sword as the image or emblem of their favorite deity, the God of War. Philip of Macedon was the first who put any check upon their proud spirit. He conquered them in a decisive battle, and thus taught them that they were not invincible. Alexander the Great assailed them and spread the terror of his arms throughout all the region between the Danube and the Dnieper. Subsequently the Roman legions advanced to the Euxine, and planted their eagles upon the heights of the Caucasus.

The Roman historians seem to have dropped the Scythian name, and they called the whole northern expanse of Europe and Asia, Sarmatia, and the barbarous inhabitants Sarraatians. About the time of our Saviour, some of these fierce tribes from the banks of the Theiss and the Danube commenced their assaults upon the frontiers of tile Roman empire. This was the signal for that war of centuries, which terminated in the overthrow of the throne of the Ctesars. Tlie Roman

PAEBNTAGE AND BIETH OF E TJ S S I A . 19

Senate, enervated by luxury, condescended to purchase peace of these barbarians, and nations of savages, vrhose names are now forgotten, exacted tribute, under guise of payment for alliance, from the proud empire. But neither bribes, nor alliances, nor the sword in the hands of enervated Rome, could effectually check the incursions of these bands, who were ever emerging, like wolves, from the mysterious depths of the North.

In the haze of those distant times and remote realms, we catch dim glimpses of locust legions, emerging from the plains and the ravines between the Black Sea and the Caspian, and sweeping like a storm cloud over nearly all of what is now called Russia. These people, to whom the name of Alains was given, had no fixed habitations; they conveyed their women and children in rude carts. Their devastations were alike extended over Europe and Asia, and in the ferocity of their assaults they were as insensible to death as wild beasts could be.

In the second century, the emperor Trajan conquered and took possession of the province of Dacia, which included all of lower Hungary, Transylvania, Moldavia, Wallachia and Bessarabia. The country was divided into Roman provinces, over each of which a prefect was established. In the third century, the Goths, from the shores of the Baltic, came rushing over the wide arena, with the howling of wolves and their gnashing of teeth. They trampled down all opposition, with their war knives drove out the Romans, crossed the Black Sea in their rude vessels, and spread conflagration and death throughout the most flourishing cities and villages of Bythinia, Gallacia and Cappadocia. The famous temple of Diana at Ephesus, these barbarians committed to the flames. They overran all Greece and took Athens by storm. As they were about to destroy the precious libraries of Athens, one ol their chieftains said,

" Let us leave to the Greeks their books, that they, in

20 THE EMPIKB OF E0SSIA.

leading them may forget the arts of war ; and that we thus may more easily be able to hold them in subjection."

These Goths established an empire, extending from the Black Sea to the Baltic, and which embraced nearly all of what is now European Russia. Towards the close of the fourth century, another of these appalling waves of barbaric inundation rolled over northern Europe. The Huns, emerging from the northern frontiers of China, traversed the immense intervening deserts, and swept over European Russia, spreading everywhere flames and desolation. The historians of that day seem to find no language sufiioiently forcible to describe the hideousness and the ferocity of these savages. They pressed down on the Roman empii'e as merciless as wolves, and the Caesars turned pale at the recital of their deeds of blood.

It is indeed a revolting picture which contemporaneous history gives us of these barbarians. In their faces was concentrated the ugliness of the hyena and the baboon. They tattooed their cheeks, to prevent the growth of their beards. They were short, thick-set, and with back bones curved almost into a semicircle. Herbs, roots and raw meat they devoured, tearing their food with their teeth or hewing it with their swords. To warm and soften their meat, they placed it under their saddles when riding. Nearly all their lives they passed on horseback. Wandering incessantly over the vast plains, they had no fixed habitations, but warmly clad in the untanned skins of beasts, like the beasts tlicy slept wherever the night found them. They had no religion nor laws, no conception of ideas of honor; their language was a wretched jargon, and in their nature there seemed to be no moral sense to which compassion or mercy could plead.

Such were the Huns as described by the ancient historians. The Goths struggled against them in vain. They were crushed and subjugated. The king of the Goths, Hermnnric in chagrin and despair, committed suicide, that he might es-

PARENTAGE AJSTD BIKTH OF RUSSIA. 21

cape slavery. Tliousands of the Goths, in their terror, crowdpd down into the Roman province of Thrace, now the Turkish province of Romania. The empire, then in its decadence, could not drive them back, and they obtained a permanent foothold there. The Huns thus attained the supremacy throughout all of northern Europe. There were then very many tribes of diverse names peopling these vast realms, and incessant wars were waged between them. The domination which the Huns attained was precarious, and not distinctly defined.

The' terrible Attila ere long appears as the king of these Huns, about the middle of the fifth century. This wonderful barbarian extended his sway from the Volga to the Rhine, and from the Bosphorus to the shores of the Baltic. Whereever he appeared, blood flowed in torrents. He swept the valley of the Danube with flame and sword, destroying cities, fortresses and villages, and converting the whole region into a desert. At the head of an army of seven hundred thousand men, he plunged all Europe into dismay. Both the Eastern and Western empire were compelled to pay him tribute. He even invaded Gaul, and upon the plains of Chalons was defeated in one of the most bloody battles ever fought in Europe. Contemporary historians record that one hundred and six thousand dead were left upon the field. With the death of Attila, the supremacy of the Huns vanished. The irruption of the Huns was a devastating scourge, which terrifled the world. Whole nations were exterminated in their march, until at last the horrible apparition disappeared, almost as suddenly as it arose.

With the disappearance of the Huns, central Russia presents to us the aspect of a vast waste, thinly peopled, with the wrecks of nations and tribes, debased and feeble, living upon the cattle they herded, and occasionally cultivating the soil. And now there comes forward upon this theater of violence and of blood another people, called the Sclavonians,

22 THE UMPIRE OF KUSSIA.

moi-e energetic and more intelligent than any who had preceded them. The origin of the Sclavonians is quite lost in the haze of distance, and in the savage wilds where they first appeared. The few traditions which have been gleaned respecting them are of very little authority.

From about the close of the fifth century the inhabitants of the whole region uow embraced by European Russia, were called Sclavonians ; and yet it appears that these Sclavonians consisted of many nations, rude and warlike, with various distinctive names. They soon began to crowd upon the Roman empiie, and became more formidable than the Goths or the Huns had been. Wading through blood they seized province after province of the empire, destroying and massacring often in mere wantonness. The emperor Justinian was frequently compelled to purchase peace with them and to bribe them to alliance.

And now came another vrave of invasion, bloody and overwhelming. The Avars, from the north of China, swept over Asia, seized all the provinces on the Black Sea, overran Greece, and took possession of most of the country between the Volga and the Elbe. The Sclavonians of the Danube, however, successfully resisted them, and maintained their independence. Generations came and went as these hordes, wild, degraded and wretched, swept these northern wilds, in debasement and cruelty rivaling the wolves which howled in their forests. They have left no traces behind them, and the few records of their joyless lives which history has preserved, are merely the gleanings of uncertain tradition. The thinking mind pauses in sadness to contemplate the spectacle of these weary ages, when his brother man was the most fei-ocious of be.ists, and when all the discipline of life tended only to sink him into deeper abysses of brutality and misery. There is here a problem in the divine government which no human wisdom can solve. There is consolation only in the announcement that what we know not now, we shall know

PARENTAGE AND BIETH OP E TJ S S I A . 23

hereafter. All these diverse nations blending have formed the present Russians.

Along the shores of the Baltic, these people assumed the name of Scandinavians, and subsequently Normans. Toward the close of the eighth century, the Normans filled Europe with the renown of their exploits, and their banners bade defiance even to the armies of Charlemagne. Early in the ninth century they ravaged France, Italy, Scotland, England, and passed over to Ireland, where they built cities which remain to the present day. "There is no manner of doubt," writes M. Karamsin in his history of Russia, " that five hundred years before Christopher Columbus, they had discovered North America, and instituted commerce with the natives."

It is not until the middle of the ninth century, that we obtain any really reliable information respecting the inhabitants of central Russia. They are described as a light-complexioned, flaxen-haired race, robust, and capable of great endurance. Their huts were cheerless, affording but little shelter, and they lived upon the coarsest food, often devouring their meat raw. The Greeks expressed astonishment at their agility in climbing precipitous cliffs, and admired the hardihood with which they plunged through bogs, and swam the most rapid and swollen streams. He who had the most athletic vigor was the greatest man, and all the ambition and energy of the nation were expended in the acquisition of strength and agility.

They are ever described as strangers to fear, rushing unthinkingly upon certain death. They were always ready to accept combat with the Roman legions. Entire strangers to military strategy, they made no attacks in drilled lines or columns, but the whole tumultuous mass, in wild disorder rushed upon the foe, with the most desperate daring, having no guide but their own ferocity and the chieftains who led small bands. Their weapons consisted of swords, javelins and poisoned arrows, and each man carried a heavy shield. As they crossed the Danube in their bloody forays, incited by love of plunder, the inhabitants of the Roman villages fled before them. When pursued by an invincible force they would relinquish life rather than their booty, even when the plunder was of a kind totally valueless in their savage homes. The ancient annals depict in appalling colors the cruelties they exercised upon their captives. They were, however, as patient in endurance as they were merciless in infliction. No keenness of torture could force from them a cry of pain.

Yet these people, so ferocious, are described as remarkably amiable among themselves, seldom quarreling, honest and truthful, and practicing hospitality with truly patriarchal grace. Whenever they left home, the door was unfastened and food was left for any chance wayfarer. A guest was treated as a heavenly messenger, and was guided on his way with the kindest expressions for his welfare.

The females, as in all barbaric countries, were exposed to every indignity. All the hard labor of life was thrown upon them. When the husband died, the widow was compelled to cast herself upon the funeral pile which consumed his remains. It is said that this barbarous custom, which Christianity abolished, was introduced to prevent the wife from secretly killing her husband. The wife was also regarded as the slave of the husband, and they imagined that if she died at the same time with her husband, she would serve him in another world. The wives often followed their husbands to the wars. From infancy the boys were trained to fight, and were taught that nothing was more disgraceful than to forgive an injury.

A mother was permitted, if she wished, to destroy her female children ; but the boys were all preserved to add to the military strength of the nation. It was lawful also for the children to put their parents to death when they had become infirm and useless. " Behold," exclaims a Russian historian, " how a people naturally kind, when deprived of

PARENTAGE AND BIETH OF RUSSIA. 25

the light of revelation can remorselessly outrage nature, and surpass in cruelty the most ferocious animals."

In different sections of this vast region there were different degrees of debasement, influenced by causes no longer known. A tribe called Drevliens, Nestor states, lived in the niost gloomy forests with the beajts and like the beasts. They ate any food which a pig would devour, and had as little idea of marriage as have sheep or goats. Among the Sclavonians generally there appears to have been no aristocracy. Each family was an independent republic. Different tribes occasionally met to consult upon questions of common interest, when the men of age, and who had acquired reputation for wisdom, guided in counsel.

Gradually during the progress of their wars an aristocracy arose. Warriors of renown became chiefs, and created for themselves posts of authority and honor. By prowess and plunder they acquired wealth. In their incursions into the empire, they saw the architecture of Greece and Rome, and thus incited, they began to rear castles and fortresses. He who was recognized as the leading warrior in lime of battle, retained his authority in the days of peace, which were very few. The castle became necessary for the defense of the tribe or clan, and the chieftain became the feudal noble, invested with unlimited power. At one time every man who was rich enough to own a horse was deemed a noble. The first power recognized was only military authority. But the progress of civilization developed the absolute necessity of other powers to protect the weak, to repress crime, and to guide in the essential steps of nations emerging from dai-kness into light. With all nations advancing from barjbarism, the process has ever been slow by which the civil authority has been separated from the military. It is impossible to educe from the chaos of those times any established principles. Often the duke or leader was chosen with imposing ceremonies. Some men of commanding abilities would gather

■26 T3E BlIPIllE OF BUSSIA.

into their hands the reins of almost unlimited power, and would transmit that power to their sons. Others were chiefs but in name.

We have but dim glimpses of the early religion of this people. In the sixth century they are represented as legarding with awe the deity whom they designated as the creator of thunder. The spectacle of the majestic storms which swept their plains and the lightning bolts hurled from an invisible hand, deeply impressed these untutored people. They endeavored to appease the anger of the supreme being by the sacrifice of bulls and other animals. They also peopled the groves, the fountains, the rivers with deities ; statues were rudely chiseled, into which they supposed the spirits of their gods entered, and which they worshiped. They deemed the supreme being himself too elevated for direct human adoration, and only ventured to approach him through gods of a secondary order. They believed in a fallen spirit, a god of evil, who was the author of all the calamities which afflict the human race.

The polished Greeks chiseled their idols, from snow-white marble, into the most exquisite proportions of the human foi'ui. Many they invested with all the charms of loveliness, and endowed them with the most amiable attributes. The voluptuous Venus and the laurel-crowned Bacchus were their gods. But the Sclavonians, regarding their deities only as possessors of power and objects of terror, carved their idols gigantic in stature, and hideous in aspect.

From these rude, scattered and discordant populations, the empire of Russia quite suddenly sprang into being. Its birth was one of the most extraordinary e^■|.'nts history has transmitted to us. We have seen that the Nonnan.s, dwelling along the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic and visiting the most distant coasts with their commercial and predatory fleets, had attained a degree of power intellio-ence and culture, which gave them a decided preeminence over

PAKENTAGE AND BIETH OP RUSSIA. 31

Landing in the night 1 eneath the high and precipitous banks near the town, he placed a number of his soldiers in ambuscade, and then calling upon the princes of Kief, informed them that he had been sent by the king of Novgorod, with a commercial adventure down the Dnieper, and invited them to visit his barges.

The two sovereigns, suspecting no guile, hastened to the banks of the river. Suddenly the men in ambush rose, and piercing them with arrows and javelins, they both fell dead at the feet of Oleg. The two victims of this perfidy were immediately buried upon the spot where they fell. In commemoration of this atrocity, the church of St. Nicholas has been erected near the place, and even to the present day the inhabitants of Kief conduct the traveler to the tomb of Ascolod and Dir. Oleg, now marshaling his army, marched triumphantly into the town, and, without experiencing any formidable opposition, annexed the conquered realm to the northern kingdom.

Oleg was charmed with his conquest. The beautiful site of the town, the broad expanse of the river, the facilities which the stream presented for maritime and military adventures so delighted him that he exclaimed,

" Let Kief be the mother of all the Russian cities."

Oleg established his army in cantonments, sti-engthened it with fresh recruits, commenced predatory excursions on everjside, and soon brought the whole region, for many leagues around, under his subjection. All the subjugated nations were compelled to pay him tribute, though, with the sagacity which marked his whole course, he made the tax so light as not to be burdensome. The territories of Oleg were now vast, widely scattered, and with but the frailest bond of union between them. Between the two capitals of Novgorod and Kief, which were separated by a distance of seven or eiglit hundred miles, there were many powerful tribes still claiming independence.

32 THE BMPIEH OF RUSSIA.

Oleg directed his energies against them, and his march of conquest was resistless. In the course of two years he established his undisputed sway over the whole region, and thus opened unobstructed communication between his northern and southern provinces. He established a chain of military posts along the line, and placed his renowned warriors in feudal authority over numerous provinces. Each lord, in his castle, was supreme in authority over the vassals subject to his sway. Life and death were in his hands. The fealty he owed his sovereign was paid in a small tribute, and in military service with an appointed number of soldiers whom he led into the field and supported.

Having thus secured safety in the north, Oleg turned his attention to the south. With a well-disciplined army, he marched down the left bank of the river, sweeping the country for an hundred miles in width, everywhere planting his banners and establishing his simple and effective government of baronial lords. It was easy to weaken any formidable or suspected tribe, by the slaughter of the warriors. There were two safeguards against insurrection. The burdens imposed upon the vassals were so light as to induce no murmurings; and all the feudal lords were united to sustain' each other. The first movement towards rebellion was drowned in blood.