The Empire of Russia | Page 4

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 earth has ever known. They drank the blood of their enemies; tanned their skins for garments; used their skulls for drinking cups; and worshiped a sword as the image or emblem of their favorite deity, the God of War. Philip of Macedon was the first who put any check upon their proud spirit. He conquered them in a decisive battle, and thus taught them that they were not invincible. Alexander the Great assailed them and spread the terror of his arms throughout all the region between the Danube and the Dnieper. Subsequently the Roman legions advanced to the Euxine, and planted their eagles upon the heights of the Caucasus.
The Roman historians seem to have dropped the Scythian name, and they called the whole northern expanse of Europe and Asia, Sarmatia, and the barbarous inhabitants Sarmatians. About the time of our Saviour, some of these fierce tribes from the banks of the Theiss and the Danube, commenced their assaults upon the frontiers of the Roman empire. This was the signal for that war of centuries, which terminated in the overthrow of the throne of the C?sars. The Roman Senate, enervated by luxury, condescended to purchase peace of these barbarians, and nations of savages, whose names are now forgotten,