The Story of Moscow E-Book

Wirt Gerrare

• Herausgeber: Librorium Editions
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

THE mediæval pilgrim to Moscow, getting his first glimpse of the Holy City from Salutation Hill, saw before him much the same sight as the tourist of to-day may look upon from the same spot. Three miles away a hill crowned with white-walled buildings, many towers, gilded domes and spires topped with Cross-and-Crescent; outside the wall that encircles this hill, groups of buildings, large and small; open fields, trees—singly, in rows, clumps and thickets—separate group from group; ever and anon above the many hued roofs reach belfries, spires, steeples, domes and minarets innumerable. Beyond, to right and left, the scene repeats itself until the bright coloured buildings become indistinguishable from the masses of verdure and all merge in the haze of the plains east and west, or the faint outline of forest to the north.

Leseprobe

Ikon of the Holy Virgin of Vladimir

The Story ofMOSCOWby Wirt Gerrare

Illustrated by Helen M. James

1900

© 2023 Librorium Editions

ISBN : 9782383839378

PREFACE

R

EADERS of the modern histories of Russia may wonder by what right Moscow is included among MEDIÆVAL TOWNS, for it is the fashion of recent writers to ignore the history of the mighty Euro-Asian empire prior to the eighteenth century and the reign of Peter the Great. It is at that period this story of the old Muscovite capital ends. To many, then, this account of the town and its vicissitudes during the preceding five centuries may have the charm of novelty; perchance to others, who have wrongly concluded that the old buildings were all destroyed during Napoleon’s invasion, the few typical antiquities chosen for illustration out of many like, will attract to a closer acquaintance with memorials of a past that was but little influenced by the art of the west.

Moscow, where the east merges with the west but remains distinct and unconquered, has a fascination all its own; the town not only has been great, but is so yet; its influence pervades the Russian empire and is still mutable and active; its story therefore comprises more than the legends and associations of an ordinary city, but, if confined merely to an enumeration of the facts and traditions of the past will not be void of interest, and however fully given, must fall far short of what the imaginative reader may reasonably expect. Of the meagre character of this present account I am fully aware; of its positive errors I am, at present, unhappily ignorant, but I trust that those who discover mistakes will not only forgive, but notify me of them, that later readers may be as grateful for the favour as I myself shall be. Of place names I have given the idiomatic, instead of the usual literal translation; where I have attempted an equivalent reproduction of the original the transliteration will be comprehensible to those who know nothing of either French or German. That I may not be charged with inconsistency in this, I may explain that where a foreign spelling—as rouble—has become familiar I have used the Anglicism. To most readers the names will, I fear, be unpronounceable however spelled; but only the expert will regret that I have not given the original Russian. To them the excuse I offer is, that to everyone ignorant of the tongue Russian names are absolutely undecipherable, being apparently composed of an alphabet in spasms made up into words of poly-syllabic length.

It is difficult for one not of the Eastern Church to write justly of Russian Ecclesiasticism; an alien, however carefully he may observe, is liable to obtain faulty impressions and make erroneous deductions; so to me any criticism seems an impertinence. I have tried to present its artistic phases fairly, but am conscious that the ninth chapter is the least satisfactory of all that I have written.

For the rest, my task has been easy: I have had but to examine, compare, and judge the work of others and from their stored treasures make my selection. I have produced little that is really original: others have delved amid ruins for vestiges of the earlier Moscow; have unearthed ancient monuments; transcribed illegible manuscripts; ransacked archives, measured walls, calculated heights, weighed bells and counted steps; formed theories and found evidence to support them; so have rendered my labour light and pleasant. I regret that I, who at best am but an intelligible interpreter, cannot acknowledge more particularly the hundred and more authorities from whom I have drawn; in the same inadequate, general fashion I must thank many friends, English and Russian, for the kindly interest they have taken in the work and the intelligent assistance they have rendered me in its compilation. For direction to valuable sources of information, and other services, I am conscious of particular indebtedness to the Rev. F. Wyberg, of the English Church, Moscow, and to Mr V. E. Marsden, the correspondent of the Standard there—either of whom might have written a much better book about the town they know so well. The object of this volume I shall consider to be achieved if its perusal gives to anyone pleasure equal to that its compilation has brought me; or awakens even a few readers to a greater interest in Moscow, and a better understanding of the Russian people.

WIRT GERRARE.

Ты, какъ мученикъ, горѣла,

Бѣлокаменная!

И рѣка въ тебѣ кипѣла,

Бурнопламенная!

И подъ пепломъ ты лежала,

Полоненною!

И изъ пепла ты возстала,

Неизмѣнною!

Процвѣтай же славой вѣчной,

Город храмовъ и палатъ!

Градъ срединный, градъ сердечный,

Коренной Россіи градъ!

Ѳ. ГЛИНКА

White-walled and golden-headed,

Beautiful, bizarre,

The pride of all the millions

Ruled by the Russian Tsar:

The cradle of an Empire,

Shrine of a great race,

With Europe’s noblest cities

Moscow holds its place!

V. E. M.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

Introduction—Pre-Muscovite Russia

1

CHAPTER II

Origin and Early History

11

CHAPTER III

Moscow under the Mongols

21

CHAPTER IV

Moscow of the Princes

37

CHAPTER V

Ivan the Terrible

47

CHAPTER VI

The Troublous Times

80

CHAPTER VII

Moscow of the Tsars

111

CHAPTER VIII

The Kremlin

147

CHAPTER IX

Moscow of the Ecclesiastics

172

CHAPTER X

Moscow of the Citizens

206

CHAPTER XI

Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals

227

CHAPTER XII

The Convents and Monasteries

253

CHAPTER XIII

Moscow of the English

270

CHAPTER XIV

The French Invasion—and after

284

CHAPTER XV

Itinerary and Miscellaneous Information

303

IndexA, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

309

ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

The Virgin of Vladimir (Vladimirski Bogeimateri) by St Luke

Frontispiece

The Kremlin

13

Danilovski Monastery

17

Spass na Boru

29

Ilyinka Gate of the Kitai Gorod

39

Doorway of St Lazarus

45

Alarm Bell Tower

58

Vasili Blajenni

67

The Terem—A Corridor

83

Church of the Assumption

89

Dom Romanovykh

108

Belvedere of the Terem

117

Krutitski Vorot

122

Krasnœ Kriltso

126

Throne Room of the Terem

135

Vosskresenski Vorot and Iberian Chapel

143

Kremlin—Wall and Tower

148

Terem and Belvedere of the Potieshni Dvorets

154

Church of Our Saviour behind the Golden Gates

161

Potieshni Dvorets, or Pleasure Palace

167

Church of the Nativity (Rojdestva V-Putinkakh)

181

Uspenski Sobor—The Ikonostas

186

Cathedral of the Annunciation (Blagovieshchenski Sobor)

193

Church and Gate of Mary of Vladimir

204

Srietenka—The Sukharev Bashnia

208

St Nicholas “Stylite”

218

Dom Chukina

223

Krestovia in the Romanof House

229

Varvarka Vorot of the Kitai Gorod

238

A Chastok (Watch Tower)

245

Petrovski Monastery

250

Simonov Monastery

261

Novo Devichi Convent

267

Spasski Vorot, Tower over the Redeemer Gate

279

Borovitski Gate and St Saviour’s Cathedral

299

Plan of the Kremlin

face 125

Map of Moscow

" 308

 

 

 

Moscow

CHAPTER IIntroduction—Pre-Muscovite Russia

“Cimmerii a Scythis nomadibus ejecti.”—Herodotus.

T

HE mediæval pilgrim to Moscow, getting his first glimpse of the Holy City from Salutation Hill, saw before him much the same sight as the tourist of to-day may look upon from the same spot. Three miles away a hill crowned with white-walled buildings, many towers, gilded domes and spires topped with Cross-and-Crescent; outside the wall that encircles this hill, groups of buildings, large and small; open fields, trees—singly, in rows, clumps and thickets—separate group from group; ever and anon above the many hued roofs reach belfries, spires, steeples, domes and minarets innumerable. Beyond, to right and left, the scene repeats itself until the bright coloured buildings become indistinguishable from the masses of verdure and all merge in the haze of the plains east and west, or the faint outline of forest to the north.

Long ago the tremendous extent of this town, apparently without limit, amazed strangers no less than the richness and multitude of its buildings filled pilgrims with awe and reverence. To the tourist to-day it is as a vision of magnificent splendour and brilliance, for seen in the clear sunlight of a summer day Moscow has beauty and brightness no other city possesses. Long lines of ivory whiteness capped with vivid green or flushed with carmine and ruby; great globes of deepest blue, patches of purple and dashes of aquamarine; many gleaming domes of gold, glowing halos of burnished copper, dazzling points of glistening silver—such make Moscow at sunset like part of a rainbow streaked with lightning and thickly bedizened with great gems.

Intense colours, sharp contrasts characterise Moscow. The extravagances of design and colouring, unconcealable even in the general prospect, are obvious on closer inspection. The stranger arriving by railway gets no bird’s-eye view of the town; but on his way from the station in the suburbs towards the central town sees the painted roofs, coloured walls, pretentious pillars, cupolas with golden stars, strange towers, fantastic gates, immense buildings, tiny cottages, magnificent spaces, narrow winding streets; irregularities and incongruities so many that Moscow first, and most lastingly, impresses by its bizarrerie.

With fuller acquaintance the diversity of style appears in keeping with the spirit of the place, and seeming incongruities are softened, or redeemed, by originality of design or execution. The buildings of Moscow are multiform, but there is dissimilarity rather than contrariety; the usual elsewhere is the unconventional here, and conformity is attained by each being unlike all others. An early traveller wrote: “One might imagine all the states of Europe and Asia had sent a building by way of representation to Moscow,” and in a certain sense this is still true. But it would be incorrect to assume, therefore, that cosmopolitanism is a dominant trait. The very reverse is the fact. Moscow is essentially Russian, and though there is abundant evidence of borrowing from Greece, Italy and Byzantium; from Moor, Goth and Mongol; of appropriation of classic, mediæval and renaissance methods, the prevalent style seems to be not exactly the combination of any so much as the outcome of all. Not that indigenous forms are wanting, but their elemental quality is obscured by the wondrous versatility and adaptability of the artists. The result is as confusing as though an author in writing out his original ideas made constant random use of different alphabets in each word.

This method, so characteristic of Russia, is perplexing rather than intricate, but he would be very learned or foolhardy who, acting on the rule that to see the house is to know the inmates, if shown Moscow should at once predicate the character of its inhabitants.

Yet more than most towns Moscow reflects the life history of its people; whatever there is of beauty, of strength, of individuality, is the result of human intelligence, experience and effort. No town of like importance owes so little to nature, so much to man. And the dominant tone is religious; religious feeling has inspired the noblest efforts, ecclesiastical influence has conserved such oneness of purpose as Moscow manifests. Withal there is strong individualism, both clerical and secular.

Paradoxical as Moscow is, it is in the highest degree interesting. If no one object can be pointed to as typical of race or period, no public work shown as the result of persistent policy or genius of peculiar citizenship, Moscow in its entirety demonstrates the development of a people. Even the opposing principles of diffusion and cohesion, and the parts they have served in the history of this race, are so unmistakably expressed that the sight-seer, even, feels that in Moscow, most surely, must be found the key not only to the history of Russia, but also to the character of men who have conquered and hold the largest part of two continents.

Moscow, the town that has cradled and nursed a mighty nation, does not lack story; but its story comprises much of the early history of the empire subsequently evolved, and consequently much that may be considered foreign to the city itself must be stated if the tale is to be complete, or even comprehensible by those to whom the ancient history of Russia is unknown.

To begin at the beginning. European Russia is an immense plain, its centre elevated scarcely three hundred feet above sea-level; the hills, few, low and unimportant. Lakes are plentiful, and great rivers with many ramifications flow slowly by tortuous channels—mostly towards the north-west or the south-east. Large tracts of forest and marsh in the centre terminate with frozen wastes to the north, and merge with rough, sandy pastures on the south.

At various periods, Europe has been invaded and peopled by different races from the east, and the last of these migrants, the Slavs, for the most part took the direction of the great water-ways of Russia, that is, from the south-east towards the north-west. In addition to their nomadic habit, various causes, amongst which must be counted internecine warfare, led to the dispersion of the Slavs, whilst effective occupation by earlier migrants and the determined resistance of aboriginal races checked their progress in some directions. The Scythian branch of the Slav race settled on the Don about 400 B.C. but was gradually driven from the shores of the Black Sea by the Greek colonists of Miletus. These colonies were taken by the Romans later, and about 300 A.D. the Slavs again asserted their dominion there for a period. Other branches of the Slav race and wilder races from Asia pressed westward, laying the country waste. Huns, Turks, Goths, Bolgars, Magyars, Polovtsi, Pechenegians and others, at different times, drove Slavs of pastoral habit aside from their path. In the fifth century Slavs established themselves on the Dnieper at Kief and at Novgorod on the Ilmen, where they progressed and became civilised. In the seventh century they were once more on the shores of the Black Sea in the south, and in the north Novgorod was a thriving commercial centre.

The Slav republics suffered at the hands of Asiatics on the south, and from the depredations of vikings on the north; moreover there were internal dissensions. In A.D. 864, Rurik, a Varœger prince—the same who, it is believed, laid waste the maritime provinces of France in 850 and in 851 entered the Thames with 300 sail and pillaged Canterbury—made himself master of the northern republic, took up his residence at Novgorod and founded a dynasty which lasted 700 years. There is a legend to the effect that his coming was at the invitation of the Slavs, who sought his aid and sovereignty, but there can be no doubt it was as a conqueror that Rurik came and established his race in Russia. Some of his followers, led by Askold and Dyr, sought fortune and conquest further south. These became masters of Kief, pressed on to Constantinople in 200 ships, embraced Christianity and returned to Kief, intending there to found a separate kingdom and dynasty. After the death of Rurik, his son Igor, a minor, succeeded; his uncle, Oleg, as regent, went to Kief; there he treacherously killed the two usurping leaders, took possession of the city and, appointing Igor to the throne, determined that Kief should be the “mother of Russian towns.” The people were then pagans, and the Northmen kept to the practices of their ancestors until about 955, when Olga was regent; she visited Constantinople and was there baptised into the Christian faith. Some thirty years later, Vladimir, the seventh in descent from Rurik, ascended the throne, and during his reign the Christian religion was generally adopted throughout his realm. Kief then became closely associated with Constantinople, its connection with the Byzantine empire being both ecclesiastical and commercial. Novgorod, on the other hand, remained in closer touch with the west, supplying the Northmen with the wares of Araby and Ind that reached Russia by way of the Volga. Otther, the Scandinavian founder of Tver, where the Tmak joins the Volga north of Moscow, was a great trader and traveller; at one time going as far east as Perm on the Kama (Biarmaland), at another to England—where he gave King Alfred particulars of the fairs in the east, and the methods of trading with Asian merchants.

In the Historical Museum of Moscow is a well arranged collection of prehistoric antiquities found in the empire. There is nothing among the stone implements to show that the earliest races in Russia in any way differed in habit from those of the same era occupying western Europe and the British Isles. The most ancient of the relics (Rooms I., II.) were found with bones of the mammoth in the district of Murom in Vladimir, and at Kostenki near Voronesh. Some ear-rings and a bracelet of twisted silver were found in the Kremlin, and a few other early remains when excavating for the foundations of the new cathedral, but these trifles are not evidence of early occupation, since they may have been left by travellers along the waterways.

The frescoes are fanciful representations of supposed incidents in the life of the early inhabitants, and the models of tumuli, tombs, dolmens, cromlechs and the like, enable one to picture some part of the rude life of the people. Particularly deserving notice are the models of the dwellings of different races found in Russia: in many the living room is raised well above the ground. It was on the first-floor that the mediæval Muscovites lived; it is still the bel-étage, and preferred by all.

The picture by Semiradski representing the funeral rites of the Bolgars has the warrant of history. On the death of a chief of this tribe, the remains were placed in a boat on a pile of wood; horses, cattle, slaves, were slain and added; the wife, or a maid offering herself a sacrifice, was fêted for a time, then placed in the boat, and as soon as her attendants bade her farewell the pyre was fired, and subsequently a mound raised over the ashes.

The stone idols, remarkable in their likeness to each other, are from all parts of Russia; a similar one is to be seen at Kuntsevo, near Moscow, but both the “babas,” as they are called, and pre-christian crosses, are more common in the south and east of Russia than in Muscovy.

To the little that this Historical Collection tells of the early Slavs may be added such facts as ancient chroniclers have recorded. The Russians lived together in communities governed by elected or hereditary elders; reared cattle and farmed bees; they were nomadic, idolatrous, hospitable and fond of fermented liquors.

Some writers dispute, disregard, or belittle the Varangian dominion in Russia; contending that the Varœgers themselves were Slavs, were closely akin to them, or were quickly absorbed by them. To the contrary it is urged that Rurik and his followers possessed qualities peculiar to the Northmen; that his kingdom in Russia resembled other Scandinavian colonies, and that certain customs he introduced were foreign to Slav habits. Vladimir, a direct descendant of Rurik, conquered Poland; his son, Yaroslaf, both on account of his warlike achievements and the splendour in which he lived, was respected throughout Europe. His daughters married into the reigning houses of France, Hungary and Norway; a daughter of Vsevolod married Henry IV. of Germany; Vladimir, the grandson of Yaroslaf, married Gyda, the daughter of Harold II. King of England; their son, Mstislaf, married Christina, daughter of the King of Sweden. Such a close connection between the Scandinavian and Russian courts is not likely to have obtained if the members belonged to different races. Scandinavian conquerors to some extent mixed with the peoples whose territory they occupied; usually they married their own race. They fought with each other on matters of precedence and succession; they thought much of personal valour and honour, and lived in the present with little regard to dynasty. They, as little as the Slavs to-day, would pay tribute to suzerains.

Doubtless the Varangian leaders and their military companions, subsequently known as the drujni of the Russian princes, gave to the Slav character love of enterprise and power to initiate—traits which have always distinguished Russian nobles from the peasantry. Again, the “Russkaia Pravda” of the tenth century is contemporary with and akin to “Knut’s Code,” which the English usually, but wrongly, attribute to King Alfred. One other point tells in favour of Scandinavian dominion: the freedom accorded to women and the high position some of them took in the state. But their privileges and influence declined with the ascendency of the Slav, and the seclusion of women in the Asiatic manner subsequently obtained in Moscow and lasted there until the days of Peter the Great.

The Northmen introduced into Russia their system of succession, the odelsret that still prevails in Norway. The descendants of Rurik, with their military comrades, fought against each other for the throne of Kief, or the inheritance of other possessions. As with each succeeding generation the princely family multiplied, the country was rent with dissensions. Now the ruler of Kief, then he of Novgorod became paramount; in 1158 the reigning prince of Vladimir succeeded, and, for the time, Kief became of second importance. The history of Russia during the tenth and succeeding centuries is a story of strife and disaster. Wars, with varying success, against Poles, Swedes, Lithuanians, and the predatory tribes on the south and east; fires, famine, pestilence, succeeded each other and re-occurred. In 1124 Kief, the opulent and sacred city, was destroyed by fire; some years later Novgorod was depopulated by famine; robbers exacted blackmail from voyagers on the great waterways; trade decayed. In 1224 the Russians made common cause with their enemy the Polovtsi to repel an invasion of Tartars; they were beaten and Kief fell—50,000 of its inhabitants being put to the sword. Thirteen years later a second invasion of the Tartars resulted in the fall of Vladimir and the subjection of southern and eastern Russia to Mongol rule. Livonians, Swedes and Danes attacked Novgorod, but were repulsed. Pressed on these sides the Russians could extend only towards the inhospitable north. In these times and with this environment Moscow was founded, and nursed; became a rallying point for the Slav race; grew strong and rich; and, by the genius of its rulers, dominated Russia.

Slowly but surely the Scandinavian element was absorbed; with Ivan I. (1328-1341) the time of transition practically ended. A new policy of aggrandisement was adopted and the Muscovite was evolved from the Slav race. Round Moscow, subject to the Tartar yoke, the people became patient and resigned; born to endure bad fortune, they could profit by good. The princes of Moscow gained their ends by intrigue, by corruption, by the purchase of consciences, by servility to the Tartar Khans, by perfidy to their equals, by murder and treachery. “Politic and persevering, prudent and pitiless, it is their honour to have created the living germ which became great Russia.”

CHAPTER IIOrigin and Early History

“Away in the depths of the primeval forest, where one heard the low chanting of the solitary hermit in his retreat, arises the glorious Kremlin of Moscow town.”

M. Dmitriev.

I

T is generally believed that the word Moscow is of Finnish origin; in an old dialect kva means water, the exact significance of Mos is undecided, probably Moskva implies “the-way,” simply—the water-route to some trading point reached by this river from the Volga and Oka. It was the name by which the river was known, and from time immemorial there have been villages on the banks of the stream near the present town of Moscow.

In the ninth century the hill which the Kremlin now covers was virgin forest. According to tradition Bookal, a hermit, was living there in 882, when Oleg, on his return to Novgorod from Kief, paused there and laid the first stone of the city. Sulkhovski, who had access to the archives of Moscow prior to their removal on the French invasion, asserts that there was documentary proof of this then in existence, but his statement lacks confirmation.

The chroniclers make no mention of Moscow until 1147. Between the foundation of the Rurik dynasty and this date the dominion of the Northmen had extended, and, divided and subdivided as generation succeeded generation, was split up into many districts, each ruled by a descendant of Rurik. These princes all claimed kinship, admitted the rights of their elders and the rule of the head of the house in Kief. In addition to the residences of the princes, their drujni, that is “war companions” or friends, had “halls,” and held, subject to their prince, one or more villages. In the twelfth century one Stephen Kutchko had his hall near the Chisty Prud in Moscow, and the villages between the Moskva and the Yauza, with others, were within his lordship.

In 1147 Yuri Dolgoruki, the Prince of Suzdal, in whose country Moscow was situated, agreed to meet his kinsmen Sviatoslaf and Oleg of Novgorod on the banks of the Moskva river, and thither they came with their drujni, and others, all of whom were so sumptuously entertained by Yuri, that the fame of Moscow and of Yuri was noised abroad.

As the river Moskva was a highway for traffic between Suzdal, Vladimir and the Volga in the east, with Smolensk in the west and Kief in the south, the villages on its banks were important. The hill on which the Kremlin stands appeared to Yuri a point of vantage, and, as it was near the boundary of his territory, he there constructed a fortress and also built, or rebuilt or enlarged, the church which served for the inhabitants of the village of Kutchkovo hard by, and for those of other villages in the neighbourhood.

All chroniclers agree that Yuri was the first to make a stronghold of the hill on the Moskva; most state further that he put to death Stephen Kutchko, but attribute this act to different causes. One story has it that Yuri wished to wed the wife of Stephen, so put him out of the way. As Yuri was but recently married to a kinswoman of Mstislaf, and so allied to the dominant house in Novgorod, this story is improbable. Another legend is to the effect that Kutchko, proud

THE KREMLIN, FROM THE MOSKVA

of his village, refused due homage to his superior lord, and so suffered; and another that a village was taken from Kutchko to endow Andrew Bogoloobski, a son of Yuri’s wedded to the daughter of a neighbouring boyard, whence the trouble. This last story is supported by the fact that later the sons of the killed Kutchko conspired against the enriched Andrew Bogoloobski; one was killed in attacking him, whilst the other succeeded in avenging a wrong done. Later historians are of opinion that Kutchko was an interloper from Black Russia or Podolia, trespassing on the territory of Yuri, who treated him as a usurper.

It was in 1156 that Moscow became a town—just a cluster of dwellings on the Kremlin hill with a fence extending from the narrow stream Neglinnaia (now a covered sewer under the Alexander Gardens), from the Troitski Gate to the Moskva at, or near, the Tainitski Gate. The chief house was built on the spot now covered by the Orujnia Palata. A church, Spass na Boru, St Saviour of the Pines, is supposed to have existed where the church of that name, the oldest building in the Kremlin, now stands. Another church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, once existed nearer the foot of the hill, and its altar was removed to the chapel adjoining the Borovitski Gate when a later erection was demolished. Both of these churches were known as “In the Wood,” and the name still preserves the memory of the thick forest that once covered the hill, and probably extended far and near on both sides of the Moskva.

The founder of Moscow, Kniaz Yuri Dolgoruki Vladimirovich, or, as the English call him, Prince George Long-ith’-arm, Vladimir’s son, was a son of that Prince of Kief who married Gyda, the daughter of Harold II. of England. Yuri, like his father, was a man of great energy and did much to strengthen and improve the towns within his territory. He is described as “above the middle height, stout, fair complexioned, with a large nose, long and crooked; his chin small; a great lover of women, sweet things and liquor; great at merry-makings, and not backward in war.”

For a century or more Moscow remained in obscurity, an insignificant appanage of the younger sons of the princes of Suzdal. It was long before any of the reigning house made it a place of residence. In the meantime, a stronghold, it attracted traders and the attention of enemies. Gleb of Riazan has the distinction of being the first to set fire to the town, but the earliest enemy of importance was the Tartar.

In 1224 the Golden Horde defeated the Slavs in South Russia, destroyed Kief, marched towards Novgorod Sverski, then, “without ostensible reason,” returned to Bokhara, to the camp of their leader, Khingiz Khan. In 1237 Baati, a grandson of Khingiz, crossed the Volga and laid the country waste. On the march of this horde westward Moscow was burnt; Vladimir was first taken. There the princess and other persons of distinction took refuge in a church, where they were burnt alive. Yuri II., the reigning prince, absent at the time, then attempted revenge and was slain in battle. There was little resistance; the Tartars subdued many towns and reduced whole provinces; marched within sixty miles of Novgorod Sverski, then again “without ostensible cause” turned eastward and left Russia.

The Tartar was not driven from his own country; he raided because it was his nature so to do. The object of these early incursions, as of subsequent raids into Russian territory, was “to get stores of captives, both boys and girls, whom they sell to the Turks and other neighbouring Mahometan countries.” Rich towns, therefore, could buy the Tartar off; a fact

which influenced the later policy of the Muscovites. Poor towns and ill-protected districts were, until a comparatively recent period, liable to “slave-raids” from Tartars and others. The Sultan Ahmed I. of Constantinople asked of Osman, his eldest son and heir, “My Osman, wilt thou conquer Crete for me?”

DANILOVSKI MONASTYR

“What have I to do with Crete? I will conquer the land of the white Russian girls,” answered the boy. And as he thought to do, so many of his race did. It was not until the present century that the exchange of prisoners of war became the practice of Turks and Russians. The Tartars, with their enormous crowd of captives, could not winter in Russia, hence their timely withdrawal “without ostensible cause” on several occasions.

Moscow was soon rebuilt after this Tartar invasion. A few years later Michael Khorobrit, a brother of the successful Alexander Nevski, ruler of Novgorod, succeeded to Moscow, and became its first actual prince; but during the war the Lithuanians commenced against Novgorod in 1242, Michael was killed. Tradition has it that this Michael was the builder of the first cathedral of the Archangel in the Kremlin.

He was succeeded in Moscow by Daniel, the fourth son of Alexander Nevski, and thenceforward the fortunes of Novgorod and Moscow were more in common. Moscow was chief of the few villages Daniel received as his portion. He made the most of it. In 1293 the Tartars, under Dudenia, fired the town and destroyed the churches, monastery, and all buildings on the Kremlin hill. Daniel set energetically to work to build a larger and stronger town. He re-erected the church Spass na Boru; built the cathedral of the Archangel, and that of the Annunciation; founded the Danilof monastery, and incorporated the one known as Krutitski. He so added to the town that it quickly became prosperous, and when he died in 1303 his son, George, succeeded to a position of wealth and power. Daniel was of the line of Rurik, and from him were descended the subsequently mighty race of Moscow Tsars. George acquired Mojaisk; then began a struggle with Tver, which continued from father to son, lasted eighty years. The quarrel arose from a disputed succession. Andrew, Prince of Suzdal, died in 1304; George of Moscow, his nephew, wished to succeed him. His right to do so was questioned by Michael of Tver, who was cousin-german of the deceased. Michael, the eldest, was accepted by the boyars, and his election was confirmed by the Tartars, who claimed the right of appointing the sovereign. George then caused himself to be recognised as a Prince of Novgorod, and still disputed. Michael besieged him in Moscow, and for a time there was peace. Then George again attempted to obtain Tver, and a second time he was forced to take refuge in Moscow, which was again besieged by Michael.

Tokhta, Khan of the Golden Horde of Tartars on the Volga, died; he was succeeded by Usbek, to whom George of Moscow at once repaired to do homage and obtain favours. He so represented affairs to Usbek that he obtained from him his sister Kontchaka in marriage, and was adjudged rightful successor to Andrew of Suzdal. George returned to Russia accompanied by a Mongol army under a baskak, one Kavgadi. The boyards still supported Michael, who was a great fighter. Michael, refusing to submit to Kavgadi, was accused of having drawn sword against an envoy of the Khan, and later, when Kontchaka died, of having poisoned her. To arrange this matter Michael, busy in defending his province against other enemies, sent his twelve-year old son to the Horde; George went himself and compassed the fall of his rival. The Khan reluctantly complied with George’s request for a sentence of death upon Michael; it was no sooner granted than George hastened away to give it effect, and Michael was done to death in his tent by George’s servants. Michael became a saint; George the all-powerful ruler of Moscow, Suzdal and Novgorod.

Dmitri, of the “terrible eyes,” son of Michael, succeeded to Tver and determined upon revenge. When at last he met George of Moscow he slew him, but for thus going against his superior prince was himself put to death, and his brother, Alexander, succeeded him in Vladimir in 1325.

Such is the story of the little wooden town. Its rulers—with, possibly, the exception of Daniel—regarded it merely as a property, the possession of which might lead to the acquisition of a more important capital. It flourished because it was in the midst of a country that was self-supporting, as well as being conveniently situated as a mart for the interchange of products from north and south, east and west. Its disasters were such as other towns suffered; its advantages of site they did not possess.

CHAPTER IIIMoscow under the Mongols

“At Sara, in the lande of Tartarie,

There dwelled a king who werryed Russie.”

Chaucer—Story of Cambuscan bold.

T

HE first real prince of Moscow was Ivan I., surnamed “Kalita” (the Purser), who of his own right inherited Moscow from his father, Daniel, and by the grace of the Khan, was also Grand Prince of Vladimir in succession to his brother George. He made alliances, matrimonial and other, for himself and his, so adding to his possessions, and by purchase acquiring also Uglitch, Galitch and Bielozersk. Like his brother he kept on good terms with the Khan. At the command of Usbek he made war on Tver, Novgorod and Pskov. The Tartar Horde and the Muscovites fought in concert against Russian enemies. When Tver rose against the Tartar, Ivan, with Moscow, was on the side of the Mongols. When Usbek ordered him to produce Alexander of Tver, who was a fugitive in Pskov, Ivan induced the metropolitan to interdict Alexander and the Pskovians—thus a Christian prince and people were excommunicated by their own kin at the behest of Tartars.

Ivan “Kalita,” in his turn, served the church well. Peter, the metropolitan of Vladimir, had often resided in Moscow; Theognistus lived there almost constantly; and for Ivan, Vladimir was only the town in which he had been crowned. It was in Moscow that he lived and for Moscow he worked. In order to make it attractive to the metropolitan and to obtain for it the religious supremacy which had first belonged to Kiev, then to Vladimir, he built magnificent churches—notably that of the Assumption (Uspenski Sober)—and was practically successful in so far that Moscow had the prestige of a metropolis; but Vladimir remained the legal capital, and as such was recognised by the Khans.

Ivan surrounded the hill with a wall of oak in place of the deal fence formerly its sole protection, and he gave to the enclosure the Tartar name of “Kreml” or fortress. This then included his own dwelling; the cathedrals of the Assumption, of the Annunciation and of the Archangel Michael; the churches of Spass na Boru and of St John the Baptist; as also the dwellings of his drujni, followers and military companions. It was at his instigation too, that Sergius founded the Troitsa monastery in order to rival the Pecherskoi monastery and catacombs of Kiev. Ivan knew well the power of money and was free in using it; he was cunning, unscrupulous and discerning. He demanded and obtained from Novgorod more than he intended to pay on her behalf to Usbek, and was everywhere successful as farmer-general of taxes and imposts made on Russia by the Horde. When he died, in 1341, he ordered that Moscow should not be divided, and he left by far the largest portion of his possessions to his son Simeon, surnamed “The Proud.”

Simeon, most submissive before the Khan, bought over the horde by using his father’s treasure. To his brothers he was haughty and overbearing. As intermediary between the Tartars and Russian states he enjoyed privileges denied to his seniors, and arrogated to himself the title and position of “Prince of all the Russias.” He continued his father’s policy in Moscow, engaging Greek artists to ornament the cathedrals, and many native workmen to enlarge and improve the buildings within the Kremlin, spending upon Moscow the tribute he exacted from Novgorod and other towns.

Ivan II. who succeeded him, 1353, was of quite another sort. Gentle, pacific, lovable—all outraged him; he would have lost his throne had not the church supported him loyally. Moris, a monk, quelled a revolt; a fire destroyed the Kremlin; when he died the succession to the title of Grand Duke, which his three predecessors had made such efforts to keep in the house of Moscow, passed to their kinsmen at Suzdal.

Alexis, the metropolitan, saved the supremacy of Moscow. After crowning Dmitri at Vladimir he returned to Moscow to take charge of the children of Ivan II. and refused to leave the town. Dmitri was in his ninth year when he succeeded his father in Moscow, and remained in the tutelage of the church for many years. It was to the prompting of Alexis even more than to that of his own kinsmen that the breach of the Tartar alliance is due. Dmitri availed himself of a division in the Tartar horde to question the supremacy of either leader. Later he had the courage to visit Mamai—who was then the more powerful—and had the good luck to get back alive. Seven years later he won a battle against Mamai, in Riazan.

In 1635 a fire on All Saints’ Day destroyed the Kremlin wall and, a storm raging at the time, Moscow was almost in ruins. In 1367 the Kremlin was surrounded with a new wall—of masonry—and in the following year this was put to the test when an attack was made on Moscow by some bands of pagan Lithuanians under Olgerd, his brother Kistut and his subsequently famous nephew Vitovt. “Olgerd camped before the walls, pillaged the churches and monasteries in the neighbourhood, but did not assault the Kremlin, the walls of which frightened him.” Two years later he returned to the attack, but his enterprise was unsuccessful. In the meantime Mamai, the Tartar leader, had matured his scheme of revenge. In 1380 he had collected his forces and was marching on Moscow when Dmitri, with the aid of all the neighbouring princes, got together an immense army and determined to give battle.

The confederate troops gathered in the Kremlin included contingents supplied by the princes of Rostov, Bielozersk and Yaroslaf, and the boyards of Vladimir, Suzdal, Uglitch, Serpukhov, Dmitrov, Mojaisk and other towns. After service in the cathedral they left by the Frolovski (Spasski) Nikolski and other gates in the east wall, escorted by the clergy with crucifixes and miracle-working ikons, the troops marching behind a black standard on which was painted a portrait of the Saviour on a nimbus of gold.

Dmitri before advancing against the Tartars went to St Sergius at the Troitsa monastery to ask his blessing, and was there comforted with a prophecy of victory. More, Sergius sent two monks, Osliabia and Peresvet, to encourage the Muscovites. They wore a cross on their cowls and went into the thick of the battle. Peresvet was found dead on the field tightly grasping a Patsinak giant who had slain him. The armies met at Kulikovo on the Don, where Dmitri with his 150,000 men after a hard fight obtained the victory, and Mamai fled. The battle was really won by the troops of Vladimir and Dmitri of Volhynia, whose men remained in ambush until the best moment for attack came.

With historians Dmitri, who, badly wounded, was found in a swoon after the battle, is the hero of the day, and he added the name of Donskoi to commemorate the victory. Sophronius, a priest of Riazan, who wrote an epic of the battle, awards chief honours to the monks, and makes St Sergius, through them, support the courage of Dmitri at critical stages.

Though Mamai was beaten by Dmitri, he fought again before he fell into the hands of his rival Tamerlane, who put him to death. Then Tamerlane sent an envoy to Dmitri acquainting him with the fact that their common enemy had been vanquished and calling upon him and all Russian princes to present themselves to him and make their homage to the Horde.

Dmitri failed to comply, and when the Tartars advanced into his territory he tried to raise an army to oppose them. The princes who had promised him support failed to afford it, and Dmitri, unable to get 40,000 men together, was still waiting reinforcements at Kostroma when the Tartars under Tokhtamysh, a descendant of Khingis Khan, appeared before the walls of Moscow.

The defence of the Kremlin was in the hands of a Lithuanian, Ostei, and the Tartar attack was repulsed; boiling water being thrown from the towers; stones and baulks of timber dropped from the walls upon the assailants in the ditch. For three days the Tartars tried to effect an entrance by force. Then Tokhtamysh stated that it was not with the people of Moscow the Tartars were at war, but only with their prince and his companions, inviting those who had sought refuge in the Kremlin to come out and occupy their dwellings where they would not be molested. The besieged believed him, and, laden with presents and preceded by the clergy, they went out of the Kremlin to meet the enemy as friends. The Tartars at once fell upon them, killed Ostei and the other leaders, and forced a way into the fortress. The defenders were demoralised, “they cried out like feeble women and tore their hair, making no attempt even to save themselves. The Tartars slew without mercy; 24,000 perished. They broke into the churches and treasuries, pillaged everywhere, and burned a mass of books, papers and whatever they could not otherwise destroy; not a house was left standing save the few built of stone.”

After Tokhtamysh withdrew Dmitri returned and was horrified at the ruin wrought. He is said to have repented of his victory over the Tartars at Kulikovo, a barren victory after this desolation, and to have called out “Our fathers who never triumphed over Tartars were less unhappy than we.”

Moscow was quickly rebuilt. When Dmitri died in 1389 the principality was the largest and most thriving of the states in the north-east of Russia. As the Horde withdrew the “Good companions” from Novgorod devastated the country round, but Vladimir and Moscow alike in having a Kremlin on a hill, were far enough away from the Volga to escape the attention of these free-booters from the north-west.

Vasili, the son of Dmitri Donskoi, succeeded his father, and twice saw his territory invaded by the Horde. In 1392 he bought a iarlikh of the Tartars freeing to him Moscow, Nijni and Suzdal. In 1395, to escape an inroad of the Tartars, the celebrated ikon of the Virgin (see Frontispiece) was brought from Vladimir to Moscow, but the Tartars did not venture so far. This time they stopped at Eletz-on-the-Don, pillaged Azov—where much Egyptian, Venetian, Genoese, Biscayan and other merchandise was warehoused—and returned to Tartary sacking Sarai and Astrakhan on their way thither.

During these turbulent times Moscow increased in importance. The two years of peace Dmitri secured after his victory at Kulikovo he used to strengthen the defences. Already, in 1637, he had substituted a wall of masonry for the old wood rampart round the Kremlin; now handsome gates with towers were added. Its finest church at this period was that of the Transfiguration, more usually styled “Spass na Boru,” which, built in stone in 1330, had been considerably enlarged and a monastery attached; there were the cells in or near the church building, vaults below it for secreting treasure, a hospital for the infirm, and a cemetery for the princes, but their tombs were subsequently transferred to the Archangelski Sobor.

Within the Kremlin, or near by, were the monasteries of Chudof (Miracles), Vossnesenski (Ascension), Bogoyavlenni (Epiphany), Rojdestvenski (Nativity), St Alexis, St Peter the Apostle, of Daniel, Simon, and Spasso-Preobrajenni (the Transfiguration). To commemorate the withdrawal of Tamerlane, Vasili founded the monastery of the Sretenka (Meeting). He made a fosse across the town from the field of Kuchko to the river Moskva, and later surrounded the town with a stone wall.

A strong place now; the lesser nobles, cadets of the house of Rurik, took up their residence in Moscow and shared its fortune.

In 1408 the Lithuanians aided by the Tartars laid siege to Moscow, a siege which is memorable from the fact that cannons were then first used in its defence, though Mamai had brought Genoese gunners against Dmitri twenty years earlier. Ediger led the assault, and, though his forces had to retreat, the boyards of Moscow paid to him 3000 roubles as a war indemnity; the Monastery of St Sergius at Troitsa was burned, the surrounding country pillaged and the peasants ruthlessly slaughtered.

It cannot be said that the first Vasili did much for Moscow. He was in retreat at Kostroma when the inhabitants of the town, led by “Vladimir the Brave,” successfully defended it; both pestilence and famine were frequent during his reign of thirty-six years, and at his death the succession was disputed.

In 1431 Yuri attempted to revert to the ancient custom of succession of the eldest, and claimed the throne from Vasili II., the son of Vasili I. To avoid war it was agreed to refer the matter to the Horde for settlement. Vsevoloshski, a boyard of Moscow, advanced the most potent argument on behalf of Vasili. “My Lord Tsar,” he said to Ulu Mahomet, “let me speak, me, the slave of the Grand Prince. My master prays for the throne, which is thy property, having no other title but thy protection, thy investiture and thy iarlikh. Thou art master and can dispose of it at thy pleasure. My lord, the Prince Yuri Dmitrovich, my master’s uncle, claims the throne of the Grand Prince by the act and will of his father, but not as a favour from the all powerful.” This flattery had a suitable reward; the Khan appointed Vasili to the throne, and ordered Yuri to lead his nephew’s horse by the bridle.

Vasili II. was crowned at Moscow, not at Vladimir, and the supremacy of Moscow was admitted. Vasili was to have married a daughter of Vsevoloshski, but instead married a grand-daughter of Vladimir the Brave, the defender of Moscow. The offended boyard went over to the side of Yuri and fanned his resentment. Yuri’s two sons, Vasili, the squint-eyed, and Chemiaki were present at the marriage festivities of Vasili, whose mother, the Princess Sophia, seeing round the waist of the young Vasili a belt of gold that had belonged to Dmitri Donskoi, there and then seized it from him. The brothers took umbrage at this open affront; forthwith they

SPASS NA BORU (ST SAVIOUR’S IN THE WOOD)