The Empire of Russia | Page 6

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, Hermanric, in chagrin and despair, committed
suicide, that he might escape slavery. Thousands of the Goths, in their
terror, crowded 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. Where-ever 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 terrified 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, more 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 now 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 empire, 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 wave 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
ferocious of beasts, 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 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