The Empire of Russia | Page 4

with Turkey.--Capture of Crimea.--Sailing
of the Russian Fleet.--Great Naval Victory.--Visit of the Prussian
Prince Henry.--The Sleigh Ride.--Plans for the Partition of
Poland.--The Hermitage.--Marriage of the Grand Duke
Paul.--Correspondence with Voltaire and Diderot.


CHAPTER XXVI.
REIGN OF CATHARINE II.
From 1774 to 1781.
Peace with Turkey.--Court of Catharine II.--Her Personal Appearance
and Habits.--Conspiracy and Rebellion.--Defeat of the
Rebels.--Magnanimity of Catharine II.--Ambition of the
Empress.--Court Favorite.--Division of Russia into Provinces.--internal
Improvements.--New Partition of Poland.--Death of the Wife of
Paul.--Second Marriage of the Grand Duke.--Splendor of the Russian
Court.--Russia and Austria Secretly Combine to Drive the Turks out of
Europe.--The Emperor Joseph II.


CHAPTER XXVII.
TERMINATION OF THE REIGN OF CATHARINE II.
From 1781 to 1786.

Statue of Peter the Great.--Alliance Between Austria and
Russia.--Independence of the Crimea--The Khan of the Crimea.--Vast
Preparations for War.--National Jealousies.--Tolerant Spirit of
Catharine.--Magnificent Excursion to the Crimea.--Commencement of
Hostilities.--Anecdote of Paul.--Peace.--New Partition of
Poland.--Treaty with Austria and France.--Hostility to Liberty in
France.--Death of Catharine.--Her Character.


CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE REIGN OF PAUL I.
From 1796 to 1801.
Accession of Paul I. to the Throne.--Influence of Hereditary
Transmission of Power.--Extravagance of Paul.--His Despotism.--The
Horse Court Martialed.--Progress of the French Revolution.--Fears and
Violence of Paul.--Hostility to Foreigners.--Russia Joins the Coalition
Against France.--March of Suwarrow.--Character of Suwarrow.--Battle
on the Adda.--Battle of Novi.--Suwarrow marches on the Rhine.--His
Defeat and Death.--Paul Abandons the Coalition and Joins
France.--Conspiracies at St. Petersburg.


CHAPTER XXIX.
ASSASSINATION OF PAUL AND ACCESSION OF ALEXANDER.
From 1801 to 1807.
Assassination of Paul I.--Implication of Alexander in the

Conspiracy.--Anecdotes.--Accession of Alexander.--The French
Revolution.--Alexander Joins Allies Against France.--State of
Russia.--Useful Measures of Alexander.--Peace of Amiens.--Renewal
of Hostilities.--Battle of Austerlitz.--Magnanimity of Napoleon.--New
Coalition.--Ambition of Alexander.--Battles of Jena and Eylau.--Defeat
of the Russians.


CHAPTER XXX.
REIGN OF ALEXANDER I.
From 1807 to 1825.
The Field of Eylau.--Letter to the King of Prussia.--Renewal of the
War--Discomfiture of the Allies.--Battle of Friedland.--The Raft at
Tilsit.--Intimacy of the Emperors.--Alexander's Designs upon
Turkey.--Alliance Between France and Russia.--Object of the
Continental System.--Perplexities of Alexander.--Driven by the Nobles
to War.--Results of the Russian Campaign.--Napoleon
Vanquished.--Last Days of Alexander.--His Sickness and Death.


CHAPTER XXXI.
NICHOLAS.
From 1825 to 1855.
Abdication of Constantine.--Accession of Nicholas.--Insurrection
Quelled.--Nicholas and the Conspirator.--Anecdote.--The Palace of
Peterhof.--The Winter Palace.--Presentation at Court.--Magnitude of

Russia.--Description of the Hellespont and Dardanelles.--The Turkish
Invasion.--Aims of Russia.--Views of England and France.--Wars of
Nicholas.--The Polish Insurrection.--War of the Crimea.--Jealousies of
the Leading Nations.--Encroachments.--Death of Nicholas.--Accession
of Alexander II.


CHAPTER I.
PARENTAGE AND BIRTH OF RUSSIA.
From 600 B.C. to A.D. 910.
Primeval Russia.--Explorations of the Greeks.--Scythian
Invasion.--Character of the Scythians.--Sarmatia.--Assaults upon the
Roman Empire.--Irruption of the Alains.--Conquests of Trajan.--The
Gothic Invasion.--The Huns.--Their Character and Aspect.--The
Devastations of Attila.--The Avars.--Results of Comminglings of these
Tribes.--Normans.--Birth of the Russian Empire.--The Three
Sovereigns Rurik, Sineous and Truvor.--Adventures of Ascolod and
Dir.--Introduction of Christianity.--Usurpation of Oleg.--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 hordes 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 great 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 possession 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
North America. The Scythians were as ferocious a race as