lished authority over tribe or race was recognized. They tilled the soil, used coined money of other nations, and had considerable commerce. They were workers of iron and made swords for export.

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The foundation of the Russian state starts from the accepted date of 862, when the Variagi came to rule over the Slavs of Novgorod and vicinity, by invitation of the people it is said. Rurik, his two brothers and their military following came to establish order and defend the Slavs. Rurik first settled at Lake Ladoga, and at Novgorod after the death of his brothers. Two other Variagi went down to Kief and became leaders of the Poliane. After the death of Rurik his brother Oleg subdued Kief, extended his dominion over most of the Russian Slavs and in 907 attacked Constantinople and imposed tribute on it. Igor son of Rurik succeeded Oleg, and on his death his widow Olga became regent during the minority of her son Sviatoslaf. She began her reign with barbarous massacres of the Drevliane, by some of whom her husband had been assassinated, and was afterward converted to Christianity, but her son refused to follow her example and but few of her subjects accepted her faith. On the death of Sviatoslaf the empire was divided among his three sons, who ruled respectively at Kief, Novgorod and over the Drevliane. Civil wars followed, resulting in the death of two of the brothers and the consolidation of the whole under Vladimir. He was a cruel, sensual despot, who took five wives and kept concubines by the hundreds. He became dissatisfied with the old religion and made war on Constantinople to conquer the Greek Christianity. As terms of peace he demanded the daughter of the Greek emperor in marriage and accepted baptism. He then proceeded in a truly autocratic manner to throw down the ancient idols and march the people into the rivers to be baptized. His conversion is said to have been followed by a radical reformation of character, by the founding of schools and many other works for the good of the people. Vladimir partitioned his dominions among his sons and even gave a portion to a nephew. They, as usual, fought among themselves, and Iaroslaf became master of all. His reign

from 1015 to 1054 was a brilliant one and placed Russia among the leading states of Europe. He promulgated the first code of Russian laws. It recognized the avengers of blood and fixed the amount of money to be paid for crime; allowed judicial duels, trial by ordeal of red hot irons and boiling water, by oath with compurgators, and also provided for trial by a judge and jury of twelve men. Punishment by death, whipping or imprisonment was unknown. The rule of the Variagi was not of autocrats with firmly established authority, exercised through a system of subordinate officials. The prince occupied relations similar to the Norse and Frank leaders with their bands of military companions and followers called the drujina. They were his council of state and his guard. From them he chose governors of towns and constituted courts.of justice. They ate at his table and exercised a powerful influence on his policy. Sviatoslaf answered his mother Olga's exhortations to become a Christian by saying that his drujina would mock him. He owed his strength

to them and in order to retain it was forced to consult their wishes. They were free to transfer their allegiance to another when they chose. Prince and drujina were engaged in a common enterprise and lived from the tribute they extorted. This was fixed arbitrarily, and Igor lost his life by attempting to force further tribute from the Drevliane, after he had fleeced them once. The drujina was divided into three classes, of whom the boyars were the highest. What commerce there was was carried on by the prince and his armed warriors. The mass of the population were peasants-muzhiks, and slaves. The leading city in the time of Rurik and for a considerable period thereafter was Novgorod, which is said to have then had 100,000 inhabitants. It was a republic with ruling power in the assembly of citizens, the vetche, which was convoked by ringing the bell. They dictated terms to princes and received such rulers as they pleased and on their own conditions. Iaroslaf confirmed and defined the privileges of Novgorod, which subsequent princes were required to take an oath to observe. The revenues he might exact were strictly limited, as also were his judicial and political functions. He

could not execute justice without the concurrence of the posadnik, nor reverse a judgment nor take a suit away from the city. In conflicts between citizens and the prince's men a mixed tribunal decided. He could impose no garrison nor colony on them. The chief officer of the city was the posadnik. He was charged with the defense of civic rights, and shared with the prince the judicial powers and the apportionment of taxes. He governed the city, commanded the army and directed its diplomacy. The next in authority was the teusatski, who was military chief and entrusted with the defense of the rights of the people as a sort of tribune. Novgorod also preserved its spiritual independence by electing its own archbishop, who ranked among the chief dignitaries of the city. The citizens not only elected but retained the power to depose him. Novgorod became a German market, and German settlements were made not only at Novgorod but also at Ladoga and Pskof. Their markets were protected by stockades, and they maintained a monopoly of the western trade. Pskof and Viatka developed later, about the twelfth century, as little republics similarly constituted to Novgorod. The period following the death of Iaroslaf in 1054 till the appearance of the Tartars in 1224 was one of fierce and cruel wars, due largely to the division of the country among the heirs of deceased princes, aggravated by a conflict as to the rule of inheritance between the old Slavonic leadership of the oldest member of the family, by which brother succeeded brother, and the claims of the sons. From the dreary accounts of bloody cruelty and constant wars no new lesson can be drawn. It has had its counterpart in the history of nearly every nation on earth. The advent of the Mongols in 1224 marks the beginning of an important epoch in Russian history. The dominion of Genghis Kahn had already been extended over Manchuria, Northern China, central and western Asia. Nothing could exceed the fierceness and barbarity of his conquests. Indiscriminate slaughter, rapine, destruction of cities and property, death, desolation and ruin everywhere, were the penalties of resistance, and submission often gained no protection. His armies were recruited from all nations, and with

prestige once established he drew to his aid a heterogeneous army, made up from all the nations with which he came in contact. Against his hordes the ever jealous and warring petty princes, who ruled in the dismembered states of Russia, could oppose no effectual resistance. The Russians of that time were not very superior in their rules of warfare to the Mongols. When the ambassadors of the latter came to them asking that they abstain from interference in their contest with the Paluvtsin, the Russians responded by killing the ambassadors. In the battle which followed the Russian army was annihilated. This battle however was not followed by the immediate subjugation of any large territory. The Mongol hordes returned to the east, where they were occupied with other conquests. In 1237 Oktai, one of the sons and successors of Genghis, sent his nephew Batu with an immense army into Russia. He quickly overran the grass country of the south and spread ruin and desolation everywhere. His army penetrated the forests to within fifty miles of Novgorod. Mangu, a grandson of Genghis, took and destroyed Kief and put its people to the sword. The difficulties of a hilly timbered country impeded the progress of a horde accustomed to the open plains, and the obstinate defense of Olmutz in Moravia checked their advance. The death of Oktai recalled Batu to the east, and the wave of conquest had reached its western limit. Though they passed through Hungary into Germany, they gained no permanent foothold beyond Russia. Batu established his capital at Sarai on the lower Volga, where as representative of the great Kahn he ruled in barbaric splendor. By the persuasion of Alexander Nevski Novgorod paid tribute to the Mongols. Russian princes were required to appear at the capital of the Golden Horde and do homage to its chief. In many instances they were compelled to appear in the court of the Great Kahn on the further side of Asia. The rule of the Mongols was that of military chiefs, interested in extorting tribute and extending their power, but taking no interest in the local affairs of the people. They left those they spared with their social system, their local courts and laws unchanged, and with possession of their lands, which their nomad con

querors had no desire to cultivate. The conquered people were required to pay a capitation-tax, levied on rich and poor alike, to be paid in money or furs. The revenue was collected by farmers supported by the agents and guards of the Kahn. In course of time the princes of Moscow undertook the collection from their own subjects. The Russians were also required to furnish their quota of troops. While the Russian princes were allowed to retain their places, it was as subjects of the great Kahn, to whose decision they were required to submit their controversies instead of fighting them out. The corruption of the Kahn's court is reputed to have been extreme. The Mongols were converted to Mohammedanism about 1272. After they ceased to extend their dominions. by conquest, their manners softened and we hear no more of their extreme ferocity. During the time of their ascendency the Russians waged successful war with the Swedes and Livonians and strengthened their position on the west and north. With the rise of Poland there was a tendency to Russian concentration about Moscow.

In the reign of Ivan III the Muscovite autocracy began to again consolidate the Russian states. Novgorod had changed from a democracy, devoted to the common welfare, to an aristocracy divided into discordant factions. In 1470 it submitted to the sway of Ivan. By assuming the rôle of judge between the warring factions he took away from them their ancient and highly prized privilege of determining all their causes at home. They rebelled and he subdued them and finally abolished the vetche and posadnik, and in 1478 the republic of Novgorod ceased to exist. The Tartar empire had broken into fragments, and Ivan finally threw off the yoke of the Horde. Vasili Ivanovitch took away the liberties of Pskof as his father had those of Novgorod, abolished its vetche, carried off its bell, placed his lieutenant in it as governor and transplanted its principal citizens in remote parts, as his father had those of Novgorod. Ivan IV, the terrible, extended the boundaries of his empire and at the same time hardened the autocracy. His merciless executions were numbered by thousands and included many of the proudest boyars of the empire.