Russia

The largest empire of the world, occupying about one-sixth of the firm land of our globe, bounded north by the Arctic Ocean, east by the Pacific, south by China, Independent To or kist an, Persia, Asiatic Turkey, the Black Sea, and Roumania, and west by Austria, Pru ia, the Baltic, and the Scand in avian peninsula. When the Greeks founded their commercial stations along the northern coast of the Black Sea, in the Crimea, and on the shores of the Sea of Azof, they found the interior occupied by roving tribes of a fierce and savage character. They called them Scythians and Sarmatians, and for about eight centuries these two nations continued to be mentioned in the history of Greece and Rome as inhabiting the same country, pursuing the same occupations, etc. Then came, during the migration of nations beginning in the 4th century, the Goths, Avars, Huns, Alans, etc., rolling over them wave after wave. In the 6th century the name of the Slaves first appears. They founded Kiev and Novgorod. The name of Ru ians is first met with in the 9th century. Rurik, a Varangian chief, came to Novgorod in 862, not as a conqueror, but invited, and henceforth his family reigned in the country till it became extinct, and the people received the name of Ru ians. His succe or, Oleg (879-912), conquered Kief, defeated the Khazars, and even attacked the emperor of Constantinople. In the beginning of the 13th century, the Mongols under Genghis Khan broke in from Asia; the Ru ians were unable to withstand them. Most of the princes were wholly subdued. The brilliant victories of Demetrius Donski, prince of Moscow, in 1378 and 1380, only caused the Mongols to return in larger hordes; in 1382, Moscow was burned to the ground and 24,000 of its inhabitants were slain. Ivan III. the Great (1462-1505), who united Novgorod, Perm, and Pskov to Moscow, refused to pay the tribute to the Mongols, defeated them when they attempted to enforce their claim by arms, and commenced extending the Ru ian power to the east, conquering Kazan in 1469, and parts of Siberia in 1499. Ivan IV., the Terrible (1533-84), conquered Astrakhan in 1554, the land of the Don Co acks in 1570, Siberia in 1581, opened a road to Archangel in 1553, and organized in 1545 a body-guard, the famous Streltzi . With his son Feodor I. (1584-98) the house of Rurik ceased to exist, and after a protracted and severe struggle between Boris Godunoff, Basil V., and the two pseudo-Deme tri uses, who were supported by the Poles, Michael Feodorovitch Roman off, the founder of the present dynasty, ascended the throne in 1612. Some progre was made under each of his succe ors,—Catharine I. (1725-27), Peter II. (1727-30), Anne (1730-41), Elizabeth (1741-62). Catharine II. (1762-76) carried on succe ful wars with Persia, Sweden, and Turkey, conquering the Crimea; she also acquired Courland and half of Poland. (For history regarding Poland, see Poland .) Under Alexander I. (1801-25) Ru ia appears not only as one of the great powers, but as the true arbiter in European politics. In the Napoleonic wars he sided first with Austria, and was beaten at Austerlitz; then with Pru ia, and was beaten at Fried land. By the peace of Frederikshamn (1809) he obtained Finland from Sweden; by the peace of Bucharest (1812), Be arabia and Moldavia from Turkey; and the war with Persia was succe fully progre ing when his friendship with Napoleon suddenly began to wane. A rupture took place, and now followed with fearful rapidity the invasion of Ru ia by Western Europe, the destruction of the grand army, and the overthrow of Napoleon. By the peace of Paris (1856) Ru ia lost its supremacy in the Black Sea. (See Crimea .) It only bided its time, however, and October 31, 1870, when neither England, France, nor Turkey was able to resist, Prince Gortschakoff informed the various cabinets that Ru ia felt compelled to deviate from the stipulations of the treaty of Paris, and keep a fleet of sufficient capacity in the Black Sea.