This hold of the West on the East, however, lasted only a little more than half a century, and then the Greeks regained the capital city and again a Greek Emperor reigned. And gradually, after the loss of the Empire, the lords from the West lost much of their power in their own territories also.
So this was but a quickly passing act in the story. There was an attempt at union between the Greek and the Roman Churches during that half-century. The Pope of Rome was officially recognised as the superior of the Patriarch at Constantinople. But it does not seem that his authority made much difference to the doctrine which the bishops in the Eastern world professed, nor in their way of conducting their religious affairs. And after the temporary union the Churches fell apart again, as before.
Now we saw, in a former chapter of the story—[Chapter XVI.]—how the great mass of the Slavonic peoples, pressing from the east westward, had been divided by the Hungarians, of different race from themselves, thrusting in like a wedge. The wedge split them into two parts, of which the northern, consisting chiefly of Russia and Poland, was far larger than the southern. The principal Slavonic peoples in the southern part were the Bulgarians and Serbians settled in those territories, or nearly so, which Bulgaria occupies now and which Serbia did occupy until the Great War. The place of the latter we now see marked on our modern maps as forming part of the larger State of Jugo-Slavia.
We have said something already about the beginnings of that vast and unfortunate country which is now called Russia. We saw how the name of the country and its first rulers came down from Scandinavia. The Scandinavians were great people, with unusual gifts of governing and organising at a time when these were very rare and precious gifts among the tribes and nations of Northern Europe. They must have had a touch of the genius which made the ancient Romans so masterful and effective.
The first capital of that infant Russia, which was destined to grow into such a giant, was Novgorod, not very far from where its later capital of Petrograd now stands. As with other famous cities in other lands, Novgorod was important because of its situation on a navigable waterway. Then from it again there stretched waterways to the south, both to the Caspian and to the Black Sea. The enterprising Scandinavians who went down to the Mediterranean and took possession of many coast towns and of islands in the Ionian Sea did not all go sea-roving round France and Spain and Italy to the eastward. The majority, I expect, did go by sea; but there is record of many going by the land (or river) route, through Russia. Soon the people that had occupied Novgorod and its neighbourhood spread eastward to another settlement called Nijni-Novgorod, which, as you may see on the map, is also on a great waterway. We may always find a reason for the growth of a big city, if we go a-hunting for the reason; and it is always an interesting hunt.
Another tribe or nation of these same Slavonic people began to grow in numbers and importance. They had their capital at Moscow.
The Tartars
During the first half of the thirteenth century these Slavs, whose pressure on his borders gave trouble to the German Emperor, were being pressed in their turn by a people coming from farther east, from the very borders of China. They were a people from Mongolia, called Tartars, and they lived the hardy, nomadic life. They moved less like armies than like nations, taking all their belongings, their wives and children, with them. They were very numerous and very fierce. They came down upon these Slavs repeatedly, but it appears to have made but little difference whether they were victors or vanquished; for if they won they did not settle on the conquered territory; they went away again. And if they were defeated there was no permanence about their defeat; they came back again. They were a constant vexation and menace.
So the story went, during all that half-century or so—at one time the Tartars overrunning nearly all Russia, as well as parts of Poland, except Novgorod itself. Later again they captured Novgorod. But by that time, that is to say just a little before the date at which the Greeks regained Constantinople—namely 1261—Moscow and the Muscovite province had increased in importance and strength. It seems that this capture by the Tartars of the capital of the southern province gave Moscow the opportunity to assert and make good a claim to authority over both provinces, for the Tsar or Czar (or Cæsar, or Kaiser) of Moscow entered into an alliance with the Khan (or chieftain) of the Tartar horde, and it is in this alliance that we may see the seed from which grew that immense Russia of to-day, which includes part of Mongolia itself, where those Tartar hordes came from.