A Short History of Russia

System of Appanages Vladimir the Sinner Becomes Vladimir the Saint Russia Forcibly Christianized Causes Underlying Antagonism Between Greek and Latin Church Russia Joined to the...

Principalities Headship of House of Rurik Relation of Grand Prince to the Others Civilizing Influences from Greek Sources Cruelty not Indigenous with the Slavs How and Whence it...

Lithuania Its Union with Poland A Conquest of Russia Intended Daniel First Prince of Moscow Moscow Becomes the Ecclesiastical Center Power Gravitates Toward that State Centraliz...

Origin of Ottoman Empire Turks in Constantinople Moscow the Spiritual Heir to Byzantium Ivan Married to a Daughter of the Caesars Civilizing Streams Flowing into Moscow Work for...

Ivan IV. His Childhood _Coup d'État_ Unmasking of Adashef and Silvester A Gentle Youth Developing into a Monster Solicitude for the Souls of his Victims Destruction of Novgorod...

Plans for a Liberal Reign Austerlitz Alexander I. an Ally of Napoleon Rupture of Friendship French Army in Moscow Its Retreat and Extinction The Tsar a Liberator in Europe Failu...

Constantine's Renunciation Revolt Succession of Nicholas I. Order Restored Character of Nicholas His Policy Polish Insurrection Reactionary Measures Europe Excluded Turco-Russia...

1848 in Europe Nicholas Aids Francis Joseph Hungary Subjugated Nicholas claims to be Protector of Eastern Christendom Attempt to Secure England's Co-operation Russia's Grievance...

Alexander II. End of Crimean War Reaction Toward Liberalism Emancipation of Serfs Means by which It was Effected Patriarchalism Retained Hopes Awakened in Poland Rebellion How i...

Reaction toward Severity Bulgaria and the Bashi-Bazuks Russia the Champion of the Balkan States Turco-Russian War Treaty of San Stefano Sentiment in Europe Congress of Berlin Di...

The topography of a country is to some extent a prophecy of its future. Had there been no Mississippi coursing for three thousand miles through the North American Continent, no...

In speaking of this eastern half of Europe as _Russia_, we have been borrowing from the future. At the time we have been considering there was no Russia. The world into which Ch...

The Russian Slavs were an agricultural, not a warlike, people. They fought bravely, but naked to the waist, and with no idea of military organization, so were of course no match...

So the scattered clans of the Slav race were roughly drawn together into something resembling a nation by the strong arm of the Scandinavian. But the course of national progress...

When Vladimir died, in 1015, the partition of his dominions among numerous heirs inaugurated the destructive system of _Appanages_. The country was converted into a group of pri...

The Principality of Novgorod had from a remote antiquity been the political center of Northern, as was Kief of Southern Russia. It was the Novgorodians who invited the Norse Pri...

Amid the wreck of principalities there was one state remaining erect. Novgorod was defended by its remoteness and its uninviting climate. The Mongols had not thought it worth wh...

The tumultuous forces in Russia, never at rest, were preparing to revolve about a new center. Whether this would be in the East or West was long in doubt, and only decided after...

Something else had been taking place during these two centuries: something which involved the future, not alone of Russia, but of all Europe. In 1250, just ten years before Dani...

Vasili, who succeeded Ivan III. in 1505, continued his work on the same lines of absorption and consolidation by unmerciful means. Pskof,--the sister republic to Novgorod the Gr...

In 1533 Vasili II. died, leaving the scepter to Ivan IV., an infant son three years old. Now the humiliated Princes and _boyars_ were to have their turn. The mother of Ivan IV.,...

Occasionally there arises a man in history who, without distinction of birth or other advantages, is strong enough by sheer ability to grasp the opportunity, vault into power, a...

In the building of an empire there are two processes--the building up, and the tearing down. The plow is no less essential than the trowel. The period after Boris had been for R...

A history of Russia _naïvely_ designates one of its chapters "The Period of Troubles"! When was there not a period of troubles in this land? The historian wearies, and doubtless...

The Baltic was at this time a Swedish sea. Finland, Livonia, and all the territory on the eastern coast, where once the Russians and the German knights had struggled, was now un...

While Peter was absorbing more territory on the Baltic, and while he was with frenzied haste building his new city, Charles XII. was still hiding in Poland. The Turks were burni...

The chief objection to a wise and beneficent despotism is that its creator is not immortal. The trouble with the Alexanders and the Charlemagnes and the Peters is that the span...

It was a defective social organization and an arrogant nobility that ruined Poland. There existed only two classes--nobles and serfs. The business and trade of the state were in...

Paul was forty-one years old when he ascended the throne he had for twenty years believed was rightfully his. The mystery surrounding the death of his father Peter III., the hum...

A youth of twenty-five years was Tsar and Autocrat of All the Russias. Alexander had from his birth been withdrawn entirely from his father's influence. The tutor chosen by his...

As Alexander left no sons, by the law of primogeniture his brother Constantine, the next oldest in the family of Paul I., should have been his successor. But Constantine had alr...

The Revolution of 1831 was only the mild precursor of the one which shook Europe to its foundations in 1848. It had centers wherever there were patriots and aching hearts. In Pa...

When his life and the hard-earned conquests of centuries were together slipping away, the dying Emperor said to his son: "All my care has been to leave Russia safe without and p...

Liberalism had received a check. In this outburst of severity, used to repress the free instincts of a once great nation, the temper of the Russian people had undergone a change...

The emancipation had been a disappointment to its promoters and to the serfs themselves. It was an appalling fact that year after year the death-rate had alarmingly increased, a...

When Nicholas II., the gentle-faced young son of Alexander, came to the throne there were hopes that a new era for Russia was about to commence. There has been nothing yet to ju...