Show RUSSIA AND revolution for persons enjoying the bounties of well ordered more or less ICU wai wholesome aleso me political institutions it is difficult to conceive of a class of men ahse exclusive ambition is destruction tho the overthrow of all organisms of civil existence the annihilation of the chief of the state and of all who are tire determined to support the established order of of things such a party exists in russ russia la and na I it is by no means reer recruited cited rom a poor ignorant peasantry but it is rather the middle and higher strata of society which are continually feeding the tile foment we may way ask whether in the slavic slavio tribes the principle of pi preservation e sr ou is not as potent as with anglo saxons how is it that students in the exuberance of youthful vitality young girls from the better classes hazard their all in foolhardy enterprises so frequent ly fatal for themselves whence thia this moral aberration and the courage to enter upon such exploits perhaps a cursory glance on the country and the history of its inhabitants throws some light on the phenomenon russia is not only a lowland of immense expanse showing a i few mountain ranges rising in its heart but between the ural mountains and the caspian is a passage which at various times invited the barbarous hordes of asia to rush on to the continent of europe first asserting their destructive ascendancy in that lowland of the volga from times immemorial slavic nations and hians dwelt on those steppes around mauiu bild existence which kept up an intermittent internecine warfare about the year the slavs of Nov gorod sent an embassy across the baltic so sea i and there sought for a ruler among the varia s cava va ran run gians a branch of the scandinavian Norlin normans ams or norsemen norseman Nor semen three brothers of the famil family y of russ called by old chroniclers rurick and travor accepted the invitation and atthe at the head lead of a band of armed followers dron droz jina Yina took possession possess sion of the territory territory terri tor y of Nov gorod new garden the first named founded the dynasty called after him which only expired with Fc feeders odors death 1598 under juriks son igor kiew iliew was taken and made the capital of the embryo empire the heroic epoch of russia was under vladimir 1015 who married a greek princess and was converted to christianity in his example being shortly followed by the whole nation whose norman elements had bad already become amalgamated ama i with the slavonic race after his death his four sons fell out ain among ong themselves and russia soon was cut up into more than fifty principalities pali ties this sorry condition of I was taken advantage of by the mongolians Mongo lians who made an invasion and routed and conquered a great portion of the empire under batu khan in 1238 the several grand princess prin cees became vassals under the of koptchak embracing kasan kasai astrakhan and the crimea at last under the guidance cui dance of ivan kalita 1328 1340 the founder of the administrative centralization down to the time of peter the great moscow became the chief grand duchy at tat last ivan the great who had bad married narried r a daughter of constantine pal the last byzantine emperor welded the greatest part of russian Russi ali territory under one sovereign scepter assumed the title of cfall all the theRus dussias Rus sias adopted the arms ot of tho the greek empire and united the existing edicts into a body of laws lairs the nik he also introduced civil civilization iza into the new empire importing artists and artisans from italy and peasants and servants from germany at the expiration of eurias ruri Os line there ensued fifteen years wrangles about the throne the swedes and pole role interfering and recovering drw y many valuable domains formerly conquered from them A series excellent rulers was inaugurated by the 18 year old michael feodoro itch Ronia now 1613 1645 1641 peter I afterwards called the tile great after he lie had made ade away with his sister and his brother ivan mounted the throne at the tile age of 17 years and at once resumed the policy of his illustrious predecessor ivan the great by lifting the nation from its barbarism barban im through the medium of foreign culture and art the inconsiderate si rashness of his genial antagonist tag onist charles XII of sweeden enabled him to aggrandize his bis domain and extend the f frontiers of the empire to the shores of the baltic and black S seas mm under the czarinas Czar inas anno anne and elizabeth the monarchy at least did not retrograde sandwith and with the widow odthe of the unfortunate peter III murdered in 1762 catherine 11 II an empress ascended the throne who recalled d the times of semiramis of assyria and elizabeth bethol of england her conquest craving mind had warsaw and constantinople for ultimate goals the former f ormer she reached through the cooperation of her I neighbors frederick of prussia and joseph of austria in coalition with whom the unhappy polish kingdom was dismembered while she was in ia ora oral I and written communication with the leading freethinkers free thinkers of the age voltaire didelot Di derot dalembert professed an approbation odthe of the enlightenment lighten ment of the eighteenth century and instituted many judicial and administrative reforms for twelve years the slave of the mighty setting a bestes table example of dissolute and lascivious lac ivious life her liberal reforms I were more a varnish which barely covered the native barbarism her son paul I succeeded to the power only at her death 1796 his long expectation of the coveted prize had awakened bif liim him a nervousness and irritability which finally led to his violent death in 1801 an end similar to that of his it is father not unjustly voltaire defined russia ru a as d an autocratic anto cratic government where despotism is tempered by assassination but while former rulers fell victims timeto to court intrigues and cabals cabala c za over the doomed heads of the autocrats rises from wider fields of general discontent it is not now a question of change of rulers but of abolition of rule itself |