In the year 1147 the Prince of Suzdal, George Dolgoruki, found a village, the site of which is now covered by the opulent Kreml, on the banks of the Moscowa, and is said to have conceived an affection for it. His patronage5 cannot have extended far, since we find that it remains6 an obscure village, or small town, for more than a century. It then passed, with a few other towns, to a son of the heroic Alexander Nevski, who (by sharp practice—a fit beginning of the fortune of the Moscovites) enlarged his little principality and bequeathed it to an even less scrupulous8 brother.
George Danielovitch (1303-25) laid claim to the principality of Tver and took very powerful arguments to enforce his claim, in the shape of handsome presents, to the Mongol court at Sarai. He got his title, a sister of the Khan for wife, and a Mongol army; but he did not get the principality, and the Khan, scenting9 a larger bargain, summoned both claimants to Sarai. There George ended the argument by having his rival assassinated10. He in turn was assassinated, and a terrible feud11 subsisted12 for half a century between Moscow and Tver. Ivan, the successor of George, secured another Mongol army to reduce Tver, induced the Khan to remove his rival to another world, and entered upon a series of annexations14 and purchases which made Moscow the centre of a fairly large dominion, the seat of an archbishop, and a prosperous soil for churches and monasteries15; for the piety16 of all these lords of Moscow was even more conspicuous17 than their craft and insidious18 truculence19.
This malodorous tradition was sustained by the later princes. There was Simeon the Proud (1341-53) who, at the death of his father Ivan, found the largest bribe20 for the Mongols and ousted21 his competitors. At least he held in some check the lawlessness which was bleeding Russia, and it is one of those painful dilemmas22 of the historian that the valuable service rendered by the crafty24 Simeon was entirely25 neglected by his pious26 and gentle brother and successor, Ivan II. But Dmitri Ivanovitch, the son and successor of Ivan, returned to the sturdy lines of princely tradition. He defied and defeated the Tatars, and in the hour of triumph cried to Russia: “Their hour is past.” But the cry was premature27. A rival Russian prince arranged a coalition28 against Dmitri of the Catholic Lithuanians, and the Mohammedan Tatars, and the great army of Dmitri once more cut to pieces its opponents. In the meantime, however, the famous Tatar general, Timur, had come from Asia and fallen upon the “usurpers” of the Golden Horde29. Dmitri unwisely refused the friendship which Timur offered him, and before long the fierce Mongols set flame to the splendid buildings of his capital and littered the streets with the corpses30 of its children.
Dmitri recovered and handed down a fair principality to his son Vassili (1389-1425), who shrewdly preserved his territory by a friendly alliance with the Tatars on the one hand and a matrimonial alliance with the Lithuanians on the other. His son, Vassili the Blond, was equally submissive to the Tatars and friendly with the Lithuanians. Then, in 1462, there came to the throne Ivan III, the first of the two great makers31 of imperial Russia.
At the time when Ivan III ascended32 the throne the principality of Moscow was a small and feeble territory menaced by the Lithuanian empire to the west and the Mongol empire to the east. Most of the other Russian principalities had either won a precarious33 independence or were subject to Lithuania. The republics of Novgorod and Pskoff alternately lost and recovered their freedom, and wavered between the Lithuanian and the Mongol alliance. Riazan and Tver remained independent and regarded with jealous eyes the growth of Moscow. This was the Russia of the fifteenth century, a mere34 fragment of the country which bears that name to-day.
Nor was this lack of unity35 the only reproach which we may bring against the princes who had torn the land in their selfish struggles for supremacy36. Round the whitened monasteries and gilded37 shrines38 the feuds39 of the princes had gone on without intermission for so many centuries that the blood ran thin in the veins40 of Russia. It had neither the vitality41 nor the organisation42 required to meet its external foes43, and every few years some hostile army scattered44 the customary desolation over the country. On every side, also, were troops of free lances and brigands45, who constantly swooped46 upon the miserable47 peasantry. It is the claim of the orthodox historians that the Moscovite princes we have now to describe rescued Russia from this degradation48, and we must examine their methods, their motives49, and their attainments51.
Ivan III is, in the existing portraits, a lean-faced, sombre-looking man, with large melancholy52 eyes and the patriarchal beard which the Slavs still preserved. These portraits probably accentuate53 the ostentatious piety of the man, and give us no idea of the cold ferocity which could light his heavy features. It is said that women were known to faint when they met his eye. Certain it is that Ivan united all the craft and calculating cruelty of the degenerate54 Greeks with professions of humility55 and peacefulness which provoke our disgust. Conspirators56 against his terrible rule were burned alive in cages, and the horrible Byzantine practice of cutting out a prisoner’s eyes was more than once employed. Even priests, for whom he affected57 a humble58 veneration59, were brutally60 flogged when they departed from the customary subservience61 of the clergy62 and took the part of the people. In war he was a coward. All the impulsive63 and savage64 bravery of the Norseman had in him degenerated65 into the mean and shifty hypocrisy66 of a dishonest huckster.
Ivan ascended the petty throne of Moscow in the year 1462. The city of Moscow was at that time still little more than a large cluster of mud-huts, with a few streets of merchants, about the princely palace and the rich shrines. Ivan looked to his revenues and before long was confronted with the firm refusal of the citizens of Novgorod to pay the tribute he demanded. The Grand Prince proceeded with his habitual67 craft. Instead of setting out to enforce his demands, he formulated68 a complaint that the Russian people of Novgorod were oppressed by a wealthy faction69, and that this faction contemplated70 an alliance with the heretics of Poland. We may assume that there was some truth in the charges. Novgorod, still democratic and independent, still proud of the popular parliament on its market-place, was full of factions71. In such a city a mutual72 hostility73 of rich and poor was inevitable74, and Ivan’s agents seem to have encouraged the aggrieved75 workers to appeal to him against what were represented to be the oligarchs. The wealthier and more powerful faction was led by a woman named Marfa, and may very well have contemplated an alliance with Poland against the ambitions of Moscow.
In 1470 Ivan sent against the city a strong Mongol and Moscovite army, and the ruin which it spread over the lands of Novgorod, as it approached, induced the citizens to compromise. But the Grand Prince wanted more than tribute, and his agents continued to foster the grievances76 of the popular party and encourage appeals to Moscow. When the time was ripe Ivan wrought77 the republican spirit of Novgorod to a fury by describing himself, in his official documents, as “sovereign” of that city. The educated citizens saw in this the doom79 of their liberty, and, acting80 in the violent mood of the time, they put to death the supporters of Moscow. The story runs that the clergy and boyars of Moscow now gathered round their humane81 and reluctant ruler, and demanded that he should make war upon Novgorod. Certainly Ivan III did not love the hazards of war, especially as it was still the custom for a Russian prince to lead his troops. But we may measure his humanity by the sequel.
The conscience of the Grand Prince was reconciled by conceiving the campaign as a “holy war” against the allies of the Pope, and a formidable army took the road north. The partial resistance of the distracted republic was overcome, and Ivan set about the extirpation82 of its spirit of independence. The democratic nobles were transplanted to other soil. The commercial prosperity, which Novgorod had developed in its relations with the cities of north Germany, was systematically83 destroyed. The stores of merchandise and other treasures were transferred to Moscow. The shadow of the popular council, the Véché, remained—Ivan’s son would complete the work—but a very severe blow had been struck by the Moscovite at what remained of Slav democracy.
The dependent republic of Pskoff submitted to Moscow, and was permitted to retain its institutions. The principality of Viatka was next recovered, from the Tatars, and added to the dominion of Moscow. The victorious84 troops, indeed, went on to annex13 a large part of more northern Russia, and the first thin slice of Asiatic territory fell under the rule of the Slav. At a later date the principality of Tver was drawn85 into the growing empire. Its prince afforded a specious86 pretext87 by allying himself with the unholy followers88 of the Roman Pontiff, the Lithuanians, and religious zeal89 again edged the swords of the troops.
It will be gathered that the power of the Mongols had now sunk too low to arrest the progress of Moscow. On an earlier page we have seen how Timur had come from Asia and chastised90 the Khans who had dared to set up an independent sovereignty in Europe. For some reason Timur did not overrun Russia as his predecessor91 had done. The clerical traditions of Russia attribute the escape to one of the miracles which seem to have been so frequent in that age, but the superior attractions of the new Ottoman Empire in the south, which was then displacing Greece and taking over its treasures, may be regarded as a more satisfactory explanation.
Timur had reduced the strength of the Golden Horde, and the dissensions which followed further enfeebled it. Here was an opportunity after the heart of Ivan III. Dispossessed Tatar princes fled to his court, and he sent them back with their animosities inflamed93, while he made the customary presents to the ruling Khan. In 1478 either Ivan or his advisers94 felt that the time had come to end the Tatar yoke95, and Ivan nervously96 found himself at the head of 150,000 men making for the land of the dreaded97 Mongol. The issue is one of the most laughable in history. The two large armies encamped in sight of each other for days and dared each other to come on. Priests and officers spurred Ivan to the attack, and his rare fits of confidence, or professions of confidence, alternated with long periods of what we must regard as cowardice98. Possibly the intensely superstitious99 prince thought that one of those miracles of which the clergy spoke100 so freely would spare him the hazard of war. A miracle, indeed, appeared, and it is difficult for the profane101 historian to penetrate102 its mysterious working. Both armies at length, and simultaneously103, struck their camps and retreated hastily to their respective homes! The Tatar had sunk as low as the Moscovite.
Costume of Boyars in the Seventeenth Century
Ivan’s troops, which did not share the timidity of their high commander, next reduced Bulgaria, and the death of his brothers enabled Ivan to add still further, and with less title, to his dominions104. His brother Andrew was, in 1493, accused of the usual perfidy105 and corresponding with the Polish-Lithuanian kingdom. He was thrown into prison, and there he conveniently died. Ivan summoned his bishops106 and monks107 and, as the tears trickled108 down his gaunt face and grey beard, confessed that he had sinned in sanctioning the cruel treatment of his brother. But he added Andrew’s territory, and that of two other brothers, to his large dominion.
In the following year the lover of peace attacked the joint109 kingdom of Lithuania and Poland, which had so long afflicted110 Russia. Ivan had married his daughter to the Polish king, and had strictly111 stipulated112 that she should have entire freedom to practise the true religion amongst the adherents113 of the Pope. In 1494 Ivan found that this agreement was grossly disregarded, and his beloved daughter ran some peril114 of her soul. Later Russian historians have learned from the daughter’s letters that she had no complaint except against the interested intrigues115 of Ivan himself. However, a holy war was proclaimed, and a good deal of western Russia was wrested116 from the Poles and added to the Moscovite dominion.
Such were the methods by which Ivan III doubled the patrimony117 of his fathers, and accumulated the wealth and power by which his more famous grandson would create the great Russia of the Romanoffs. It remains to see how Ivan organised his dominion, strengthened the autocracy118, and raised the culture and splendour of his capital.
Ivan was by nature autocratic. He did not make counsellors of his boyars, as had been the custom, and they were compelled to learn the art of silence in presence of their master. But it was Ivan’s wife who directed this disposition119 and created a Court in harmony with it. The Turks had taken Constantinople and had driven the remnants of half a dozen rival Greek royal families, and all that remained of Greek culture, into Italy. Amongst the fugitives120 was the clever and ambitious niece of the last emperor, Sophia Pal7?ologus. The Pope, who saw in this heavy chastisement121 of the Greek schism122 a ray of hope of the reunion of Christendom, fathered the homeless princess and sought for her a useful marriage. Ivan accepted her and the Papal dowry. They were married early in his reign78 (in 1472), and her forceful ambition was behind many of the schemes of conquest we have reviewed. It was especially she and the clergy who forced upon the prince his inglorious campaign against the Tatars.
But we may see her influence especially in the growing splendour and despotism of the Moscovite court. Bred in the sacred palace by the Bosphorus, where there still lingered, until the Turk came, some remains of the most imposing123 court of the old world, she was made impatient by the thin coat of gilt124 which covered the Russian barbarism. Accustomed to a city of marble palaces, with walls of mosaic125 or porphyry, with bronze gates guarded by hundreds of silk-clad servants, and gold and silver vessels126 so heavy that they had to be lifted on to the tables by mechanical devices, she knew how to use the increasing wealth of her husband’s kingdom. He was now the successor of Constantine and the Roman Emperors. The two-headed eagle, which had been the blatant127 emblem128 of Greek vanity, passed with the hand of Sophia to Moscow, and was emblazoned on the banners and plate of the new dynasty. Ivan did not take the title of “Tsar.” His grandson would complete his work.
Sophia invited to her court Greek scholars and Italian architects and engineers, and the splendour of Moscow soon became so famous that its prince corresponded with Popes and Sultans, Kings of Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, and Austria, and even with the Grand Mogul of India. Italy was at that time in the flush of the Renaissance129, and much of its colour, and of the less manly130 art of the Byzantinians, was brought to Moscow. Whatever one may think of the religious quarrel, it can hardly be doubted that the civilisation131 of Russia would have gained by submission132 to Rome. The Papacy was then enjoying that period of artistic133 license134 which provoked the Reformation, and probably Russia would have joined the Reformers. By its severance135 from Rome it maintained a barrier against the west, where civilisation was making rapid progress, and prolonged the inferior culture and conservative influence of the late Greek empire. The glory of the new Russia was but a coat of paint upon barbarism.
In the court the oppressive servility and childish pageantry of the Byzantine palace were encouraged. Golden mechanical lions barked before a golden throne, as they had done at Constantinople, and filled the visitor with mingled136 admiration137 and disdain138. A very numerous guard of nobles, in high white fur caps and long caftans of white satin, with heavy silver axes on their shoulders, protected the sacred person of the monarch139, and crowds of courtiers in cloth of gold or bright silk, with costly140 necklaces round their necks, vied with each other in flattery of speech and humility of demeanour. Yet these glittering aristocrats141 still carried a spoon in their jewelled girdles, for knives and forks were not yet substituted for fingers at a Russian feast.
The wives of the boyars were not less splendid. The combined influence of Mongol princes and Byzantinian monks had, as I said, lowered the condition of the Slav women. The terem, or women’s quarters of the house, was screened as carefully as the gynec?um had been in ancient Athens or in Constantinople. The Russians had not indeed introduced that later Greek security for the behaviour of their women, the eunuch, and the frailer142 protection of religion did not prevent disorders143; but the women were, as a rule, carefully guarded at home and abroad, while their husbands claimed the free use of slaves and courtesans. In public the wives of the boyars—or, as we may now call them, nobles—presented a curious spectacle. They painted as liberally as the Greeks had done. Thick coats of vivid red and white covered their faces, necks, and even hands; and their eyelashes, and even teeth at times, were dyed. In obedience144 to the ascetic145 teaching of the monks great masses of scarlet146 or gold cloth, silk, satin, and velvet147, concealed148, or preserved for the admiration of their husbands, the opulent lines of their figures; for a full habit of body was religiously cultivated.
Round this glittering court, with its Gargantuan149 banquets and its daily intoxication150, spread the wooden city of Moscow, whose hundred thousand inhabitants lived, for the most part, in squalor and grossness. Beyond were the broad provinces of Russia which bore the burden of this barbaric splendour. The mass of the people had at an earlier date, we saw, become moujiks, or “mannikins.” Others called them “stinkers.” Now, by one of the most curious freaks of Russian development, they were known as “the Christians”; as if the quintessence of the Christian151 doctrine152, as it was expounded153 by the Russian priests, was obedience to a lord and master. Their women had the hardest lot; the priests were content to urge the peasant or artisan, who, like his betters, drank heavily, not to beat his wife with a staff shod with iron or one of a dangerous weight. Drink was one of the few luxuries left, for the priests and monks gave fiery154 warnings against the song and dance and games that had formerly155 lightened the life of the people. Drinking heavily themselves, they could not, as a rule, rigorously forbid intoxication.
Such was the Russia created by Ivan and his Greek wife, with the aid of the Greek-minded clergy, and bequeathed to their second son Vassili. That prince, zealously156 educated by his mother, sustained the policy of enlarging and coercing157 his dominions. The republic of Pskoff had, we saw, retained its democratic forms. Vassili held a court at Novgorod, and thither158 he summoned the chief men of the neighbouring republic to do homage159. Too weak to rebel, yet aware that the monarch sought to swallow the last remnant of the primitive160 democracy, the citizens appealed eloquently161 to the sense of honour which the Moscovite might be assumed to have. It was useless, and the republic was dismantled162. Amidst the tears of the citizens and the laments163 of the patriotic164 poets Vassili removed the great bell to Novgorod and suppressed the Véché or democratic council. The commercial life of Pskoff was ruined, and three hundred docile165 families from Moscow were substituted for threes hundred who had clung to independence and were now sent into exile.
Riazan was the next victim. The familiar crime of corresponding with heretics—with the Khan of the Crimea—was charged against its prince, and the fertile province was added to the Moscow principality. Vassili recovered territory also from the Tatars and the Lithuanians. Russia expanded rapidly, and the splendour and autocracy of the court proportionately increased. There was now only one court for the innumerable descendants of the earlier princes and boyars, and the sternness of the competition for rewards made the nobles more and more sycophantic166. Even less than his father did Vassili ask the counsel of his boyars.
The death of Vassili in 1533 led to a romantic and important interlude. Vassili’s first wife had been thrust into a convent on the ground that she could not furnish an heir to the brilliant throne. Whether or no it is true that she disturbed the solitude167 of the cloister168 with the pangs169 of motherhood, it seems clear that the chief motive50 for the divorce was that Vassili had fallen in love with the very pretty and capable daughter of a Lithuanian refugee, Helena Glinski. Helena gave birth to two sons, but the eldest170 was only three years old at the time of his father’s death. The mother vigorously grasped the regency and held power from the furious boyars. Only the Master of Horse, Prince Telepnieff, was allowed to share her despotism, as he shared her affection. The nobles split into factions, and they presently found that the easy-going princess could use the most truculent171 machinery of despotism. When the heads of a few of them had fallen, they poisoned Helena and her lover, and there followed a sordid172 scramble173 for power and plunder174.
Now of the two children of Helena one was the boy who would live, even in the history of Russia, as “Ivan the Terrible.” Ingenious historians have found a milder meaning for this epithet175, or discovered that Ivan underwent some strange degeneration in his later years. But the boy who was brought up amidst dogs and grooms176, who for sheer pleasure cast his dogs from the walls of his palace and watched them writhe177, who stabbed his favourite jester for the most trifling178 fault, is the same Ivan who in later years soaked petitioners179 in brandy and set fire to them. His impulses were barbaric, and the unhappy features of his education had stimulated180 rather than curbed181 them. He was eight years old at the time his mother was murdered, but he was clever, observant, and self-conscious. He saw the boyars plunder the palace, which was now his, and fleece the long-suffering country. He noticed that any servant to whom he became attached was removed or murdered. He read much, and he grew up rapidly in his solitary182 world.
And during the Christmas festivities of 1543 Ivan, then thirteen years old, summoned his boyars before him and let loose upon them an unexpected storm of reproach. Andrew Chiuski, the most powerful of them, he handed over at once to his groom-attendants—one wonders how far they had inspired this precocious183 display—and the great noble was soon dispatched. One account runs that by Ivan’s orders he was torn to pieces by the hounds: others say that the grooms acted without orders. Other nobles were banished184. The short golden age of the boyars was over. The shadow of a sterner autocracy than ever began to creep over the court.
Ivan had himself crowned in January, 1547, and he chose the title, which now first appears, of “Tsar of all the Russias.” Shortly afterwards he announced that he would marry, and his servants arranged the kind of matrimonial parade which had been customary at Constantinople when a prince was to wed92. A preliminary survey was made of the daughters of all the nobles of the kingdom, and fifteen hundred of the most healthy and beautiful of them were brought to Moscow and crowded into the palace. A medical examination ensured that they were virtuous185 enough to wed a prince who was already expert in every variety of vice23, and Ivan made the round of the trembling maids. He chose the lovely daughter of a small noble named Roman, a man of either Prussian (Slav—as the old Prussians were) or Lithuanian extraction. Anastasia Romanovna became the first Tsarina and the founder186 of the fortune of the Romanoff family. It was in the same year that Ivan had some deputies, who came from Pskoff to set out the grievances of the town, soaked in brandy and set afire.
The boyars were still powerful. In the same year, 1547, a fire destroyed a great part of Moscow, and the nobles charged it to the account of the Tsar’s maternal187 relatives. The homeless people heard with horror that the Glinskis had stewed188 human hearts and watered the streets with the magic brew189, and they fell upon the Glinski palaces. Even the young Tsar wavered for a moment, and the boyars gained ground. Three years later, however, he summoned a great assembly of all orders of the people—except “the Christians,” who counted no longer—in the Red Square in front of the Kreml and impeached190 the boyars. Reforms were introduced in the holding of land and the administration of justice, and an arrangement was made for the presentation of complaints.
Ivan was still young, and the insolence191 of the boyars continued. In 1553 he was dangerously ill, and he was aware that they plotted to put a cousin of his upon the throne instead of reserving it for his infant son. Ivan was, like his grandfather, not a man of much personal courage, and he continued nervously to tolerate the opposition192 and corruption193 of the nobles. In 1560 he impeached and disgraced their leaders, Sylvester and Adacheff. His wife Anastasia had died, and he suspected poison. A state of intolerable friction194 and danger now set in, and in the middle of the winter of 1564 all Moscow was alarmed to see a great imperial cortège leave the palace and retire to the country. Ivan had packed on waggons195 his plate and treasures, his furniture and sacred ikons; and his court and followers went with him on his strange adventure. The correspondence which followed ended in a curious compromise. Ivan virtually divided Russia into two parts. The greater part of it was to be ruled by the boyars, the remainder by himself and his court.
But the young Tsar had reserved the right to punish treason, and on his return to Moscow he created the machinery by which he could do so. He formed a special guard of a thousand picked boyars and sons of boyars, and the dog’s head which he gave them as emblem indicated his disposition. A reign of terror followed. Thousands of nobles and their followers were slain196 with every circumstance of brutality197. Such legends grew out of the red terror that we handle them with some reserve, but we have a document in which Ivan coldly commends to the prayers of the Church 3,470 victims—nobles and priests, men, women, and children—of his new policy. Prince Vladimir (the cousin whom the nobles would have substituted for his son) and his mother were killed; and there is no grave reason to doubt the story that they were murdered in Ivan’s presence, and that he then had their maids stripped, whipped through the streets, and shot or cut down as they ran. Naked exposure and scourging198 were common incidents of the terror.
In 1570 a man reported that Novgorod contemplated going over to Poland. A letter to that effect would, he said, be found hidden behind a picture in a certain monastery199. Ivan’s servants found the letter where the man had put it, and the Tsar and his troops moved grimly to Novgorod. Priests and monks were brutally flogged, so that many of them died, and then the citizens were brought, in batches200 of a hundred, before the Tsar. Some were roasted over slow fires in the great square, where once the Véché had been held: others were driven in sledges201, the children tied to their mothers, down an incline into the icy river, where soldiers with pikes saw that none escaped death. The horror lasted five weeks, and so vaguely202 terrible was the city’s recollection of it that the number of victims is variously stated as 500, 3,000, 60,000, and even 700,000. The Archbishop of the city is said to have been sewn in a bear-skin and flung to the dogs, but many of the stories of the time—of Ivan stabbing babes and raping203 mothers, of his soldiers using white-hot lances, and so on—may be figments of the horrified204 imagination.
Ivan, we must remember, was not a burly monster, cruel from his own indifference205 to suffering. He was rather a nervous, calculating man, shrinking behind soldiers chosen for their brutality, coldly following a policy of terror. When he had sacked the shops and palaces, and ravaged206 the whole territory of Novgorod, he turned upon Pskoff. It is recorded to his credit that he murdered none in that innocent city, but he relieved it of its wealth and banished many of the leading citizens. He entered Moscow with all the pomp of a great Roman conqueror207, and soon set up his bloody208 tribunal in the capital. Hundreds were executed, and the most barbarous torture was inflicted209 even upon women.
That was in 1570, and from that time onward210 Ivan ruled his empire by the knout and the knife. His end was as inglorious as his reign. Anastasia had given him two sons, Ivan and Feodor. The three legitimate211 wives and various illegitimate partners whom he took after Anastasia’s death do not seem to have much enlarged his family, and Prince Ivan grew up in confident expectation of the throne. He was on such good terms with his father that one tradition speaks of them as exchanging mistresses. In 1581, however, the Tsar was annoyed with his son’s wife, and, with his customary lack of restraint, he struck her with the iron-shod staff which he usually carried. She was pregnant, and the blow was fatal. His son expostulated, and the Tsar again used his staff, or spear, and inflicted a fatal wound. For a time he professed212 acute remorse213. He shed floods of tears and declared that he was unworthy of the throne. His supporters, lay and clerical, did not share his momentary214 estimate of himself, and he then, it seems, entered upon a period of worse debauch215 than ever. We cannot very confidently pierce the darkness which falls over the palace after 1581, but it seems to have rivalled in vice the Golden House of Nero. In 1584 Ivan died.
Russian historians are apt to claim that Ivan was a great man marred216 by a cruel disposition and an environment which fostered it. No one will doubt either the savagery217 of his disposition or the barbarity and peculiar218 pressure of his environment, but his constructive219 work hardly entitles him to be called great. His domestic reforms seem to have been made out of antipathy220 to the boyars, and we should probably not be far wrong in attributing his other services to Russia mainly to a selfish motive. He broke the remaining power of the Finns and Mongols, slew221 or sold into slavery whole tribes of them, and made Russian provinces of their territory. He conquered Astrakhan and its territory, and extended the rule of Russia in the direction of Persia. He, after a long struggle, beat the Livonian Knights222, and secured respectful peace from Poland and Sweden.
The greatest part of his policy was his endeavour to bring Russia into contact with the west. From Livonia to Hungary a line of fanatical Catholic powers shut out Russia from intercourse223 with the advancing civilisation of the west. Ivan could hardly realise the historical law that isolation224 means stagnation225, but he did see clearly that everything new and valuable—such as muskets226 and cannon—came from the west. Early in his reign, in 1553, some English merchants sailed round by the Protestant north to Russia, and Ivan became passionately227 eager for an alliance with England. There is good ground to believe that his envoys228 begged for him the hand of Queen Elizabeth herself! Her contemptuous refusal, softened229 by diplomacy230, angered him for a time, but in later life he asked at least the hand of her cousin, Mary Hastings. He had just taken on his sixth consort231, and neither Mary nor Elizabeth liked the prospect232. The English court, which wanted the profit of trade with Russia, was embarrassed, but as it was in the same year that the Tsar killed his son and entered upon his last sombre phase the difficulty did not remain long.
We have now seen how the Moscovites had made the new Russia—the autocratic and imperial Russia which succeeded the democratic and smaller country of the Slavs. How much “the genius of the Slav people” had to do with the creation of that autocracy the reader will now understand. We have also seen the children of a certain Roman, the Romanoffs, enter the chronicle, and we have next to see how they mount the imperial throne and found a lengthy233 dynasty.
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retrace
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| v.折回；追溯，探源 | |
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briefly
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dominion
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machinery
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patronage
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remains
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pal
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scrupulous
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scenting
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assassinated
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feud
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subsisted
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| v.（靠很少的钱或食物）维持生活，生存下去( subsist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
annex
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| vt.兼并，吞并；n.附属建筑物 | |
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14
annexations
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| n.并吞，附加，附加物( annexation的名词复数 ) | |
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15
monasteries
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| 修道院( monastery的名词复数 ) | |
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16
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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17
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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18
insidious
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| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
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19
truculence
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| n.凶猛，粗暴 | |
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20
bribe
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| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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21
ousted
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| 驱逐( oust的过去式和过去分词 )； 革职； 罢黜； 剥夺 | |
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22
dilemmas
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| n.左右为难( dilemma的名词复数 )；窘境，困境 | |
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23
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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24
crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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25
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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26
pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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27
premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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28
coalition
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| n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合 | |
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29
horde
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| n.群众，一大群 | |
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30
corpses
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| n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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31
makers
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| n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式） | |
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32
ascended
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| v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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33
precarious
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| adj.不安定的，靠不住的；根据不足的 | |
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34
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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35
unity
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| n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调 | |
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36
supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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37
gilded
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| a.镀金的，富有的 | |
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38
shrines
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| 圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
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39
feuds
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| n.长期不和，世仇( feud的名词复数 ) | |
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40
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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41
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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42
organisation
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| n.组织，安排，团体，有机休 | |
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43
foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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44
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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45
brigands
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| n.土匪，强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
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46
swooped
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| 俯冲，猛冲( swoop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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47
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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48
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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49
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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50
motive
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|
| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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51
attainments
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| 成就，造诣； 获得( attainment的名词复数 )； 达到； 造诣； 成就 | |
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52
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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53
accentuate
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| v.着重，强调 | |
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54
degenerate
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| v.退步，堕落；adj.退步的，堕落的；n.堕落者 | |
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55
humility
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| n.谦逊，谦恭 | |
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56
conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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57
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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58
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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59
veneration
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| n.尊敬，崇拜 | |
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60
brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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61
subservience
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| n.有利，有益；从属（地位），附属性；屈从，恭顺；媚态 | |
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62
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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63
impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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64
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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65
degenerated
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| 衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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66
hypocrisy
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| n.伪善，虚伪 | |
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67
habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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68
formulated
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| v.构想出( formulate的过去式和过去分词 )；规划；确切地阐述；用公式表示 | |
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69
faction
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| n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争 | |
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70
contemplated
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| adj. 预期的 动词contemplate的过去分词形式 | |
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71
factions
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| 组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 ) | |
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72
mutual
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|
| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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73
hostility
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|
| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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74
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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75
aggrieved
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|
| adj.愤愤不平的，受委屈的；悲痛的；（在合法权利方面）受侵害的v.令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式)；令委屈，令苦恼，侵害( aggrieve的过去式和过去分词) | |
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76
grievances
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|
| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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77
wrought
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|
| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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78
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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79
doom
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|
| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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80
acting
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|
| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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81
humane
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|
| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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82
extirpation
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|
| n.消灭，根除，毁灭；摘除 | |
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83
systematically
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|
| adv.有系统地 | |
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84
victorious
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|
| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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85
drawn
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|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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86
specious
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|
| adj.似是而非的；adv.似是而非地 | |
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87
pretext
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|
| n.借口，托词 | |
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88
followers
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|
| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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89
zeal
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|
| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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90
chastised
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|
| v.严惩（某人）（尤指责打）( chastise的过去式 ) | |
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91
predecessor
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| n.前辈，前任 | |
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92
wed
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| v.娶，嫁，与…结婚 | |
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93
inflamed
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|
| adj.发炎的，红肿的v.（使）变红，发怒，过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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94
advisers
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| 顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授 | |
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95
yoke
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| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
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96
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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97
dreaded
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|
| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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98
cowardice
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| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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99
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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100
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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101
profane
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|
| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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102
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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103
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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104
dominions
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| 统治权( dominion的名词复数 )； 领土； 疆土； 版图 | |
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105
perfidy
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| n.背信弃义，不忠贞 | |
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106
bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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107
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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108
trickled
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| v.滴( trickle的过去式和过去分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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109
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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110
afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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111
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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112
stipulated
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| vt.& vi.规定；约定adj.[法]合同规定的 | |
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113
adherents
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| n.支持者，拥护者( adherent的名词复数 )；党羽；徒子徒孙 | |
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114
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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115
intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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116
wrested
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| （用力）拧( wrest的过去式和过去分词 )； 费力取得； （从…）攫取； （ 从… ） 强行取去… | |
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117
patrimony
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| n.世袭财产，继承物 | |
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118
autocracy
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| n.独裁政治，独裁政府 | |
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119
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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120
fugitives
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| n.亡命者，逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
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121
chastisement
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| n.惩罚 | |
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122
schism
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| n.分派，派系，分裂 | |
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123
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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124
gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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125
mosaic
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| n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的 | |
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126
vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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127
blatant
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| adj.厚颜无耻的；显眼的；炫耀的 | |
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128
emblem
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| n.象征，标志；徽章 | |
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129
renaissance
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| n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴 | |
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130
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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131
civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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132
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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133
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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134
license
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| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
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135
severance
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| n.离职金；切断 | |
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136
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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137
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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138
disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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139
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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140
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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141
aristocrats
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| n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 ) | |
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142
frailer
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| 脆弱的( frail的比较级 )； 易损的； 易碎的 | |
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143
disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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144
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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145
ascetic
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| adj.禁欲的；严肃的 | |
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146
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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147
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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148
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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149
gargantuan
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| adj.巨大的，庞大的 | |
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150
intoxication
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| n.wild excitement;drunkenness；poisoning | |
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151
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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152
doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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153
expounded
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| 论述，详细讲解( expound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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154
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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155
formerly
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| adv.从前，以前 | |
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156
zealously
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| adv.热心地；热情地；积极地；狂热地 | |
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157
coercing
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| v.迫使做( coerce的现在分词 )；强迫；（以武力、惩罚、威胁等手段）控制；支配 | |
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158
thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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159
homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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160
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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161
eloquently
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| adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
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162
dismantled
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| 拆开( dismantle的过去式和过去分词 )； 拆卸； 废除； 取消 | |
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163
laments
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| n.悲恸，哀歌，挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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164
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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165
docile
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| adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的 | |
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166
sycophantic
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| adj.阿谀奉承的 | |
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167
solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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168
cloister
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| n.修道院；v.隐退，使与世隔绝 | |
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169
pangs
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| 突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛 | |
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170
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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171
truculent
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| adj.野蛮的，粗野的 | |
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172
sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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173
scramble
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| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
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174
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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175
epithet
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| n.（用于褒贬人物等的）表述形容词，修饰语 | |
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176
grooms
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| n.新郎( groom的名词复数 )；马夫v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的第三人称单数 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗 | |
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177
writhe
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| vt.挣扎，痛苦地扭曲；vi.扭曲，翻腾，受苦；n.翻腾，苦恼 | |
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178
trifling
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| adj.微不足道的；没什么价值的 | |
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179
petitioners
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| n.请求人，请愿人( petitioner的名词复数 )；离婚案原告 | |
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180
stimulated
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| a.刺激的 | |
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181
curbed
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| v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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182
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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183
precocious
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| adj.早熟的；较早显出的 | |
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184
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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185
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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186
Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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187
maternal
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| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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188
stewed
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| adj.焦虑不安的，烂醉的v.炖( stew的过去式和过去分词 )；煨；思考；担忧 | |
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189
brew
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| v.酿造，调制 | |
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190
impeached
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| v.控告（某人）犯罪( impeach的过去式和过去分词 )；弹劾；对（某事物）怀疑；提出异议 | |
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191
insolence
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| n.傲慢；无礼；厚颜；傲慢的态度 | |
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192
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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193
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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194
friction
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| n.摩擦，摩擦力 | |
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195
waggons
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| 四轮的运货马车( waggon的名词复数 )； 铁路货车； 小手推车 | |
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196
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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197
brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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198
scourging
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| 鞭打( scourge的现在分词 )； 惩罚，压迫 | |
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199
monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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200
batches
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| 一批( batch的名词复数 )； 一炉； （食物、药物等的）一批生产的量； 成批作业 | |
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201
sledges
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| n.雪橇，雪车( sledge的名词复数 )v.乘雪橇( sledge的第三人称单数 )；用雪橇运载 | |
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202
vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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203
raping
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| v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的现在分词 )；强奸 | |
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204
horrified
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| a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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205
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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206
ravaged
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| 毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
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207
conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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208
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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209
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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210
onward
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| adj.向前的，前进的；adv.向前，前进，在先 | |
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211
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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212
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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213
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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214
momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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215
debauch
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| v.使堕落，放纵 | |
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216
marred
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| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
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217
savagery
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| n.野性 | |
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218
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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219
constructive
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| adj.建设的，建设性的 | |
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220
antipathy
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| n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物 | |
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221
slew
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| v.（使）旋转；n.大量，许多 | |
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222
knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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223
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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224
isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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225
stagnation
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| n. 停滞 | |
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226
muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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227
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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228
envoys
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| 使节( envoy的名词复数 )； 公使； 谈判代表； 使节身份 | |
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229
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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230
diplomacy
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| n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕 | |
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231
consort
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| v.相伴；结交 | |
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232
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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233
lengthy
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| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
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