Chapter I: Preface

With the exception of a translation of Rambaud’s somewhat disjointed work, there is no detailed history of Russia in the English language at all approaching modern standards. The reigns of Petr the Great and of some of his successors down to the present day--a period covering only 200 years--have been minutely dealt with, but the earlier history of a nation with whom we are coming ever closer into contact is to the English reader almost a blank. Whether the work now submitted will adequately fill the gap remains to be seen; such is its object.

The rule observed with regard to the rendering of names of places and persons has been to follow the spelling of the country to which they belong as closely as possible. The spelling of Russian words employed, and curiously distorted, by English and other historians, has been brought back to its native forms. There is no satisfactory reason, for instance, why the two final letters of _boyarin_ should be dropped, or why they should reappear tacked on to the equally Russian word _Kreml_. Moskva is scarcely recognisable in its Anglicised form, and Kiev can only be rendered Kieff on a system which would radically disturb the spelling of most English towns.

A list of works consulted is appended, arranged somewhat in the order in which they have been found useful, precedence being given to those which have been most largely drawn upon.

HECTOR H. MUNRO,
1899.

WORKS CONSULTED

KARAMZIN--Histoire de l’empire russe. 1819. (French translation by MM. St. Thomas et de Divoff.)

S. SOLOV’EV--Istoriya Rossie. 1858.

TH. SCHIEMANN--Russland, Polen und Livland. 1885.

A. RAMBAUD--History of Russia. 1879. (English translation.)

L. PARIS (translator)--Chronique de Nestor. 1834.

N. KOSTOMAROV--Rousskaya Istoriya v jhizneopisaniyakh eya glavnieyshikh dieyatelen. 1874.

N. KOSTOMAROV--Sieverno Rousskiya Narodopravstva. 1886.

SIR H. H. HOWORTH--History of the Mongols.

ANONYMOUS--Geschichte der Ostseeprovinzen. 1879.

VON HAMMER-PURGSTALL--Geschichte der goldenen Horde. 1840.

„ „ Histoire de l’Empire Ottoman. (French translation.)

E. A. FREEMAN--Ottoman Power in Europe. 1877.

J. W. ZINKEISEN--Geschichte des osmanischen Reich in Europa.

GENNAD KARPOV--Istoriya Bor’bui Moskovskago Gosoudarstvo s Pol’sko-Litovskim, 1462-1508. 1867.

“V. N.”--Iz Istorie Moskvui, 1147-1703. 1896.

E. A. SOLOV’EV--Ivan IV. Groznie. 1893.

N. A. POLEVOI--Tzarstvovanie Ioanna Groznago. 1859.

LE PÈRE PIERLING--La Russie et l’Orient. 1891.

„ „ Rome et Demetrius. 1878.

MARQUIS DE NOAILLES--Henri de Valois et la Pologne en 1572. 1867.

V. B. ANTONOVITCH--Otcherk Istorie Velikago Kniajhestva Litovskago. 1878.

N. G. RIESENKAMPFF--Der Deutsche Hof zu Nowgorod. 1854.

LASZLO SZALAY--Geschichte Ungarns. 1874.

A. N. MURAV’EV--History of the Russian Church. 1842. (English translation by R. W. Blackmore.)

A. PEMBER--Ivan the Terrible.

A. M. H. J. STOKVIS--Manuel d’Histoire, de Généalogie, et de Chronologie, etc. 1889.

BAR. SIGISMUND VON HERBERSTEIN--Rerum Moscoviticorum commentarii. 1851. (English translation by R. H. Major.)

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE DAWN OF RUSSIAN HISTORY 1

CHAPTER II

THE COMING OF THE VARANGIANS AND THE BUILDING OF KIEVIAN RUSSIA 14

CHAPTER III

THE FEUDS OF THE HOUSE OF RURIK 53

CHAPTER IV

THE COMING OF THE MONGOLS 81

CHAPTER V

“THE YEARS THAT THE LOCUST HATH EATEN” 96

CHAPTER VI

THE GROWING OF THE GERM 122

CHAPTER VII

THE LAST OF THE PALEOLOGI AND THE FIRST OF THE AUTOCRATS 149

CHAPTER VIII

IVAN GROZNIE 195

CHAPTER IX

THE GREAT BOYARIN 253

CHAPTER X

THE PHANTOM TZAR 271

CHAPTER XI

“THIS SIDE THE HILL” 306

I. TABLE OF RUSSIAN PRINCES OF THE LINE OF RURIK, FROM
SVIATOSLAV I. 327

II. HOUSE OF MSTISLAV VLADIMIROVITCH 328

III. HOUSE OF SOUZDAL-VLADIMIR AND SUB-HOUSES OF MOSKVA AND TVER 329

IV. GRAND PRINCES AND TZARS OF MOSKOVY 330

GLOSSARY 331

INDEX 332

LIST OF MAPS

RUSSIA _Frontispiece_

GRAND PRINCIPALITY OF MOSKVA 194

PLAN OF MOSKVA 270