CHAPTER VII
THE CZAR'S GREATER DOMAIN
No other parts of the globe have been subject to so many kaleidoscopic changes by migrations during the past eight centuries as northern Asia and eastern Europe. In comparison both India and China have remained stable for many centuries.
Before the Christian era, Mongol tribes of northeastern Asia began their westward march, tarrying a few centuries along the way in the most fertile places and gathering force by multiplication until the thirteenth century. Then like a mighty flood they poured into eastern Europe, carrying everywhere in their pathway subjugation, devastation, and slaughter. During the early part of these migrations, the great Roman Empire trembled as she beheld the irresistible moving hosts, and her downfall was hastened by the ponderous blows dealt her by these barbarians.
In the early part of the thirteenth century, after the Mongol ruler Genghis Khan had overrun southern Russia, he turned northward and captured the cities of Moscow, Vladimir, and Ryazan, putting to death many of the inhabitants by the most fiendish methods of torture. Thousands were slaughtered merely to wreak vengeance for the strong resistance offered by the besieged before surrendering. Hundreds of thousands of the Russians both high and low were made slaves. Wives of the nobles who had been richly clad and adorned with jewels became servants of their conquerors.
Fishing for sturgeon through the ice of the Ural River. Catching the material for caviare
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In 1272 most of the Tartars became Muhammadans and henceforth became more intolerant of the Christians, thousands of whom they burned alive or tortured. This oppressive yoke was borne for nearly three hundred years. Then Ivan III succeeded in breaking the Tartar rule forever. Mongol tribes, however, remained a disturbing element on the border for two hundred years thereafter.