Byzantine Empire, which was imitated when Russia came under Byzantine influences, and therefore must not be attributed to Mohammedanism. Then the Sclavonic is certainly still the basal element in Russian life, as it always has been. Moreover, the Mongols had not the Roman genius for ruling. They let the local Russian princes govern their territories though subject to the supremacy of the "horde," wherever this moving army might be. Novgorod, isolated by its marshes and the barrenness of its neighbourhood, was left almost to itself in virtual independence. We must not regard the Mongols as a mere plague of locusts eating up everything they came across.
Nevertheless, after due allowance is made for these mitigating circumstances, the fact remains that the Mongol invasion left lasting effects on the national life of Russia. Many Russian princes married daughters of the Mongols. Later on, a nobleman of Mongolian origin, Boris Godunov, was elected tsar. Even in dress the influence of the Mongols was felt, and Russians adopted from them the long flowing robe known as the "caftan." A less pardonable Mongolian import was the knout, that horrible instrument of torture, the use of which was continued till the reign of Alexander I., and has been revived in the prisons of to-day. From the same source came the public flogging of debtors, which was subsequently abolished by Peter the Great. But the chief result of the Mongol invasion was that it cut Russia off from the West, and made it more and more an Eastern country. In the previous period Russia had belonged to the comity of European nations. It has been already remarked that her civilisation was then superior to that of France and Germany,[1] She was joined with Constantinople in the van of progress. But the Mongolian invasion put an end to this state of affairs. For the time being all national life seemed to be crushed, A cringeing attitude was forced on princes and people. The princes were compelled to travel to the horde—the movable court
