Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/418

BUSSIA. 378 RUSSIA. in which year he assiiined the title of Czar, he found two' wise and prudent counselors, Silvester and Adatchelf, who, with his queen, Anastasia Konianoll', exercised over him a most beneficent intluence. Ivan's arms were everywhere victo- rious; the fortified city of Kazan was captured in 1552. the khanate, of which it was the capital, was annexed to his empire, and the Khanate of Astrakhan shared the same fate soon after (1554). The marauding Tatars of the Crimea were held in check, and the Knights of the Sword were driven from Livonia and Esthonia. Many internal inijnovements were made, and the com- merce between England and Russia by way of the White Sea was inaugurated. The latter part of Ivan's reign, following the death of his wife, was marked by savage cruelty. Stephen Bathory, King of Poland, wrested Livonia from him, and the Crim-Tatars, in 1571. invaded Russia, and burned Jloscow. It was during the reign of this monarch that Western Siberia was conquered for Russia by the Cossack Yermak. (See Siberia.) Ivan's son, Feodor ( 1584-98) , was a feeble prince, ■who intrusted his brother-in-law, Boris Godunoff (q.v.), with the management of affairs. Feodor was the last reigning monarch of the Hou.se of Rurik. He died childless, and his only brother, Dmitri, was murdered, in 1591, by order of GodnnoflT, according to popular rumor. After the death of Feodor representatives of all classes were convoked at Moscow to elect a new sover- eign, and their choice fell on Boris Godunoff (1598-1005). The mysterious death of Dmitri favored the appearance of pretenders to his name and rank, the first of whom (see DEirETRiu.s ) , on the sudden death of Boris Godunoff, was crowned in 1005. A revolt, headed b,y Prince Vassili Shuiski (1000-10), soon broke'out, the Czar was murdered, and Shuiski was elevated to the vacant throne as Vassili V. But a second false Dmitri now appeared, and Sigismund of Poland, whose son, Ladislas, had been elected Czar by the boyars, invaded Russia, and took possession of JIoscow (1010). At the same time hordes of Tatars and bands of Poles and robbers devastated the provinces. There followed a na- tional uprising under Minin Pozharsky, who re- took the capital, drove the Poles out of Russia, and convoked an assembl_y of representatives, who unanimously chose for their Czar Michael Feodorovitch Romanoff (1613-45). See Roma- noff. The new monarch put an end to the revolt of the Don Cossacks, and to the depredations of the robber gangs in the southwest. In 1618 and 1634 he purchased peace from the Poles at the cost of Smolensk and a portion of Seversk. Alexis (Alexei) (1645-70), Michael's son and successor, being a minor, the nobles seized the opportunity of increasing their power and exercising oppres- sion and extortion over their subjects, till rebel- lion broke out in various districts. The changes and corrections in the books and liturgy of the Church introduced by the Patriarch Kikon brought about the ri.se of a dissident sect. (See Raskot.xiks. ) Little Russia was acquired by the voluntary submission of the Cossacks (see Polaxd), who had revolted against the oppression of the Polish magnates. In the war with Poland which followed, Russia acquired Smolensk with part of W'hife Russia, and all of the Ukraine east of the Dnieper, together with Kiev. Alexis was succeeded by his son Feodor ( 1076-82) , under whom the first war between Russians and Turks was lirought to a successful issue. After Feodor's deatli, the general council, in accordance with his wishes and their own, chose his half-brother Peter as Czar, but his half-sister Sophia, an aide and ambitious princess, succeeded in obtaining the reins of power as Princess Regent and in having her own brother, the half-witted Ivan, proclaimed co-ruler with Peter. After an attempt to deprive Peter of the throne, she was forced to resign all power and retire to a convent. Her aceomplices were executed, and Peter (1689-1725) became sole ruler, although Ivan was allowed to retain the empty title of Czar until his death in 1696. The history of Russia under Peter I., the Great, is a biography of that monarch. (See Peteb I.) His reign was one of tremendous energy and national development, although nuich of his work was ill-timed. He attempted to transform the semi-Oriental society of Russia, by main force of autocracy, into an Occidental society, and to make Russia a European power. This was done without consulting the national character or the natural conditions of the country, and produced that sharp conflict of opposing elements which has since been a source both of weakness and of strength to Russia. Peter's schemes for the territorial aggrandizement of the empire, as con- tinued by his successors, were carried out in turn at the expense of Sweden, Poland, and the Turks. The Russians were decisively defeated by Charles XII. at Narva in 1700, "but Peter nevertheless succeeded in making himself master of Ingermanland, on the Gulf of Finland, and parts of Esthonia and Livonia, and in 1703 laid the foundations of his new capital. Saint Petersburg, on the banks of the Neva. Profiting by defeat, he brought into being a well-disciplined army with which he crushed the Swedish King at Poltava (q.v.) in 1709. By the Peace of Nj'stad (1721) Russia was confirmed in possession of Livonia, Esthonia, Karelia, and Ingermanland, Azov had been taken from the Turks in 1696 and transformed into a base for the naval power which Peter hoped to establish on the Black Sea, but as a result of the Czar's unfortunate cam- paign bevond the Pruth, it was retroceded to the" Sultan by the Treaty of Hush (1711). Peter's only son. Alexei. had shown himself inimical to his father's political schemes and had met a premature death in 1718 (see Alexei Petrovitch ) . and the crown passed by will to Peter's wife, Catharine I. Her short reign of two years was followed by that of the unfortu- nate Alexei's son, Peter II. (1727-30), who was entirely under the influence of the powerful fam- ily of the Dolgoruki. L'pon his death the privy council, setting aside the other descendants of Peter the Great, bestowed the crown on Anna, the daughter of his imbecile brother. Ivan. Anna Ivanovna (1730-40) freed her.self from the domi- nation of the Dolgoruki and the Golitzin. but was entirely under the influence of the German party, chief among whom were her favorite Biron (q.v.), Marshal Miinnich. and the Chancellor Ostermann. From 1736 to 1739 war was carried on against the Turks, and the Russians, under Jliinnich, took Azov, overran the Crimea, and advanced to the mouth of the Dnieper. Deserted by its ally, Austria, Russia derived little profit from these conquests outside of the recovery of Azov. Anna