If this book seems to have departed from the proper ideal of historic narrative—if it is the history of a Power, and not of a People—it is because the Russian people have had no history yet. There has been no evolution of a Russian nation, but only of a vast governing system; and the words "Russian Empire" stand for a majestic world-power in which the mass of its people have no part. A splendidly embroidered robe of Europeanism is worn over a chaotic, undeveloped mass of semi-barbarism. The reasons for this incongruity—the natural obstacles with which Russia has had to contend; the strange ethnic problems with which it has had to deal; its triumphant entry into the family of great nations; and the circumstances leading to the disastrous conflict recently concluded, and the changed conditions resulting from it—such is the story this book has tried to tell.
M. P. P.
CONTENTS.
[ CHAPTER I. ]
Natural Conditions
Greek Colonies on the Black Sea
The Scythians
Ancient Traces of Slavonic Race
[ CHAPTER II. ]
Hunnish Invasion
Distribution of Races
Slavonic Religion
Primitive Political Conceptions
[ CHAPTER III. ]
The Scandinavian in Russia
Rurik
Oleg
Igor
Olga's Vengeance
Olga a Christian
Sviatoslaf
Russia the Champion of the Greek Empire in Bulgaria
Norse Dominance in Heroic Period