The Empire of Russia | Page 9

The sovereign rewarded his favorites, or compensated his
servants, civil and military, by ceding to them provinces of greater or
less extent, with unlimited authority over the people subject to their
control. These lords acknowledged fealty to the sovereign, paid a
stipulated amount of tribute, and, in case of war, were bound to enter
the field with a given number of men in defense of the crown. It was a
system essential, perhaps, to those barbarous times when there was no
easy communication between distant regions, no codes of laws, and no
authority, before which savage men would bow, but that of the sword.
At this time two young Norman nobles, inspired with that love of war
and spirit of adventure which characterized their countrymen, left the
court of Rurik at Novgorod, where they had been making a visit, and
with well-armed retainers, commenced a journey to Constantinople to
offer their services to the emperor. It was twelve hundred miles,
directly south, from Novgorod to the imperial city. The adventurers had
advanced about half way, when they arrived at a little village, called
Kief, upon the banks of the Dnieper. The location of the city was so
beautiful, upon a commanding bluff, at the head of the navigation of
this majestic stream, and the region around seemed so attractive, that
the Norman adventurers, Ascolod and Dir by name, decided to remain
there. They were soon joined by others of their warlike countrymen.
The natives appear to have made no opposition to their rule, and thus
Kief became the center of a new and independent Russian kingdom.
These energetic men rapidly extended their territories, raised a large
army, which was thoroughly drilled in all the science of Norman
warfare, and then audaciously declared war against Greece and
attempted its subjugation. The Dnieper, navigable for boats most of the
distance from Kief to the Euxine, favored their enterprise. They
launched upon the stream two hundred barges, which they filled with
their choicest troops. Rapidly they floated down the stream, spread

their sails upon the bosom of the Euxine, entered the Bosporus, and
anchoring their fleet at the mouth of the Golden Horn, laid siege to the
city. The Emperor Michael III. then reigned at Constantinople. This
Northmen invasion was entirely unexpected, and the emperor was
absent, engaged in war with the Arabs. A courier was immediately
dispatched to inform him of the peril of the city. He hastily returned to
his capital which he finally reached, after eluding, with much difficulty,
the vigilance of the besiegers. Just as the inhabitants of the city were
yielding to despair, there arose a tempest, which swept the Bosporus
with resistless fury. The crowded barges were dashed against each
other, shattered, wrecked and sunk. The Christians of Constantinople
justly attributed their salvation to the interposition of God. Ascolod and
Dir, with the wrecks of their army, returned in chagrin to Kief.
The historians of that period relate that the idolatrous Russians were so
terrified by this display of the divine displeasure that they immediately
sent embassadors to Constantinople, professing their readiness to
embrace Christianity, and asking that they might receive the rite of
baptism. In attestation of the fact that Christianity at this period entered
Russia, we are referred to a well authenticated letter, of the patriarch
Photius, written at the close of the year 866.
"The Russians," he says, "so celebrated for their cruelty, conquerors of
their neighbors, and who, in their pride, dared to attack the Roman
empire, have already renounced their superstitions, and have embraced
the religion of Jesus Christ. Lately our most formidable enemies, they
have now become our most faithful friends. We have recently sent
them a bishop and a priest, and they testify the greatest zeal for
Christianity."
It was in this way, it seems, that the religion of our Saviour first entered
barbaric Russia. The gospel, thus welcomed, soon became firmly
established at Kief, and rapidly extended its conquests in all directions.
The two Russian kingdoms, that of Rurik in the north, and that of
Ascolod and Dir on the Dnieper, rapidly extended as these enterprising
kings, by arms, subjected adjacent nations to their sway. Rurik
remained upon the throne fifteen years, and then died, surrendering his

crown to his son Igor, still a child. A relative, Oleg, was intrusted with
the regency, during the minority of the boy king. Such was the state of
Russia in the year 879.
In that dark and cruel age, war was apparently the only thought,
military conquest the only glory. The regent, Oleg, taking with him the
young prince Igor, immediately set out with a large army on a career of
conquest. Marching directly south some hundred miles, and taking
possession of all the country by the way, he arrived at last at the