"'I am the Czarovitz Dimitri, son of Ivan IV.'
"He then detailed the manner of his escape from Boris's assassin, and exhibited a Russian seal, bearing the names and arms of the Czarovitz, and a gold cross adorned with jewels, which he declared was the baptismal gift of his godfather. The prince believed his story, and rendered him efficient help. He was presented to the Palatine of Sandomir, whose daughter was plighted to him in marriage. He procured the favor of Sigismond, King of Poland, by promising to bring Russia over to the church of Rome. With a considerable army, including many Polish knights, he marched into Russia, and after some discouragements, took the city of Novgorod, and finally, by the treachery of some of Boris's dependants, entered Moscow, and was duly crowned. Though he had renounced the Greek Church, he concealed the fact. The widow of Ivan IV. was brought from a convent to see him, and after a private interview between them, she acknowledged that he was her son. His affianced wife came to him in Moscow, attended by a numerous retinue of Polish knights. The marriage was solemnized according to the rites of the Russian church. But Dimitri was not skilful in concealing his religion, and excited the suspicion of the priests and others. While he was generous even to his foes, his heterodoxy was the ruin of him. A conspiracy was organized, and he was murdered in cold blood, with many of his followers, and his corpse exposed to great indignities.
"After his death the boyar Shuiska was crowned as Czar, under the title Basil VI. Encouraged by the example of the false Dimitri, another appeared, and many Polish knights supported his claim with arms. The Czar appealed to Sweden for aid, which compelled the King of Poland to espouse the cause of the pretender. The Swedes soon went over to the Poles, Moscow was captured, and Basil VI. died in a Polish prison. The Poles compelled the boyars to elect Vladislas, son of Sigismond, their Czar. The new power treated Russia as a subdued province, which caused an insurrection, and the Poles were driven from the country.
"The throne was now vacant, and in 1613 Michael Romanoff, the first sovereign of the present royal family, was chosen emperor. He made peace with the Swedes, and restored the commercial ties which had been broken by the wars. In 1645 he was succeeded by his son Alexis, who won the allegiance of the Cossacks of the Don, and regained the western part of Russia, which had been held by the Poles. In this reign a third false Dimitri appeared; but he obtained few adherents, and was executed by Alexis. This Czar was followed by his son Fedor, in 1676, who lived but six years after his accession, leaving no children; but he had a brother and several sisters, children of his own mother, and a half brother and half sister, children of his father's second wife. The heir apparent was his own brother Ivan, who was weak in body and in mind, while the half brother, Peter, was a brilliant youth of ten. An attempt was made to set Ivan aside; but his sister, the Princess Sophia, frustrated the plan so far as to cause both to be declared sovereigns of Russia, and she was proclaimed the regent, who was practically to rule the country. It is alleged that Sophia and Prince Galitzin, her minister, organized a conspiracy to take the life of Peter, when he was about seventeen, in order that she might continue in the regency during the reign of his imbecile brother. Peter fled to a monastery, followed by a portion of his party, and there organized a counter movement. He managed his case so well that it was entirely successful.
"The conspirators were severely punished; some of them were cruelly tortured. Prince Galitzin escaped with his life, but forfeited his immense property, and was banished to the northern regions of Russia, while Sophia was shut up in a convent during the rest of her life. Ivan declined to take any share in the government, and Peter was the sole ruler in fact, if not in name. He is the Peter the Great of history, and the founder of Russian greatness. In a brief period he made his country one of the most powerful in Europe. In 1703 he founded St. Petersburg, in a very unfortunate location, it must be confessed, for at times the city has hard work to keep itself above water. His ruling passion was to extend his empire, as well as to build it up, by developing its resources. Though he suffered great defeats, he finally carried all his plans. He made war on Sweden, and crushed Charles XII. in the battle of Pultowa. He conquered the Ukraine, and carried his conquests to the Caspian. He was a wonderful man; but he was a drunkard and a brute in his manners. He was a genius in mechanics, and possessed remarkable energy in the execution of his purposes; but he was passionate, cold-blooded, and cruel. It is no wonder that his country venerates his name, for no single man ever did so much for a nation as he for Russia.
"Peter hated his first wife, who was the mother of the Czarovitz Alexis, and he extended his hatred to his son, whom he first disinherited, and afterwards poisoned with his own hands, in the fortress of St. Petersburg. Though the fierce Czar had quarrelled with Catharine, his wife, and had some doubts in regard to her character, she was his successor. She was almost as remarkable a person as he was, and had a powerful influence over him. She was born in Sweden, but spent her earlier years as a servant in Livonia, one of the Baltic provinces of Russia, which formerly belonged to Sweden. At the age of sixteen she was married to a Swedish dragoon, who was ordered away two days after the marriage. The town in which she lived was captured by the Russians, and she was employed as a servant in the family of the Princess Mentchikof, where Peter first saw her. He carried her away with him, and perceiving that she had a large capacity for assisting in the mission of his life, he privately married her in 1707, and repeated the ceremony publicly four years later.
"From a common servant girl of the humblest parentage, she became the empress of a mighty nation. After her husband's death, she endeavored to carry out his progressive measures, during the two years of her reign; but she softened the rule of the Czar by lowering the taxes, and recalling the exiles from Siberia. Mentchikof was perhaps the real ruler, though her gentleness and humanity are apparent in public measures. Peter II., the son of the unfortunate Alexis, succeeded her, according to the will of the empress. He was only twelve years old, and a council of regency was appointed to rule during his minority; but Prince Mentchikof soon seized the supreme control, and the young emperor was betrothed to his daughter. He was so arrogant and brutal, that he finally disgusted his imperial master, and with his whole family, including the affianced of Peter, was banished to Siberia, and his wealth confiscated. He had nine million rubles in notes and securities, one million in cash, one hundred and five pounds of gold utensils, four hundred and twenty pounds of silver plate, and a million rubles' worth of precious stones, besides his palaces, and numerous landed estates, all over Russia. His property was not less than forty millions, or thirty millions of our money, most of which he had stolen from the public treasury. Prince Dolgoruki took his place at the head of the government.
"Peter died of small-pox, three years after his accession. He was the last male member of the Romanoff family. Instead of following the line of succession indicated in the will of Catharine I., who had daughters still living, the nobles elected, as their empress, Anna, Duchess of Courland, daughter of Ivan V., half brother of Peter I., who had nominally reigned with him. It was intended that the boyars should be the real rulers, and they induced Anna, before she was crowned, to sign an instrument which placed all power in their hands; but when she became empress, she repudiated the compact, and retained the absolute power of her predecessors. In a civil war for the throne of Poland, Anna sided with Augustus III., whose success gave Russia a controlling influence in the affairs of this unhappy kingdom. Her favorite, Duke Biren, her prime minister, and the actual ruler, was an arrogant and cruel man, whose influence over the empress was all-powerful. By his advice, she named, as her successor, the son of her niece Anne,—a child in the cradle,—with Biren as the regent. He was Ivan VI.
"The unpopularity of the regent soon caused his overthrow, and Anne was appointed in his place; but in a year after the death of the Empress Anna, Elizabeth Petrovna, the daughter of Peter the Great and Catharine,—a woman of no character,—usurped the throne. In a single night her adherents captured the palace, and completed the revolution. She reigned twenty-one years, and founded several universities, and other literary and scientific institutions. She abolished the death penalty and the rack, but the knout and other tortures took their place, and the exiles to Siberia were numerous. In the Seven Years' War, Russia was on the side of Austria. Elizabeth was a vain and extravagant woman. She impoverished her treasury, and left a bad reputation behind her.
"By her will she made her nephew Peter, late Duke of Holstein-Gottorp, emperor; and from him, the present royal family is called the House of Holstein-Gottorp. He attempted many reforms, and closely allied himself to Frederick the Great, of Prussia; but many of his measures were imprudent and impolitic. His wife Catharine was the daughter of a princess of Holstein-Gottorp. Peter neglected her, and incurred her hatred. She got up a conspiracy against him, which resulted in the dethronement of her husband, only a few months after his accession, and she was proclaimed empress as Catharine II. Peter was thrown into prison, and there strangled. Her reign of thirty-four years was brilliant for Russia, which became one of the Great Powers, without dispute. She greatly enlarged its territory by the infamous partition of Poland, the conquest of the Crimea, and the addition of Courland, on the Baltic. Her most noted ministers and favorites were Orlof and Potemkin.