"The Greco-Russian church differs from the Roman Catholic in denying the supremacy of the Pope, and in not prohibiting the marriage of the clergy. No priest can perform his spiritual functions before he is married, and he is incompetent to do so at the death of his wife. As he is forbidden to marry a second time, his occupation as a priest is gone, though he may go into a monastery, and be eligible to office in the church. There are important differences of doctrine also. Russia has five hundred cathedrals and twenty-nine thousand churches of the established religion, with two hundred and fifty-four thousand clergymen of all ranks. There are four hundred and eighty monasteries for men, and seventy convents for women. Peter the Great and Catharine II. confiscated the immense wealth of the church not required for the actual service, and the salaries of the clergy are very small, hardly sufficient to support them. Jews are not allowed to settle in Russia proper, but there is no other restraint on the non-Russian sects. The Russian cannot renounce his creed. The subject of education among the common people is receiving considerable attention at the present time, and there are over one million pupils in the schools.
"There are in Russia fifteen cities having over fifty thousand inhabitants, four of which have over a hundred thousand—St. Petersburg, five hundred and forty thousand; Moscow, three hundred and fifty-two thousand; Warsaw, one hundred and sixty-three thousand; and Odessa, one hundred and ninety-two thousand.
"The army of Russia is raised by conscription, by the adoption of the sons of soldiers, and by voluntary enlistment. The period of service is from twenty-two to twenty-five years; but of late years the soldiers are sent home after ten or fifteen years' service, to be recalled in case of war. The Cossacks of the Don are not taxed, but do military duty in payment for their exemption; and in case of necessity, every man among them between the ages of fifteen and sixty is obliged to serve. These are all in the cavalry service, and every Cossack is obliged to keep his own horse, and to arm, equip, and clothe himself, except when sent out of the country. The number in the service is fifty-six thousand, and more than double this number are available. On a peace footing the army has eight hundred thousand men, on a war footing over one million.
"The navy of Russia contains two hundred and ninety steamers and twenty-nine sailing vessels, with sixty thousand seamen.
"We are now prepared to sketch very briefly the history of Russia. It contains a great many exciting incidents; but the time does not permit me to give many of them. The Scythians and Sarmatians of the Greek and Roman historians inhabited Russia in classic times. The Slavonians are believed to be the same people, and they founded the towns of Novgorod and Kief, which were the capitals of separate empires. These people were savage and warlike races, and were at war with similar tribes around them. The Varangians of the north attacked them, and were nearly overwhelmed, when they invited the Russian prince Rurik to Novgorod; and he came with his two brothers. From that time the different tribes were united, and called Russians, but the Slavic language and customs were retained. This was the foundation of the Russian empire. Rurik died in 879, and left the regency of the empire to his cousin, Oleg, his son Igor being only four years old. He conquered Kief, and annexed it to his realm. He then got up an expedition against Constantinople, and secured an advantageous treaty. He also subdued all the tribes within reach of his armies. He had a favorite horse, which the soothsayers declared would be the death of him; whereupon he sent the animal away, and heard no more of him for years. Recalling the prediction, he asked what had become of the horse, and was told he had long been dead. Exulting over the defeat of the seers, he wished to see the bones, and was conducted to the place where the skeleton lay. 'So this is the creature that was destined to be my death,' said he, putting his foot on the skull. At that moment, a serpent, coiled up within the skull, darted out and gave Oleg a bite, from the effects of which he died. This is the story.
"The son of Rurik, Igor, came to the throne at the age of forty, and after, much fighting was killed. His son, Sviatoslaf, was too young to reign, and Olga, Igor's widow, was the regent. She was a bold and cruel woman, and her adventures were very curious and romantic. After severely chastising the Drevlians,—who had killed her husband,—they offered her a tribute of honey and fur, which she declined, saying she would be satisfied with a dove and three sparrows from each house, which were promptly supplied. Having tied lighted matches to their tails, she let them all loose in the evening, and flying back to the nests, they set all the houses on fire, and the whole town was consumed. The inhabitants escaped only to fall upon the swords of Olga's army. You need not believe any more of these stories than you please, young gentlemen," said the instructor, with a smile. "Olga went to Constantinople to be baptized and instructed in the Christian religion. When she exhorted her son to follow her example on her return, he wanted to know if she wished him to be the laughing-stock of his friends. Her son was a great warrior, won many victories and was killed in battle. His empire was divided among his three sons, Yaropolk, Oleg, and Vladimir. They soon quarrelled; Oleg was slain, and Vladimir fled, leaving the entire realm to Yaropolk. But Vladimir returned, and with the aid of the Varingians, conquered Novgorod and Kief, and put his brother to death. He was a pagan at first, and gave honors to his heathen deities. The neighboring nations, recognizing his power and rude greatness desired to convert him to their own faith, and he was induced to examine the religion of the Greeks, the Roman Catholics, and the Jews. Olga, his ancestress, had been a Greek Christian, and he was inclined to follow her example. When he had decided to embrace it, his pride would not permit him to be baptized in his own capital in the ordinary way, and he insisted that only bishops from the parent church were worthy of so great a achievement as the conversion of himself and his people. He resorted to a remarkable expedient to accomplish his purpose: he made war upon Greece, marched into the Crimea, and laid siege to Cherson, near Sevastopol, intending to extort the rite of baptism. He demanded its surrender, saying he was prepared to stay before its walls for three years. For six months he made no progress, and was on the point of abandoning the conquest, when a priest sent an arrow to which was tied a letter, informing him that the city was supplied with water from a certain spring outside the walls. Removing the pipes by which the water was conducted to the town, Vladimir subjected the inhabitants to the pangs of thirst, and thus compelled them to surrender. Everything was now favorable for his baptism; but he had other views also. He demanded the sister of the Greek emperors, Basilius and Constantine, in marriage, and threatened to take Constantinople if his demand was refused. He was too powerful to be denied, and the lady was sent to him. Vladimir received his instructions, and was baptized with the name of Basil on the day of his marriage to the princess, in 988. Returning to Kief, he destroyed the wooden gods, and built churches and towns. His nature was changed, and he became gentle and humane. He established seminaries of learning, labored to extend Christianity in his dominions, and is now enrolled among the Russian saints. At Moscow, if you go there, you will see the remarkable cathedral of St. Basil. In history he is called Vladimir the Great.
"This powerful prince divided his empire among his twelve sons, who, as usual in such cases, went to war, and Sviatopolk I., after murdering three of his brothers, obtained the throne. In 1019, Yaroslaf, the brother who had received Novgorod as his portion, procuring the assistance of Henry II. of Germany and of the King of Poland, after a battle on the Alma which lasted three days, wrested the crown from Sviatopolk, who died while fleeing into Poland. Another brother compelled Yaroslaf to divide the empire with him; but at the death of the former it was united again, in 1036. He was a powerful prince, and greatly enlarged his territory. He built many churches, encouraged learning, and caused the first code of Russian laws to be compiled. At his death he gave the empire to his four sons, requiring the three younger to be subject to the eldest; but his will was disregarded, and Russia became a confederacy, instead of an empire, with four rulers. The division and anarchy in the country enabled the Poles, Lithuanians, Danes, and others to wrest large territories in the west from the Russians. The progress in civilization which had continued during the two preceding reigns was barred; famine and pestilence raged in the land, and Genghis Khan, with vast hordes of Asiatics, invaded and conquered the country. From the year 1054, when the civil wars commenced, to 1462, when the Tartar power and influence were finally broken, Russia was torn with dissensions, overrun by her powerful neighbors, often visited by famine and pestilence; yet within this period are recorded many great events. Moscow was founded in 1147; Alexander, Grand Prince of Novgorod, won a great victory over the Swedes and others on the Neva, which gives him the name of Alexander Nevski.
"With Ivan III., or Ivan the Great, in 1462, begins a more glorious period of Russian history. He was the Grand Prince of Moscow, and conquered Novgorod, Kazan, Perm, Tver, and other principalities. He married Sophia, niece of the Greek emperor Constantine XIII., on which occasion he adopted the double-headed black eagle as his standard, and was the first prince who claimed the title of 'Autocrat of all the Russias.' He was succeeded by his son Basil IV., in whose reign the empire was still further united, and the Tartars completely subjugated at Kazan. Basil was followed, in 1533, by his son Ivan IV., only three years old at his accession. During his minority the empire was torn by anarchy and civil war; but when Ivan was only fourteen years old, he seized the reins of power, and commenced the career of cruelty and tyranny, which gave him the name of the 'Terrible.' But he did more for Russia than any of his predecessors. He conquered Kazan again, which had asserted its independence during his minority, added Astrakhan, the Crimea, Siberia, and the country of the Don, to his empire. He encouraged commerce, and established a printing office in Moscow. He was a cruel tyrant, and caused the massacre of sixty thousand people in Novgorod, and thousands in Moscow and Tver. Finally he murdered his eldest son, and the only one who had the capacity to succeed him, with his own hand. His son Fedor, who came to the throne at his death, was weak in body and mind. His brother-in-law, Boris Godunoff, was an ambitious man, and sought to obtain the crown. He put out of the way several rivals and members of the imperial family, and finally accomplished his purpose in 1605; but his cruelty caused great dissatisfaction, and the people were ripe for revolt. At this time appeared in Poland a very remarkable impostor, claiming to be the Czarovitz of Russia, who was more successful than the pretenders that sought the crown of England. In carrying out his ambitious project, Boris Godunoff had procured the assassination of Dimitri, the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible, a lad only ten years old. A Polish prince, irritated by the negligence of a young man who had been in his employ but a short time, gave him a blow on the side of the head, which was accompanied by a very opprobrious epithet.
"'If you knew who I am, prince,' replied the young man, with tears in his eyes, 'you would not treat me so, nor call me by that name.'
"'Who are you, and where do you come from?' asked the prince.