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Show THE ROMANOFF DYNASTY. j It Has Ruled Russia Through Nearly Four Centuries. The Romanoff dynasty has ruled Russia Rus-sia for 292 years, or through nearly four I whole centuries, marked by bloodshed, ' massacre, assassination, intrigue, conspiracy con-spiracy and war. I In those four centuries the Romanoffs : fought wars with nearly every people i in Europe. They fought Sweden, sub-j sub-j dued Poland, subjugated the Crimean provinces, overran Livonia, dismembered dismem-bered Poland, and so.ni. their Coss'ae.ks like a scourge across the Caucasus until un-til they had conquered the center of Asia as far as the tomb of Tamerlane, and added all of Siberia to the realms . of the czar. " j In those four centuries the Romanoffs j j fought wars with Sweden. England, 1 1 France, Italy. Prussia, Austria. Tur-! Tur-! key, China and Japan. They fought, with and against" Napoleon. They helped Pruss'a against Franee, and in turn joined France in crushing- Prussia. Three Hires they tried to conquer Turkey. Tur-key. Twice they tried to invade Persia. Per-sia. Their hand has been against almost al-most every nation, and ruler, and people peo-ple in Europe. They have been better : hated and better feared than the mem-; mem-; bers of any reijning family that ever held a throne in ruodern Europe. And yet these same Romanoffs, whose throne has been wasfted with the blood ;of a million, murdered subjects, until its steps were as crimson fs the velvet canopy above it. found Russia a. horde of half Oriental barbarians, and molded mold-ed the squat, slupid mass into a modern mod-ern nation, one of the reeoydzed 1 powers in the. world. They developed I commerce, established universities, 1 grirl ironed the empire, with railroads. I fostered religion, cultivated art and I science. Their ships ply every -sea. Their railroads cross two continents. They are rivals with England and the United States in many lines of commerce. com-merce. Their lawyers are recognized in the international courts of the world, their scientists are quoted- in . every laboratory, their literature is in every modern library, and their music is recognized rec-ognized among the classics. The fin?l Romanoff was Michael Feo-dorovitz, Feo-dorovitz, who ascended the throne in 1613, after the assassination of Feodor- . I, last of the house of Rurik. which had ruled for 700 years. He crushed a rebellion and ruled until 1645 in comparative com-parative peace. He was succeeded by his son, Alexis, who in his turn crushed a rebellion by hanging, burning and torturing 7,000 prisoners. Then came the son of Alexis. Feo dor HI. who ruled from 1676 to 1682. He left two sons, Ivan V. aid Peter I. half brothers. They ruled jointly, the real empress being Sophia, mother of I Peter I. Sophia gave Russia the bloou-1 bloou-1 iest reign history has ever known up to ' that time. It all ended in 169G, when Ivan V died. Then Peter I 'asserted himself and put his "mother in a convent. con-vent. The history of modern Russia really dates from the reign of Peter I, for he was that most famous monarch of all Russia. Peter the Great. He signalized his entry into power by btheading 5.000 of hi? enemiep. He was a wonderful enterprising, broad-minded, cruel, blod-thirsty blod-thirsty monarch, who hanged, burned, tortured and drowned his subjects, until un-til all Russia was one vast orgy of blood. And yet Peter the Great built St. Petersburg, established the commerce com-merce of Russia, introduced modern culture, and died after poisoning his own son. Catherine I, -wife of Peter the Great, succeeded him in 3725. She was as famous as she was infamous. She was succeeded by Peter II, and then by Anne, daughter of Ivan. Anne was the first ruler of Russia to banish prisoners prison-ers to Siberia. She thus exiled 40,000 of her subjects and sent 10.000 more to ihc scaffold. J ; Anne was followed by Ivan yi. who 1 was exiled and then assassinated. . . I ' - A coup d'etat called Elizabeth daughter of Peter the. .Great to the throne in 1741. and rfie reigned. through I twemy years of intrigue and assassin-j at ion. j. Peter III mounted the throne in 1762, only to be murdered by his wife's fa- vorite in a few months. Then his wife, Catherine II, grasped the scepter and ruled, a dissolute empress, until 1796. Her son Paul succeeded her, and in 1 1801 he was assassinated. j Then. came. Alexander I. the emperor who burned Moscow to nrevent its cap- ture by Napoleon, and who afterwards inarched his army, to the gates of Paris.- compelled Napoleon. tb"abdicate" and sent him an exile to Elba. XichOtflK t'eame to tlie throne in 1S1?'. He was a warlike ruler, and his armies ' fought on every battlefield of Europe I for thirty years. During his reign I 1,000.000 of his subjects perished in foi- eign wars. Alexander II began to rule, in ISoo. no was me most enngiuenea ruier ui the Romanoff dynasty. He liberated the serfs, and is remembered aa the czar who sent a fleet to Xew York during dur-ing our civil, war to check England's threats of recognizing the confederacy. He was assassinated in 1SSI just as he was about to grant Russia a constitution. constitu-tion. Alexander III ruled from 1SS1 until 1 1S94 as a reactionary. He was succeeded succeed-ed in 1894 by the present czar, Nicholas H. . . .: ! |
