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Title: The Story of Moscow
Author: Wirt Gerrare
Illustrator: Helen M. James
Release Date: August 5, 2014 [EBook #46510]
Language: English
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_The Story of Moscow_
_All rights reserved_
[Illustration: _Ikon of the Holy Virgin of Vladimir_]
_The Story of_ MOSCOW
_by Wirt Gerrare Illustrated
by Helen M. James_
[Illustration: colophon]
_London: J. M. Dent & Co.
Aldine House, 29 and 30 Bedford Street
Covent Garden, W. C. 1900_
PREFACE
Readers of the modern histories of Russia may wonder by what right
Moscow is included among MEDIÆVAL TOWNS, for it is the fashion of recent
writers to ignore the history of the mighty Euro-Asian empire prior to
the eighteenth century and the reign of Peter the Great. It is at that
period this story of the old Muscovite capital ends. To many, then, this
account of the town and its vicissitudes during the preceding five
centuries may have the charm of novelty; perchance to others, who have
wrongly concluded that the old buildings were all destroyed during
Napoleon's invasion, the few typical antiquities chosen for illustration
out of many like, will attract to a closer acquaintance with memorials
of a past that was but little influenced by the art of the west.
Moscow, where the east merges with the west but remains distinct and
unconquered, has a fascination all its own; the town not only has been
great, but is so yet; its influence pervades the Russian empire and is
still mutable and active; its story therefore comprises more than the
legends and associations of an ordinary city, but, if confined merely to
an enumeration of the facts and traditions of the past will not be void
of interest, and however fully given, must fall far short of what the
imaginative reader may reasonably expect. Of the meagre character of
this present account I am fully aware; of its positive errors I am, at
present, unhappily ignorant, but I trust that those who discover
mistakes will not only forgive, but notify me of them, that later
readers may be as grateful for the favour as I myself shall be. Of place
names I have given the idiomatic, instead of the usual literal
translation; where I have attempted an equivalent reproduction of the
original the transliteration will be comprehensible to those who know
nothing of either French or German. That I may not be charged with
inconsistency in this, I may explain that where a foreign spelling--as
rouble--has become familiar I have used the Anglicism. To most readers
the names will, I fear, be unpronounceable however spelled; but only the
expert will regret that I have not given the original Russian. To them
the excuse I offer is, that to everyone ignorant of the tongue Russian
names are absolutely undecipherable, being apparently composed of an
alphabet in spasms made up into words of poly-syllabic length.
It is difficult for one not of the Eastern Church to write justly of
Russian Ecclesiasticism; an alien, however carefully he may observe, is
liable to obtain faulty impressions and make erroneous deductions; so to
me any criticism seems an impertinence. I have tried to present its
artistic phases fairly, but am conscious that the ninth chapter is the
least satisfactory of all that I have written.
For the rest, my task has been easy: I have had but to examine, compare,
and judge the work of others and from their stored treasures make my
selection. I have produced little that is really original: others have
delved amid ruins for vestiges of the earlier Moscow; have unearthed
ancient monuments; transcribed illegible manuscripts; ransacked
archives, measured walls, calculated heights, weighed bells and counted
steps; formed theories and found evidence to support them; so have
rendered my labour light and pleasant. I regret that I, who at best am
but an intelligible interpreter, cannot acknowledge more particularly
the hundred and more authorities from whom I have drawn; in the same
inadequate, general fashion I must thank many friends, English and
Russian, for the kindly interest they have taken in the work and the
intelligent assistance they have rendered me in its compilation. For
direction to valuable sources of information, and other services, I am
conscious of particular indebtedness to the Rev. F. Wyberg, of the
English Church, Moscow, and to Mr V. E. Marsden, the correspondent of
the _Standard_ there--either of whom might have written a much better
book about the town they know so well. The object of this volume I shall
consider to be achieved if its perusal gives to anyone pleasure equal to
that its compilation has brought me; or awakens even a few readers to a
greater interest in Moscow, and a better understanding of the Russian
people.
WIRT GERRARE.
[Russian poetry in cyrillic letters]
_White-walled and golden-headed,
Beautiful, bizarre,
The pride of all the millions
Ruled by the Russian Tsar:
The cradle of an Empire,
Shrine of a great race,
With Europe's noblest cities
Moscow holds its place!_
V. E. M.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
_Introduction--Pre-Muscovite Russia_ 1
CHAPTER II
_Origin and Early History_ 11
CHAPTER III
_Moscow under the Mongols_ 21
CHAPTER IV
_Moscow of the Princes_ 37
CHAPTER V
_Ivan the Terrible_ 47
CHAPTER VI
_The Troublous Times_ 80
CHAPTER VII
_Moscow of the Tsars_ 111
CHAPTER VIII
_The Kremlin_ 147
CHAPTER IX
_Moscow of the Ecclesiastics_ 172
CHAPTER X
_Moscow of the Citizens_ 206
CHAPTER XI
_Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals_ 227
CHAPTER XII
_The Convents and Monasteries_ 253
CHAPTER XIII
_Moscow of the English_ 270
CHAPTER XIV
_The French Invasion--and after_ 284
CHAPTER XV
_Itinerary and Miscellaneous Information_ 303
_Index_ 309
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
_The Virgin of Vladimir (Vladimirski Bogeimateri)
by St Luke_ _Frontispiece_
_The Kremlin_ 13
_Danilovski Monastery_ 17
_Spass na Boru_ 29
_Ilyinka Gate of the Kitai Gorod_ 39
_Doorway of St Lazarus_ 45
_Alarm Bell Tower_ 58
_Vasili Blajenni_ 67
_The Terem--A Corridor_ 83
_Church of the Assumption_ 89
_Dom Romanovykh_ 108
_Belvedere of the Terem_ 117
_Krutitski Vorot_ 122
_Krasnoe Kriltso_ 126
_Throne Room of the Terem_ 135
_Vosskresenski Vorot and Iberian Chapel_ 143
_Kremlin--Wall and Tower_ 148
_Terem and Belvedere of the Potieshni Dvorets_ 154
_Church of Our Saviour behind the Golden Gates_ 161
_Potieshni Dvorets, or Pleasure Palace_ 167
_Church of the Nativity (Rojdestva V-Putinkakh)_ 181
_Uspenski Sobor--The Ikonostas_ 186
_Cathedral of the Annunciation (Blagovieshchenski
Sobor)_ 193
_Church and Gate of Mary of Vladimir_ 204
_Srietenka--The Sukharev Bashnia_ 208
_St Nicholas "Stylite"_ 218
_Dom Chukina_ 223
_Krestovia in the Romanof House_ 229
_Varvarka Vorot of the Kitai Gorod_ 238
_A Chastok (Watch Tower)_ 245
_Petrovski Monastery_ 250
_Simonov Monastery_ 261
_Novo Devichi Convent_ 267
_Spasski Vorot, Tower over the Redeemer Gate_ 279
_Borovitski Gate and St Saviour's Cathedral_ 299
_Plan of the Kremlin_ _face_ 125
_Map of Moscow_ " 308
MOSCOW
CHAPTER I
_Introduction--Pre-Muscovite Russia_
"Cimmerii a Scythis nomadibus ejecti."--HERODOTUS.
The mediæval pilgrim to Moscow, getting his first glimpse of the Holy
City from Salutation Hill, saw before him much the same sight as the
tourist of to-day may look upon from the same spot. Three miles away a
hill crowned with white-walled buildings, many towers, gilded domes and
spires topped with Cross-and-Crescent; outside the wall that encircles
this hill, groups of buildings, large and small; open fields,
trees--singly, in rows, clumps and thickets--separate group from group;
ever and anon above the many hued roofs reach belfries, spires,
steeples, domes and minarets innumerable. Beyond, to right and left, the
scene repeats itself until the bright coloured buildings become
indistinguishable from the masses of verdure and all merge in the haze
of the plains east and west, or the faint outline of forest to the
north.
Long ago the tremendous extent of this town, apparently without limit,
amazed strangers no less than the richness and multitude of its
buildings filled pilgrims with awe and reverence. To the tourist to-day
it is as a vision of magnificent splendour and brilliance, for seen in
the clear sunlight of a summer day Moscow has beauty and brightness no
other city possesses. Long lines of ivory whiteness capped with vivid
green or flushed with carmine and ruby; great globes of deepest blue,
patches of purple and dashes of aquamarine; many gleaming domes of gold,
glowing halos of burnished copper, dazzling points of glistening
silver--such make Moscow at sunset like part of a rainbow streaked with
lightning and thickly bedizened with great gems.
Intense colours, sharp contrasts characterise Moscow. The extravagances
of design and colouring, unconcealable even in the general prospect, are
obvious on closer inspection. The stranger arriving by railway gets no
bird's-eye view of the town; but on his way from the station in the
suburbs towards the central town sees the painted roofs, coloured walls,
pretentious pillars, cupolas with golden stars, strange towers,
fantastic gates, immense buildings, tiny cottages, magnificent spaces,
narrow winding streets; irregularities and incongruities so many that
Moscow first, and most lastingly, impresses by its _bizarrerie_.
With fuller acquaintance the diversity of style appears in keeping with
the spirit of the place, and seeming incongruities are softened, or
redeemed, by originality of design or execution. The buildings of Moscow
are multiform, but there is dissimilarity rather than contrariety; the
usual elsewhere is the unconventional here, and conformity is attained
by each being unlike all others. An early traveller wrote: "One might
imagine all the states of Europe and Asia had sent a building by way of
representation to Moscow," and in a certain sense this is still true.
But it would be incorrect to assume, therefore, that cosmopolitanism is
a dominant trait. The very reverse is the fact. Moscow is essentially
Russian, and though there is abundant evidence of borrowing from Greece,
Italy and Byzantium; from Moor, Goth and Mongol; of appropriation of
classic, mediæval and renaissance methods, the prevalent style seems to
be not exactly the combination of any so much as the outcome of all. Not
that indigenous forms are wanting, but their elemental quality is
obscured by the wondrous versatility and adaptability of the artists.
The result is as confusing as though an author in writing out his
original ideas made constant random use of different alphabets in each
word.
This method, so characteristic of Russia, is perplexing rather than
intricate, but he would be very learned or foolhardy who, acting on the
rule that to see the house is to know the inmates, if shown Moscow
should at once predicate the character of its inhabitants.
Yet more than most towns Moscow reflects the life history of its people;
whatever there is of beauty, of strength, of individuality, is the
result of human intelligence, experience and effort. No town of like
importance owes so little to nature, so much to man. And the dominant
tone is religious; religious feeling has inspired the noblest efforts,
ecclesiastical influence has conserved such oneness of purpose as Moscow
manifests. Withal there is strong individualism, both clerical and
secular.
Paradoxical as Moscow is, it is in the highest degree interesting. If no
one object can be pointed to as typical of race or period, no public
work shown as the result of persistent policy or genius of peculiar
citizenship, Moscow in its entirety demonstrates the development of a
people. Even the opposing principles of diffusion and cohesion, and the
parts they have served in the history of this race, are so unmistakably
expressed that the sight-seer, even, feels that in Moscow, most surely,
must be found the key not only to the history of Russia, but also to the
character of men who have conquered and hold the largest part of two
continents.
Moscow, the town that has cradled and nursed a mighty nation, does not
lack story; but its story comprises much of the early history of the
empire subsequently evolved, and consequently much that may be
considered foreign to the city itself must be stated if the tale is to
be complete, or even comprehensible by those to whom the ancient history
of Russia is unknown.
* * * * *
To begin at the beginning. European Russia is an immense plain, its
centre elevated scarcely three hundred feet above sea-level; the hills,
few, low and unimportant. Lakes are plentiful, and great rivers with
many ramifications flow slowly by tortuous channels--mostly towards the
north-west or the south-east. Large tracts of forest and marsh in the
centre terminate with frozen wastes to the north, and merge with rough,
sandy pastures on the south.
At various periods, Europe has been invaded and peopled by different
races from the east, and the last of these migrants, the Slavs, for the
most part took the direction of the great water-ways of Russia, that is,
from the south-east towards the north-west. In addition to their nomadic
habit, various causes, amongst which must be counted internecine
warfare, led to the dispersion of the Slavs, whilst effective occupation
by earlier migrants and the determined resistance of aboriginal races
checked their progress in some directions. The Scythian branch of the
Slav race settled on the Don about 400 B.C. but was gradually driven
from the shores of the Black Sea by the Greek colonists of Miletus.
These colonies were taken by the Romans later, and about 300 A.D. the
Slavs again asserted their dominion there for a period. Other branches
of the Slav race and wilder races from Asia pressed westward, laying the
country waste. Huns, Turks, Goths, Bolgars, Magyars, Polovtsi,
Pechenegians and others, at different times, drove Slavs of pastoral
habit aside from their path. In the fifth century Slavs established
themselves on the Dnieper at Kief and at Novgorod on the Ilmen, where
they progressed and became civilised. In the seventh century they were
once more on the shores of the Black Sea in the south, and in the north
Novgorod was a thriving commercial centre.
The Slav republics suffered at the hands of Asiatics on the south, and
from the depredations of vikings on the north; moreover there were
internal dissensions. In A.D. 864, Rurik, a Varoeger prince--the same
who, it is believed, laid waste the maritime provinces of France in 850
and in 851 entered the Thames with 300 sail and pillaged
Canterbury--made himself master of the northern republic, took up his
residence at Novgorod and founded a dynasty which lasted 700 years.
There is a legend to the effect that his coming was at the invitation of
the Slavs, who sought his aid and sovereignty, but there can be no doubt
it was as a conqueror that Rurik came and established his race in
Russia. Some of his followers, led by Askold and Dyr, sought fortune and
conquest further south. These became masters of Kief, pressed on to
Constantinople in 200 ships, embraced Christianity and returned to Kief,
intending there to found a separate kingdom and dynasty. After the death
of Rurik, his son Igor, a minor, succeeded; his uncle, Oleg, as regent,
went to Kief; there he treacherously killed the two usurping leaders,
took possession of the city and, appointing Igor to the throne,
determined that Kief should be the "mother of Russian towns." The
people were then pagans, and the Northmen kept to the practices of their
ancestors until about 955, when Olga was regent; she visited
Constantinople and was there baptised into the Christian faith. Some
thirty years later, Vladimir, the seventh in descent from Rurik,
ascended the throne, and during his reign the Christian religion was
generally adopted throughout his realm. Kief then became closely
associated with Constantinople, its connection with the Byzantine empire
being both ecclesiastical and commercial. Novgorod, on the other hand,
remained in closer touch with the west, supplying the Northmen with the
wares of Araby and Ind that reached Russia by way of the Volga. Otther,
the Scandinavian founder of Tver, where the Tmak joins the Volga north
of Moscow, was a great trader and traveller; at one time going as far
east as Perm on the Kama (Biarmaland), at another to England--where he
gave King Alfred particulars of the fairs in the east, and the methods
of trading with Asian merchants.
In the Historical Museum of Moscow is a well arranged collection of
prehistoric antiquities found in the empire. There is nothing among the
stone implements to show that the earliest races in Russia in any way
differed in habit from those of the same era occupying western Europe
and the British Isles. The most ancient of the relics (Rooms I., II.)
were found with bones of the mammoth in the district of Murom in
Vladimir, and at Kostenki near Voronesh. Some ear-rings and a bracelet
of twisted silver were found in the Kremlin, and a few other early
remains when excavating for the foundations of the new cathedral, but
these trifles are not evidence of early occupation, since they may have
been left by travellers along the waterways.
The frescoes are fanciful representations of supposed incidents in the
life of the early inhabitants, and the models of tumuli, tombs, dolmens,
cromlechs and the like, enable one to picture some part of the rude life
of the people. Particularly deserving notice are the models of the
dwellings of different races found in Russia: in many the living room is
raised well above the ground. It was on the first-floor that the
mediæval Muscovites lived; it is still the _bel-étage_, and preferred by
all.
The picture by Semiradski representing the funeral rites of the Bolgars
has the warrant of history. On the death of a chief of this tribe, the
remains were placed in a boat on a pile of wood; horses, cattle, slaves,
were slain and added; the wife, or a maid offering herself a sacrifice,
was fêted for a time, then placed in the boat, and as soon as her
attendants bade her farewell the pyre was fired, and subsequently a
mound raised over the ashes.
The stone idols, remarkable in their likeness to each other, are from
all parts of Russia; a similar one is to be seen at Kuntsevo, near
Moscow, but both the "babas," as they are called, and pre-christian
crosses, are more common in the south and east of Russia than in
Muscovy.
To the little that this Historical Collection tells of the early Slavs
may be added such facts as ancient chroniclers have recorded. The
Russians lived together in communities governed by elected or hereditary
elders; reared cattle and farmed bees; they were nomadic, idolatrous,
hospitable and fond of fermented liquors.
Some writers dispute, disregard, or belittle the Varangian dominion in
Russia; contending that the Varoegers themselves were Slavs, were
closely akin to them, or were quickly absorbed by them. To the contrary
it is urged that Rurik and his followers possessed qualities peculiar
to the Northmen; that his kingdom in Russia resembled other Scandinavian
colonies, and that certain customs he introduced were foreign to Slav
habits. Vladimir, a direct descendant of Rurik, conquered Poland; his
son, Yaroslaf, both on account of his warlike achievements and the
splendour in which he lived, was respected throughout Europe. His
daughters married into the reigning houses of France, Hungary and
Norway; a daughter of Vsevolod married Henry IV. of Germany; Vladimir,
the grandson of Yaroslaf, married Gyda, the daughter of Harold II. King
of England; their son, Mstislaf, married Christina, daughter of the King
of Sweden. Such a close connection between the Scandinavian and Russian
courts is not likely to have obtained if the members belonged to
different races. Scandinavian conquerors to some extent mixed with the
peoples whose territory they occupied; usually they married their own
race. They fought with each other on matters of precedence and
succession; they thought much of personal valour and honour, and lived
in the present with little regard to dynasty. They, as little as the
Slavs to-day, would pay tribute to suzerains.
Doubtless the Varangian leaders and their military companions,
subsequently known as the _drujni_ of the Russian princes, gave to the
Slav character love of enterprise and power to initiate--traits which
have always distinguished Russian nobles from the peasantry. Again, the
"Russkaia Pravda" of the tenth century is contemporary with and akin to
"Knut's Code," which the English usually, but wrongly, attribute to King
Alfred. One other point tells in favour of Scandinavian dominion: the
freedom accorded to women and the high position some of them took in the
state. But their privileges and influence declined with the ascendency
of the Slav, and the seclusion of women in the Asiatic manner
subsequently obtained in Moscow and lasted there until the days of Peter
the Great.
The Northmen introduced into Russia their system of succession, the
_odelsret_ that still prevails in Norway. The descendants of Rurik, with
their military comrades, fought against each other for the throne of
Kief, or the inheritance of other possessions. As with each succeeding
generation the princely family multiplied, the country was rent with
dissensions. Now the ruler of Kief, then he of Novgorod became
paramount; in 1158 the reigning prince of Vladimir succeeded, and, for
the time, Kief became of second importance. The history of Russia during
the tenth and succeeding centuries is a story of strife and disaster.
Wars, with varying success, against Poles, Swedes, Lithuanians, and the
predatory tribes on the south and east; fires, famine, pestilence,
succeeded each other and re-occurred. In 1124 Kief, the opulent and
sacred city, was destroyed by fire; some years later Novgorod was
depopulated by famine; robbers exacted blackmail from voyagers on the
great waterways; trade decayed. In 1224 the Russians made common cause
with their enemy the Polovtsi to repel an invasion of Tartars; they were
beaten and Kief fell--50,000 of its inhabitants being put to the sword.
Thirteen years later a second invasion of the Tartars resulted in the
fall of Vladimir and the subjection of southern and eastern Russia to
Mongol rule. Livonians, Swedes and Danes attacked Novgorod, but were
repulsed. Pressed on these sides the Russians could extend only towards
the inhospitable north. In these times and with this environment Moscow
was founded, and nursed; became a rallying point for the Slav race; grew
strong and rich; and, by the genius of its rulers, dominated Russia.
Slowly but surely the Scandinavian element was absorbed; with Ivan I.
(1328-1341) the time of transition practically ended. A new policy of
aggrandisement was adopted and the Muscovite was evolved from the Slav
race. Round Moscow, subject to the Tartar yoke, the people became
patient and resigned; born to endure bad fortune, they could profit by
good. The princes of Moscow gained their ends by intrigue, by
corruption, by the purchase of consciences, by servility to the Tartar
Khans, by perfidy to their equals, by murder and treachery. "Politic and
persevering, prudent and pitiless, it is their honour to have created
the living germ which became great Russia."
CHAPTER II
_Origin and Early History_
"Away in the depths of the primeval forest, where one heard the low
chanting of the solitary hermit in his retreat, arises the glorious
Kremlin of Moscow town."
M. DMITRIEV.
It is generally believed that the word Moscow is of Finnish origin; in
an old dialect _kva_ means water, the exact significance of _Mos_ is
undecided, probably Moskva implies "the-way," simply--the water-route to
some trading point reached by this river from the Volga and Oka. It was
the name by which the river was known, and from time immemorial there
have been villages on the banks of the stream near the present town of
Moscow.
In the ninth century the hill which the Kremlin now covers was virgin
forest. According to tradition Bookal, a hermit, was living there in
882, when Oleg, on his return to Novgorod from Kief, paused there and
laid the first stone of the city. Sulkhovski, who had access to the
archives of Moscow prior to their removal on the French invasion,
asserts that there was documentary proof of this then in existence, but
his statement lacks confirmation.
The chroniclers make no mention of Moscow until 1147. Between the
foundation of the Rurik dynasty and this date the dominion of the
Northmen had extended, and, divided and subdivided as generation
succeeded generation, was split up into many districts, each ruled by a
descendant of Rurik. These princes all claimed kinship, admitted the
rights of their elders and the rule of the head of the house in Kief. In
addition to the residences of the princes, their _drujni_, that is "war
companions" or friends, had "halls," and held, subject to their prince,
one or more villages. In the twelfth century one Stephen Kutchko had his
hall near the Chisty Prud in Moscow, and the villages between the Moskva
and the Yauza, with others, were within his lordship.
In 1147 Yuri Dolgoruki, the Prince of Suzdal, in whose country Moscow
was situated, agreed to meet his kinsmen Sviatoslaf and Oleg of Novgorod
on the banks of the Moskva river, and thither they came with their
_drujni_, and others, all of whom were so sumptuously entertained by
Yuri, that the fame of Moscow and of Yuri was noised abroad.
As the river Moskva was a highway for traffic between Suzdal, Vladimir
and the Volga in the east, with Smolensk in the west and Kief in the
south, the villages on its banks were important. The hill on which the
Kremlin stands appeared to Yuri a point of vantage, and, as it was near
the boundary of his territory, he there constructed a fortress and also
built, or rebuilt or enlarged, the church which served for the
inhabitants of the village of Kutchkovo hard by, and for those of other
villages in the neighbourhood.
All chroniclers agree that Yuri was the first to make a stronghold of
the hill on the Moskva; most state further that he put to death Stephen
Kutchko, but attribute this act to different causes. One story has it
that Yuri wished to wed the wife of Stephen, so put him out of the way.
As Yuri was but recently married to a kinswoman of Mstislaf, and so
allied to the dominant house in Novgorod, this story is improbable.
Another legend is to the effect that Kutchko, proud
[Illustration: THE KREMLIN, FROM THE MOSKVA]
of his village, refused due homage to his superior lord, and so
suffered; and another that a village was taken from Kutchko to endow
Andrew Bogoloobski, a son of Yuri's wedded to the daughter of a
neighbouring boyard, whence the trouble. This last story is supported by
the fact that later the sons of the killed Kutchko conspired against the
enriched Andrew Bogoloobski; one was killed in attacking him, whilst the
other succeeded in avenging a wrong done. Later historians are of
opinion that Kutchko was an interloper from Black Russia or Podolia,
trespassing on the territory of Yuri, who treated him as a usurper.
It was in 1156 that Moscow became a town--just a cluster of dwellings on
the Kremlin hill with a fence extending from the narrow stream
Neglinnaia (now a covered sewer under the Alexander Gardens), from the
Troitski Gate to the Moskva at, or near, the Tainitski Gate. The chief
house was built on the spot now covered by the Orujnia Palata. A church,
_Spass na Boru_, St Saviour of the Pines, is supposed to have existed
where the church of that name, the oldest building in the Kremlin, now
stands. Another church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, once existed
nearer the foot of the hill, and its altar was removed to the chapel
adjoining the Borovitski Gate when a later erection was demolished. Both
of these churches were known as "In the Wood," and the name still
preserves the memory of the thick forest that once covered the hill, and
probably extended far and near on both sides of the Moskva.
The founder of Moscow, Kniaz Yuri Dolgoruki Vladimirovich, or, as the
English call him, Prince George Long-ith'-arm, Vladimir's son, was a son
of that Prince of Kief who married Gyda, the daughter of Harold II. of
England. Yuri, like his father, was a man of great energy and did much
to strengthen and improve the towns within his territory. He is
described as "above the middle height, stout, fair complexioned, with a
large nose, long and crooked; his chin small; a great lover of women,
sweet things and liquor; great at merry-makings, and not backward in
war."
For a century or more Moscow remained in obscurity, an insignificant
appanage of the younger sons of the princes of Suzdal. It was long
before any of the reigning house made it a place of residence. In the
meantime, a stronghold, it attracted traders and the attention of
enemies. Gleb of Riazan has the distinction of being the first to set
fire to the town, but the earliest enemy of importance was the Tartar.
In 1224 the Golden Horde defeated the Slavs in South Russia, destroyed
Kief, marched towards Novgorod Sverski, then, "without ostensible
reason," returned to Bokhara, to the camp of their leader, Khingiz Khan.
In 1237 Baati, a grandson of Khingiz, crossed the Volga and laid the
country waste. On the march of this horde westward Moscow was burnt;
Vladimir was first taken. There the princess and other persons of
distinction took refuge in a church, where they were burnt alive. Yuri
II., the reigning prince, absent at the time, then attempted revenge and
was slain in battle. There was little resistance; the Tartars subdued
many towns and reduced whole provinces; marched within sixty miles of
Novgorod Sverski, then again "without ostensible cause" turned eastward
and left Russia.
The Tartar was not driven from his own country; he raided because it was
his nature so to do. The object of these early incursions, as of
subsequent raids into Russian territory, was "to get stores of captives,
both boys and girls, whom they sell to the Turks and other neighbouring
Mahometan countries." Rich towns, therefore, could buy the Tartar off; a
fact
[Illustration: DANILOVSKI MONASTYR]
which influenced the later policy of the Muscovites. Poor towns and
ill-protected districts were, until a comparatively recent period,
liable to "slave-raids" from Tartars and others. The Sultan Ahmed I. of
Constantinople asked of Osman, his eldest son and heir, "My Osman, wilt
thou conquer Crete for me?" "What have I to do with Crete? I will
conquer the land of the white Russian girls," answered the boy. And as
he thought to do, so many of his race did. It was not until the present
century that the exchange of prisoners of war became the practice of
Turks and Russians. The Tartars, with their enormous crowd of captives,
could not winter in Russia, hence their timely withdrawal "without
ostensible cause" on several occasions.
Moscow was soon rebuilt after this Tartar invasion. A few years later
Michael Khorobrit, a brother of the successful Alexander Nevski, ruler
of Novgorod, succeeded to Moscow, and became its first actual prince;
but during the war the Lithuanians commenced against Novgorod in 1242,
Michael was killed. Tradition has it that this Michael was the builder
of the first cathedral of the Archangel in the Kremlin.
He was succeeded in Moscow by Daniel, the fourth son of Alexander
Nevski, and thenceforward the fortunes of Novgorod and Moscow were more
in common. Moscow was chief of the few villages Daniel received as his
portion. He made the most of it. In 1293 the Tartars, under Dudenia,
fired the town and destroyed the churches, monastery, and all buildings
on the Kremlin hill. Daniel set energetically to work to build a larger
and stronger town. He re-erected the church Spass na Boru; built the
cathedral of the Archangel, and that of the Annunciation; founded the
Danilof monastery, and incorporated the one known as Krutitski. He so
added to the town that it quickly became prosperous, and when he died in
1303 his son, George, succeeded to a position of wealth and power.
Daniel was of the line of Rurik, and from him were descended the
subsequently mighty race of Moscow Tsars. George acquired Mojaisk; then
began a struggle with Tver, which continued from father to son, lasted
eighty years. The quarrel arose from a disputed succession. Andrew,
Prince of Suzdal, died in 1304; George of Moscow, his nephew, wished to
succeed him. His right to do so was questioned by Michael of Tver, who
was cousin-german of the deceased. Michael, the eldest, was accepted by
the boyars, and his election was confirmed by the Tartars, who claimed
the right of appointing the sovereign. George then caused himself to be
recognised as a Prince of Novgorod, and still disputed. Michael besieged
him in Moscow, and for a time there was peace. Then George again
attempted to obtain Tver, and a second time he was forced to take refuge
in Moscow, which was again besieged by Michael.
Tokhta, Khan of the Golden Horde of Tartars on the Volga, died; he was
succeeded by Usbek, to whom George of Moscow at once repaired to do
homage and obtain favours. He so represented affairs to Usbek that he
obtained from him his sister Kontchaka in marriage, and was adjudged
rightful successor to Andrew of Suzdal. George returned to Russia
accompanied by a Mongol army under a _baskak_, one Kavgadi. The boyards
still supported Michael, who was a great fighter. Michael, refusing to
submit to Kavgadi, was accused of having drawn sword against an envoy of
the Khan, and later, when Kontchaka died, of having poisoned her. To
arrange this matter Michael, busy in defending his province against
other enemies, sent his twelve-year old son to the Horde; George went
himself and compassed the fall of his rival. The Khan reluctantly
complied with George's request for a sentence of death upon Michael; it
was no sooner granted than George hastened away to give it effect, and
Michael was done to death in his tent by George's servants. Michael
became a saint; George the all-powerful ruler of Moscow, Suzdal and
Novgorod.
Dmitri, of the "terrible eyes," son of Michael, succeeded to Tver and
determined upon revenge. When at last he met George of Moscow he slew
him, but for thus going against his superior prince was himself put to
death, and his brother, Alexander, succeeded him in Vladimir in 1325.
Such is the story of the little wooden town. Its rulers--with, possibly,
the exception of Daniel--regarded it merely as a property, the
possession of which might lead to the acquisition of a more important
capital. It flourished because it was in the midst of a country that was
self-supporting, as well as being conveniently situated as a mart for
the interchange of products from north and south, east and west. Its
disasters were such as other towns suffered; its advantages of site they
did not possess.
CHAPTER III
_Moscow under the Mongols_
"At Sara, in the lande of Tartarie,
There dwelled a king who werryed Russie."
CHAUCER--_Story of Cambuscan bold._
The first real prince of Moscow was Ivan I., surnamed "Kalita" (the
Purser), who of his own right inherited Moscow from his father, Daniel,
and by the grace of the Khan, was also Grand Prince of Vladimir in
succession to his brother George. He made alliances, matrimonial and
other, for himself and his, so adding to his possessions, and by
purchase acquiring also Uglitch, Galitch and Bielozersk. Like his
brother he kept on good terms with the Khan. At the command of Usbek he
made war on Tver, Novgorod and Pskov. The Tartar Horde and the
Muscovites fought in concert against Russian enemies. When Tver rose
against the Tartar, Ivan, with Moscow, was on the side of the Mongols.
When Usbek ordered him to produce Alexander of Tver, who was a fugitive
in Pskov, Ivan induced the metropolitan to interdict Alexander and the
Pskovians--thus a Christian prince and people were excommunicated by
their own kin at the behest of Tartars.
Ivan "Kalita," in his turn, served the church well. Peter, the
metropolitan of Vladimir, had often resided in Moscow; Theognistus lived
there almost constantly; and for Ivan, Vladimir was only the town in
which he had been crowned. It was in Moscow that he lived and for
Moscow he worked. In order to make it attractive to the metropolitan and
to obtain for it the religious supremacy which had first belonged to
Kiev, then to Vladimir, he built magnificent churches--notably that of
the Assumption (Uspenski Sober)--and was practically successful in so
far that Moscow had the prestige of a metropolis; but Vladimir remained
the legal capital, and as such was recognised by the Khans.
Ivan surrounded the hill with a wall of oak in place of the deal fence
formerly its sole protection, and he gave to the enclosure the Tartar
name of "Kreml" or fortress. This then included his own dwelling; the
cathedrals of the Assumption, of the Annunciation and of the Archangel
Michael; the churches of _Spass na Boru_ and of St John the Baptist; as
also the dwellings of his _drujni_, followers and military companions.
It was at his instigation too, that Sergius founded the Troitsa
monastery in order to rival the Pecherskoi monastery and catacombs of
Kiev. Ivan knew well the power of money and was free in using it; he was
cunning, unscrupulous and discerning. He demanded and obtained from
Novgorod more than he intended to pay on her behalf to Usbek, and was
everywhere successful as farmer-general of taxes and imposts made on
Russia by the Horde. When he died, in 1341, he ordered that Moscow
should not be divided, and he left by far the largest portion of his
possessions to his son Simeon, surnamed "The Proud."
Simeon, most submissive before the Khan, bought over the horde by using
his father's treasure. To his brothers he was haughty and overbearing.
As intermediary between the Tartars and Russian states he enjoyed
privileges denied to his seniors, and arrogated to himself the title and
position of "Prince of all the Russias." He continued his father's
policy in Moscow, engaging Greek artists to ornament the cathedrals, and
many native workmen to enlarge and improve the buildings within the
Kremlin, spending upon Moscow the tribute he exacted from Novgorod and
other towns.
Ivan II. who succeeded him, 1353, was of quite another sort. Gentle,
pacific, lovable--all outraged him; he would have lost his throne had
not the church supported him loyally. Moris, a monk, quelled a revolt; a
fire destroyed the Kremlin; when he died the succession to the title of
Grand Duke, which his three predecessors had made such efforts to keep
in the house of Moscow, passed to their kinsmen at Suzdal.
Alexis, the metropolitan, saved the supremacy of Moscow. After crowning
Dmitri at Vladimir he returned to Moscow to take charge of the children
of Ivan II. and refused to leave the town. Dmitri was in his ninth year
when he succeeded his father in Moscow, and remained in the tutelage of
the church for many years. It was to the prompting of Alexis even more
than to that of his own kinsmen that the breach of the Tartar alliance
is due. Dmitri availed himself of a division in the Tartar horde to
question the supremacy of either leader. Later he had the courage to
visit Mamai--who was then the more powerful--and had the good luck to
get back alive. Seven years later he won a battle against Mamai, in
Riazan.
In 1635 a fire on All Saints' Day destroyed the Kremlin wall and, a
storm raging at the time, Moscow was almost in ruins. In 1367 the
Kremlin was surrounded with a new wall--of masonry--and in the following
year this was put to the test when an attack was made on Moscow by some
bands of pagan Lithuanians under Olgerd, his brother Kistut and his
subsequently famous nephew Vitovt. "Olgerd camped before the walls,
pillaged the churches and monasteries in the neighbourhood, but did not
assault the Kremlin, the walls of which frightened him." Two years later
he returned to the attack, but his enterprise was unsuccessful. In the
meantime Mamai, the Tartar leader, had matured his scheme of revenge. In
1380 he had collected his forces and was marching on Moscow when Dmitri,
with the aid of all the neighbouring princes, got together an immense
army and determined to give battle.
The confederate troops gathered in the Kremlin included contingents
supplied by the princes of Rostov, Bielozersk and Yaroslaf, and the
boyards of Vladimir, Suzdal, Uglitch, Serpukhov, Dmitrov, Mojaisk and
other towns. After service in the cathedral they left by the Frolovski
(Spasski) Nikolski and other gates in the east wall, escorted by the
clergy with crucifixes and miracle-working _ikons_, the troops marching
behind a black standard on which was painted a portrait of the Saviour
on a nimbus of gold.
Dmitri before advancing against the Tartars went to St Sergius at the
Troitsa monastery to ask his blessing, and was there comforted with a
prophecy of victory. More, Sergius sent two monks, Osliabia and
Peresvet, to encourage the Muscovites. They wore a cross on their cowls
and went into the thick of the battle. Peresvet was found dead on the
field tightly grasping a Patsinak giant who had slain him. The armies
met at Kulikovo on the Don, where Dmitri with his 150,000 men after a
hard fight obtained the victory, and Mamai fled. The battle was really
won by the troops of Vladimir and Dmitri of Volhynia, whose men remained
in ambush until the best moment for attack came.
With historians Dmitri, who, badly wounded, was found in a swoon after
the battle, is the hero of the day, and he added the name of Donskoi to
commemorate the victory. Sophronius, a priest of Riazan, who wrote an
epic of the battle, awards chief honours to the monks, and makes St
Sergius, through them, support the courage of Dmitri at critical stages.
Though Mamai was beaten by Dmitri, he fought again before he fell into
the hands of his rival Tamerlane, who put him to death. Then Tamerlane
sent an envoy to Dmitri acquainting him with the fact that their common
enemy had been vanquished and calling upon him and all Russian princes
to present themselves to him and make their homage to the Horde.
Dmitri failed to comply, and when the Tartars advanced into his
territory he tried to raise an army to oppose them. The princes who had
promised him support failed to afford it, and Dmitri, unable to get
40,000 men together, was still waiting reinforcements at Kostroma when
the Tartars under Tokhtamysh, a descendant of Khingis Khan, appeared
before the walls of Moscow.
The defence of the Kremlin was in the hands of a Lithuanian, Ostei, and
the Tartar attack was repulsed; boiling water being thrown from the
towers; stones and baulks of timber dropped from the walls upon the
assailants in the ditch. For three days the Tartars tried to effect an
entrance by force. Then Tokhtamysh stated that it was not with the
people of Moscow the Tartars were at war, but only with their prince and
his companions, inviting those who had sought refuge in the Kremlin to
come out and occupy their dwellings where they would not be molested.
The besieged believed him, and, laden with presents and preceded by the
clergy, they went out of the Kremlin to meet the enemy as friends. The
Tartars at once fell upon them, killed Ostei and the other leaders, and
forced a way into the fortress. The defenders were demoralised, "they
cried out like feeble women and tore their hair, making no attempt even
to save themselves. The Tartars slew without mercy; 24,000 perished.
They broke into the churches and treasuries, pillaged everywhere, and
burned a mass of books, papers and whatever they could not otherwise
destroy; not a house was left standing save the few built of stone."
After Tokhtamysh withdrew Dmitri returned and was horrified at the ruin
wrought. He is said to have repented of his victory over the Tartars at
Kulikovo, a barren victory after this desolation, and to have called out
"Our fathers who never triumphed over Tartars were less unhappy than
we."
Moscow was quickly rebuilt. When Dmitri died in 1389 the principality
was the largest and most thriving of the states in the north-east of
Russia. As the Horde withdrew the "Good companions" from Novgorod
devastated the country round, but Vladimir and Moscow alike in having a
Kremlin on a hill, were far enough away from the Volga to escape the
attention of these free-booters from the north-west.
Vasili, the son of Dmitri Donskoi, succeeded his father, and twice saw
his territory invaded by the Horde. In 1392 he bought a _iarlikh_ of the
Tartars freeing to him Moscow, Nijni and Suzdal. In 1395, to escape an
inroad of the Tartars, the celebrated ikon of the Virgin (see
Frontispiece) was brought from Vladimir to Moscow, but the Tartars did
not venture so far. This time they stopped at Eletz-on-the-Don, pillaged
Azov--where much Egyptian, Venetian, Genoese, Biscayan and other
merchandise was warehoused--and returned to Tartary sacking Sarai and
Astrakhan on their way thither.
During these turbulent times Moscow increased in importance. The two
years of peace Dmitri secured after his victory at Kulikovo he used to
strengthen the defences. Already, in 1637, he had substituted a wall of
masonry for the old wood rampart round the Kremlin; now handsome gates
with towers were added. Its finest church at this period was that of the
Transfiguration, more usually styled "Spass na Boru," which, built in
stone in 1330, had been considerably enlarged and a monastery attached;
there were the cells in or near the church building, vaults below it for
secreting treasure, a hospital for the infirm, and a cemetery for the
princes, but their tombs were subsequently transferred to the
Archangelski Sobor.
Within the Kremlin, or near by, were the monasteries of Chudof
(Miracles), Vossnesenski (Ascension), Bogoyavlenni (Epiphany),
Rojdestvenski (Nativity), St Alexis, St Peter the Apostle, of Daniel,
Simon, and Spasso-Preobrajenni (the Transfiguration). To commemorate the
withdrawal of Tamerlane, Vasili founded the monastery of the Sretenka
(Meeting). He made a fosse across the town from the field of Kuchko to
the river Moskva, and later surrounded the town with a stone wall.
A strong place now; the lesser nobles, cadets of the house of Rurik,
took up their residence in Moscow and shared its fortune.
In 1408 the Lithuanians aided by the Tartars laid siege to Moscow, a
siege which is memorable from the fact that cannons were then first used
in its defence, though Mamai had brought Genoese gunners against Dmitri
twenty years earlier. Ediger led the assault, and, though his forces had
to retreat, the boyards of Moscow paid to him 3000 roubles as a war
indemnity; the Monastery of St Sergius at Troitsa was burned, the
surrounding country pillaged and the peasants ruthlessly slaughtered.
It cannot be said that the first Vasili did much for Moscow. He was in
retreat at Kostroma when the inhabitants of the town, led by "Vladimir
the Brave," successfully defended it; both pestilence and famine were
frequent during his reign of thirty-six years, and at his death the
succession was disputed.
In 1431 Yuri attempted to revert to the ancient custom of succession of
the eldest, and claimed the throne from Vasili II., the son of Vasili I.
To avoid war it was agreed to refer the matter to the Horde for
settlement. Vsevoloshski, a boyard of Moscow, advanced the most potent
argument on behalf of Vasili. "My Lord Tsar," he said to Ulu Mahomet,
"let me speak, me, the slave of the Grand Prince. My master prays for
the throne, which is thy property, having no other title but thy
protection, thy investiture and thy _iarlikh_. Thou art master and can
dispose of it at thy pleasure. My lord, the Prince Yuri Dmitrovich, my
master's uncle, claims the throne of the Grand Prince by the act and
will of his father, but not as a favour from the all powerful." This
flattery had a suitable reward; the Khan appointed Vasili to the throne,
and ordered Yuri to lead his nephew's horse by the bridle.
Vasili II. was crowned at Moscow, not at Vladimir, and the supremacy of
Moscow was admitted. Vasili was to have married a daughter of
Vsevoloshski, but instead married a grand-daughter of Vladimir the
Brave, the defender of Moscow. The offended boyard went over to the side
of Yuri and fanned his resentment. Yuri's two sons, Vasili, the
squint-eyed, and Chemiaki were present at the marriage festivities of
Vasili, whose mother, the Princess Sophia, seeing round the waist of the
young Vasili a belt of gold that had belonged to Dmitri Donskoi, there
and then seized it from him. The brothers took umbrage at this open
affront; forthwith they
[Illustration: SPASS NA BORU (ST SAVIOUR'S IN THE WOOD)]
left Moscow and induced their father to take up arms.
At Kostroma, Vasili II. fell into the power of Yuri, who spared his life
and gave him Kostroma as an appanage, betaking himself to Moscow.
Thereupon the inhabitants of Moscow deserted the town and took up
residence with their prince in Kostroma. Owing to the popularity of
Vasili II., Yuri was powerless and sent to him at Kostroma inviting him
to return to his own. On his return the people crowded round him "like
bees round their queen." Later, Vasili, the squint-eyed, fell into the
hands of Vasili II., who had his eyes put out; then at once repenting
the act, set free his brother Chemiaki, and war again broke out between
them. Chemiaki with a host of free lances "good companions" and such men
as he could get together besieged Moscow. Then in came the Tartar horde
and Vasili could get but 15,000 men together to oppose them. He made a
valiant struggle, but, wounded in fifteen places, he was taken prisoner
to Kazan.
Moscow was in despair: Tver insulted her and Chemiaki intrigued to get
himself made prince. Then the Khan suddenly agreed to liberate Vasili
II. for a small ransom, and soon the prince was in his capital again. He
went forthwith to Troitsa to return thanks for his escape. During his
absence, Chemiaki surprised the Kremlin and there captured the wife and
mother of Vasili and took all the treasure. Hurrying after Vasili to
Troitsa, he made him prisoner, brought him back to Moscow, and in 1446
put out his eyes in revenge for the like act upon his brother Vasili.
Chemiaki, some time afterwards, left Moscow to go against the Tartars;
the town revolted during his absence and Vasili was once more restored
to the throne, which as "Vasili the Blind" he held until his death in
1462.
It is not easy to account for the popularity of Vasili II.; possibly the
detestation in which Chemiaki was held made the mild virtues of Vasili
more prominent; for in the language of the people, a "judgment of
Chemiaki" is, proverbially, tantamount to a crying wrong.
Events outside Russia strengthened the supremacy of Moscow. At the
Council of Florence (1439) Pope Eugene suggested the union of the
eastern and western churches, and amongst the many representatives of
the eastern church present Isidor, the metropolitan of Moscow, agreed to
the proposal and signed the act of union. How Mark, Bishop of Ephesus,
protested, and at last carried the Greeks with him in repudiating the
union, is no part of this history. Isidor having accepted, introduced
the Latin cross, made use of the name of the Pope in the services and so
astonished the Russians that Vasili interfered. He reproached Isidor for
his bad faith, and in dismay the prelate fled to Rome. In 1453 Mahomet
II. entered Constantinople. There was no longer a Christian emperor of
the east, and Moscow became the heir of Constantinople and the
metropolis of orthodoxy. Ivan, the artist-monk of Constantinople,
brought to Moscow such of the holy relics as he could save, and, what is
more, by his own genius impressed upon the Muscovite priesthood a love
of culture to which Moscow had hitherto been a stranger.
Ivan III., styled "The Uniter of Russia," was twenty-two years of age
when, in 1462, he succeeded his father Vasili, the Blind. He continued
the policy of the princes of Moscow and early obtained a success against
the Tartars of Kazan. In 1472 he married Sophia, a daughter of Thomas
Paleologus, a brother of the last emperor of Byzantium, and this union,
with a member of the race that had so long held sway over all orthodox
Christianity, greatly influenced his policy. His wife, less patient than
the Russians, found the Mongol yoke unbearable. "How long am I to be the
slave of Tartars?" she would ask, and there is little doubt that it is
to her urging that Ivan became aggressive. He was not personally
courageous, preferring to remain in Moscow, and allow his people to
fight on the frontiers of Russia; when forced into the field, his method
was to avoid giving battle and wear out the enemy with delays, retreats,
and puzzling, irritating marches and counter-marches.
In 1472 he conquered Perm; in 1475 he was successful against Novgorod
the Great; in 1478 he openly rebelled against the Khan; in 1499 he
pushed the confines of Russia to Petchora on the Arctic Sea. He was a
puzzle to his enemies, gaining victories over Lithuanians, Livonians and
Siberians, without leaving the Kremlin. Stephen of Moldavia said of him,
"Ivan is a strange man; he stays quietly at home yet triumphs over his
enemies, whilst I, although always on horseback, cannot defend my own
country."
Born a despot he was initiated into the mysteries of autocratic
government by his wife. Cold, cruel and cunning, he brooked no
opposition where he thought he could triumph; was an arrant coward
whenever the issue was doubtful.
When he vanquished Novgorod, he brought the boyards to Moscow, and
settled them there; three years later he tortured some, and put others
to death. He was relentless in punishing rebellion, no matter what the
rank of the offender. He whipped Prince Oukhtomski, and ordered the
archimandrite of a monastery to be flogged; mutilated the counsellors of
his son, cowed the boyards, burnt alive Poles who had conspired against
him; pillaged the German traders of goods to the value of £40,000, and
played the tyrant so thoroughly that even when he slept no boyard
"durst open his mouth in whispers" for fear of disturbing his master's
slumber.
Towards the Great Horde he was both respectful and recalcitrant. He
repulsed the invasions of adventurers into his territory; avoided the
payment of tribute by sending costly presents regularly. But in 1478,
when Khan Akhmet sent envoys with his image to receive tribute, Ivan
openly rebelled; put all the messengers to death, save one; trampled the
image of the Khan under foot, spat on the edict, and allowed this news
to reach the Khan. When the enraged Tartars advanced towards Moscow,
Ivan wished to remain in the city, but the inhabitants would have no
shirking. "What! he has overtaxed us, refused to pay tribute to the
Horde, and now that he has enraged the Khan, though he does not want to
fight, he must--and shall." Ivan journeyed about from one town to
another, returning to Moscow on various pretexts. He wished to consult
the clergy, the boyards, his mother, anybody. The answer was always the
same, "March against the enemy!" Forced to go South, he wished to send
his son back to Moscow, but the young Ivan disobeyed.
Archbishop Vassian urged Ivan to go to the front. "Is it part of mortals
to fear death? We cannot escape destiny; a good shepherd will, at need,
lay down his life for his flock." But this prompting did not suffice.
Vassian at last lost patience, wrote a bellicose letter to Ivan,
recounting the deeds of his heroic ancestors, from Igor Sviatoslaf to
Dmitri Donskoi. Ivan assured him that this letter "filled his heart with
joy, himself with courage and strength"; but another fortnight passed,
and Ivan had not advanced a step.
When at last the two armies came within sight of each other, the streams
Oogra and Oka separated them. They insulted each other bravely across
the water, but not daring to ford, waited until the river should be
frozen. When this happened, Ivan at once gave orders for his forces to
withdraw. Seeing the army in motion an inexplicable panic seized the
Tartars, and they hastened away. Both armies were in flight, and no one
pursuing. In such pitiful fashion did the Mongol supremacy terminate.
For more than three centuries Moscow had acknowledged the rule of the
Golden Horde, now a thoroughly demoralised rabble. The remnants in their
flight south were opposed by the Nogay and Krim Tartars, and defeated.
The Khan Akhmet was then put to death by his own men.
Ivan next sent his voievodes or "war-leaders" against Kazan; in 1487
they took it and made Alegam, its commander, a prisoner. In his boyhood
Ivan had been imprisoned in Kazan by his Tartar enemies, and so now was
able to turn the tables on them completely.
His next act exemplifies his statesmanship. Instead of annexing Kazan to
Moscow he gave the crown to the nephew of his powerful ally, the Khan of
the Krim Tartars. This Khan could not ask for the release of Alegam,
because he was an enemy of his own nephew, the newly installed ruler of
Kazan; but the leaders of the Khivan and Nogay Tartars, who were related
to him, felt that Islam had been wronged, and despatched an envoy to
Moscow praying for Alegam's release. Ivan declined, but did so
graciously, and gave no offence. He made the envoys presents, and sent
to their leaders other presents, much foreign cloth and trinkets for
their wives, whom he styled his sisters. Ivan did not treat directly
with the envoys, making use of the western method of conducting
negotiations through an officer of his court.
Ivan took the two-headed eagle as the arms of his country. Its early
form is still to be seen on the wall of Granovitaia palace in the
Kremlin. The device of St George and the Dragon, which Yuri Dolgoruki
the founder of Moscow used, was from this time more closely associated
with the city of Moscow, and the eagle taken as the arms of the ruler.
When it became necessary for Ivan to appoint his successor he hesitated,
and at last made choice of Dmitri, the son of Ivan, his eldest child,
then dead. His wife advanced the claims of her own son Vasili; his
daughter-in-law, Ivan's widow, her own son. Having proclaimed Dmitri
heir, he threw Vasili into prison and degraded his wife; then he changed
his mind, imprisoned his daughter-in-law and grandson, and proclaimed
Vasili his heir. In 1505 he died, and Vasili was at once crowned ruler
of Moscow.
CHAPTER IV
_Moscow of the Princes_
"As pearls thy thousand crowns appear,
Thy hands a diamond sceptre hold,
Thy domes, thy steeples, bright and clear
Seem sunny rays in eastern gold."--DMITRIEV.
Vasili III. succeeded his father and reigned in Moscow for nearly thirty
years. From the historical point of view, he is unfortunate, as he
followed a sovereign recognised as "Great," whose conquests and
innovations changed the destiny of Moscow, and was succeeded by a ruler,
who, by his barbarities, won for himself the surname of "Terrible."
Vasili III. was not a warrior, and when he made war it was by preference
against Slavonic peoples in the west. His chief delight was in building:
churches, monasteries, city-walls, palaces--none of these came amiss to
him; he constructed some of all, leaving Moscow much stronger, richer
and more beautiful than he found it. He made the most of such services
as the Italian masters could render, but in those times, all that was
done in Moscow in any one age appears to have been executed at the
command of the reigning prince. The houses of the nobility have all
disappeared, and to the date of Vasili III. there appear to have been no
founders of churches in Moscow, other than the princes. Not that these
necessarily found the labour or material; as often as not a church was
built from the proceeds of a fine laid upon some town or government at
the pleasure of the prince.
Vasili was the first to build a stone palace in the Kremlin, that known
as the Granovitaia, which is still standing. But Herberstein wrote that
Vasili would not live in it, preferring his old palace of wood.
During his reign the Tartars got as near Moscow as the Sparrow Hills;
there they sacked the royal palace and cellars containing large stores
of mead. They became intoxicated with the liquor and advanced no
further, but the leader obtained from Vasili a treaty in which he
acknowledged the sovereignty of the Horde and promised yearly tribute.
Vasili's voievodes at Riazan, thinking the terms shameful, intercepted
the returning Tartars, routed them, and got back the treaty. The
following year, goaded to action, Vasili got an army together and went
out towards the Khan, challenging him to battle. The Khan answered that
he knew the way into Russia, and was not in the habit of asking his
enemies when he should fight. In revenge for this insult, Vasili
established a fair at Makharief, on the Volga; it ruined the mart of
Kazan and was subsequently moved to Nijni-Novgorod, where it is still
held yearly.
Vasili married first, Solomonia Saburov, but, as after twenty years of
married life she had no son, he forced her to take the veil and married
Helena Glinski, of Lithuania. This gave great offence to the Church;
when he sent specially to the highest authority on the technical
question, Mark, Patriarch of Jerusalem, is reported to have made the
following remarkable prediction:--
"Shouldst thou contract a second marriage thou shalt have a wicked
son; thy states shall become a prey to terrors and tears; rivers of
blood shall flow; the heads of the mighty shall fall; thy cities
shall be devoured by flames."
Vasili disregarded the decision of the Church and married a most able
and enlightened woman, who had the foresight to surround the Kitai Gorod
with a wall of good masonry, and it is said, named that part of the town
after a similarly designated enclosure in her native place. She bore
Vasili two sons, Ivan, the Tsarevich, who was later the "terrible" Tsar,
succeeding to the throne in 1533, when but three years of age. The
younger son, Yuri, fared badly at the hands of his cruel brother.
[Illustration: KITAI GOROD, ILYINKA GATE]
The Moscow of the Princes was of wood, and the vestiges remaining are
unimportant. Some of the later buildings, as the palace of the Terem and
towers of the Kremlin wall, have been built in the style of the wooden
erections they replaced; but it is not easy to picture Moscow as it was
before Ivan's Italian workmen raised their walls of brick and stone.
The town was of great size; in 1520 it contained 41,500 dwellings and
100,000 inhabitants. Its circumference was nearly twelve miles. The
Grand Prince and his relations lived in the Kremlin; so did a few of the
richest and most powerful nobles. In the Kitai Gorod lived the traders,
the wealthy boyards and foreigners. The Bielo Gorod, "White" or Free
Town, was occupied by boyards, merchants and privileged citizens; in the
outer ring lived the artisans and labourers. The churches and chapels
were numerous. Ivan Kalita built ten when there were already eighteen in
the town, in 1337; in the reign of Vasili III. there were as many
monasteries and nunneries, and upwards of three score churches and
chapels.
The first dwelling in the Kremlin was the Prince's habitation,
originally called the Prince's apartment, which served only as a _pied à
terre_ for the Prince when passing through. When Moscow became a place
of residence then a house was put up near where the Great Palace now is.
Then followed the usual dependences; including a prison or dungeon. Even
at that early date the Russian carpenters were able craftsmen; how
expert they afterwards became the wonderful wooden palaces and churches
of Russia accurately demonstrate.
The Princes of Moscow were not extravagant, their palaces consisting of
four chambers, _en suite_--the one most distant from the entrance was
the sleeping-room; then, adjoining it, the oratory or private chapel;
the room for living or affairs of the town, the anti-chamber; the
vestibule; add kitchens and domestic rooms on a lower floor, and the
early palaces of the Russian princes is complete.
Vasili III. required no more; his palace in the Kremlin consisted, on
the _bel étage_, of the vestibule, an anti-chamber, and two rooms. In a
separate building, reached by a corridor or covered staircase, the
bathroom and storerooms. Above the _bel étage_, either a large open
loft, or a belvedere pierced with windows on all sides and communicating
with the terrace. The apartments reserved for the children, and for
relations of the sovereign, were in separate buildings offering similar
accommodation.
The roof was invariably ornamented with carved wood-work and with gay
colours. The distinctive colour for the windows of the Terem was red.
Further ornamentation consisted in shaping the roof conical, making it
arched or in superposing cones on two arches; these were furnished with
small grills and covered with shingles.
Each house had its private chapel, so the agglomeration of connected
buildings that constituted a palace in the Kremlin in old days contained
many chapels, and they now number more than a dozen. Apart from these
private chapels within the palace, the Princes used the churches for the
safer keeping of their treasure.
Ivan III. used the Church of St Lazarus now in the palace for his
treasury; his wife, the Church of St John the Baptist, near the
Borovitski Gate. To steal from the church was sacrilege, to take from
the house of even the Tsar, simply robbery. The churches were used as
treasuries also by the nobles, and doubtless much of the church-plate
throughout Russia was originally deposited for safe keeping, whilst the
owners went against Tartars or Livonians. All the churches were rich,
and all, time after time, were spoiled by invaders; thus hiding-places
were made in or near all the old churches.
Near the residence of the ruler were the very similar dwellings of the
minor princes. In the days of Vasili III., of Grand Dukes even, for, as
Moscow conquered other principalities, their former rulers were brought
to the Kremlin and lived under the surveillance of the "Grand Prince of
all the Russias," rendering him such military service as he demanded. In
time these nobles became an element of danger, intriguing for the
succession and quarrelling among themselves for precedence. Vasili III.
was the first ruler to treat them harshly and he spared none, not even
his own near relatives if he thought they aspired to the succession. To
render them less dangerous they were not employed as war-leaders, men of
lower rank, the drujni of the Tsar and other princes being entrusted
with command in the field and acting also as governors of provinces.
Burned down time after time and usually put up again in wood, Moscow,
with all its conflagrations, was nearly three centuries before it
contained a dwelling-house of brick or stone, and more than two before
enclosed with a wall. The reason being that stones of any kind were
scarce in the neighbourhood of Moscow, whilst wood was plentiful.
With a palace in the Kremlin the rulers soon set to work to have palaces
elsewhere. The one at the Sparrow Hills seems to have been most often
resorted to in the early days, but with the advent to Russia of Sophia
Paleologus and the introduction of western customs, not only was the
single palace found inadequate, but Ivan's successors all built
dwellings in the forest or in villages near Moscow where they could go
for sport, or when driven from town by fire, pestilence or revolt.
The most pressing need of the rulers of Moscow when they entered into
relations with the west was a hall for entertaining visitors. It was for
this purpose that the Granovitaia (chequered) Palace was constructed by
the Italian workmen Ivan induced to work in Moscow for the then high
wages of ten roubles a month. It was at this period that the Tsars began
to evolve a special court etiquette. Previously anyone who could force
his way through the throng by whom the princes were surrounded might
speak with them. From the first the court etiquette, though not
elaborate, was firmly insisted upon. Those who came to the palace had to
dismount at some distance from the grand entrance, and approach it on
foot. This accounts for the joy of Bowes, the English envoy, who rode
right up to the grand entrance before dismounting. Those officers sent
to meet foreign envoys had orders not to be the first to dismount; if
the envoy knew the etiquette the parties on meeting would sit for hours
facing each other, then agree to dismount simultaneously. Herberstein
held back after throwing his feet out of the stirrups, so was last to
touch earth, and he counts this a gain to his master. Common people and
lower nobles were not allowed to pass the Tsar's residence covered, and
"must uncover as soon as it is within view."
"The city is built of wood and tolerably large, and at a distance
appears larger than it really is, for the gardens and spacious
courtyards in every house make a great addition to the size of the
town, which is again greatly increased by the houses of the smiths
and other artificers who use fires. These houses extend in a long
row at the end of the city, interspersed with fields and meadows.
Moreover not far from the city are some small houses, and the other
side of the river some villas where, a few years ago, the Tsar
built a new city for his courtiers, who had the privilege of the
Tsar to drink at all seasons, which was forbidden to most, who
were free to drink only at Eastertide and Christmas. For that
reason the Nali, or drinkers, separated themselves from intercourse
with the rest of the inhabitants to avoid corrupting them by their
mode of living. Not far from the city are some monasteries, which
of themselves appear like a great city to persons viewing them from
a distance."--_Herberstein._
In addition to the gilded domes of its cathedrals, and the bright red
roofs of its palaces, during the reign of Vasili III. Moscow commenced
to accumulate other ornamental work quite as wondrous to the pilgrims
from other Russian towns. Aleviso of Florence is unusually credited with
the work upon the doors and lintels of the old churches within the
palace, the porches of the Vossnesenski, Blagovieshchenski, and other
Cathedrals within the Kremlin. The gilded and embossed metal work of the
doors, the carved and bright-coloured columns and lintels, impressed
visitors with the wealth of Moscow since the precious metals were so
lavishly employed for merely decorative purposes. There are not many
specimens of the work of this period still in existence, such as remain
are now for the most part preserved _within_ the palace instead of
being, as formerly, exposed to the weather; but practically the whole of
the wooden Moscow of the Princes was destroyed by fires during the reign
of Ivan IV.
[Illustration: TEREM--ENTRANCE TO CHAPEL OF ST LAZARUS]
CHAPTER V
_Ivan the Terrible_
"A right Scythian, full of readie wisdom, cruell, bloudye,
mercilesse."--_Horsey._
Most conspicuous of all the monuments of the past Moscow contains, is
the great weird building familiarly known as the church of Vasili
Blajenni; as monstrous and impressive is the era that produced it. The
half century during which Ivan the Terrible reigned over Muscovy is a
unique period in the history of Russia. And not that of Russia only, for
in no country at any time have so many and diverse outrages been
perpetrated at one man's command. Disasters resulting from human
ambition and folly sully the history of every land, but all histories
are spotless in comparison with that of Moscow under its first Tsar--a
creature of unparalleled ferocity and inconceivable wickedness.
Ivan was the son of the crafty Vasili Ivanovich in his dotage; of Helena
Glinski, a fiery-natured Lithuanian woman, passionate as a Spaniard,
reckless as a Tartar. But if his parentage was unpromising his
upbringing was worse. He and his mother had many enemies, the members of
princely houses in vassalage in Moscow but with aspirations to the
throne. These men, mostly relations of the Tsar, were insistent upon the
rules of precedence, both for the gratification of their own vanity, and
as of possible importance in the event of a Tsar dying without direct
heir. For this reason all the Tsars were merciless towards their
relatives on their father's side, and looked for help from the relations
of their mother and wife, who had most to gain from the succession being
maintained in a direct line.
Helena, as regent, appears to have governed well. She did not marry
again, thus the rights of Ivan and his brother Yuri were not endangered
by her. Her lover, Kniaz Telepniev, for a time kept at bay the rival
factions of the more powerful nobles, and possibly was instrumental in
thwarting the plots of the Glinski. At Helena's command two of her
relatives were executed for conspiring against the infant Tsar. She
enclosed the Kitai Gorod with a wall of stone; improved the defences of
Moscow in other ways, gave the people a new coinage, founded
monasteries, built churches, and continued the policy of the rulers of
Moscow. Five years after her husband's death she died suddenly, of
poison it is said, and the rumour may be credited.
In 1538, Ivan, then in his eighth year, and his brother Yuri, his junior
by eighteen months, were left to the mercies of the most powerful
factions about the court. They were neglected; Ivan himself said of this
period, "we two were treated as strangers: even as the children of
beggars are served. We were ill clothed, cold, and often went hungry."
Jealous of each other the courtiers would not allow the princes to
attach themselves to anyone. If Ivan felt drawn to anyone, or any person
took notice of him, all the others combined to separate the two.
The Shooiskis were then the most powerful family, and Shooiski treated
Ivan with scant consideration. His tutors encouraged him to ride at full
speed through the streets and try to knock down the old and feeble;
they allowed him to have animals tortured for his diversion, and laughed
with him at their plight when flung from the roof of the palace. Ivan
learned to read, and spelled through all the books he could obtain. From
these old chronicles,--from those of the Kings of Israel, to the doings
of his own ancestors--he seems to have obtained the idea of the powers
of sovereignty. A close observer he noticed that although ordinarily he
was treated as of little account, when any act of state had to be done
he was always summoned to give the command. Young as he was, Ivan knew
his importance. One day, when he was thirteen years old, he went out
sporting with Gluiski, and Gluiski incited him to repress the arrogance
of Shooiski. Ivan did it by having Shooiski pulled out into the street
and worried to death there and then by Gluiski's hounds.
From that time Ivan treated all with cruelty. In his eighteenth year he
arrogated to himself the title of Tsar--the name by which all great
rulers were designated in the old Slavonic books he had read. In the
same year, 1547, he married Anastasia Romanof, and in that year the
inhabitants of Moscow, tired of his cruelties, repeatedly fired the
town. In April the merchants' stores were fired, probably by robbers
intent upon gain; the fire spread, destroying the stores of the Tsar,
the monastery of the Epiphany, and most of the houses in the Kitai
Gorod. On the 20th of the same month the streets of the artisans along
the Yauza suffered, and on the 21st June, during a high wind, a fire
started on the far side of the Neglinnaia, in the Arbat, and this spread
to the Kremlin and destroyed there the whole of the wooden buildings.
The inhabitants could save nothing, and the night was made more hideous
by frequent explosions as the fire reached one powder magazine and
another. The palaces, the tribunals, the treasuries, armouries,
warehouses, all were destroyed. All books, deeds, pictures and ikons
were lost, with few exceptions. The metropolitan, the aged Macarius, was
praying in the cathedral and refused to leave; he was forcibly removed,
placed in a basket and lowered from the Kremlin wall near the Tainitski
gate; the rope broke, he fell to the ground, and was taken more dead
than alive to the Novo Spasski Monastery. There was not time to remove
the Holy ikons. The fire after destroying the roof of the cathedral
burnt out, and the celebrated ikon of the Virgin of Vladimir was saved.
The ruins smouldered for a week. Seventeen hundred perished in the
flames. The Tsar withdrew to the Sparrow Hills so as not to see the
distress of the people. The survivors, their beards burnt, their faces
blackened, fought among the embers for the vestiges of what had been
theirs. Church and court alike forsook the spot.
An earnest priest, Sylvester, forced himself upon the terrified Tsar,
upbraided him for his excesses, and exhorted him to lead a better life.
Ivan, always an arrant coward, now completely unnerved, at once came
under the influence of the priest. He took as his counsellor one
Adashef, a man of good repute and some wisdom. For thirteen years he and
Sylvester administered the law and dictated the policy of the country.
In Anastasia they had an able assistant and firm friend. Their first act
was directed towards limiting the power of the Tsar; at their behest he
called together an assembly of the people to advise him. They compiled a
code of laws, the Sudebnik, and the Stoglaf, this last the decrees of
the council (Zemstvo) held at Moscow in 1551 and shortly afterwards
Sylvester issued his "Domostroi"--household law, teaching how to live as
Godfearing men and prove good husbandmen. The Tsar, earnest in his new
rôle, paid great attention to his spiritual advisers. When twenty-one he
exhorted them to "Thunder in mine ears the voice of God that my soul may
live."
In 1552 he was persuaded to lead an expedition against the Tartars of
Kazan. The army was strong and well equipped. With wonderful foresight,
a neighbouring town had been well stocked with provisions and was used
as a base for the besiegers. After a stubborn resistance Ivan's army of
150,000 took the town, and slaughtered the defenders. On this occasion
Ivan is said to have displayed considerable courage, and when he saw the
bodies of the slain Tartars, to have regretted their death, saying, "for
though of another faith they are human beings even as ourselves."
Too soon he returned to Moscow, and the newly-conquered province
rebelled. Ivan then was very ill, "a fever so great all thought him at
the point of death." Ivan thought his last hour was at hand and summoned
the nobles to take the oath of fealty to his son Dmitri, whom he
nominated his successor. Some refused, others hesitated: Zakharin-Yurief
alone, was earnest and ready in his allegiance. He was a near kinsman of
the Tsarina and so, more than any, was interested in the welfare of
Dmitri. Others intrigued for the succession. The Tsar lying helpless on
his couch heard the boyards and counsellors discussing their plans in
the adjoining apartment. Even Sylvester and his trusted counsellor
Alexis Adashef, favoured the succession of Vladimir, Ivan's cousin.
Ivan recovered, but for a time he acted as though he had forgotten what
he overheard on his sick bed. He never forgave. His wife, Anastasia,
also withdrew her friendship from those who had opposed her son's
succession.
Then Ivan made a visit to the monastery at Bielo Ozersk--the White
Lake--and there he saw the aged Vassian, the old counsellor of his
father, who gave him advice contrary to that so earnestly and frequently
dinned into his ears by Sylvester and Adashef. "If you wish to become
absolute monarch," said Vassian, "seek no counsellor wiser than
yourself. Never take advice from any: instead, give it. Command, never
obey. Then will you become a sovereign in all truth."
This advice pleased Ivan. "My father himself," he answered, "could not
have given wiser counsel."
Ivan could wait for his triumph over his associates. He went now to the
Volga again, completed the conquest of Kazan, and his troops pressed on
as far as Astrakhan, which they took after slight resistance.
In Moscow Ivan kept the grand-dukes, princes, and boyards his nearest
relatives; his voievodes, or military leaders, were men of good birth,
but with no claim on the succession. Under the administration of
Adashef, the outlying parts of the Tsar's dominions were so effectually
governed that when the English ships first appeared on the White Sea,
Chancellor was not allowed to trade, or penetrate into the interior of
the country, until the permission of the Tsar had been received from
Moscow.
In 1560 Anastasia died, and Ivan fretted under the constant surveillance
of Sylvester. He was always at hand, entreating the Tsar to shew mercy,
and to live straightly. Both Sylvester and Adashef retired within a
short time of Anastasia's death. For bad generalship in Lithuania,
Adashef was imprisoned in the fortress of Dorpat, where he died shortly
afterwards. Sylvester was ready enough to send the Tsar and his Russian
armies to war against the Tartars and infidels; he opposed wars with
Livonia, Lithuania and Poland, where Ivan was particularly desirous of
extending his dominion.
On the withdrawal of these counsellors again commenced the murders and
massacres in which Ivan delighted. Historians divide these into seven
cycles; it is a purely arbitrary division--with the exception of the
thirteen years 1547-1560, during which he was wedded to Anastasia and
engaged in foreign wars, the whole of his long reign was given to
terrorising his subjects.
Obolenski was the first noble killed by Ivan himself; Repnin was
murdered whilst at his devotions in church; another was slain simply
because he remonstrated with the Tsar for such a display of cruelty.
Ivan always used the hour of victory to exterminate foes, and he now
relentlessly hunted down all his past advisers and their friends.
He was determined on absolute supremacy.
"To shew his soveraintie over the lives of his subjects, Ivan in
his walks, if he disliked the face or person of any man he met by
the way, or that looked at him, would command his head to be struck
off. There and then the thing was done, and the head cast before
him."
Dismayed, some of his nobles fled to the west; among them was Kniaz
Kourbski, who, not content simply to take service under Sigismund,
acquainted the Tsar by letter with the fact. Kniaz Vasili Chibanov was
the bearer. Ivan received him on the Krasnoe Kriltso, and there, with
his sharp staff, pinned to the floor the foot of Chibanov, who never
stirred a muscle during the whole time the long letter was read aloud.
Then Chibanov was put to the torture, to obtain particulars of the
flight of Kourbski, and the names of his partisans in Moscow; but
Chibanov confessed not a word, and in the midst of the most horrible
torment praised his master, and counted it a joy to suffer thus for him.
Generally Ivan studied to keep on good terms with the common
people--whom he feared; by them he was worshipped. Macarius, the
metropolitan, complained that "He who blasphemes his maker, meets with
forgiveness amongst men, he who reviles the Tsar is sure to lose his
head." Ivan chose as his companions the worst people whom he could find.
At one time he withdrew from Moscow, taking umbrage at the prelates,
still too powerful to be touched. The people clamoured for his return.
"The Tsar has forsaken us: we are lost, who will now defend us
against the enemy? What are sheep without the shepherd? Let him
punish all who deserve it: has he not the power over life and
death? The state cannot endure without its head, and we will not
acknowledge any other than he whom God has given us."
This was gratifying to Ivan. He consented to govern again if the Church
would not exercise its prerogative of mercy, and would leave him to do
his will. His return was followed by murders and outrages worse than
before. Randolph, who in 1568, was in Muscovy on an embassy from
England, with which country Ivan wished to be on the best of terms, was
not allowed to enter Moscow, because, Count Yuri Tolstoi thinks, Ivan
wished to keep from him the knowledge of these massacres. Randolph wrote
to Cecil:--
"Of the Tsar's condition I have learned that of late he hath
beheaded no small number of his nobility, causing their heads to be
laid on the streets, to see who durst behold them or lament their
deaths. The Chancellor he caused to be executed openly, leaving
neither wife, children, nor brother alive. Divers others have been
cut to pieces by his command."
During the third cycle of Ivan's outrages, Philip, the metropolitan, in
1568, dared to upbraid the Tsar. Ivan with a crowd of his irreligious
followers, disguised in the cloaks they wore when sallying forth to
rapine and outrage, repaired to the Uspenski Sobor for a blessing before
starting on their fearful work. The metropolitan refused to recognise
Ivan so clad when called upon for his benediction.
"What is the thing thou hast done then, O Tsar, that thou shouldst
put off from thee the form of thine honour? Fear the judgment of
God, to whom we are here making a pure sacrifice. Behind the altar
the innocent blood of Christian men is made to flow by thee! Among
pagans, in the country of the infidel, are laws, and justice, and
compassion shown to men, but in Russia now is nothing of this kind.
The lives and goods of citizens are without defence. Everywhere
pillage, on all sides murder, and each and all these crimes are
committed in the name of the Tsar. There is a judge on high--how
shall you present yourself before that Tribunal? Dare you appear
there covered with the blood of innocents, deaf to their cries of
pain? Even the very stones beneath your feet cry aloud to heaven
for vengeance on such black deeds as are done here. O Prince, I
speak to thee as the shepherd, fearing none but the Lord our God."
Ivan enraged, stuck his staff into the ground, and swore to be as bad as
Philip described him. Vasili Pronski was the first to suffer in the
murders that followed closely upon this scene, but Ivan did not forget
Philip. One of the soldiers was ordered to present himself before the
metropolitan and wear the Tartar skull cap; the metropolitan noticed
this irreverence, and turned to the leader for a command that the man
should uncover. In the meantime the man did so, and Philip was accused
of lying. The boyard, Alexis Basmanov, with a troop of armed men and
having the Tsar's _fiat_ in his hand, arrested Philip whilst officiating
at High Mass in the Uspenski Sobor, and read out that by the decree of
the clergy, Philip was deposed from his high office. The people were
surprised and stupefied. The soldiers seized Philip, tore his vestments
from him, and chased him from the church with besoms. He was first taken
to the monastery of the Epiphany, next to an obscure prison where he was
loaded with irons. Whilst there, the head of his well-beloved nephew,
Ivan Borisovich, was thrown to him. A crowd gathered near the prisoner's
cell, and the people spake with each other of his goodness. It
frightened Ivan, and he had Philip removed to the monastery at Tver,
where he was subsequently strangled by Skutarov on the Tsar's journey
through the town on the way to Novgorod.
As a condition for his consent to reside in Moscow, Ivan stipulated for
a bodyguard of his own choosing. These men, the öpritchniki, that is,
"picked" fellows, became the terror of Moscow. Selected for their
readiness to obey, their bodily strength and lack of morals, they
recognised no master but Ivan, and by him were privileged to rob and
slay the people as they wished, providing they were at hand to kill
anyone in particular whom he might want out of the way. They carried
bludgeons with heads carved to represent those of dogs, at the saddle
bow, and a small besom at the other end, the "speaking symbols" of their
intention to hunt down rebels and sweep Russia clean.
By their callousness and brutality they, on many occasions,
distinguished themselves in a manner that gladdened Ivan, but at no time
did their excesses excel their performance on the march to Novgorod.
Ivan, very suspicious of treason, doubted the fidelity of Novgorod, a
town with known predilections for freedom, and inclined to favour the
more enlightened rule of the western kings than the Russian autocrat. A
hired traitor placed a forged letter behind an image in Novgorod Church,
and disclosed the plot to Ivan, whose agents found the compromising
letter, which contained overtures to the Lithuanians; Ivan started to
subdue the town. The öpritchniks preceded him. Klin, a thriving town
near Moscow, was sacked; the inhabitants of Tver were spoiled, and many
murdered. On their way the advance guard killed all whom they met, lest
any should know where the Tsar was. Villages and towns were annihilated.
Monks had to find twenty roubles each as ransom; those who could not
were thrashed from morning until night, then, when Ivan arrived on the
scene, were flogged to death.
On his arrival at Novgorod he was entertained by the people; during the
banquet served to him and his followers he gave a loud cry--the signal
for his fellows to begin the slaughter. The Tsar and his son went to an
enclosure specially reserved for the torture of their victims, and with
their lances prodded those who were not quickly enough dragged to the
place of torment. Chroniclers say that from 500 to 1000 were slain in
cold blood before him each day of his stay. Some were burned, some
racked to death, others drowned in the Volkhof, run in on sledges or
thrown in from the bridge--soldiers in boats spearing those who swam.
Infants were empaled before the eyes of their mothers, husbands
butchered along with their wives. Novgorod, at that time larger and of
greater commercial importance than Moscow, was so injured that she has
never since acquired the rank of even a third-rate town. On leaving it,
Ivan called together a few starving survivors, and commanded them to
obey the laws and fear him. He went on to Pskov, where the town was
saved by the boldness of a half-witted hermit, who offered Ivan raw meat
on a fast-day, and threatened him that he would be struck by lightning
if any citizen of Pskov was injured whilst Ivan remained in the town. An
accident to his horse seemed to Ivan an earnest of the "Holy-man's"
power, and he left the town precipitately.
According to Horsey, Ivan at this time had a Tartar army with him, and
tried to reduce other towns in Livonia. At Reval, men and women carried
water by night to repair the breaches in the walls made by his cannon
during the day, and Ivan, losing six thousand men, in the end had to
retreat in shame. Losing more men before Narva, he put in execution
there "the most bloody and cruellest massacre that ever was heard of in
any age," giving the spoil of the town to his Tartars. Following the
custom of his country, the prisoners of war were all brought as slaves
to Moscow, many dying on the way, some, including Scotch and English
soldiers of fortune in the pay of the Swedes, thrown into prison in
Moscow and there subsequently tortured and executed.
[Illustration: ALARM TOWER]
These excursions of Ivan and his men into distant parts of his dominions
afforded the Muscovites some respite from his attentions. The English
then there were much impressed by the cruelties of Ivan, though
themselves escaping. Jerom Horsey thus describes Ivan's invasion of
Novgorod:--
"O the lamentable outcries and cruel slaughters! The drownings and
burnings, the ravishing of women and maids, stripping them naked
without mercy or regard of the frozen weather, tying and binding
them by three and four together at their horses' tails: dragging
them, some alive, some dead, all bloodying the ways and streets,
lying full of carcases of the aged men, women and infants! Thus
were infinite numbers of the fairest people in the world dragged
into Muscovy."
With the spoil brought from Novgorod was the "Great Bell of Novgorod"
which had so often called its burghers to assemble for the defence of
the town. Ivan was determined that the tocsin should never again be
heard over the fallen city. The bell he caused to be hanged in the
turret on the Kremlin wall near the Spasski Gate, where for long it was
used as the alarm bell of Moscow, but subsequently served as metal when
the great bell in Ivan Veliki was recast.
Shortly after his return from Novgorod he entered upon his fourth cycle
of massacres. The prisoners were executed in batches before the Spasski
Gate. Horsey was instrumental in getting the lives of many spared, and
they were settled in a suburb of Moscow where they lived at peace with
the citizens but were still subject to attacks from the öpritchniks.
Ivan found other traitors among the boyards and princes, for his
favourites of to-day were the victims of the morrow.
"On July 25, in the middle of the market-place, eighteen scaffolds
were erected, a number of instruments of torture were fixed in
position, a large stack of wood was lighted, and over it an
enormous cauldron of water was placed. Seeing these terrible
preparations, the people hurried away and hid themselves wherever
they could, abandoning their opened shops, their goods and their
money. Soon the place was void but for the band of öpritchniks
gathered round the gibbets, and the blazing fire. Then was heard
the sound of drums: the Tsar appeared on horseback, accompanied by
his dutiful son, the boyards, some princes, and quite a legion of
hangmen. Behind these came some hundreds of the condemned, many
like spectres; others torn, bleeding, and so feeble they scarce
could walk. Ivan halted near the scaffolds and looked around, then
at once commanded the öpritchniks to find where the people were and
drag them into the light of day. In his impatience he even himself
ran about here and there, calling the Muscovites to come forward
and see the spectacle he had prepared for them, promising all who
came safety and pardon. The inhabitants, fearing to disobey, crept
out of their hiding-places, and, trembling with fright, stood
round the scaffold. Some having climbed on to the walls, and even
showing themselves on the roofs, Ivan shouted: 'People, ye are
about to witness executions and a massacre, but these are traitors
whom I thus punish. Answer me: Is this just?' And on all sides the
people shouted approval. 'Long live our glorious King! Down with
traitors! Goiesi, Goida!'
"Ivan separated 180 of the prisoners from the crowd and pardoned
them. Then the first Clerk of the Council unrolled a scroll and
called upon the condemned to answer. The first to be brought before
him was Viskovati, and to him he read out: 'Ivan Mikhailovich,
formerly a Counsellor of State, thou hast been found faithless to
his Imperial Highness. Thou hast written to the King Sigismund
offering him Novgorod: there thy first crime!' He paused to strike
Viskovati on the head, then continued reading: 'And this thy second
crime, not less heinous than thy first, O ungrateful and perfidious
one! Thou hast written to the Sultan of Turkey, that he may take
Astrakhan and Kazan,' whereupon he struck the condemned wretch
twice, and continued: 'Also thou hast called upon the Khan of the
Krim Tartars to enter and devastate Russia: this thy third crime.'
Viskovati called God to witness that he was innocent, that he had
always served faithfully his Tsar and his country: 'My earthly
judges will not recognise the truth; but the Heavenly Judge knows
my innocence! Thou also, O Prince, thou wilt recognise it before
that tribunal on high!' Here the executioners interrupted, gagging
him. He was then suspended, head downwards, his clothes torn off",
and, Maluta Skutarov, the first to dismount from his horse and lead
the attack, cut off an ear, then, little by little, his body was
hacked to pieces.
"The next victim was the treasurer, Funikov-Kartsef, a friend of
Viskovati, accused with him of the same treason, and as unjustly.
He in his turn said to Ivan, 'I pray God will give thee in eternity
a fitting reward for thy actions here!' He was drenched with
boiling and cold water alternately, until he expired after enduring
the most horrible torments. Then others were hanged, strangled,
tortured, cut to pieces, killed slowly, quickly, by whatever means
fancy suggested. Ivan himself took a part, stabbing and slaying
without dismounting from his horse. In four hours two hundred had
been put to death, and then, the carnage over, the hangmen, their
clothes covered with blood, and their gory, steaming knives in
their hands, surrounded the Tsar and shouted huzzah. 'Goida!
Goida! Long live the Tsar! Ivan for ever! Goida! Goida!' And so
shouting they went round the market-place that Ivan might examine
the mutilated remains, the piled-up corpses, the actual evidences
of the slaughter. Enough of bloodshed for the one day? Not a bit of
it. Ivan, satiated for the moment with the slaughter, would gloat
over the grief of the survivors. Wishing to see the unhappy wives
of Funikov-Kartsef and of Viskovati, he forced a way into their
apartments and made merry over their grief! The wife of
Funikov-Kartsef he put to the torture, that he might have from her
whatever treasures she possessed. Equally he wished to torture her
fifteen-year-old daughter, who was groaning and lamenting at their
ill fortune, but contented himself with handing her over to the by
no means tender mercies of the Tsarevich Ivan. Taken afterwards to
a convent, these unhappy beings shortly died of grief--it is
said."--_Karamzin._
Sometimes Ivan's vagaries were less gruesome, possessing even a comic
aspect:--
One day he requisitioned of his secretary 200,000 men at arms by
such a day and signed the order "Johnny of Moscow." He carried a
staff with a very sharp spike in the end, which, in discourse he
would strike through his boyard's feet, and if they could bear it
without flinching, he would favour them. He once sent to Vologda
for a pot of fleas and because the town could not send the measure
full, he fined the inhabitants 7000 roubles.
"He once went in disguise into a village and sought shelter. The only
man who would offer it was the one worst off, and at the time sore
beset. Ivan promised to return, and did so with a great company and many
presents, acting also as godson to the man's child, whose birth he had
witnessed. Then his followers burned all the other dwellings in the
village to teach the owners charity and try how good it was to lie out
of doors in winter."
"When Ivan went on his tours he was met by the householders and
presented with the best they had. A poor shoemaker knowing not what to
give, except a pair of sandals, was reminded that a large turnip in his
garden was a rarity, and so presented that to Ivan, who took the present
so kindly that he commanded a hundred of his followers to buy sandals of
the man at a crown a pair. A boyard seeing him so well paid, made
account by the rule of proportion to get a much greater reward by
presenting Ivan with a fine horse, but Ivan, suspecting his intention,
rewarded him with the turnip the bootmaker had given."
On a certain festival he played mad pranks, which caused some Dutch
and English women to laugh, and he, noticing this, sent all to the
palace, where he had them stripped stark naked before him in a
great room and then he commanded four or five bushels of pease to
be thrown on the floor and made them pick all up one by one, and,
when they had done, gave them wine and bade them heed how they
laughed before an emperor again. He sent for a nobleman of Kasan,
who was called _Plesheare_, which is "Bald," and the Vayvod
mistaking the word, thought he sent for a hundred bald pates and
therefore got together as many as he could, about eighty or ninety,
and sent them up speedily with an excuse that he could find no more
in his province and asking pardon. The emperor seeing so many,
crossed himself, and finding out how the mistake occurred, made the
baldpates drunk for three days then sent them home
again.--_Collins._
"He it was who nailed a French ambassador's hat to his head. Sir Jeremy
Bowes, the English ambassador, soon after came before Ivan, put on his
hat, and cocked it before him, at which Ivan sternly demanded how he
durst do so, having heard how he chastised the French ambassador. Sir
Jeremy answered, 'I am the ambassador of the invincible Queen of
England, who does not veil her bonnet, nor bare her head to any prince
living. If any of her ministers shall receive any affront abroad, she is
able to avenge her own quarrel.'
"'Look you at that!' cried Ivan to his boyards, 'Which of you would do
so much for me, your master?'"
He was probably not acting nor scoffing when he acted the part of
abbot, and made his companions friars of the house at Alexandrovski--to
which he retreated for upwards of a year at a time when he mistrusted
the people of Moscow and feared for his life and his throne. Ivan
regularly summoned to mass this strange company, all clad like brothers
of a monastery, and himself officiated. His prostrations were no sham,
for his forehead bore the marks of its severe knockings on the floor,
but in the middle of a mass he would pause to give some order for the
murder of his victims, or the pillage of the rich. The mornings were
spent in religious exercise--the rest of the day and much of the night
in the foulest orgies and the perpetration of fearful outrages in the
dungeons and torture chambers of his residence.
At all times the boyards durst do nothing without him, and waited upon
him duteously wherever he might go. His voievodes kept the
newly-conquered provinces in subjection; others carried the war into the
country of his enemies and brought fresh lands under his dominion.
Yermak, an outlaw, conquered Siberia and made of it a gift to the Tsar.
Anthony Jenkinson, on behalf of the English Russia Company, conveyed
their goods from Archangel to Astrakhan; there fitted out a fleet for
trading on the shores of the Caspian, and made a successful war on the
Shah of Persia.
In 1571 Ivan's voievodes failed him. They were unable, or unwilling, to
oppose the Tartar horde and it reached Moscow. There the enemy pillaged
and burnt the town, destroying the stores, houses and buildings outside
the Kremlin. The town suffered worse than in the great conflagrations of
1547, but the Tartars, satisfied with the spoil, withdrew. They
subsequently sent envoys to Ivan and these were at once imprisoned. Kept
in dark rooms, ill-treated, almost starved,--they endured; made light of
the hardships; scorned their guardians. At last an audience was granted
them.
"The Ambassador enters Ivan's presence; his followers kept back in
a space with grates of iron between the Emperor and them; at which
the ambassador chafes with a hellish, hollow voice, looking fierce
and grimly. Four captains of the guard bring him near the Emperor's
seat. Himself, a most ugly creature, without reverence, thunders
out, says,--His master and lord, Devlet Geray, great Emperor of all
the Kingdoms and Kams the sun did spread his beams over, sent to
him Ivan Vasilievich, his vassal, and Grand Duke over Russia by his
permission, to know how he did like the scourge of his displeasure
by sword, fire and famine? Had sent him for remedy (pulling out a
foul, rusty knife) to cut his throat withal." They hasted him forth
from the room, and would have taken off his gown and cap, but he
and his company strove with them so stoutly. The Emperor fell into
such an agony; sent for his ghostly father; tore his own hair and
beard for madness! Then sent away the ambassador with this message,
"Tell the miscreant and unbeliever, thy master, it is not he, it is
for my sins, and the sins of my people against my God and Christ.
He it is that hath given him, a limb of Satan, the power and
opportunity to be the instrument of my rebuke, by whose pleasure
and grace I doubt not of revenge, and to make him my vassal ere
long be." The Tartar answered, "He would not do him so much service
as to do any such message for him."--_Horsey._
Ivan had to send his own emissaries to the Tartars and the Khan kept
them imprisoned seven years, and in other ways showed his contempt for
the ruler of Moscow. But for Ivan's newly-found friends the English, his
enemies in east and west would have conquered him. The English, much to
the disgust of Swedes and Poles, supplied Ivan with artillery and small
arms; improved engines of war, much gunpowder, and showed his men how to
use them--Russians are not slow to learn.
In 1548 Ivan sent John Schlitte to Germany to enlist foreign artisans
for his service. Attracted by the high remuneration offered, a hundred
were willing to accompany Schlitte back to Moscow, but the Governments,
anticipating danger to their territory if the Russ became enlightened,
refused permission. Only a few determined stragglers reached Russian
territory. The first printers in Russia were encouraged for a time,
then, for their own safety, had hurriedly to seek exile.
For Moscow Ivan did little: twice during his reign the town was
destroyed by fire. After the first he built himself a new palace of wood
within the Kremlin; later he had another constructed outside, between
the Nikitskaia and the Arbat. For a long time he lived in neither,
preferring a wretched dwelling in a far off village, whence he believed
he could, at need, escape unobserved to England if any of his subjects
took up arms against him.
The monument of his reign is the church in the Grand Place. Dedicated to
the "Intercession of the Holy Virgin," it was built at Ivan's command,
and at the expense of Kazan, to commemorate the conquest of that town,
which fell on the first of October 1552. Commenced in 1553, it was
completed six years later and consecrated by the Metropolitan Macarius
on the day of its patron saint.
The name of its architect is unknown. Tradition asserts that Ivan, to
make sure that this church should be "the crowning effort of his
wonderful genius," put out his eyes. There is no evidence in support of
this story, and it is unlikely that Ivan would have done a thing so
usual.
Many writers have asserted that this fantastic edifice is a mixture of
the Gothic, Moorish, Indian, Byzantine and other styles of architecture.
As a matter of fact it is but an exaggeration of the Russian style, an
agglomeration of domes, towers and spires, one or other of which may be
found on many buildings in "wooden Russia." In the chapter on
"Ecclesiastical Moscow" the reader will find further information on
this point. It appears to embody the salient features of many styles,
eastern and western, and the whole, if neither beautiful nor magnificent
is strikingly imposing and original. Unlike other Russian churches the
belfry instead of being at the west end, is at the east. Nine of its
chapels are each surmounted by a lofty roof differing from the others.
The central one, that dedicated to the Virgin, has a high tower and
wonderful spire, the paintings on its internal converging sides adding
to its extravagant proportions. The other eight chapels on this floor
surround the spire and are covered with the usual arched vault
supporting longer or shorter cylindrical towers, surmounted with cupolas
of different forms and sizes. One, has apparently large facets; another
bristles like the back of a hedgehog; a third bears closest resemblance
to a pine-apple, a fourth to a melon; a fifth is in folds, another has
spiral _gonflements_--none are plain. A covered gallery extends from
north to south, with roofed and spired stairways leading up to the
church level, and a narrow passage and outside wall enclose the
remaining chapels. The quaint belfry with its Russo-Gothic spire and
bright roofing, being unlike aught else, is in keeping with the general
design. Outside, the central dome is brightly gilt, the others are
painted in gaudy colours, and the whole of the exterior is decorated
with crude patterns in strong contrast. Its design is bizarre; its
colour is motley; the two both harmonise and contrast--the whole
fascinates. It is at once both a nightmare and a revelation. Like an
impressionist's picture it rivets attention by apparent strength and
seeming originality. It cannot be forgotten, yet it repels by its
egregious fatuity. It is the over-inflated frog at the instant of
explosion. It is not even known by its correct name: covering the
remains of a
[Illustration: VASILI BLAJENNI]
mendicant monk "idiotic for Christ's sake," its familiar appellation,
"Blessed Willie," is derived from him. He it was who so often interposed
his person between the Tsar and the objects of his wrath. He upbraided
Ivan; threatened him with all manner of disasters, but neither Ivan nor
his opritchniks ever hurt the naked body of the old beggar. He used to
address the Tsar familiarly, "Ivashka" (Bad Jacky); when the Tsar
offered him money he let it fall to the floor, blew on his fingers, said
the coins burned, and asked Ivan why he had his gold from hell. Then he
would tell Ivan that on his forehead were already growing the horns of a
goat--that he was becoming a devil really--then hold him up to the
ridicule of the court and the people--and Ivan, enraged, dared not
strike him down himself or order anyone to do so. Now, the wonderful
monument of Ivan's time is called by the name of the man he feared; it
is _he_ the orthodox remember; it is his church; they honour and revere
him. Later another popular prophet, "Ivan the Idiot" was buried there by
order of the Tsar Theodore: his chapel adjoins that of "Blessed Willie,"
below the level of the church itself at the east end.
The church has not much history; the Poles plundered it, Napoleon
ordered his generals to "Destroy that Mosque"--instead they quartered
themselves there. It has been many times repaired; was reconsecrated in
1812 and remains, what it is, a striking memorial of a fearful era.
As a place of worship it is now but little used. Its architecture is not
of the kind to inspire lofty thoughts, or draw any nearer to God. Its
associations are all unpleasant, reminiscent of the excesses of Ivan,
the weaknesses of his immediate successors. Worse, it lacks sincerity:
intuitively one knows that such a building cannot shelter truth or
engender hope. To uncover at its portal seems a mockery; to connect it
with aught that is pure and Holy, a rank blasphemy.
Glittering in bright sunlight, gay with colour, resplendent with
reflections from a glorious sky, it seems only like a kaleidoscopic
flash on a variegated canvas. To know Vasili Blajenni, the visitor
should walk round it in the dusk of the evening, in the gloom of a
winter's day, or, in summer, in that half-light of midnight that there
does duty for darkness. Standing in the shadow of the Kremlin wall, on
soil saturated fathoms deep with the blood of innocent martyrs, examine
the building closely and call to memory the people by whom and for whom
it was produced. Then and then only may the conception of this
fungus-like excrescence seem possible, and Vasili Blajenni stand
revealed as an expression of inordinate vanity, uncontrolled passion,
insatiate lust. Like attributes without a soul--weird, monstrous,
horrible. No fitting memorial of any man, yet not out of character with
what is known of him they called Ivan the Terrible.
The clergy alone possessed any power besides the Tsar; but the Church
was unable to coerce him or to save the people. Obedience to those in
power it had inculcated so long and thoroughly that the Russians never
attempted reprisals or lifted a hand against the Tsar. Even a voievod,
speaking to Ivan, had his ears sliced off there and then by the Tsar
himself, and he not only bore it patiently, but thanked the Tsar for his
attention. The people, debased, servile, frightened, could not help the
Church--and soon the clergy could not help themselves. Ivan, who was
fond of the semblance of justice, after his expedition north appointed a
baptized Tartar, one Simeon Bekbulatov, to be Tsar in his place, then
himself abdicated. But he took care to make Simeon do as he wished, and
_he_ kept the power. The people obeyed Simeon, to a certain extent, but
the Tsar's chief object in this was to legalise his seizure of
ecclesiastical revenues. Simeon made certain agreements, but not having
made those in force, which had been recognised by Ivan, he abrogated
them. Then Ivan dismissed Simeon amidst the thanksgiving and rejoicing
of his people, and with tears in his own eyes, the arch-hypocrite again
took his seat on the throne. But the old agreements were no longer in
force; then Ivan declared null and void certain acts of Simeon, and so
between the two, secured all the Church properties he wanted, and
deprived the clergy of many privileges. Ivan was a great chess-player;
his strategy as Tsar shows how his knowledge of the game benefited him.
Ivan put to death his cousin Vladimir for no crime; his mother
Euphrosyne, when living in seclusion in a convent, he dragged forth and
drowned in the Cheksna. His own sister-in-law, the widow of his early
playmate Yuri, was also killed for no other reason than in the seclusion
of the convent she had shed tears over the victims of the despot's fury.
The boyard Rostevski, after imprisonment, was marched naked in very cold
weather until the Volga was reached. His guards said that there they
must water their horses. "Ah," said Rostevski, "full well I know I have
to drink of that water too," and straightway he went to his death.
Seerkon had no other crime than that he was rich. A rope was placed
round his waist and he was hauled from one side of a river to the other
and back again until half-drowned, then placed in a bath of hot oil and
torn to pieces.
Ivan kept many bears, and delighted to turn them out when savage amongst
helpless people. Another diversion was to clothe men in bear skins, then
set trained dogs to tear them to pieces. He poured spirits over the
heads of delegates, then set their beards on fire. On one occasion his
men brought a lot of women of Moscow, and stripping all naked presented
them to Ivan--he took a few and gave the remainder to the perpetrators
of this outrage. Prince Chernialef he had grilled in an enormous
frying-pan; hundreds died on the rack.
"Kniaz Ivan Kuraken, being found drunk, as was pretended, in Wenden
when besieged, being voievod thereof, was stripped naked, laid on a
cart, whipped through the market with six whips of wire, which cut
his back, belly and bowels to death. Another, as I remember, Ivan
Obrossimov, was hanged naked on a gibbet by the hair of his head;
the skin and flesh of his body from top to toe cut off and minced
with knives into small gobbets, by four _palatsniks_
(chamberlains). The one, wearied with his long carving, thrust his
knife in somewhat far the sooner to dispatch him, and was presently
had to another place of execution and that hand cut off; which, not
being well seared, he died the next day.
"That was the valley compared to Gehenna or Tophet, where the
faithless Egyptians did sacrifice their children to the hideous
devils.
"Kniaz Boris Telupa was drawn upon a sharp stake, soaped to enter
his body and out at his neck, upon which he languished in horrible
pain for fifteen hours and spake unto his mother, the duchess,
brought to behold that woeful sight. And she, a good matronly
woman, given to one hundred gunners who did her to death. Her body
lying naked in the Place, Ivan commanded his huntsman to bring
their hungry hounds and devour her flesh, and dragged her bones
everywhere. The Tsar saying: 'Such as I favour I have honoured, and
such as be treytors will I have thus done unto.'"--_Horsey._
Another boyard impaled, during the long hours he remained conscious,
never ceased calling upon God to forgive the Tsar. On one occasion,
during a time of great scarcity, Ivan caused it to be made known that at
a certain hour alms would be distributed at his palace. A great crowd of
needy people assembled, and seven hundred were promptly knocked on the
head by the opritchniks and their bodies thrown into the lake; a death
so merciful, Horsey terms it "a deed of charity."
Ivan forced father to kill son, and son father. His two once favourites,
the Gluiskis, also suffered; the son being beheaded as he reverently
raised the head just struck from his father's body. On that same day
another prince was impaled and four others beheaded. Many were hung up
by the feet, hacked with knives, and whilst still living, plunged into a
cauldron of scalding water. On one occasion, eight hundred women were
drowned together. The opritchniks, of whom at one time Ivan had seven
hundred, killed scores of people daily.
He himself plotted against the life of his own son and gave "Maliuta"
(Skutarov) orders to kill him. Kniaz Serebrenni saved him. This is the
subject of Count A. Tolstoi's best known novel and of an old ballad
which recounts how the Tsar got all the boyards together to say a mass
for the dead Tsarevich and in mourning, "or all I will boil in a
cauldron." Nikita Serebrenni, hiding the Tsarevich behind the door,
enters in ordinary raiment and is questioned by the Tsar, who when he
knows that the Tsarevich is safe, rejoices greatly and offers Serebrenni
half the kingdom as a reward. Serebrenni answers:--
"Ah! woe Tsar Ivan Vasilievich!
I wish neither for the half of thy kingdom,
Nor the gold of thy coffers.
Give me only that wicked Skutarov,
I will guide him to the noisome marsh
That men call most cursed spot."
With the aid of his foreign physician, Bomel, Ivan substituted poison
for the knife. At his table the craven boyards would gather trembling;
take from him and drain the cup they knew to be poisoned. No wonder
Horsey called them "a base and servile people, without courage." In his
turn "Elizius Bomelius" suffered a cruel death. When Theodorof was
accused of aspiring to the crown, Ivan dressed him in the royal
insignia, seated him on the throne and did him mock homage; then struck
him dead, saying that it was he who exalted the humble and put down the
mighty from their seats.
His people all shrank from him: the merchants hid their goods if he, or
any of his spies, were in their neighbourhood; none dared be counted
rich. He robbed any and all. Even the English merchants, whose good
esteem he prized, were forced to furnish him with what he wished, on
credit, and were never paid. They dared not offer their wares to any,
unless he had first been afforded an opportunity to purchase--at his own
price.
His palace at Alexandrovski was a wondrous building; all spires, domes,
quaint gables, and corridors--as unlike all other palaces as Vasili
Blajenni is unlike other churches. Of his enormities there, none may
write. After his death, it was struck by lightning and burned to the
ground.
He was rough, uncouth, unfeeling. He emptied scalding soup over one of
his favourites and laughed at the sufferer's contortions. Taking offence
at a remark of one of his jesters, he ran his knife into the little
fellow's chest; then called a doctor, telling him he had used his fool
roughly. The doctor told him the man was dead. Ivan, remarking that he
was a poor jester after all, went away to his revels.
A straightforward old boyard, Morozof, a hard fighter and an upholder of
the rights of his order, for disputing with the favoured Boris Godunov
about precedence, was exiled. After some years he was again summoned to
court, and Ivan made of him a buffoon. Count Alexis Tolstoi uses the
story in his romance "Prince Serebrenni."
"'Yes, the Boyard is old in years but young in spirit. He loves a
joke--so do I in the hours not devoted to prayers or my affairs of
state. But since I killed that foolish jester, no one knows how to
amuse me. I see that the Boyard Morozof wants the post. I have
promised to show him a favour--I name him my chief jester! Bring
the cap and bells! Put them on the Boyard.' The muscles of the
Tsar's face worked sharply, his voice was unchanged.
"Morozof was thunder-struck: he could not believe his ears. He
looked more terrible even than the Tsar. When Gresnoi brought the
cloak, with its tinkling bells, Morozof pushed him aside. 'Stand
back! Do not dare, outcast, to touch Boyard Morozof! Your fathers
cleaned out my ancestor's kennels. You leave me alone! Tsar,
withdraw your order. Let me be put to death. With my head you can
do as you will. You may not touch my honour!'
"Ivan looked round at the opritchniks. 'You see I am right in
saying that the Boyard will have his joke. I have no right to
promote him to the office of jester, eh?'
"'Tsar, I implore you to withdraw your words. Before you were born
I fought for your father with Simski against the Cheremiss; with
Odoevski and Mstislavski drove back the Krim-Tartars, and chased
the Tartars away from Moscow. I defended you when a child; fought
for your rights and the rights of your mother. I prized only mine
honour; that has always remained unstained. _Will_ you mock the
grey hairs of a faithful servant? Behead me rather--if you will.'
"'Your foolish words show that you are well fitted for a jester.
Put on the cloak! And you fellows, help him. He is used to be
waited upon.'
"The opritchniks put on the fool's cloak, the parti-coloured cap,
and retreating, bowed low before him. 'Now amuse us as did the late
jester!' said their leader.
"Morozof was resolute. 'I accept the new post, to which the Tsar
has appointed me. It was not fit for Boyard Morozof to sit at table
with a Godunov--but the court fool may keep company even with such
as the Basmanovs. Make way for the new jester, and listen, all of
you, how he will amuse Ivan Vasilievich!' He made a gesture of
command: the opritchniks stood aside, and with his bells tinkling,
the fine old man marched up the room and seated himself on the
stool before the Tsar, but with such dignity that he seemed to be
wearing the royal purple instead of the motley of the court fool.
"'How shall I amuse you, Tsar?' and putting his elbows on the
table, he leant forward and looked directly into the eyes of his
sovereign. 'It is not easy to find a fresh diversion for you; there
have been so many jests in Russia since you began to reign. You
rode your horse over the helpless in the streets once-upon-a-time;
you have thrown your companions to dogs, you poured burning pitch
over the heads of those who humbly petitioned you! But those were
childish freaks. You soon tired of such simple cruelties. You began
to imprison your nobles, in order to fill your rooms with their
wives and daughters, but of this also you have tired. You next
chose your most faithful servants for the torture; then you found
it wearied you to mock the people and the nobles, so you began to
scoff at the Church of God. You picked out the lowest rabble,
decked them out as monks, and yourself became the abbot! In
daylight you commit murders; at night sing psalms! Your favourite
amusement, this! None had thought of it before. You are covered
with blood, yet you chant and ring the holy bells and would like to
perform the mass. What else shall I say to amuse you, Tsar? This:
whilst you are masquerading thus with your opritchniks, wallowing
in blood, Sigismund with his Poles will fall on you in the west,
and from the east will come the Khan, and you will have left none
alive to defend Moscow. The holy churches of God will be entered
and burned by the infidel, all the holy relics will be taken:
you,--you--the Tsar of all the Russias, will have to kneel at the
feet of the Khan, and ask leave to kiss his stirrup!' Morozof
ceased. None dared interrupt; all held their breath in agonising
suspense. Ivan, pale, with flashing eyes, and foaming with rage,
listened to all attentively, bent forward, as though fearing to
lose a single word. Morozof gazed proudly around him. 'Do you want
me to divert you further, Tsar? I will. One faithful subject, of
high birth, still remained to you. You had not yet thought of
killing him, because--perhaps--perhaps you feared the anger of God;
and perhaps only because you could think of no torture or infamous
death worthy of him. He lived in disgrace far from you; you exiled
him; you might have forgotten him--but you never forget, do you,
Tsar? You sent your cursed favourite, Viasemski, to burn his house
and carry off his wife. When he came to you for redress for these
wrongs, you sent him to combat for the right, in the hope that your
young courtier would kill the old boyard. God did not allow you
that joy, Tsar. He gave the other the victory. What did you do
then, Tsar?' the bells on the cap tinkled as the old man's head
shook with his emotion. 'Why, then you dishonoured him by an
unheard-of outrage. Then, Tsar,' he pushed back the table in his
indignation, and sprang to his feet--'then you ordered the boyard,
Morozof, to wear the fool's cap! You forced the man, who had saved
Tula and Moscow, to play the fool to amuse you and your idle
courtiers!'
"The look of the old warrior was fierce; the absurdity of his dress
disappeared. His eyes flashed fire, his white beard fell on a chest
scarred with many wounds now hidden beneath a jester's cloak. So
much dignity was there in him that by his side the Tsar looked
mean.
"Tsar, your new fool stands before you. Listen to his last jest.
While you live the people dare not speak, but when your hateful
reign is over your name will be cursed from generation to
generation, until, on the day of judgment, the hundreds and
thousands you have murdered--men, women and little children, all of
whom you have tortured and killed, all will stand before God
appealing against you, their murderer. On that dreadful day I, too,
shall appear in this same dress before the Great Judge, and will
ask for that honour you took from me on earth. You will have no
body-guard then to defend you; the Judge will hear us, and you will
go into that everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels.'
"Casting a disdainful look upon the courtiers, Morozof turned round
and slowly withdrew. None dared to stop him. He passed through the
hall with great dignity, and not until the jingle of his bells
ceased did any speak."--_Alexis Tolstoi._
His son, the Tsarevich Ivan, wished to lead an army against his father's
enemies in Lithuania. In this offer the jealous Tsar saw an attempt to
gain popularity. He turned on Ivan savagely and struck him repeatedly
with the iron-shod "sceptre" he always carried; the last blow knocked
the young man senseless. He fell to the ground, and the Tsar, now
frightened, did his utmost to save him, but he was injured too severely
and died four days later.
There still exists in the monastery of St Cyril, Moscow, a synodal
letter, in which are specified a number of victims for whom Ivan
solicited the prayers of the Church. The souls of 3,470 in all are to be
prayed for; 986 of these are mentioned by name, the others are cited
as--"with his wife," "with sons," "with wife and children," "Kazarim
Dubrovski and his two sons and the ten men who came to their defence,"
"twenty men of the village of Kolomensko," "eighty of Matveche,"
"Remember, Lord, the souls of thy servants to the number of 1,505
Novgorodians."
In the number of wives recognised by the Church as more or less
legitimately joined with him he beat Henry VIII. by only one, but in the
number of mistresses he can be compared with Solomon alone. Anastasia
Romanof died in 1560; in the same year he married Mary Tangrak, either a
Cheremiss or Tartar. His next wife was chosen out of all the most
eligible maids in Russia. Her name was Marfa Sabakina of Novgorod. The
marriage took place on October 28, 1571, and on November 13 of the same
year she died. Her brother, Michael, the Tsar impaled shortly
afterwards. Ivan's marriage with Natalia Bulkatov was not recognised by
the Church. Anna Koltoski he took next, but he forced her into a nunnery
later, where she lived until 1626. Anna Vasilichekov and one Mstislavski
succeeded, but only one was recognised,--which one is disputed.
Vassilissa Melentief, a great beauty, was his next choice, but the
Church recognised only Maria Nagoi, the mother of the murdered Dmitri,
whom he married in 1580. When but a few months wed, he informed Queen
Elizabeth that he would put aside his wife, who was shortly to become a
mother, if he could find a suitable partner for himself in England. Poor
Lady Mary Hastings, learning something of his character, begged her
sovereign not to mate her with such a barbarian. His harem was that of a
Turk.
He was prematurely worn out with his excesses. He could obtain little
peace. Superstitious, he sent for wizards and prognosticators; Finns who
certainly foretold the day, if not the hour, of his death. The
appearance of a comet greatly terrified him--the once mighty Tsar lost
his strength. Like Herod of old he died a fearful death, and he left
his country in a worse plight than he found it.
He was received into the Church before his demise, but he is officially
known as Yoanna and familiarly as "Groznoi" (the Terrible). His evil
deeds are forgotten by the people, whilst the enrichment of his country
by others of his day is counted to his credit. He was the first "Tsar"
of Russia, and not in name only; he was its first ruler to become an
absolute autocrat.
It is a fashion of this humanitarian age to make allowances for the
harsh deeds of those who lived in ruder times, and in this nineteenth
century even Ivan the Terrible has found apologists. His atrocities, his
joy in the perpetration of the cruellest tortures on the innocent, all
his wickednesses are admitted; but they call his lust by a Greek name
and say he is to be pitied rather than condemned. Yet some there must be
even now, who, when they read that Ivan always went to the torture rooms
with joy and came away from its fiendish practices invigorated,
refreshed and gay, will rightly regard him with loathing and horror. Not
only is his character without a redeeming trait, but his nature is so
fiendish and foul that the student may read long and investigate very
closely before making sure that Ivan was human. His lusts had not the
saving grace of humour; his fear even was sulphurous. Neither
circumstances nor events either mitigate or condone his cruelties.
Throughout his life he was actuated by one impulse only, to gratify and
preserve himself. Those who believe that the occasion makes the man must
feel that the fifty-years rule of this despot upsets that theory. Never
was there such need for a Cromwell--the country could not produce a man,
much less a liberator. Doubtless the action of previous rulers, the
centuries of thraldom to Tartars, the thorough teaching of the
Christian doctrine of obedience to rulers, contributed to the servility
of the people. One of his tortured victims, it is true, did try to
assault him, but the wretch was at once killed by the watchful
Tsarevich, and in future Ivan ran no such risks. Prelates rebuked him
and suffered; his victims suffered and forgave him--none tried to free
themselves or help others. In all this dreary time only one man appears
to have acted worthily. The Englishman, Jerom Horsey, exerted all the
influence he possessed on behalf of Ivan's prisoners. The services he
rendered deserve a memorial; instead he received the condemnation of the
Russia Company, in whose employ he was, and the encomiums and admiration
of the Tsar whom he loathed and despised.
The magnitude and multitude of his crimes place Ivan far beyond other
tyrants of his class. It is reassuring to know that in no other country
and at no other time would his rule be permitted. The mere possibility
of a recurrence of such a time of terror would determine every thinking
being to die childless. The spirit of freedom renders the ascendency or
continuance of his like impossible--but in mediæval Moscow the spirit of
freedom had no place.
CHAPTER VI
_The Troublous Times_
"But war has spread its terrors o'er thee,
And thou hast been in ashes laid:
Thy throne seemed tottering then before thee,
Thy sceptre feeble as thy blade."--DMITRIEV.
"Yea, one is full out as villainous as the other."
W. RUSSELL--_A Bloudie and Tragicke Massacre._
Boris Godunov was the most powerful and sagacious of the boyards spared
by Ivan the "Terrible"; he was best fitted to direct the policy of the
government, and later the people looked to him as the only ruler
possible. A man who could satisfy Ivan, yet take no part in his orgies,
who could keep the goodwill of the foreign residents, yet be beloved of
the Muscovites, must have possessed abilities of no mean order. Boris
was a great man to whom historians have done scant justice. He is
described as inordinately ambitious and accused of unscrupulousness in
his methods, but the court in which he was schooled may be adduced in
extenuation of his crimes, whilst ambition, an undesirable quality for a
subject to possess, is a laudable virtue in monarchs. It was his
misfortune not to have been born in the purple--his contemporaries and
the historians have counted this a fault, but it is too late to blame
him for acting as a king when he was by birth a simple noble.
Boris Godunov, as brother of the Tsar's wife, had a recognised position
apart from the favour the Tsar's father had shown him. The relatives of
the Tsarina were always counted less dangerous to the dynasty than were
the Tsar's blood relations, and their influence at Court was greater
than their precedence warranted. Theodore was the opposite of his
father, unintelligent, feeble-willed, incompetent, he thrust greatness
upon Boris Godunov, who saved Moscow. At that time the Tsar held
territory in Europe larger than that ruled by any of his contemporaries;
the conquests of Yermak in Asia brought as much more under his dominion.
Enemies, active, watchful, virulent, were ever ready to harass its
rulers. Poles and Swedes expected Moscow sooner or later, to fall to
them, and lost no opportunity to effect the overthrow of the Russians.
Tartars and others kept up predatory wars and, within the empire, towns
and districts, devastated by the wanton cruelties of Ivan, were anxious
to get back their independence. There were no men able to rule. Ivan had
put to death those brave enough and independent enough to assert
authority; what was worse for Russia, he had driven into exile competent
and influential nobles, who, maddened by his persecutions, became
enemies of their fatherland and plotted with foreign sovereigns against
the state.
To govern was difficult; to preserve the empire intact, still more so;
further aggrandisement almost impossible with the conditions then
prevailing. Theodore left everything to the council,--_duma_, consisting
of boyards whom Godunov held in the hollow of his hand. From his
brother-in-law he obtained special titles and special powers; he became
viceroy of immense territories, and could put 100,000 armed men into the
field at need. He was practically regent and lacked nothing that was
royal but the title. When the Shooiskis, the Belskis, the Mstislavskis
and others did not please him he forced them from power. Mstislavski had
to become a monk; Shooiski, who tried to get together a party among the
merchants, was banished to a distant town; Dionysius, the metropolitan,
was deposed, and a nominee of Godunov's succeeded to the primacy of the
church. When, in 1586, Batory, King of Lithuania died, Boris Godunov put
forward Theodore as candidate for the crown of Poland. But the Poles
would have no ruler who belonged to the eastern church. Moreover, they
feared the Muscovites would join Poland to Muscovy like a sleeve to a
coat; but the claim proved that Russia was still a power with which the
west would have to reckon. Boris, who had always been friendly with the
English, obtained for Theodore the support of England against Danes and
Swedes; he quite won over Queen Elizabeth to the side of the young Tsar
and, in many ways, as Grand High Chancellor advanced the interests of
his sovereign and his country.
In Moscow he acted intelligently. The middle town, the Bielo-Gorod or
free town, between the Kitai Gorod and the present boulevards was
enclosed with a wall of stone, having twenty-eight towers and nine
gates. The last gate, that on the Arbat, was razed in 1792, the wall
having been earlier demolished and its site utilised for the present
existing boulevards. Its style was that of the wall around the Donskoi
Monastery built in 1591 to commemorate the victory of the Muscovites
under Mstislavski against 150,000 Krim-Tartars advancing on the city
under the leadership of the Khan Kazi Ghiree. Another building of
Godunov's is the smaller "Golden Palace" in the Terem of the Kremlin,
which was erected for the accommodation of the Tsaritsa Irene. Many
bells were cast, and some cannon including the monstrous Tsar
Pushka--still within the Kremlin--which bears a
[Illustration: A CORRIDOR--THE OLD PALACES]
portrait of Theodore on horseback on its reinforcement. Theodore lived
in regal state: his household numbered over 1000, and he entertained
foreign ambassadors with even greater pomp and magnificence than his
predecessors. Not only were these guests provided with a fitting
residence and a large suit, but it was not uncommon for as many as a
hundred and fifty dinners to be sent daily from the Tsar's kitchen for
their entertainment.
Ivan's youngest son, Dmitri, with his mother Maria, and her relatives,
the Nagois, were domiciled in Uglitch by the order of Boris; whilst
there in 1581, about the period of the Tartar invasion, young Dmitri was
murdered--at Boris Godunov's instigation it is said. Jerom Horsey, who
was in Uglitch at the time, states that he was aroused late at night,
the news given him, and his aid requested on behalf of Dmitri's mother
believed to be poisoned. Horsey gave the messenger the small vial of
sallet oil the Queen (Elizabeth) had given him as a specific against all
poisons and ills. An inquiry was ordered when Boris Godunov was
suspected of having instigated the crime, and as a result of the
investigation made by Shooiski it was declared that the boy cut his own
throat and that the Nagois and citizens of Uglitch had put to death
innocent men as murderers, whereupon, the incredible finding being
believed, an effort was made to exterminate the Nagois, and Uglitch was
almost depopulated.
There can be no doubt that Dmitri was murdered when six years old, but
it is not so clear at whose instigation the deed was done. Giles
Fletcher states that the child "resembled his father in delight of
blood," and it may be that evidence of his cruel propensities induced
some sufferer from Ivan's tyranny to wreak vengeance on the son in hope
of saving a generation to come from such suffering as the past had
endured. It may be that Boris Godunov plotted for his removal, but it is
known that Boris was anxious for Theodore to have a son to succeed to
the throne, and, probably, had then little intention of securing it for
himself. One of the complaints made by the Russia Company against Jerom
Horsey was in connection with a wrongly interpreted order he executed on
behalf of Boris Godunov who wished a "wise woman" sent out from England
to doctor the Tsaritsa, and the company instead sent out a midwife.
To conciliate the small landowners a decree was issued in 1597
forbidding peasants to leave the land and thus serfdom was established.
Some efforts had been made in former centuries to restrict the
migrations of a people, nomadic by habit, still accustomed to change
masters frequently by moving from one estate to another at seed time and
harvest. The tendency of the powerful was to increase the size of their
holdings and to augment their retainers by enticing labourers from
smaller estates. To check this the husbandman was attached to the soil
as the serf of the estate.
As statesmanlike, and less objectionable, was the appointment of a
patriarch to win over the clergy. Jeremiah, patriarch of Constantinople,
was banished by the Turks and sought refuge in Rome. The Pope sent him
to Moscow, hoping that the chief of their own church would influence the
Russians to forward the amalgamation of the Greek and Roman churches. If
not successful in this, it was hoped that the recountal of the
patriarch's sufferings and indignities at the hands of infidels, might
induce the Romans to make a league with Spain against the Turks.
According to Giles Fletcher the Pope's emissaries did nothing more than
inveigh against England; but with the destruction of the Spanish Armada
all conceit of a Russo-Spanish league vanished. Godunov profited by
Jeremiah's stay in Moscow. He induced him to consecrate the Metropolitan
Job, patriarch of Moscow, and to this patriarchate that of
Constantinople was subsequently added. Thus Moscow became indisputably
the head of the Orthodox Church, by direct apostolic succession.
The Tsar fell ill in 1597 and died in the Kremlin the following year,
and his widow then at once retired to the Novo Devichi convent mourning
her bereavement and blaming herself that through her the sovereign race
had perished, for her only child, Theodosia, died in 1592, when but ten
months old.
The enmity the reigning princes had shown their own kindred, produced
the unexpected result that there were now no legal heirs to the throne;
the line of which Andrew Bogoloobski Dolgoruki was the founder, was
extinct. The Tsar Theodore when on his death-bed said that God would
provide the next Tsar, and refused to nominate a successor. The States'
Council convened for the purpose of appointing a ruler, unanimously
chose Boris Godunov. It was impossible that the throne could escape him.
He hung back, wishful to have an expression of the desire of the people
of Moscow, as well as of the delegates. The people required him. They
went to the Novo Devichi convent, whither he had gone, begged him to
accept the position to which he had been appointed; his sister "blessed
him for the throne," and with great show of reluctance, he at last
consented. In due course he was crowned; reigned wisely and well, but
was not liked. A chronicler has it that "he presented to the poor in a
vase of gold the blood of the innocents, he fed them with unholy alms."
Those of his subjects who remembered the tyranny of Ivan should have
blessed their elected ruler. They could not forget his Tartar origin:
he was not of royal descent, was no Tsar. Nor could he win popularity.
His first act was to conclude an honourable peace with Kazi Ghiree and
the invading Tartars; his policy was to avoid war, that "there might be
neither widows nor orphans of his making."
Horsey wrote of him:--
"He is nowe become a Prince of subjects, and not of slaves, kept
within duty and loyalty by love and not by feare and tyranny. He is
comely of stature, of countenance well-favoured and majesticalle
withal; affable in behaviour and yet of great courage, wyse,
politick, grave; merciful, a lover of virtue and goodness, a hater
of wicked men, and a severe punisher of injustice. _In summa_, he
is a most rare prince as ever reigned over these people as any I
have ever read of in their chronicles, which are of great
antiquity."
In 1601 Moscow was in a state of famine, the like of which it had never
known. In a short time 3 roubles would not buy as much food as 15
copecks had done formerly. Driven wild by hunger the Muscovites
committed fearful atrocities. Men were entrapped, killed and eaten. It
is said that some mothers killed and ate their own children; pies of
human flesh were sold openly; many thousand corpses remained unburied in
the streets; chroniclers state that half a million perished of famine
and disease. To alleviate some of the misery, Boris caused the granaries
and stores to be burst open, and the food avarice withheld sold at
normal prices.
Boris built two new palaces of stone within the Kremlin; had made a map
of the Russian dominions, and a plan of Moscow. To find employment for
the poor he caused the belfry tower of Ivan Veliki to be constructed,
and did his utmost to win the love of the citizens. He had to combat
treason and intrigue; his reprisals were severe, but the victims
suffered in secret.
[Illustration: CHURCH OF THE ASSUMPTION]
The Belskis and Romanofs were ill-treated; the head of the latter house
was forced to become a monk, and took the name of Philaret; his wife to
become a nun, under the name of Marfa. One of the most remarkable
specimens of Muscovite architecture has survived from Boris Godunov's
day, the church of the Assumption he built on the Pokrovka. Like other
churches of mediæval Moscow, its chief entrance is by steps to a second
storey, but unlike them it is carried much higher and appears more like
a collection of buildings piled upon each other. Thirteen cupolas, at
different heights, are arranged around the central dome. A covered
gallery surrounds the church on the main storey, and the logia beneath
was, until recently, divided and let as shops.
In 1604, the first false Dmitri appeared, invading Russia from the west,
at the head of Poles and Zaporogians. Boris was energetic and able, but
the towns revolted on the approach of Dmitri, and the soldiers of
Godunov's voievodes "found it hard to bear arms against their lawful
sovereign." Even Mstislavski, who tried to stop the advance, had no
soldiers to help him; his men "had not hands to fight, only feet with
which to run away." Shooiski was better able to rally his men, and he
defeated Dmitri at Dobryvichi. Boris then thought that the struggle was
finished, but the movement had only just commenced. The Ukraine rose;
some 40,000 Cossacks of the Don joined the impostor, and the inaction of
the voievodes to stop the advance towards Moscow, proved that the spirit
of treason was wide spread.
Boris Godunov did not live to see the issue. After a repast he was
suddenly taken ill; there was suspicion of poisoning and, expecting to
die, he nominated his son Theodore his successor. After confiding the
youth to the care of his friend Basmanov, to the Patriarch and to the
people of Moscow, he breathed his last on the 15th April 1605, being
then but fifty-five years of age.
Theodore ascended the throne as soon as his father's remains were
interred in the Archangelski Cathedral, but it soon became evident to
his supporters that neither officers nor men would fight on behalf of
the Godunovs. Rather than become a victim of treason, Basmanov chose to
be its author, and announced that he was convinced that Dmitri was in
truth the son of Ivan the Terrible.
The impostor was audacious and successful. His career has the
fascination of romance. He was one Otrepief, a monk of the Chudov
monastery within the Kremlin. Job, the Patriarch, made him his
secretary, a position which enabled him to learn several state and court
secrets. He said one day to his fellow scribes, that some day he would
reign over them as Tsar of Muscovy. For answer they spat in his face,
and reported his words. Boris sent him a prisoner to the monastery on
the White Lake. He escaped, wandered about for some time, and at
Novgorod Severski was well received by the inhabitants, to whom he
revealed himself as the supposed murdered Dmitri, and promised all who
helped him suitable rewards if he should obtain his own rights. Then he
threw off his cowl and joined a band of Zaporogians; learned of them how
to ride and fight. As a soldier he sought service with Adam
Vichnevetski, a Polish _pan_ of good standing. He soon feigned illness;
a priest was summoned, and to him he confessed that he was the son of
the Tsar. This disclosure was of too great political value to remain the
secret of the priest, and in due course Otrepief was recognised as
Dmitri by Vichnevetski. Then the papal Nuncio took him under his
protection, and he was presented to King Sigismund.
It is unlikely that these dignitaries were deceived. Sigismund feigned
to believe Otrepief's story, but refused to recognise him officially,
though he allowed his subjects, at their own risk, to take service under
Otrepief's banner and foment a revolution.
From various motives the Russian leaders flocked to him as he marched
towards Moscow. In the town the people crowded in the Grand Square to
hear the news of his triumphant progress; his manifesto was read from
the Lobnoe Mesto, and none dare stay the treason, not even the Patriarch
would venture! The boyards Mstislavski, Vasili Shooiski, Belski and
others, went out to argue with the citizens, but they were met with
cries of "The day of Godunov is over! To-day the sun rises upon Russia;
Dmitri! Long live the Tsar Dmitri! Down with the Godunovs! Cursed be the
memory of Boris! Long live Dmitri!" So shouting, this crowd made its way
into the Kremlin.
The rioters were masters; the guard fled, and the townsmen who had
forced their way into the palace actually pulled the young Tsar from the
throne. His mother begged them to spare his life, and her cry was
heeded. The Godunovs were removed from the palace to their own dwelling
and a guard placed over them. The relations and friends of the Godunovs
were then imprisoned, their dwellings pillaged and destroyed. Belski,
from his known antipathy to the Godunovs, became the counsellor of the
mob. Some time later the partisans of Dmitri made a fresh attack on the
Kremlin. The object of their fury on this occasion was the Patriarch. He
was celebrating mass in the Cathedral of the Assumption when an armed
band forced their way into the sanctuary, seized him at the altar,
dragged him forth and tore away his vestments. Clad in black he was
brought in ignominy from the church, shown to the people, and sent away
on a common cart to the monastery of Staritsa, five hundred versts from
Moscow.
On the 10th of June 1605, the Princes Galitzin and Mossolski, with a
couple of secretaries and three of the guard of Streltsi, went to the
palace of the Godunovs; took Theodore and his sister from the arms of
the Tsarina and ordered the guard to put them to death in an adjoining
room, and then strangled the Tsarina herself. Theodore made a struggle
for life, fighting savagely, but he was struck down. Xenia was spared;
Dmitri who had heard of her beauty ordered Mossolski to find an asylum
for her in his mansion. The corpses of Marie and Theodore after being
exposed to the public, were interred in the convent of St Varsonophee on
the Srietenka, and the disinterred body of Boris Godunov brought to the
same resting-place.
At this time Dmitri was at Tula, but all being now in readiness for his
enthronement, he came to Moscow and made a state entry unparalleled for
its magnificence and pageantry. A violent gust of wind which somewhat
disturbed the procession as it crossed the Moskva was taken as an omen
of ill, and later in the day, by an unlucky coincidence, at the moment
when the clergy were prostrate before the Holy ikons, the foreign
musicians sounded a fanfare. When Dmitri prostrated himself before the
tomb of Ivan and cried, "Oh my father, thou left me an orphan and in
exile, but by thy prayers I have regained my possessions!" the simple
people were convinced of his identity. He was crowned; his supposed
mother, Maria Nagoi, recognised him, and his rule commenced.
Little fault can be found with the way in which Dmitri governed. He
pardoned those who had suffered from the Godunovs, and was generous to
those who had shown themselves inimical to him; he rewarded his
partisans handsomely and was lavish in his expenditure. He purchased and
ordered rich furnishings for himself and the court, exhibiting a
prodigality that frightened the more staid of the Moscow citizens. In
three months he is said to have spent more than seven million roubles,
and the display of riches was the wonder of foreign visitors to his
court. He rode Arabs, dressed his servants like nobles, and built and
furnished a palace that surpassed anything seen in Moscow. It was of
wood; the stoves of porcelain had doors of silver; the bolts and bars of
the palace were all gold, or at least gilded; before the entrance was an
enormous statue of Cerberus, of which the three jaws opened wide at the
least blow. The chroniclers state that "this was a symbol of the
dwelling that was to be Dmitri's throughout eternity."
There were malcontents, and chief among them was Vasili Shooiski, who,
on the denunciation of Basmanov, was tortured and condemned to death. At
the last moment he was pardoned, but was implacable, and worked
assiduously for the overthrow of Dmitri and the ruin of Basmanov.
Pope Paul V. sent Rogoni to Moscow on the usual errand, but Dmitri was
in nowise inclined to make any submission to Rome. At the same time he
was tolerant, and this tolerance gave great offence to the orthodox. He
allowed Lutherans to preach; permitted the Jesuits to have a place of
worship within the Kremlin; even listened to an address in Latin
delivered by a Jesuit in an orthodox church. Equally irritating was the
freedom foreigners now had to enter an orthodox church, the doors of
which had been hitherto closed against all but the faithful. Dmitri
upbraided the clergy for their intolerance. "With us," said he, "there
is only the outward observance, we ignore the spirit of our religion.
You fast, you prostrate yourselves before relics, you worship the Holy
ikons, but you do not understand the spirit of religion. You consider
yourselves the most upright people on the earth, and meanwhile you do
not even live as do Christians. You lack charity: you are little
inclined to good works. Why do you scorn those who dissent from you?
What is the Roman faith? It is a Christian faith, even as yours is."
Such opinions as these alienated everyone, but especially the clergy. To
them he was gracious, allowing the Patriarch, four metropolitans, seven
archbishops and three bishops to have seats on the general council--a
privilege they had previously received upon very special occasions only.
An order he made for an inventory of clerical property inflamed the
priests of all degrees against him.
Crull writes of him:--
"For his owne person, he maintayneth his greatnesse very well. He
was a man of mean stature, browne of hue, prompt to choler, but
quickly appeased. He hath broken many a staff, and given sentence
of death, upon the marshals and other officers, when they did but
little swerve from their duty. After he grew to know the Russians'
false pranks, he provided himself with a guard of Livonians, and
afterwards also of Asmaynes and other strangers.... He yet further
determined to have also a hundred musketeers, when he was laid
apart. He took great delight in hunting, and in casting great
pieces of artillery, and not only to see them in hand but also to
proove them himself: for which end he caused ravelynes and ramparts
to be erected to imitate an assault."
Dmitri was too fond of the customs of the west to satisfy the
Muscovites. Many charges were made against him which seem absurd now.
Among them may be instanced "that he favoured foreigners, especially
musicians;" ordinarily he sacrificed pomp, and went hither and thither
about Moscow like a simple citizen. He took the cannon out of the town
to test various pieces "and might then have turned them on the town"; he
liked to watch mimic battles, and laughed when the Muscovites were
routed by the foreign soldiers. He ate meat during Lent and veal at any
time. He showed little or no regard for Russian customs, and broke down
those barriers that prevented the common people from having access to
their Tsar. Much could have been pardoned, but two things were decisive:
he would not sleep after dinner, and he mounted his horse at a bound.
When Dmitri arranged to wed Marina Mniszek, the daughter of a Polish
pan, Vasili Shooiski plotted anew for his overthrow. He it was who had
been commissioned to hold the inquiry into the crime committed at
Uglitch; and the people remembered that he, if anyone, knew the truth
respecting the murder of Ivan's son and the identity of their present
ruler. This in some measure accounts for Dmitri's surprising leniency
towards this enemy. In his new plot Shooiski counted upon the support of
18,000 men of Novgorod and Pskov, then in Moscow on their way to do
battle against the Krim-Tartars. The Tsar could count on the support of
the common people, and though warned of the danger that was threatening,
he took no measures to ensure his own safety, or that of his guests and
bride. The agents of Shooiski circulated two rumours; one, among the
boyard and clergy, to the effect that with the help of the newly arrived
Poles "Dmitri" intended to massacre the boyards and introduce the Roman
faith; to the common people it was represented that the Poles were
ill-treating the Tsar. On the night of the 17th of May the soldiers
secured the entrances to the Kremlin; and on the morning of the 18th,
Shooiski, with a cross in one hand and a drawn sword in the other,
obtained an entrance through the Redeemer Gate, made straight for the
Cathedral of the Assumption and, prostrating himself before the ikon of
Mary of Vladimir, called upon those around him in the name of God to
attack the cursed heretics. The alarm bell rang; Basmanov met some
boyards who, with swords drawn, demanded that "Dmitri" should be given
them. They killed him; then entered the palace in search of the Tsar,
who tried to escape, and to defend himself. Driven along a corridor, he
slipped, was stabbed, and thrown into the courtyard. The guard of
Streltsi, called to his assistance, would have defended him, but when
threatened by Vasili and the boyards, the Tsar prayed them to desist,
and the companions of Shooiski thereupon despatched him. Marina was
spared, and a guard left to protect her; but the conspirators, having
killed Dmitri, Basmanov, and a hundred or more of the foreign musicians
in the palace, they spread over the Kitai Gorod and murdered without
discrimination all the Poles and foreigners they encountered. These
scenes continued all day, and at last the populace took up the cry of
"Down with the Poles!" and the massacre of foreigners became general.
The bodies of "Dmitri" and Basmanov, their faces covered with ribald
masks, prepared for "mummeries" in celebration of the wedding, were
dragged out on to the Grand Square and exposed to the public; later
these corpses were burned, and the ashes fired from a cannon.
On the day following the massacre, Vasili Shooiski was proclaimed Tsar.
The action was too precipitate. Galitzin, who was a candidate, was not
satisfied; the provinces were annoyed that they had not been consulted.
Shooiski did not feel secure. He sent into the distant parts of the
empire as voievodes those boyards who had taken the side of "Dmitri."
Among them was Mossolski, who, on leaving Moscow, took a letter
addressed to "Dmitri," and had already formed the idea of advancing
someone else to the throne. Vasili Shooiski was fifty years of age, he
lacked energy, and his rule satisfied no one. Pretenders sprang up
everywhere; at one time there were seventeen people claiming to be
"Dmitri"; others took the name of Peter; all claimed to be sons of Ivan.
Fighting men took their part. Cossacks, Zaporogians, and others, wanted
war for the booty it brought. The nobles led a war in the south; in the
east the Tartars thought the time opportune for action; Finns tried to
recover their independence; Swedes and Poles looked on, waiting for the
best moment at which to interfere. News travelled slowly, lack of
communication made local risings possible. The people in distant parts
heard almost at the same time that the Tsar was dead, that Dmitri had
recovered his own, that the usurper had been dethroned--they knew not
what to believe. In Moscow the citizens remembered that the bodies which
had been exposed on the Grand Square had the faces masked: to most it
seemed possible that "Dmitri" had escaped after all.
It was some time before the revolutionists joined forces. In the
meantime Shooiski instigated an anti-foreign reaction. Dmitri exiled a
bishop named Hermogen, an able, devout man, uncompromisingly orthodox,
stubborn and bigoted, who now became Patriarch, and won the confidence
of the people.
In due course the different sections of the army of revolutionaries
closed in towards Moscow. Lissovski, a noted brigand, had a large
following. There was John Zapieha, exiled from Poland, seeking fortune,
and with him numerous "pans," intent on the spoils of war; a host of
Zaporogians, and the usual large army of Cossacks, under the hetman
Rojinski, joined them. In the field the superior talents of Michael
Skopin-Shooiski, a nephew of the Tsar, saved the situation. He refused
overtures made by Liapunov, and this voievode consequently separated his
following from that of the revolutionaries and joined Shooiski.
Bolotnikov had then to fall back on Tula, and he wrote to Mniszek that
unless "Dmitri" was produced, their cause would be lost. He was found,
but too late to save Bolotnikov, who was drowned; another leader was
hanged. The identity of the new impostor is as disputed as that of
"Junius"; to historians he is simply the "second false Dmitri," the
"Brigand of Tushino," or the "Little Tsar." His party was strong,
because each of its units expected spoils in case of victory; it
received such support as it had from the people by reason of the
ex-Tsaritsa Marina, the widow of "Dmitri," and Mniszek, recognising the
impostor as "Dmitri."
The northern towns supported the impostor, and Sigismund and the Poles
made common cause with him against Moscow. Shooiski, who had refused the
proffered aid of Sweden, now sought help, and from Novgorod the young
Delagardie was sent on behalf of Sweden. More could have been
accomplished had not Vasili Shooiski been so jealous of the successes
and popularity of his nephew. He was afraid to let him take the field,
and the impostor established himself at Tushino, a village ten miles to
the north of Moscow. Here he held his court, and enticed the Muscovites
by promises. Nobles and citizens alike essayed to be on good terms with
both Shooiski, the "half-Tsar," and the impostor, the "little Tsar,"
spending their time at both courts, and earning the name of Pereletsi
(birds-of-passage) by their frequent changes of residence. The townsmen
were so demoralised that they were ready for whomsoever should succeed,
yet gave little assistance to either "Tsar," and responded but feebly to
future attempts at insurrection within the capital. The soldiers
returned to their homes, and Shooiski became by turns devout and
ribald. Now spending all his hours in church, anon seeking aid of
sorcerers; one day punishing traitors with extreme rigour, the next
proclaiming that all were free to do as they wished. The few who
remained true to Shooiski sent sons or near relations to make court to
the impostor.
The Church saved Russia in this extremity; it was unswervingly orthodox
and opposed to Polish supremacy. The rich monastery of Troitsa attracted
the cupidity of the revolutionaries, and some 30,000 men under Zapieha
and Lissovski laid siege to the famous monastery in 1608. The monks held
out bravely, keeping the besiegers at bay for sixteen months. In
September 1609 Sigismund himself laid siege to Smolensk. The people
refused to submit; the voievode Shein defended the town so well that
Sigismund found it necessary to call all Poles to his banner. Zapieha
very reluctantly left Troitsa and joined Sigismund, knowing that in case
of victory the spoils would now fall to the King of Poland. The Russians
with the "little Tsar" had no choice but to accompany the Poles, and the
impostor, deserted, sought refuge in flight. Disguised, he went south,
and later Marina and Mniszek joined him.
The condition of the nobles and commoners who had taken the part of the
impostor was pitiable. In despair a deputation, headed by Soltikov,
waited upon Sigismund and said that the Muscovites beat their foreheads
in the dust before his majesty, and begged that his son Vladislas would
take the throne of the Tsars, making only one condition, namely, that he
should become of the orthodox faith. A compact was made between
Sigismund and the delegates, by which, under certain conditions,
Vladislas was to succeed to the throne of Muscovy.
In the meantime Michael Skopin-Shooiski died in the hour of his
victories. His uncles were accused of having poisoned him. When, at
last, Dmitri Shooiski went out against Sigismund, he was beaten by
Jolkievski and betrayed by the leader of the foreign regiment. The Poles
then marched on to Moscow, and thitherward also came the impostor with a
fresh following, thinking the town would choose him in preference to
Vladislas. Moscow was in uproar; the inhabitants knew not what to do. On
one hand the proclamation of Jolkievski promised peace, abundance, and
prosperity; on the other, the impostor with more specious promises held
fast those who had already paid court to him. Some suggested that
neither candidate should be accepted, but a new Tsar elected by the
people. Matters drifted on until the 17th July 1609 when, after the
result of a meeting at Serphukov became known, the boyards and citizens
together most humbly requested Vasili Shooiski to abdicate, because "he
caused Christian blood to be shed and was not successful in his
government." He retired to his private dwelling and subsequently became
a monk in the Chudov Monastery.
When the boyards had to choose between the Pole and the impostor, some
wished to restore Shooiski to power. For the time being the Council was
content to enforce an oath of fealty to _it_, and to await the coming of
Jolkievski, then at Mojaisk.
Sigismund had determined upon securing the throne for himself, and
Jolkievski had a difficult part to play. The Russians elected an embassy
to Sigismund; it consisted of those who were most likely to oppose the
Polish supremacy: then, the better to guard against the impostor, the
Poles were requested to garrison the Kremlin. The dissidents were thus
got out of the town, and the key to the stronghold of the empire was
given into the hands of the Poles. The Muscovites progressed so slowly
with their negotiations that Jolkievski left Gonsievski in command and
returned to Smolensk, taking Shooiski with him. The Patriarch alone
remained inexorable. He protested against the Polish occupation and
refused all attempts at compromise. More, he was unceasing in his
attempts to awaken the Muscovites to their duty, to their religion,
their country and themselves. His attitude was most irritating to the
boyards favouring the Poles and to the officers of the garrison, for the
indomitable prelate, deprived of the wherewithal to write, called out
loudly to the people to revolt. The boyard Soltikov, enraged by his
repeated refusals to sign the submission, struck at him with a dagger,
but the cross of the prelate warded off the blow. "The cross is my only
weapon that I have against thee, cursed one!" he called, and the
garrison did their best to prevent the people from entering the
cathedral to hear him. Cast in prison, he still found means to inflame
the populace.
The "little Tsar," after the alliance between the Poles and Muscovites
was accomplished, withdrew to Kaluga. Soon afterwards he was murdered;
he left Marina and a son, but neither now were of importance to Russia.
Sigismund wanted Smolensk reunited to Poland; the delegates wanted
Vladislas in Moscow at once. Sigismund delayed. He tried what he could
do with Smolensk; when the secretary Tomila was asked if he would
surrender the town, he answered, "If I were to do it, not only would God
and Muscovites curse me, but the earth would open and swallow me."
Others were not so honest. The King was besieged by applicants for
favours and rewards in return for services rendered, or to be rendered.
In the Kremlin, the boyards denounced each other to the commandant,
Galitzin and Vorontski were arrested; others lost what little prestige
remained to them.
Hermogen succeeded in getting two letters circulated; both were calls to
the faithful to rise against the Poles. They excited indignation, and at
last Liapunov started out from Riazan with an army and arrived before
Moscow. The Poles besought Hermogen to order this force to disperse. He
refused and defied the Poles to do their worst.
In 1611 matters quickly became worse. As long as Jolkievski was in the
Kremlin, Russians and Poles were at peace with each other, but
Gonsievski was not so successful. Some Poles were so foolish as to mock
the orthodox worshippers, and although severely punished, the
circumstance roused the Muscovites to action. There were several riots,
but these were quelled, and the measures the Poles took to ensure their
own safety irritated the citizens still more. Hatred increased day by
day; the position of the Poles became critical. As Holy Week approached,
Gonsievski fearing trouble forbade the usual ceremonies. This so
offended the people that he was forced to give way. The critical period
passed with one or two unimportant risings, when suddenly a quarrel
broke out with the carters, who had been asked to haul cannons into
position and had refused. Soon the fighting became general in the town.
Prince Pojarski, with the advance guard of the Russian army, had just
arrived on the Sretenka when the Poles and Germans fell ruthlessly upon
the citizens. The massacre lasted an hour or more, some seven thousand
being killed. The alarm bells were ringing, and the crowd at last was
chased from the Kitai Gorod when the Poles who followed further were
driven back by the cannon of Pojarski. The Poles and foreigners had then
to entrench themselves and, to clear the neighbourhood, the Poles fired
the town. The conflagration spread rapidly and lasted three days. The
Russians abandoned the burning town; the Bielo Gorod was destroyed, and
much of the Kitai Gorod also; the dwellings and warehouses of the
foreign merchants were consumed, and the "English factory" lost several
of its members. Some went into the cellars and were suffocated, the
survivors made a dash for the Kremlin, and were helped over the wall by
the Poles, where their position was precarious, for they were amidst a
town in flames in a foreign country, among a people in revolt against
the garrison. Some vestiges of this fire are still found occasionally
when excavating--old vaults full of charred wood and burned
bricks--whilst the wall of the Kitia Gorod itself is said to bear
evidence in several places of the fire that for days raged round it, and
vitrified the bricks and tiles of its battlements and machecoules. When
the news of the disaster in Moscow reached Sigismund he sent the
delegates and hostages as prisoners to Marienburg. Shortly afterwards
Smolensk capitulated: the brave Shein was tortured for holding out so
long, then Sigismund returned to Warsaw and led the ex-Tsar Shooiski in
triumph through the streets. He delayed in hastening needed
reinforcements to the besieged garrison in the Kremlin of Moscow,
counting those that reached it during the conflagration sufficient.
During Easter week Liapunov arrived; he was closely followed by Zarutski
with Don-Cossacks and Prince Troubetskoi with the levies from Kaluga.
The Russian forces camped on the ashes of the Bielo Gorod and, if the
leaders had been united and vigilant, success might have been theirs.
Day by day the situation became more dangerous for the beleaguered
Poles--obliged to make frequent sorties for food, and losing men on each
occasion. Zapieha made an attempt to relieve the garrison but failed;
the 100,000 Russians round the Kremlin kept him away, but themselves
were unable to carry the fortress by assault and too lax to starve the
enemy out.
Gonsievski did well. Threats failing to move the stubborn Hermogen, a
letter was written to the leader of the Cossacks to the effect that
Liapunov intended to ruin them. They treacherously killed him; the cause
of Russia seemed lost, for there was no longer a leader in whom all
could trust, but impostors and intriguers beyond count. The Cossacks
determined to fight for their own hand; the nobles and boyards held
aloof, save those with the Poles in the Kremlin. Zapieha revictualled
the garrison; Sweden threatened Novgorod, and called the heir-apparent
Tsar of Russia; a fresh usurper found a following at Pskov; Cossacks,
Poles and brigands of different nationalities overran the country,
pillaged towns and burned villages, and during that winter of 1611-12
food was so scarce that "men devoured each other." There was no
Sovereign recognised, no chief authority, no law. From time to time the
Archimandrite Denis, and his able seconder Abraham Palitizin, sent
letters to the different towns urging the people to rise, retake Moscow,
and save the holy relics. Hermogen was starving imprisoned in the
Kremlin; the Poles allowed the ex-patriarch Ignatius to act in his
stead. Moscow was powerless. The other towns commenced to govern
themselves and to raise local forces for their own protection.
The high priest Sabbas made a stirring appeal to the people to unite and
deliver their fatherland. His eloquence moved the citizens of
Nijni-Novgorod to tears. He called on the faithful "to assert their
unity, join together to defend the pure and true religion of Christ,
free the holy cathedral of the Blessed Virgin, and recover the sainted
remains of the miracle workers of Moscow."
An elder of the province, one Cosma Minin, by trade a butcher, exhorted
his neighbours to initiate the rising. His appeal was, "Orthodox! If we
wish to save our country, do not fear to sacrifice our goods, to sell
our possessions, aye, even to pledge our wives and children if need be,
and find a commander faithful to our religion and capable of leading us,
then will victory be ours!"
The most suitable leader seemed to Minin to be the Prince Pojarski who
had fought at Moscow and been wounded in the fray. He lived near by on
his estate in Suzdal, and to him Minin went and offered the command of
the volunteering peasants. Pojarski had shown no strong partisanship,
had sought favours of no one, and was willing to fight for the general
good. These provincials were undoubtedly in earnest; a three days' fast
was enjoined and made obligatory for all, even suckling babes. When the
troops began to gather together, in the spring of 1612, the Poles and
boyards in the Kremlin became desperate, and once more ordered Hermogen
to command the leaders to disperse their forces. He refused; and in the
days of dire necessity that followed he died, starved to death, and was
buried within the Chudov Monastery.
Prince Pojarski advanced very slowly towards Moscow: it appeared to be
that he was waiting for an assembly general at Yaroslavl to elect a
tsar, fearing without a sovereign the Russian provincial troops would
not act together against so many enemies, native and foreign.
The garrison of the Kremlin, now commanded by Struss, was
ill-provisioned. The Cossacks had retired to the south-east, Zarutski's
intention being to beat up reinforcements and re-attack with the
followers of the "little Tsar" and secure the throne for Marina and her
son. From the west, Khodkevich came with reinforcements and provisions
to the relief of Struss. Pojarski arrived on the 18th August, but was
separated from Troubetskoi. On the 21st August Khodkevich arrived on
that side of the town guarded by Pojarski, whose troops therefore were
the first to be attacked.
[Illustration: DOM ROMANOF]
On the 23rd the poles and Pojarski engaged in a fierce battle. Later
Troubetskoi led his men also against the Poles, and with him went a part
of the Cossack army. Khodkevich was driven back, but fought stubbornly.
The next day he renewed his attempt to reach the Kremlin. Pojarski
begged Troubetskoi to join forces, and Abraham Politzin persuaded the
Cossacks to assist in defeating the Polish relief. Attacked on both
sides simultaneously, Khodkevich retreated from the commanding position
he had occupied; then the sudden appearance of Minin, with a few hundred
peasants who fought most savagely, turned the retreat into a rout, and
the Polish treasure fell into the hands of the Cossacks. After this
victory Pojarski and Troubetskoi joined forces and formed a provisional
administration. The defenders of the Kremlin were in despair. They were
short of food and ammunition, and the fact that 300 Poles had forced
their way through the Russian ranks and joined the garrison was in no
way advantageous. Soon they deserted the Kitai Gorod and took refuge in
the Kremlin, holding it a month longer in hope that relief would reach
them. The usual horrors of a long siege were manifest; not only did they
devour everything that was eatable, but even gnawed at their own flesh
and disinterred corpses. The boyards with their wives and families were
sent out of the Kremlin and at last the Poles were compelled by hunger
to surrender. On the 25th October the Muscovites made their entry into
the Kremlin, and after much thanksgiving and praise, proceeded to the
election of a new ruler. Sigismund with an army was coming to the relief
of the Poles, but was unable to subdue the towns on his way. His
ambassadors to the Muscovites were not even received by the victorious
leaders. The Swedes were informed that no one of their race would be
elected. Boyards intrigued for Galitzin, for Shooiski, and for others.
The provincial army was determined that there should be a general
assembly for the election of the Tsar, and the candidate most favoured
by all classes seemed to be the young Michael Theodorovich Romanof.
Old men remembered Anastasia Romanof, the first wife of Ivan the
Terrible; younger ones had nothing but praise for Philaret, the present
head of the family; all pitied the persecutions and hardships its
members had suffered because of their relationship to the old royal
line--if unanimity was necessary, no candidate had so good a chance of
securing it as had the young Romanof. On February 21st, 1613, the
electors met around the Lobnoe Mesto in the Grand Square. The crowd
shouted lustily for Mikhail Theodorovich Romanof, and to the general
wish the electors gave the only possible expression. By some it is
thought that the crown was offered to Pojarski who declined it; it is a
fiction of latter day poets, as are Dmitriev's lines:--
"What--what shall be his recompense?
Look! He who made the invaders bleed
And Moscow and his country freed,
He--modest as courageous--he
Takes the bright garland from his brow,
And to a youth he bends him now,
He bends an aged and hero-knee
'Thou art of royal blood,' he said,
'Thy father is in our foeman's hand;
Wear then this garland on thy head
And bless--O bless, our father-land!'"
The new dynasty was founded, but quite early, if the tradition be true,
was likely to have been extinguished. The Poles on learning the news
endeavoured to put the young Romanof to death; an attempt to waylay him
was frustrated by the heroism of the peasant Sussanin who, in the
district of Kostroma, gave his "life for the Tsar" by leading astray in
the forest the murderous band searching for him. Historians now say that
he had no opportunity of so doing, but the fact remains that for some
service rendered the Romanofs the Sussanins for many generations enjoyed
rare privileges, and if the tale be not true, it has at least resulted
in the Russians obtaining from the theme their finest opera, Glinka's
"Life for the Tsar."
The "time of trouble" for Moscow was not over on the appointment of a
Tsar, but the Muscovites entered upon a very glorious era with a Tsar of
their own choosing.
CHAPTER VII
_Moscow of the Tsars_
"Mid forests deep the turrets gleaming
Of Moscow's gorgeous Kremlin stand,
Beauteous golden-crown!
Peerless white-walled town!"
ALL RUSSIAN POETS.
Writers in the west still ignore the history of Russia previous to the
reign of Peter the Great, attributing to that monarch reforms he did not
initiate, and a policy of which he was not the author and followed but
indifferently. The real makers of the Russian nation were the wise
Romanofs who preceded the tyrant Peter. The history of the period may be
briefly recounted, apart from the story of the construction of the great
town--the Moscow of the Tsars. It was under the Tsar Michael that the
relations of Russia with the west became general; under Alexis, who
succeeded him in 1645, not only were the Poles driven back and other
enemies conquered, but those great social and economic reforms were
introduced, the working of which subsequently "westernised" Russia.
Theodore during his short reign of five years successfully continued
what his father had commenced. It was the claims made on behalf of his
half-brother Peter that caused the hands of the clock to be set back.
The story of Peter is well known, but its teaching has been often
misinterpreted. To obtain the truth let the Moscow of Theodore
Alexeivich be compared with the Russia of Peter, or of any of his
eighteenth century successors. The one exhibits the highest normal
achievement of purely Muscovite ideals, and reveals the capacity of
Russia to absorb what is nearest akin to its own spirit from among the
more progressive motives of the west. Peter crudely grafted a coarse
imitation of western forms upon a rarer stock; stagnation and corruption
were the result. It was not until the nineteenth century, and the
complete abandonment of Peter's policy, that Russia once more advanced
towards civilisation.
A country devastated by foreign invaders and surrounded with bitter and
relentless enemies; a territory wasted by internecine warfare; the
cinders of a capital; an empty treasury; a famished and pestilent ridden
people--such was the gift of the electors in 1613 to Michael
Theodorovich Romanof, a boy of sixteen, whose mother was in a convent
and father in a foreign prison. No wonder that he hesitated, and that
his friends urged prudence. The people were honest, and Michael exacted
proofs of their earnestness. Slowly he advanced towards Moscow, urging
his subjects to prepare suitable apartments for himself and his mother
in the spoiled ruins of the Kremlin, to store afresh the warehouses with
provisions and replenish the treasury. The boyards answered that they
had already prepared the palace of Ivan for himself, and a suite in the
convent of the Ascension for his mother, but it was impossible to
restore the Golden Palace and terem of the Tsaritsa Irene, for there was
no money, carpenters were lacking, the buildings roofless, and the
stairs, corridors, doors, windows, and all furnishings were no longer in
existence; it would be necessary to rebuild, and time pressed. Michael
was not satisfied; the palaces must be made fit for habitation, if
materials were lacking those of other buildings must be used, and as for
the apartments in the convent, "it will not suit my mother to occupy
them." Ultimately the Tsar's behests were executed, and in May he made
his state entry, more than two months after his election to the throne.
Both at home and abroad his position was regarded as precarious.
Zarutski, who had with him Marina Mniszek, the widow of the false
Dmitri, and her son, held Kazan and ruled the districts bordering the
Volga. He was ultimately captured, and executed in Moscow. Marina and
her son were also taken; according to native writers she "died in prison
of chagrin"; according to foreigners in Russia at that time, she and her
son were thrust beneath the ice on the river Oka. Sweeden continued the
war, and would not relinquish her claim to the throne. It terminated
after Gustavus Adolphus was repulsed at Pskov, and failed to take Narva.
A Swedish officer states that "from their youth up, the Muscovites are
inured to continuous labour and much fasting, and can make shift long
with meal, salt and water only. They hold it to be a deadly and
unpardonable sin to surrender a fortress, and prefer to die happily for
their Tsar and country." The Swedes contemplated a long siege, but by
the good offices of the Dutch and English an armistice of three months
was agreed to, and in 1617 a lasting peace concluded on terms
disadvantageous to Russia. An army of Poles was marching upon Moscow,
when it was re-inforced by Ronashevich-Salidachni at the head of 20,000
Cossacks; Michael repulsed their attack on Moscow, but, anxious to
secure his father's release, agreed to relinquish Smolensk, so a peace
to endure fourteen years and six months was thereupon made. Immediately
after his coronation the Tsar sent envoys to England, Germany and the
Netherlands, seeking their assistance in securing peace. The English
promised a loan of £100,000 and paid 16,000 roubles only towards it; but
King James prevented Scots taking service in Poland against Russia, and
the Tsar obtained his munitions of war from the English factory at
Archangel. In such fashion was a respite obtained, so that undivided
attention might be given to establishing good order within the Tsar's
Empire. Surely no ruler started with greater disadvantages than did
Michael. To the inexperience of youth must be added a lack of competent
advisers. The old hereditary aristocracy had for the most part
disappeared; those members who survived had taken sides with either the
second impostor or the Poles, and in them he dared not trust. There
remained only appointed military and civil officers, boyards, whose
titles were not hereditary, secretaries, and gentlemen of the council.
In Russia, where there was no general instruction and little learning,
all was left to a governing caste, composed of men who, from their noble
birth, had the entrée to the court and were conversant with all affairs
of state; it was this "caste" Michael lacked. The men, able men, who
were not accustomed to rule, did not seek responsible posts. Even
Pojarski, the saviour of the country, said to Vasili Galitzin, "If we
had found such a leader as you, Vasili Vasilievich, all the country
would have at once flocked to you, and it would not have devolved upon
me to direct so onerous a task." The times of trouble had forced simple
citizens to occupy positions of importance; such were the butcher Cosma
Minin, Zarutski, Troubetskoi, Liapunov and Fedka Andronov. To none of
the humble born leaders were the degenerate nobles prepared to grant
precedence or even equality; whilst on the other hand, affairs of state
could no longer be entrusted to those who had betrayed the country, or
by past conduct, proved themselves incapable. Squabbles for precedence
at once recommenced.
When Dmitri Mikhailovich Pojarksi, the great liberator, was created a
boyard, one Gabriel Pushkin threw himself at the Tsar's feet and pleaded
that the thing might not be, for "his own family was in no way inferior
to that of Pojarski," who, as boyard, would be appointed a higher place
than he himself occupied at court. These nobles could not, or would not,
understand that services to the state should be considered. Birth alone
was to count, for these nobles to remain side by side with a person of
inferior birth was considered an ignominy to which death itself was
preferable. On the occasion of the Tsar's coronation, there were several
disputes for priority of place, notwithstanding that the Tsar had
ordered that during the ceremonies all ranks were to be discarded.
Before the coronation, in the palace of the Golden Seal Prince
Tretiakov, the secretary, nominated those who were to bear the regalia.
"Prince Mstislavski will throw the golden coins upon the Tsar; the new
boyard, Ivan Nikitich Romanof, will carry the crown of Monomachus;
Prince Dmitri Troubetskoi, the sceptre; the new boyard, Prince Pojarski,
the 'globe!'" Troubetskoi took offence that he had to cede his place to
a Romanof, albeit a relative of his sovereign. The Tsar answered, "It
may be that your rank is higher than that of Ivan, but he is my uncle,
and you must give place to him at a time when the order of rank is not
to be observed." This appeased Troubetskoi, but later, one Boris Likof,
invited to the table of the Tsar, would not cede his place until the
Tsar personally intervened. On the next occasion he failed to attend,
although the Tsar twice sent for him. Each time he sent the same answer,
"I am ready to yield my life on the scaffold, but allow a Romanof to
take precedence of a Likof I will not!" Sometimes these quarrels
embarrassed the Tsar on occasions of state, as when, at the reception of
the Persian envoys, his body-guard disappeared. One hid himself away so
quickly that he could not be found; another feigned indisposition;
another was dragged into the presence coupled with Prince Romodanovski;
Cherchugov complained of Romodanovski, and Prince Pojarski also took
offence, and upbraided Cherchugov for dishonouring his rank by his
alliance with Romodanovski. The Tsar ordered Cherchugov to be beaten,
and determined to avoid such annoyances in future by choosing his
bodyguard from among the lesser nobles, who could not plead the
privileges of their ancestors. When Telepnef and Larionof were
appointed, one at once took offence and pointed out to the Tsar that he
was a freeman of Moscow, whereas the other was but a secretary! Such
were the earlier troubles of the boy-Tsar, who longed for the advice of
his father in such matters of trifling importance; he, on his return to
Moscow, ruled the court with commanding adroitness.
This matter of precedence came to the front again in the next reign,
when Alexis settled it once and for all. Hereditary rank was based upon
the achievements of one's ancestors, which, with the titles and honours
of the successful, were enumerated in the manuscript-books treasured by
each family. In practice no noble would accept an office inferior to
that occupied by his illustrious forefathers. Often incapable as
military leaders, this meant ruin to the state. Alexis, after sufficient
experience of the disasters the system entailed, proposed the abolition
of hereditary rank, and petitioned the Church to pronounce upon his
finding that "precedence was an institution invented by the devil, for
the purpose of destroying Christian love and of increasing the hatred of
brother for brother." In due course the Patriarch declared that in the
opinion of the Church, "precedence was a system opposed to God, and
intended to cause confusion and hatred." Thereupon the nobles were
commanded to deliver up their "golden books of honour and great deeds,"
and the records were burned, so that henceforth precedence depended upon
court and military rank alone.
[Illustration: BELVEDERE OF THE TEREM]
When Michael ascended the throne the two most powerful factions of the
nobility were those headed respectively by the Miloslavksis and the
Soltikovs, between whom no love was lost. To obtain greater influence
and power they intrigued for the marriage of the Tsar. Michael's choice
was one Marie Kholopov, to whom he was betrothed. Before marriage she
was drugged at the instigation of the Soltikovs, and her illness
represented as incurable. She, and all her relatives, were then banished
to Siberia for "attempting to deceive the Tsar," and remained in exile
seven years, when the Patriarch discovered the intrigue. This resulted
in the fall of the Soltikovs from power, and the return of the Khlopovs
to Nijni-Novgorod. Michael next chose Marie Dolgoruki, but she died a
few months after marriage, and twelve months later, Michael was urged to
marry again. The earlier method of selecting a bride was resorted to
upon this occasion, and the Tsar's intention made known throughout the
empire. According to S. W. Glinka what took place is as follows:--
"On the morrow the Tsar was to make known publicly whom he had
chosen as his bride. That evening the carriages of the palace
brought to his residence the marriageable daughters of all the
noble and illustrious families who had gathered in Moscow for this
election. These young ladies of high degree all wore the vestments
provided by the Tsar, and were accompanied by their mothers, or a
near relative. In turn they were presented to the Tsar's mother,
Martha Ivanovna, and the mothers and relatives then returned to
their homes; the young ladies, attended by their maids remained,
and donned the nightdresses they had brought with them. The
chambers to which they were appointed contained two rows of beds.
Towards midnight, the Tsar, accompanied by his mother, went in to
examine the candidates. The scrutiny finished, he returned to his
own apartments, and his mother anxiously inquired upon whom his
choice had fallen. To her surprise, Michael indicated the maid of
one of the ladies. Martha Ivanovna could not believe her ears. She
earnestly begged her son to reflect, before offending the pride
and dignity of the princes, nobles and boyards by such a choice.
Then she asked a definite answer, for, before the sun rose, it
would have to be declared officially, before the Patriarch and the
clergy assembled in the cathedral of the Assumption for that
purpose. Michael answered, 'I have obeyed you and the will of God
in accepting the crown. Never have I dared to act contrary to your
wishes. You have always been my counsellor and my support: I will
do as you wish but ... but ... never ... never ... will I choose
another; nor love anyone else. It is my fate to be unhappy! I lost
my wife a few months after my marriage--now, to-day, I am deprived
of the bride of my choice. She is of humble birth; perhaps she is
poor; may be, unhappy. But I also have suffered--I too have been
persecuted!' and the Tsar burst into tears. Martha Ivanovna could
not resist this appeal. 'My son, my son!' she cried, 'have I not
suffered as well? My husband languishing in exile; the murderous
swords of cruel enemies directed towards you! Heaven has protected
you, has chosen you to rule this realm. May the will of God be
done! I will not thwart your desire. Take for wife the one whom you
have chosen.'
"Thereupon Martha Ivanovna at once sought out what she could
respecting the young girl her son had noticed. She was informed
that her name was Eudoxia, the daughter of Lucian Stephanovich
Striechnef, a poor gentleman of Mojaisk, and herself a distant
relative of the lady in whose service she was. Just as her mistress
was haughty, proud and overbearing, so was the maid docile and
modest. Michael himself had had to bear oppression. Ill-treatment
he hated. He felt for Eudoxia, and chose her because she was
ill-used.
"Then Eudoxia was led into the Tsar's apartments, was richly
clothed, and presented with jewels. Martha Ivanovna called her
daughter, and the Tsar himself called God to witness that she was
his bride. The Patriarch, Philaret, gave his blessing to his son,
both as father and as head of the church. The clergy prayed that
the pride of the wicked might be humbled and the virtuous
protected. The citizens were pleased and shouted 'Long live Michael
and Eudoxia!' and there was general rejoicing. Then the daughters
of the princes, and nobles, and boyards, were presented to Eudoxia
and made their homage. In her confusion and modesty she would not
allow them to kiss her hand, but cordially embraced each maid. When
it came to the turn of her own relation, the frightened girl threw
herself at the feet of Eudoxia and begged for mercy and pardon.
Eudoxia bent down and said, 'You also forgive me! it in any way I
have offended.' Forthwith the lovers were formally betrothed, and,
as all the world knows, Michael married Eudoxia, and they lived
happy ever afterwards."
Another story, quite as like a fairy tale as this is, concerns itself
with Eudoxia's father, whom the ambassadors of the Tsar found at the
plough. Lucian was not surprised at his daughter's good fortune; he saw
in it only the hand of Providence. When he forsook his thatched cottage
for a suite in the palace, he carried away with him his old clothes and
other things, which he hung on the wall of his new apartment, and each
morning uncovered them that he might not forget his origin, and be
mindful of the workers and the poor. He lived for many years within the
Kremlin, saw Eudoxia's son, Alexis, upon the throne, and found himself
an honoured member of his own grandson's household, and surrounded by
his daughter's numerous royal grandchildren.
The next occasion that offered for the intrigues of those who sought
court influence through a matrimonial alliance was in 1647 when Alexis,
the son of Michael and Eudoxia, resolved to marry. Of the two hundred
noble maids assembled for his selection he chose Euphemia Vsevolojski,
who had enemies. These arranged their plans with her maids-of-honour.
When she was attired in the royal robes, her attendants twisted her hair
so tightly that she swooned in the Tsar's presence, and the Court
physician declared her to be epileptic. She and her family were
thereupon banished to far away Tiumen in Siberia. The next year Alexis
married Marie Ilyinichna Miloslavski, who bore him thirteen children,
and died in childbed in 1669. In his next marriage Alexis observed the
letter of the customary proceeding but disregarded its spirit. At that
time his chief counsellor was Artemon Sergievich Matviev, a man who had
commanded a foreign regiment in the wars and married Mary Hamilton, one
of a Scotch family resident in Moscow. Matviev had no daughter, but
living with the family was Natalia Naryshkin, the daughter of Cyril
Naryshkin, whose brother Theodore had married a Hamilton, the niece of
Matviev's wife. Matviev made his house as attractive as he could to the
Tsar, giving western entertainments, even to the performance of comedies
and tragedies in his private theatre. Western manners prevailed among
them; his wife dressed in what were called "German" clothes, and both
she and her ward appeared at table although strangers might be present.
When the Tsar visited Matviev, Natalia, a tall, shapely brunette,
herself served him with _vodka_ and _zakuska_. One day the Tsar informed
Matviev that he would find a husband for this charming ward; and, when
the nobles were ordered to assemble their daughters, Natalia also
received a command to attend at the palace. It was all prearranged, but
to allay suspicion a second assembly was convened, and a final one after
an interval of three weeks. When it became known that Natalia had been
chosen, there was loud outcry, and anonymous letters reached the Tsar.
These accused Matviev of sorcery and other dark crimes, and alleged
misdemeanour on the part of Natalia. There was the usual investigation;
the customary torture; and postponement of the marriage for nine months.
On January the 22nd 1671 the ceremony was performed with great pomp, and
Matviev that day appointed a member of the State Council as recompense
"for the sufferings he had undergone in connection with the affair."
Sixteen months later--May 30th 1672--Peter the Great was born.
Natalia Naryshkin was of Tartar descent, but her training was western,
and as tsaritsa she was able to free some of the "twenty-seven locks"
with which the "terem" was guarded. With the accession of
[Illustration: KRUTITSKI VOROT]
the Romanofs there was a strong reaction from the licence of the days of
the impostors, a reaction which the all powerful Philaret as patriarch
did his utmost to foster. Natalia was required to conform to the rules
made on behalf of former tsaritsas, but she succeeded in going openly to
church with her husband, saw plays through a latticed window, and the
state reception of foreign ambassadors from a screened _loge_. In so
short a time she accomplished much, but in 1676 her husband died, and
she retired with her children to a palace near the foreign suburb of
Moscow, and there the young prince, Peter, was raised amid rough
surroundings, for the Matvievs were exiled and Natalia barely tolerated
so near the Kremlin.
Theodore II. was most scholarly of the early Tsars; he was educated by
Polish teachers, and, during his short reign the first public schools in
Moscow were founded under his patronage. He separated the military from
the civil departments; in military matters abolished precedence, and so
altered legal procedure as to bring justice within reach of the people.
He built the episcopal Palace of the Monastery of St Cyril at the
Krutitski Vorot, and was particularly active in adding to the beautiful
churches of Moscow. To him is due that gem of Muscovite ecclesiastical
architecture, the church of the Nativity and Flight, in the Mala
Dmitrovka (_v._ page 181). With an eye for the picturesque, he laid out
a pleasure-garden in the Kremlin and another on the river front by
making a vaulted embankment. Further away the slopes towards the river
were planted with ornamental trees; medicinal herbs were largely
cultivated, and the first hot-houses appeared in Moscow. Private
dwellings in the Kremlin were demolished to afford accomodation for
public buildings, and particularly for homes for the aged and sick, for
the Tsar resembled his father and grandfather in his care of those who
had served him, and in well-doing he was tireless. He disliked pomp and
ceremony, restricted the ordinary citizens of noble birth to two horses
in their carriages, and reduced the number used by others on State
occasions; from his ascent to the throne the court pageantry declined.
In the seventeenth century almost the whole of the Kremlin was occupied
with buildings appertaining either to the state or the superior clergy.
The churches are still sufficiently in evidence, but such of the old
dwellings as remain have to be approached through more recent buildings.
The Granovitaia (Facetted) Palace of Ivan III. (1491) presents a façade
to the Sobornia Ploshchad, but this in no way reveals its antiquity. The
constant renewal of the exterior which is indispensable to preservation
in the destructive climate of Moscow, to some extent accounts for this;
and the "terem," the outside of which may be viewed from the quadrangle
on which stands the old church "Spass na Boru," is equally disappointing
in this particular. Even to see the interiors the visitors must pass
through the Great Palace, with which these old dwellings are now
incorporated. The site occupied by the eastern end of the Great Palace
is that upon which, from the founding of Moscow, the residences of its
rulers have been again and again erected, but they faced the east, not
south. The wooden palaces of the early Romanofs have entirely
disappeared; Peter the Great removed from Moscow whatever would serve to
enrich his new capital, and allowed the old royal residences to decay.
It is during the present century only that they have been restored to
their earlier grandeur. The palace built by the Empress Elizabeth, and
occupied by Napoleon, was destroyed by the fire of 1812.
The visitor will first procure a _billet d'admission_ at the
Chamberlain's office in Commandant Street (see plan), turn to the left
on leaving the building, and walking towards the south, at the end of
the street pass under the Winter Garden which connects the Treasury with
the Great Palace. He will then be
[Illustration: KREMLIN
References
A=Cannon »->Entrances -----=Footpaths
1. Nicholas Gate
2. Redeemer Gate
3. Secret Gate
4. Borovitski Gate
5. Trinity Gate
6. Belfry
7. Cathedral of the Assumption
8. " " Archangels
9. " " Annunciation
10. Granovitaya Palace
11. Grand Palace
12. Terem
13. St Saviours in the Wood
14. Ch. of the Holy Vestments
15. Ch. of St Saviour behind the Golden Gates
16. Ch. of the Nativity of the Virgin
17. Ch. of St Lazarus
18. Ch. of the Resurrection
19. Ch. of St Catherine the Martyr
20. Ch. of the Apostles
21. The Synod
22. Ch. of John the Baptist
23. Ch. of the Annunciation
24. Ch. of Constantine and Helen
25. Chuduv Monastery
26. Convent of Ascension
27. Pleasure Palace
28. Treasury
29. Tsarevich's Appartments
30. Place of the Boyards
31. Grand Entrance
32. Ch. of St Alexis
33. Cathedral Square
34. Tsar's Square
35. Monument to Alexander II.
36. Alarm Bell
37. Tsarina's Tower
38. Tower of Constantine and Helen
39. Oubliette
40. Water Tower
41. Ch. of St Michael
42. Ch. of Acsension
43. Ch. of the Miracles
44. Hall of Catherine II.
45. Ch. of St Catherine
46. Ch. of St Peter and Paul
47. Ch. of St Philip
48. Senate Square
49. State Court-yard
50. Arsenal Tower]
in the State Courtyard; on the left a gateway communicates with the
quadrangle in which is the old church "Spass na Boru;" the last door on
the right is the public entrance to the Treasury. Traversing the
courtyard and turning to the left he will reach the grand entrance of
the Great Palace and enter there. Passing from the vestibule by the
_escalier d'honneur_ the Hall of St George will be reached. It contains
sixteen allegorical groups commemorative of the conquests by Russia of
Perm, Kazan, Siberia, Kamchatka, Tartary, the Caucasus, etc. The
military order of St George was founded by the Empress Catherine II. in
1769, but the effigy of St George, on his white horse, slaying the
Dragon, as already mentioned is of Norse origin and was the device used
by Yaroslaf the Great in the eleventh century and definitely adopted as
the arms of the principality of Moscow by Dmitri after his victory over
the Tartars at Kulikova (1380); it figured on the coins, and April 23
(old style) this Saint's day, is observed throughout Russia. The names
inscribed on the wall are those of the individuals admitted to the
order, and of the regiments likewise decorated; in short, this Hall of
St George Pobiedonosets (the Conqueror) is the Russian Valhalla. The
adjoining Hall of Alexander Nevski, is remarkable apart from its
richness and beauty, for the six pictures by Müller illustrating the
chief events in the life of the Saint: beyond is the Throne
room--Griffins, the device of the Romanofs, conspicuous in the
decorations--and next the Hall of St Catherine, the state room of the
Tsaritsa. The older palaces will be reached directly from the Hall of St
Vladimir, or, after passing through the personal apartments of the Tsar,
by the Holy Corridor, so named because there the clergy attend to
conduct the Tsar to state services in the Cathedrals. It dates from the
reign of Ivan III. (15th cent.) and is, in short, a continuation of
that terrace which fronts the eastern side of the Great Palace, and has
its counterpart in the principal approach to every old-fashioned Russian
house. The Krasnoe Kriltso--how hateful the vulgar, and absolutely
incorrect, translation, "Red Steps!"--is simply the state entrance to
the reception rooms, in contradistinction to the Postyelnoe Kriltso
(Back stairs) or private entrance, communicating with the personal
apartments of the sovereign, or boyard. To comprehend the importance of
the Terem rightly, it must be remembered that actually the state
apartments of the sovereign were where the Great Palace now is, and that
this corridor served both as a rendezvous for courtiers and the Tsar's
way of communication from his private to his official suites. Another
staircase, to which the boyards had not access, led directly from the
inner court, near the Postyelnoe Kriltso, to the Terem. The state
suite in the seventeenth century comprised: an audience chamber (the
middle Golden Palace); a smaller Golden Palace, once the audience
chamber of the Tsaritsa; the Stolovia Izba, or saloon for fêtes; the
Krestavia, for the celebration of solemn ceremonies by the clergy and
household; the Otvietna Palace, where illustrious visitors were
entertained; and the Higher Golden Palace, a council chamber for the
consideration of grave questions of state. For most of these purposes
the buildings still in existence have served temporarily at different
periods.
[Illustration: KRASNOE KRILTSO]
Descending seven steps from this corridor, the Palace of the Tsaritsa
Irene, or lesser Golden Palace, is entered. Sneguirev is of opinion that
this was originally the apartment of the Archbishop. The Slavonic
inscription over the portal is merely to the effect that the decorations
were made by order of Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich, and restored on the
coronation of the Emperor Paul. It was here that in 1653 the Tsaritsa
Marie Ilyinichna received the Tsaritsa of Georgia, and later the
Tsaritsa Natalia Kyrilevna received the homage of the Princes of Kasimof
and Siberia. On the vaulted roof are representations of Olga's journey
to Constantinople, Helena obtaining the true cross, the Council convened
by the Emperor Theophilus the Iconoclast, and portraits of the
Tsaritsas, Irene, Theodora, Sophia, and Olga. A vaulted corridor leads
to an entrance from the square behind the Uspenski Sobor. It is called
the "Passage of the Patriarchs" from the seven portraits of the Russian
Patriarchs which adorn the walls.
Almost upon a level with the Holy Corridor is the entrance to the Old
Church of the Nativity of the Virgin, immediately below which is the
Chapel of the Resurrection of St Lazarus (see page 45), the oldest
existing building in Moscow. It is only an obscure crypt, but in one of
the round pillars, facing the ikonastas is a niche which probably served
as the _loge_ of the reigning prince. The entrance with an old
inscription was but recently discovered. The Church of the Nativity of
the Virgin, dates from 1393, when the Tsaritsa Eudoxia, wife of Dmitri
Donskoi, erected the first structure on the side of the older Church of
St Lazarus. It was destroyed by lightning in 1414, burned in 1473, fell
in 1480, and in 1514 was rebuilt by Vasili Ivanovich, and probably again
reconstructed early in the seventeenth century. It then became one of
the churches of the palace, and has remained the particular church of
the Tsaritsas. The old stoves are of an ancient Russian model; according
to tradition the Tsaritisas in bygone days were placed upon one of these
stoves during their confinements. The ikonostas was injured in 1812, but
has been restored and some of the ikons are richly decorated with rubies
and other gems of great value.
Above the lesser Golden Palace is a chapel of small dimensions, known
commonly as the "Cathedral of Our Saviour behind the Golden Gates,"
actually dedicated to "Our Saviour on High" (Verkhospasski); its other
name is due to the fact that the entrance to it is on the far, or
private, side of the gilt wicket that barred the entrance to the Terem.
It was built in 1635 by the Bajenko Ogurtsev, a Russian architect
employed by the Tsar Michael, and was restored by his grandson, Theodore
II., and many times subsequently. In the seventeenth century it was the
private chapel of the sovereigns. In it the sons of Alexis were
baptised; here it was that in times of danger, as during the revolt of
the Strelsti (see ch. x. and p. 130) the royal princes sought refuge,
and from here Ivan Naryshkin went to his murder by the Strelsti who were
clamouring for his head. The church is closed by three doors all
modelled after the "gilt wicket"; it possesses a magnificent ikonostas
of chiselled silver, the gift of the Countess Soltikov, which
marvellously escaped the plunderers of 1812. Its ikons include one of
the Saviour, "not made with hands" (_v._ chapter ix. p. 182), said to
have been brought to Moscow in 1472 by Sophia Paleologus, and one of
Lupin, the centurion, the patron saint of the Romanofs. There is also an
old ikonastas in the adjoining chapel of St John the Baptist. On the
north side of the Verkhospasski Church, also on this third storey, is
the Seventeenth Century Church of the Resurrection, on the threshold of
which, if tradition may be believed, Athanasius Naryshkin was struck
down by the Streltsi in 1682. It is lighter than ordinary Russian
Churches, lofty, with an ogival vaulted roof and almost entirely covered
with frescoes. The western door has representations of the eight Sybils.
The mediæval incense-burner suspended in the centre is of foreign,
probably Dutch, origin, and apart from its own attractiveness serves
well to contrast the great differences in Western and Russian
handicraft, for the ikonostas has some excellent relief work. The
paintings at the east-end are on a gold ground, at one period a
prevalent fashion with Russian ikon painters. The brilliant colouring,
the lavish use of gold and silver, and the bright illumination, so
unusual in Russian churches, together make this royal chapel one of the
most interesting of those in the Kremlin. It was from the corridor
leading to this church that the first "Dmitri" is said to have been
thrown; the window, which had been blocked up, will be pointed out to
the visitor before entering the Chapel of the Crucifixion, which is over
this corridor and on the same level as the fourth storey of the Terem.
The interior of this chapel is very gloomy; the floor of black and white
marble may assist in its recognition. Its most interesting feature is
the ikonostas of embroidery, the work of the Tsaritsas and their
daughters. The faces of the saints on the ikons are painted upon canvas,
and the vestments instead of metal are of worked silk and other tissues.
At the entrance is the private oratory of the Tsar Alexis, and amongst
other things which will be pointed out as having some connection with
the younger members of this Tsar's family, is the spot upon which he at
one time erected a "Golgotha"; the cross is of cedar, pine and cypress,
contributed by three princes. This church was built in 1679 and
communicates with the "Church of the Holy Vestments," by the door to
the left of the entrance, a piece of work highly characteristic of
Russian art at this period.
There are other churches and chapels which are technically private
chapels of the palace, as are also the Cathedrals of the Assumption and
Annunciation, but these are dealt with elsewhere. Those actually within,
or communicating with the Terem, are those above enumerated, and in
addition there is the old Chapel of St John the Baptist "in the wood,"
now removed to the second floor of the tower over the Borovitski Gate.
The palaces and chapels of the Terem with their many means of
communication afforded a secure hiding place, and means of escape
would usually be found by reaching one of the churches with their
treasuries and subterranean vaults. In the early times it was a
capital offence to be found behind the Golden Gate, but two
Chamberlains who accidentally encountered the Tsaritsa Natalia in
one of the corridors were merely dismissed from office for a single
day and reinstated; life was more free and easy in the days of
Theodore than ever before in Moscow. The faction intrigues and
riots that followed the succession to the throne of his brother
Ivan and half-brother Peter were chiefly the result of the unjust
treatment of the Streltsi. What took place at the palace is soon
stated. Matviev had been recalled; the Naryshkins and Miloslavskis,
the relatives of the first and second wives of the late Tsar
Alexis, were opposed to each other; the son of each wife sat on the
throne; Peter, the younger, had his mother to protect him; Ivan,
the elder, his sister Sophia. It was too good an opportunity for
deciding the supremacy of the Miloslavskis, and they having caused
it to be reported that Ivan's life was in jeopardy, the Streltsi
advanced to the Kremlin crying "Death to those who oppose royalty!
Death to all traitors!" Before the gates could be closed they were
in the Kremlin, and with pikes, halberds, and partisans thronging
the state entrance and the square of the palace itself. They wished
to be sure that both Tsars were well: they wanted the lives of the
Matvievs and Naryshkins if Ivan was not. Matviev momentarily saved
the situation. He went with Natalia, who led the Tsars one by each
hand out on to the terrace before the infuriated mob. "By God's
mercy both are well as you see," he said, and added words that
soothed the mob, but all too soon he retired following Natalia into
the palace. Dolgorooki, the head of the Streltsi, then turned to
the rioters and ordered them to be gone. He irritated them by his
address; some seized him and threw him over the balustrade, and
those below caught him on their pikes. Another troop, partisans of
Sophia, were searching for Matviev, dragged him from the presence
of the ex-Tsaritsa and near Blagovieshchenski Sobor he too was
thrown on to the pikes of the Streltsi in the square below, and
they were not content merely with killing now, but cut his body in
morsels. Three days later, a faithful black servant ventured forth
and collected the remains for burial. The rioters having now
committed two crimes reverted to their original determination to
settle with those opposed to Ivan. They wished particularly for the
uncles of Peter, Ivan and Athanasius Naryshkin--they mistook
Soltikov for him, and the man, too frightened even to pronounce his
own name, was slain. A dwarf of the Tsaritsa's led the rioters to
the hiding place of Athanasius--the altar of one of the churches,
and they killed him where they found him, and threw the body out
into the square. The mutiny lasted several days: the Streltsi could
not find Ivan Naryshkin or Van Gaden the doctor. The third day they
again went to the palace and demanded that Ivan should be given up
to them. Natalia pleaded for the life of her brother, the boyards
fearing for their own lives besought her to give him up, and at
last she consented. He made his last confession, and, attended by
Natalia and Sophia, carried the ikon of the virgin before him.
Hurried by the impatient boyards he courageously left the chapel,
and crossing the threshold of the Golden Gates was at once seized
by the Streltsi waiting him and dragged to torture and execution,
and this satisfied the rioters for the time.
Richly carved doors, of a type truly Muscovite and mediæval, lead from
the Holy Corridor to the larger Golden Hall of the Granovitaia Palace.
This building is the work of two Italians, Marco Ruffo, and Pietro
Antonio, at the close of the fifteenth century, and has its name of
"Facetted" Palace from the trimming of the stone blocks of the external
walls to imitate some earlier ornate wooden building. The large Hall is
the old throne room of the Tsars Vasili, Ivan "Groznoi" and Boris
Godunov. The old custom of a state banquet on the day of the coronation
is still observed. On this occasion, as in olden times, the Tsar is
seated at a table with such other reigning sovereigns as may be present;
his near relations are by etiquette still excluded from the room, and
view the ceremony from the small window near the ceiling, immediately
opposite the "Krasnoe Ugol" or throne. Around the central pillar which
supports the vaulted roof, the "mountain" is placed on which the
Imperial plate is displayed on state occasions, just as it was in the
days of Herberstein, Jenkinson, and the early ambassadors to the
Muscovite Court. Here, too, Ivan "Groznoi" received the Khan's
emissaries and the rusty knife his victorious enemy had sent him that he
might cut his own throat; here for three days he regaled his companions
after the fall of Kazan: here Boris Godunov entertained the Danish
Prince, suitor for the hand of the Tsarevna Xenia; here, in 1653, Alexis
received the submission of Bogdan Khmelnitski and the cession of Little
Russia. Peter I. also celebrated herein his victory over Charles XII. at
Poltava, and in 1767, Catherine II. confided to the delegates the
celebrated "Nakaz" for the compilation of the new code of law. Its
present condition closely resembles its primitive aspect, traces of
Peter the Great's vandalism having been removed; the walls uncovered;
the paintings restored; the windows refitted; and older furnishings
substituted for the tapestry and decorations of Peter and his
successors. The paintings, as the inscription states, were made in 1882
by two "brothers Bieloosov, ikon painters, peasants of the village of
Palekha." Chancellor and his companions when ushered into the Golden
Palace encountered Ivan the Terrible. "The Russian Tsar, sitting on a
lofty couch, arrayed in robes of silver, and now wearing a different
diadem. In the middle of the room stood a huge abacus with a square
pedestal, surmounted with a succession of orbicular tiers, which
regularly tapered towards the culminating point, and was adorned with
such profusion of plate and costly rarities that it was almost
overburdened with the great weight of them, and the greater part were of
the choicest gold. Four vases, conspicuous by their size, served
specially to enhance the splendour of the other golden vessels, for they
were nearly five feet in height. Four tables, placed separately on each
side of the hall and raised to the height of three steps above the
floor, were bespread with the very finest napery and attended by a
numerous company." One thing which surprised Chancellor was the great
reverence shown the Tsar when he spoke, by the whole company "rising
simultaneously and bending low their bodies with a sort of gesture of
adoration, silently resume their seats."
The Terem is a building of five storeys, each higher one smaller than
any below and the topmost but a single room, with a porch leading to the
flat roof from which, before blocked by the Great Palace, a splendid
view was obtainable. The ground floor was built early in the sixteenth
century, but serves now for storerooms only, and the one above, reached
by a door _under_ the staircase, consists of a private suite formerly
the workrooms of the palace and now utilised for the preservation of old
charters. The staircase with carved stone steps is separated from the
palace by the "gilt-wicket" which formerly divided the private from the
state and court rooms of the palace. It is of a quite ordinary design
when compared with the much more elaborate wrought metal-work found
elsewhere in the palaces and churches of the Kremlin. The first room
reached was originally the "vestibule," but serves now as a
breakfast-room; the cases contain the old seals of the Kingdom; the
walls and vaulted roof covered with pictures and the stove of fine old
glazed Russian tiles, a variety of faience the secret of whose
manufacture has been lost. Near to this room is the Council Chamber,
and, further, what originally served as the private room of the Tsars,
but was latterly used as a throne room. In the bronze casket is the deed
of election which appointed Mikhail Theodorovich to the throne. In the
"Krasnoe Ugol," or "Grand Corner," is the seat of the Tsar Alexis with
a carpet before it, the handiwork of his daughters. The window adjoining
is that from which Dmitri, and other rulers, lowered the basket for the
petitions of all and sundry who wished directly to communicate with the
Tsar. Adjoining this room is a bedroom, once occupied by the unfortunate
Tsarevich Alexis Petrovich. The oratory has two ikons which formerly
belonged to the Tsar Alexis, as did also the cross. The belvedere
reached by either of two separate staircases, was built by the Tsar
Michael for the accommodation of his children, and in later reigns may
have been used as a council chamber for the "duma" of the boyards. The
Tsars Alexis and Theodore II. were brought up in the Terem; Peter the
Great occupied it only occasionally, chiefly before his travels abroad,
and his son Alexis was its last regal inmate.
"The early Romanofs practically shared their rule with the
Patriarch, and church services and pageants entered largely into
their every day life. The Tsar would be awakened at about 4 A.M.
and at once enter his oratory for private devotion; a quarter of an
hour later he prayed before the ikon of the saint whose day it
might be, and then sent one of his attendants to inquire as to the
health of the Tsaritsa and, later, might himself attend her in the
vestibule and accompany her to matins in one of the chapels of the
palace. Boyards and others awaited his return for instructions in
matters of state, and at nine o'clock the Tsar attended high mass
either in one of the churches or cathedrals of the Kremlin, or upon
_fête_ days wherever the ceremony was necessarily performed. Mass
[Illustration: TEREM--THE THRONE ROOM]
lasted about two hours, and afterwards the sovereign gave private
audience to ministers until midday, when he took his first repast,
ordinarily frugal to scantiness and eaten alone. During Lent the
Tsar Alexis made but three meals each week, and ate fish but twice,
on fast days taking only a morsel of black bread and a pickled
mushroom; he drank either kvas or small beer: his devotions
occupied five hours of each day, and often he prostrated himself
more than a thousand times daily.
"Fast day or not the Tsar's table was always well supplied, but of
the seventy or more dishes usually served the greater part were
presented to his courtiers and officers. After the midday repast,
the sovereign invariably retired for a short sleep, arising for
vespers at about three o'clock, when he was always attended by the
court. Occasionally state business was transacted after evening
service, but generally the remainder of the day was spent in
recreations; theatricals, music and chess were chief among these.
Court pilgrims were the Muscovite equivalent of the wandering
minstrels of the British courts. The Tsar Alexis particularly was
interested in the recitals of 'experienced' men who had travelled
in distant parts of his kingdom and liked to hear often the
recollections of the grey-beards who had known the Moscow of the
'troublous times.' If their stories failed, resource was had to a
reading of the chronicles, ecclesiastical and profane. The
pensioners were housed in the Kremlin near the royal palace, and
were under the immediate protection of the Tsar, who himself not
frequently followed some centenarian to the specially appointed
burial place in the Bogo-yavlenni Monastyr.
"The Tsaritsas for the most part occupied themselves with their own
devotions and the direction of the work rooms of the palace; very
occasionally with their children they accompanied the Tsar to the
Krasnoe Kriltso to be 'beholden of the people.' Sometimes they
witnessed state ceremonies from a secluded corner of the throne
room, and in the evening witnessed the amusements in the Potieshni
Dvorets; were diverted by the tricks of mountebanks and jugglers;
listened to songs, or watched the special dancers engaged for their
amusement. Their journeys abroad were restricted to visiting the
convents and churches, pilgrimages to the Troitsa Monastery, or the
season's change to a suburban palace. Although they attended High
Mass in the cathedrals, they were seldom seen by the public, being
always surrounded by a guard of chamber-women who carried _ecrans_
and, arranging themselves before the Tsaritsa, screened her from
the eyes of the curious. Doubtless the strict etiquette was
departed from in the semi-state of the summer palaces at
Kolomenskoe and Preobrajenskoe, and certainly the Tsaritsa
Natalia failed in various ways to observe the strict seclusion of
the Terem. A state procession in the days of Alexis was a wonderful
pageant: on his visit to the Novo Devichi Convent he was preceded
by 600 horsemen, three abreast, all dressed in cloth of gold.
Grooms led the twenty-five white stallions harnessed to a coach
draped with scarlet and gold: a guard of honour surrounded it; the
Tsar followed in a smaller coach drawn by six white horses; boyards
in state robes were his escort. Petitioners thronged the procession
and their written requests were deposited in a special box carried
behind the Tsar. The Tsarevich, with a long cortege, followed. The
Tsaritsa was preceded by forty grooms with magnificent steeds, and
her own coach drawn by ten white horses, and behind her the
Tsarevna in a similar carriage drawn by eight horses. The
waiting-women, to the number of twenty or more, rode astride white
horses; they wore scarlet robes, white hats with yellow ribbons and
long feathers; white veils hid part of their faces; top boots of
bright yellow completed their costume. The guard consisted of 300
of the Streltsi with their showiest weapons, and behind them came
pensioners, boyards and officers of the court."--_Zabielin._
The young Prince Peter had a small state coach to himself; it was drawn
by small white ponies, and he had as a special retinue a number of
dwarfs. In the golden age of the three Romanofs Moscow thrived as never
before and became beautiful beyond other cities. Alexis busied himself
in erecting new and better buildings where fire destroyed the old, and
his example was followed by the boyards, who commenced of their own
accord to build churches or to enrich those existing, and were even so
western and modern as to present bells. It was under Theodore that
Moscow attained its zenith and became known as the city of
churches--"Forty-forties" their number, the Russian equivalent of
"seventy times seven," derived from "sorokov," an ecclesiastical
division, and also a "great gross"; the number actually in existence
within the town limit is said to have been 1071. There were twenty-seven
"Halls" within the Kremlin palaces; some twelve new courts of justice in
the town; and eight royal residences in the suburbs. The boyard Dmitri
Kaloshinim built a great church on the Devichi Pol-ye, and in addition
to the academy in the Za-ikono-spasski Monastyr other schools were
founded. The handicrafts of the west were generally practised, and many
new trades learned and mastered, some 4300 foreigners being employed in
Moscow in the manufacturing industries and the instruction of the
citizens. It was at this period that most of the beautiful glass,
faience and metal work that enriches the sacristies was produced, and
then that the finest ecclesiastical buildings were erected. Some of the
choicest antiquities of the Treasury (Orujen-ia Palata) date from this
period. The boyards during the siege of the Poles and themselves in the
Kremlin turned much of the old plate stored there into money; the
specimens of earlier date had been hidden away, or were in the treasures
of churches outside the Kremlin. Among the most interesting antiquities
here are:--
_In the entrance Hall._--The old bell of the Guardians of Novgorod,
recast in 1683; the alarm bell of the city of Moscow, recast in
1714 from the old bell of the town; two plates recording the
execution of the Streltsi. The staircase has old German suits of
mail, some trophies and two pictures, one representing the battle
of Dmitri Donskoi against the Tartars at Kulikovo, and the other
the baptism of Vladimir the Great.
_Room 1: Armoury._--Russian armour of the seventeenth century,
notably a mounted model of the Voievode of the period; on the left
of the entrance a Russian soldier of the same, also the helmet of
the hero Mstislavski, and the helmet of the Tsar Mikhail
Theodorovich.
_Room 2: Weapons._--Chiefly fire-arms used in Russia from the
fifteenth to the eighteenth century arranged chronologically, of
which those in cases XVIII and XIX are the most interesting; in
the cases XVI and XVIII will be found the weapons of foreign
manufacture, among them the sporting gun presented to the Tsar
Mikhail in 1619 by Fabian Smith; against the wall are the guns the
monks of St Sergius used to defend the monastery at Troitsa against
the Poles in 1609; below these the saddle of Prince Pojarski. Among
the standards around the pillars are the sacred colours carried by
Dmitri at Kulikovo, of Ivan the Terrible against Kazan (No 59), of
Alexis Mikhailovich against the Poles (No 24), of the Streltsi, of
Peter the Great's first regiment of marines (No 1), and the lion
and unicorn with which Yermak conquered Siberia. The helmets of
Kosma Minin, Prince Pojarski, of Nikita Romanof, Yaroslaf II., and
Alexander Nevski.
_Room 3: Trophies._--Modern.
_Room 4: Regalia._--The twelfth century crown of Vladimir
Monomachus; the sixteenth century crown of the Tsars of Kazan; that
of Ivan Alexievich (1680) and of Mikhail Theodorovich, the Imperial
crown, that of Georgia, globes, sceptres--note particularly the
beautiful workmanship from the conquered kingdom of Georgia--and
the orb reputed to have been presented by Basil and Constantine in
988, together with the golden chain collar and piece of the "true
cross." Among these insignia, most curious are the Barmi, metal
collars worn at the coronation, of which one of the earliest has
the eagle, lion, griffin, and unicorn--Byzantine symbols--and
excellent coloured enamel, but said to have been remade by a Moscow
goldsmith in the sixteenth century. The thrones include that of
ivory brought to Russia in 1472 by Sophia Paleologus; Persian
throne sent to Boris Godunov, in 1605, it is studded with more than
2000 gems; the double throne of the Tsars Ivan and Peter was made
at Hamburg and is so constructed that the curtain at the back might
screen the Tsarevna Sophia who used to station herself there either
to watch or prompt her young brothers. In a casket is the code of
the Tsar Alexis on sheets of parchment.
_Room 5: Plate._--To the left on entering are the enamel ware,
metal, wood, ivory, and glass, household plate of Russian
manufacture in the seventeenth century of which the best are those
of coloured enamel and niello. The loving cup presented by the
patriarch Nikon to the Tsar Alexis; a ring of the unfortunate
Eudoxia (wife of Peter I.) and a number of more or less
uninteresting objects of that monarch's period; and a fine
numismatic collection that will attract the enthusiast.
_Ground Floor: Carriages and Harness._--The state chariot sent to
Boris Godunov by Queen Elizabeth, carriages with mica windows,
closed carriages of the Tsaritsas, the miniature conveyance of the
young prince Peter, some relics of Napoleon; portraits of the
sovereigns of Russia, and the model of the palace with which
Catherine II. intended to cover the Kremlin; of the old palace at
Kolomenskoe. There also is the only portrait of Maria Mniszek,
and a picture representing her marriage with the false Dmitri.
Golden Moscow extended far beyond the Kremlin; one of its most
characteristic corners is the Vosskresenski Vorot, where stands the
little chapel sacred to the Iberian Mother of God, the exact copy of a
most venerable ikon, brought in 1648 from Mount Athos, for which this
chapel was erected by the Tsar Alexis. The picture shows a scratch on
the right cheek, the work of an infidel, who was converted by seeing the
blood that instantly exuded from the wound. The adornments are a
brilliant crown, with a veil of pearls, a large gem on the brow, another
on the shoulder; gold brocade with enamelled plaques representing
angels' heads, and the usual lavish decoration of the vestments,
complete this unusual ikon, which is probably the most venerated of any
in Moscow. The chapel is exceedingly rich and always surrounded by
worshippers; thirteen silver chandeliers with tapers are always burning
before the ikonostas, and to this day the Tsar on visiting Moscow
dismounts at this chapel before entering the Kremlin. The architecture
of the wall and gate is a modification of the Russian style of the 16th
century as influenced by the purely utilitarian or military style of
Podolia and north-east Germany, but the spires that crown the old square
towers are of a later date and are probably due to the love of the Tsar
Alexis for the Gothic which he tried in vain to blend with the heavy low
wooden models of early Russia. The buildings of this period are mostly
characterised by the quaint mixture of Lombard and Gothic, but there is
one fragment, the ruins of the archiepiscopal palace at the Krutitski,
which exhibits the more ornate style then considerably followed for
"Halls," in which the influence of Byzantium predominates. The Krutitski
monastery was first established within the Kremlin, but many centuries
ago was transferred to the suburbs near the Krasnoe Kholmski Bridge,
where the remains of the seventeenth century "dwelling" of the
metropolitan may now be seen serving as the gateway to the entrance of a
barracks. It is fronted with glazed tiles of many colours, yellow and
green are the most conspicuous, and of many shapes. The window casements
are purely Byzantine, but the vaulted archways and the roof are as
markedly Russian. Only its outer side has been left in its original
state, with the quaint designs, particularly that of the "Busy Bee,"
glaring from the gaudy tiles; the other side, that within the courtyard,
is now covered with the usual distemper (_v._ p. 122).
Doubtless much of the fine work on other buildings that have survived
the fires of the past two centuries is similarly hidden beneath plaster
and many coatings of thick body colour, but it is unlikely that it will
be discovered until the old buildings themselves are in course of
demolition, so this one perfect example, which is but little known and
seldom visited, may be regarded as the sole existing memorial of that
school of Greeks and Byzantines which so powerfully influenced Muscovite
construction during the reigns of Alexis and Theodore II.
The literary culture was derived from Poland, and is not remarkable for
strength or beauty: Slavinietski confined himself to dogma; the
many-sided Polotsi, artist, administrator, pedagogue and poet, wrote
several volumes, and helped in the adaptation of old-world stories for
dramatic representation. In addition to several plays such as "The
Prodigal Son," "Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego" and "Esther," which
[Illustration: VOSSKRESENSKI VOROT AND IBERIAN CHAPEL]
were performed within the walls of the Uspenski Cathedral, profane
history afforded such themes as the "Siege of Troy" and "Alexander the
Great" for the amusement of the court in the private hall. Native themes
were not so general: "The Judgment of Chemiaki" was one; such plays as
the "Good Genius," "The Mirror of Justice," appear to have been derived
from the Arabs, and it is said that many themes from the Hindu
"Panchatantra" were also utilised. Prince Galitzin spoke Latin as
fluently as a German Professor; the tsarevna Sophia was his equal in
that tongue; and the princess, so far from being satisfied with the
routine of the terem, amused herself in writing a tragedy and a comedy
in verse, both of which were performed in Moscow. There seems to be no
doubt that great liberty was accorded her; but she, unfortunate in the
choice of her advisers, became ambitious, and herself was the principal
figure in one of the greatest of the real dramas Moscow has furnished.
The "Tranquil" Tsar, as Alexis became to be called, amassed great wealth
and amused himself in building a fleet for the Caspian Sea, which the
water-brigand, Stenki Razin, the pirate of the Volga, promptly
destroyed; and then Alexis, like Peter, played with toy boats on the
ornamental lake he had made in the Kremlin. To him, much more truly than
to Peter, do Karamzin's lines apply:--
"Russia had a noble Tsar,
Sovereign honoured wide and far:
He a father's love enjoyed,
He a father's power employed,
And sought his children's bliss
And their happiness was his."
He constructed much of the old Moscow still visible; not a church or a
monastery of earlier date but he rebuilt, extended, or improved. Outside
the Kremlin, throughout the different zones of the town, beyond the
last ramparts far away into the forests that skirted the suburbs, the
marks of his work, churches, palaces and halls, testify to the immensity
and riches of this Moscow of the Tsars; wherever one may go in or about
the Moscow of to-day, that of the seventeenth century cannot be wholly
escaped.
CHAPTER VIII
_The Kremlin_
"The Kremlin is our Sanctuary and our Fortress; the source of our
strength and the treasury of our Holy Faith."
VIAZEMSKI.
Russians very rightly regard the Kremlin as their Holy of Holies. All
that Moscow is to Russia, the Kremlin is to Moscow. Nowhere else are so
many and diverse relics grouped in so small a space; no place of its
size is so rich in historical associations. It contains what is best
worth seeing in Russia, it is what is best worth knowing. The people
know this; know that--as their poet Medich tersely expresses its
value--"Here it is that the great Russian eagle raised its eyrie and
spread its immense protecting wings over an enormous empire." To the
antiquary, of beauty, to the tourist in search of distraction, the
Kremlin is equally attractive. To see it to best advantage, all who
visit Moscow for the first time should make the tour outside the walls
before entering by any one of its five practicable gates; or, if the
complete circuit--some two miles--cannot conveniently be made then,
instead of entering by the nearest gate from the Kitai Gorod, let the
hurried visitor at least drive across the Moskvoretski Bridge, along the
quay on the south side of the river, and, returning by the Kammeny Most,
make an entrance by either the Borovitski or the Troitski Gate.
The exact position of the wall of white stone, built in the reign of
Dmitri Donskoi (1367), is unknown; in all probability it was within the
space at present enclosed. The wall of burnt tiles, erected during the
reign of Ivan III., was the work of Aleviso Fioraventi, an Italian
architect; but a few years later, between 1485 and 1492, the present
wall was raised on the foundations of the old one, in part by Italian
workmen, in part by native artisans. This wall, repaired from time to
time, has escaped all the fires and disasters which wrought such havoc
elsewhere in the Kremlin; but in its original state consisted of three
distinct parapets, set back and rising above each other over the ditch,
much as the tiers of the old towers still remaining. The wall, the
inmost of the three, is of an exaggerated Italian style, the battlements
unnecessarily deep. The towers and gates are various: some as the
Spasski and Troitski, Gothic; some as the Borovitski and the Gun Towers,
Russian; others bastard and nondescript. The Borovitski, Tainitski, and
the similar smaller square pyramidal towers, are clearly copies of the
older wooden erections on the earlier walls. The design is that of
carpenters, not of masons. The green tiles are the original covering;
the secret of making them has been lost. For centuries the wall was
painted white, the present brick colour is an innovation.
[Illustration: KREMLIN--RAMPART AND GUN TOWER]
An early writer states that "the wall is two miles about, and it hath
sixteen gates and as many bulwarks." It is better to be precise. The
length of the wall is 1 mile 700 yards, and it follows exactly the
contour and windings of the hill, forming an irregular triangle; the
thickness varies from 14 to 20 feet, the height from 30 to 70 feet.
Throughout the entire length there is a rampart 9 feet wide and a low
parapet on the inner side. This walk is paved with stone flags, and is
reached from any of the towers and by special stairways within the wall.
The Borovitski Gate, surmounted by a tower 200 feet high (see page 299),
preserves the name of the forest (Bor), with which the hill was long ago
covered, its official name is the Prechistenka Gate; here all that
remains of the old church of the Nativity of St John the Baptist is
conserved in the chapel on the right of the gate in entering. In the
second storey is the Royal Chapel of St John, one of the ten churches of
the palace; in it a service is held once a year, to which worshippers
are summoned by ringing the bells on the third storey of the tower. By
this gate the Tsars left the Kremlin on other than state occasions, by
it Napoleon's troops entered.
Turning towards the river, the round tower at the corner of the wall was
used at one time as a water reservoir for the palace gardens. Peter the
Great had need of all the lead he possessed when building his new
capital on the Neva, and the tower was then dismantled. It suffered from
the mines exploded by the French in 1812; in 1856 it was used to store
certain valuables removed from St Petersburg.
The first tower eastward from the "Chateau d'Eau" is the old granary,
"Jitny Dvor," now used by the priest of the adjoining church of the
Annunciation. According to the legend on the wall at this point a vision
of the Annunciation was seen; to commemorate which this church was
built.
The next tower is over the Tainitski or "Secret" Gate, a postern leading
to the river, now practicable for pedestrians only. On this spot there
has been a gate ever since the Kremlin was first enclosed; it was at one
time used for the procession of January 6, on its way to the river, but
"The Blessing of the Water" is now performed from the New Cathedral of
our Saviour.
The wall then runs eastward as far as the round tower near the
Moskvoretski Bridge, then turns north as far as the Spasski Gate. The
corner comprised within this length of the wall and a straight line from
the Tainitski to the Spasski Gate is full of story. The first two towers
have now no name; the next is that of the Metropolitan Peter; after the
corner tower, the first is that of Constantine and Helen, the next the
Tsarina's tower, then comes the small open tower in the wall itself and
quite close to the Spasski Tower. It was at this corner, at first within
the Kremlin itself, later outside on the Grand Place that the public
executions took place. The wall here has prison cells within its vaulted
arches, dungeons are beneath the towers, the corner tower once an
oubliette, is still supposed to have the remains of the iron blades and
spikes, upon which the prisoners fell, projecting from its walls; in the
tower of Constantine and Helen were the instruments of torture used to
extort confessions, and the church of the same name is that to which the
accused were taken to make their oath before being led to the rack or
cast into some secret dungeon. The Tsarina's Tower, now a dwelling and
storehouse, has no pleasant history; the small tower in which once hung
the great bell brought from Novgorod is popularly believed to have been
constructed by Ivan Groznoi to afford him a better view of the
executions, but, if authorities may be believed, on such occasions he
more often figured as an actor than an onlooker. However this may be,
it is undoubtedly the truth that of this portion of the Kremlin much
that is interesting will some day be written. Sneguirev and other
writers are content to describe it in very general terms; Fabricius, who
for eight years was employed in the Kremlin and knows it more thoroughly
than most men, in his monumental work on the Kremlin, scamps this
section, although giving minute details respecting other towers and
portions of the wall. It is not accessible to the public, and special
permission from the commandant of the fortress is now required before
admission is given to the rampart walk.
The Spasski (Redeemer) Gate, constructed in the reign of Ivan III.
(1491), by Peter Antonio Solarius of Milan, was at first known as the
Florovski gate from a church dedicated to St Florus in its vicinity. It
bears the following inscription:--
"Johannes Vassilii Dei gratia magnus Dux Volodomiræ, Moscoviæ.
Novoguardiæ, Iferiæ, Plescoviæ, Veticiæ, Ougariæ, Permiæ, Volgariæ
et aliarum totiusque Roxiæ dominus: anno 30 imperii sui has turres
condere jussit, et statuit Petrus Solarius Mediolanensis, anno
nativitatis Domini 1491."
When the church of the Holy Trinity was built this gate took the name of
the "Jerusalem Gate," because the Palm Sunday procession passed beneath
it. In 1626 during the reign of the Tsar Mikhail Theodorovich,
Christopher Galloway, an English clockmaker, constructed the spire and
placed therein a striking clock, which, however, was subsequently
removed. After various changes, in 1737 the Tsarina Elizabeth Petrovna
caused the one now in use to be placed there. The building itself is
formed of thick double walls, between which are passages and staircases
of wood and stone; brick buttresses connect the walls and support the
upper storeys. The second is the clock tower; the third of octagonal
form, has eight arches on which the spire is carried. Over the entrance
is the miraculous ikon of the Redeemer, brought back from Smolensk by
the Tsar Alexis in 1647. It is to this picture that the orthodox
attribute the raising of the siege of Moscow by the Tartars under
Makhmet-Ghiree in 1526; it is still held in great veneration, and it is
customary for all to uncover whilst passing through the gate. Formerly
an omission to do so was punished with two score and half compulsory
prostrations. The Redeemer Gate is the state entrance to the Kremlin; by
it the Tsars entered and left on all important occasions. Ivan III.
passed through after quelling the revolt at Nijni Novgorod; Ivan
"Groznoi" after taking Kazan; Vasili Shooiski after the delivery of
Moscow from the Poles; here the people went to meet the young Tsar
Michael Romanof after his election. The remains of Shooiski were brought
through this gate, and by it passed the funeral processions of the Tsars
Peter II., Alexander I. and Alexander II. Since the eighteenth century
the Tsars have made their state entry to the Kremlin for the coronation
by the Redeemer Gate. Criminals executed near the Lobnoe Mesto
addressed their last prayers to the ikon above its portal; near it the
"hundreds" of Streltsi were executed by order of Peter the Great, and in
his reign the heterodox who refused to shave their heads paid a fine on
passing it. The French tried to blow up the gate with gunpowder, but it
was saved by the timely intervention of the Cossacks.
The Nikolski Gate on the north-east was also built by Peter Solarius,
but has been several times restored, having suffered by fire and from
other disasters. Tokhtamysh entered the Kremlin by this gate; so did the
troops of Sigismund III., and it was here that Edigei most strongly
assaulted the Kremlin, here that the Krim-Tartars ineffectually tried to
gain an entrance in 1551, and here that the battle raged between the
Poles and Russians for the possession of Moscow. Like the Spasski Gate
it also has its miraculous ikon. It is a mosaic of St Nicholas of
Mojaisk. "The dread of perjurers and the comfort of those in pain,"
before it litigants made their solemn oaths preliminary to the hearing
of the cause. The inscription upon it records how, when the French
attempted to blow it up, the ikon escaped destruction.
"In the year 1812, during the time of the invasion by the enemy
almost the whole of this strong tower was demolished by the
explosion of a mine; but, by the wonderful power of God, the holy
image of the greatly favoured by God, here designed, and, not only
the image, but the pane of glass covering it, as also the lantern
with the candle, remained uninjured.
"Who is greater than God, our God? Thou art the God, the marvellous
God, who doest miracles by Thy saints."
This gate is the most generally used entrance to the Kremlin, and in the
tower above the law archives of the town are now stored.
Northward from the Nikolski gate there is an abrupt descent to the
corner tower--which is polygonal, not round like the others--for here is
the old bed of the river Neglinnaia. Formerly the stream was dammed up
near its junction with the Moskva so as to constitute an impassable
moat, and thus protect the western side of the Kremlin. Nevertheless the
wall is continued at the same height for its whole length. The arsenal,
a commonplace building, extends from the corner tower to the Troitski
gate, the monotony of its dreary line broken by two characteristic
gun-towers on the wall. In the Alexander Gardens, outside the Kremlin,
arches and rough masonry may be seen, and possibly mistaken for a part
of the foundations of the Kremlin wall; they are only decorations
dating from the Exhibition held there in 1872.
The Troitski (Trinity) Gate was constructed to give access to the
palaces in the Kremlin from the suburb on the other side of the
Neglinnaia, in the seventeenth century occupied almost entirely by Court
servants and artisans. Towards the close of the eighteenth century this
quarter was a slum, the chief haunt of the robbers and desperadoes of
Moscow; thence came the men who fired the city during the French
occupation. The tower over the gate, in the Gothic style, was added by
Galloway early in the seventeenth century and has been twice restored;
the rooms in it are now used by the staff in charge of the old archives
stored in the various towers of the Kremlin. The bridge is protected by
a barbican, the Kutaïfa, a large white tower of original design, the
work of Italians, about 1500, battlemented and once furnished with gates
and portcullis. The French entered and left the Kremlin by this route.
It is the only gate in the Kremlin without a chapel, the church of the
Trinity once adjoining having been demolished.
[Illustration: BELVEDERE OF PLEASURE PALACE]
About midway along the wall between the Troitski and Borovitski gates
appear the bright-coloured roofs and gables of an old Russian house, the
Potieshni Dvorets, whose striking architecture, together with that of
the characteristic smaller towers on the walls, relieves the ugliness of
the service buildings on the left and the heavy façade of the Treasury
building on the right. This side of the Kremlin should be seen from the
far side of the gardens, or from the street beyond.
The best view of the Kremlin is that seen from the south end of the
Moskvoretski bridge (see page 13.) The balconies of the Hotel Kokoref
command the same view, one which reveals at a glance more that is
characteristic of Moscow than even the bird's-eye view from the dome of
Ivan Veliki. In the foreground the river and quays; beyond, the walls of
the Kremlin with towers in all styles; the fantastic pinnacles of Vasili
Blajenni; the blunted spires of the Vossnesenski convent, behind which
rise the gilded domes of the Chudov church and the great cupola of the
hall of St Catherine in the Senate. Beyond the striking Alexander
memorial rises the belfry of Ivan Veliki, and around it cluster the
gilded and gay-coloured domes of the cathedrals, then, further to the
left, the long façade of the Palace, the pyramidal tower of the
Borovitski gate, and, apparently near by, the huge golden dome of the
new Cathedral. (See page 299.)
Entering the Kremlin by the Nikolski gate, to the right is the arsenal,
to the left the Senate (Law Courts), reaching the transverse route from
the Troitski gate, the barracks are in front, the buildings of the
service corps to the right, the Chudov monastery to the left; continuing
straight on, a large open space is reached; then on the left is the
smaller palace, on the far side of the square is the Alexander memorial;
close by, on the right, the Synod, then, railed off, the Sobornia
Ploshchad with the cathedrals and beyond them the Grand Palace. In the
centre rises Ivan Veliki tower which serves as belfry for all the
cathedrals.
The cathedrals are, for the most part, described in detail in "Moscow of
the Ecclesiastics"; the palaces in the chapter on "Moscow of the
Tsars," and the Chudov and Vossnesenski monasteries in chapter xii.;
here the other buildings and sights of the Kremlin may be mentioned.
First and foremost to treat of Ivan Veliki; of Moscow and its bells.
According to tradition the tall bell tower has a very ancient origin but
as a matter of fact it was constructed at the close of the sixteenth
century to find employment for a starving population. Its foundations
are on a level with the river bed, 120 feet below the surface; its
height above is 320 feet, built in five storeys, the first four
octagonal, the topmost cylindrical. In the eighteenth century it was
considered one of the wonders of the world, and to this day the orthodox
invariably cross themselves when passing it. Dedicated to St John and
containing in the basement a chapel to the same saint, it is supposed to
owe its name to this, but tradition states that it was constructed by
one John (Ivan) Viliers whose patronymic has been corrupted into
Veliki--that is, "great" or "big."
There are 450 steps to the gallery under the cupola, whereon is an
inscription of which the following is a translation:--
"Under the protection of the Holy Trinity and by order of the Tsar
and Grand Duke Boris Theodorovich autocrat of all the Russias, and
of his son the Tsarevich and Grand Duke Theodore Borisovich, this
church has been completed and gold-crowned the second year of their
reign. A.M. 7180."[A]
[A] Date erroneous: built 1590-1600 A.D.
Adjoining Ivan Veliki is another tower, that of the Assumption, in which
are hung the larger bells, and still further to the north a third belfry
with a pyramidal spire, known as the Tower of Philaret.
The chapel of St John is on, or near, the spot occupied by a small wood
church first erected in 1320; it contains several ikons of interest. On
the first storey under the dome of the Assumption Tower is a chapel
dedicated to St Nicholas, replacing a fourteenth-century church in the
Kremlin. It is specially visited by the orthodox about to marry, and
contains some ikons removed from the church of St Nicholas of Galstun,
demolished during the reign of Alexander I. (1816). A deacon of the old
church, Ivan Theodorof, introduced printing into Russia, and in 1567
produced a book of hours on Moscow. Hence, the book depôt lodged in the
tower. Very characteristic of Moscow are these three towers, of
different styles of architecture, massed to form one building; that the
three should all be white is a pleasing convention which has long
endured. It is needless to state that there is an excellent view from
the upper storeys, one well worth the toilsome ascent. Moreover the
bells are interesting; though some visitors are content with an
examination of the great Bell of Moscow which, broken and flawed, stands
upon a pedestal at the foot of the Ivan Veliki tower.
The art of bell-founding first practised at Nola in Campania in the
ninth century, has been known in Russia since the fourteenth; in 1553 a
bell of about 15 tons was cast in Moscow and hung in a wooden tower.
Since that date many large bells have been cast and recast. The largest,
the Tsar Kolokol, the "Great Bell of Moscow," is supposed to have been
first cast in the sixteenth century, probably during the reign of Boris
Godunov; in 1611 a traveller states that in Moscow is a bell whose
clapper is rung by two dozen men; in 1636, a fire in the Kremlin caused
the bell to fall and it was broken. In 1654 it was recast and then
weighed some 130 tons; it was 2 feet thick and its circumference over 50
feet. It was suspended at the foot of the tower, and the wooden beam
supporting it being burned by the fire of 1706 it once more fell to the
ground and broke. It was recast by order of the Empress Anne in 1733,
but it is doubtful whether it was hung. From 1737 to 1836 it lay beneath
the surface. By the order of the Tsar Nicholas, De Ferrand raised it
from the pit and mounted it on the pedestal it now occupies. It is 2
feet thick, 21 feet high (26 feet, 4 inches with ball and cross) 68 feet
in girth, and weighs 185 tons. The fragment is 7 feet high and weighs 11
tons. The figures represent the Tsar Alexis and the Empress Anne. It
bears a long inscription:--
"Alexis Michaelovich of happy memory, Autocrat of Great and Small
Russia and of White Russia, gave the order that for the Cathedral
of the pure and glorious Assumption of the Holy Virgin, a bell
should be cast with 8000 poods of copper, in the year of the world
7162 and of the birth of Jesus Christ our Saviour, 1645. This bell
was used in the year 7176 (A.D. 1668), and served until the year of
the creation 7208 and of Jesus Christ 1701; in which last year on
the 19 June it was broken in a great fire that destroyed the
Kremlin: it was mute until the year of the creation ... and of our
Lord.... By the command of the majestic Empress-Autocrat Anna
Ivanovna, for the glory of God, of the Holy Trinity, and in honour
of the Holy Virgin, in the Cathedral of her glorious Assumption,
they melted the metal of the old bell of 8000 poods, damaged by the
fire and added thereto 2000 poods of new metal, the year of the
world 7241 and of the birth of our Saviour 1734, and the fourth of
the glorious reign of Her Majesty."
"Thirty-four bells hang in these three towers; the largest is the "big
bell" of the Uspenski Sobor, which is in the middle tower and on the
lowest tier. It was cast in 1817 by Bogdanof, to replace the bell broken
when the tower was wrecked by the mine exploded beneath it in 1812. A
bell of 7 tons is the largest in the tower of Ivan, which, originally
founded in 1501 by Afanasief, has been subsequently recast; the next
storey has three old bells and amongst those of the highest storey are
two "silver" bells. The oldest here dates from 1550; other old bells,
Russian, Dutch, and others, are hung in the belfry of Spass na Boru, in
that of St Michael in the courtyard of the Chudov Monastery, and in the
belfry of the Vossnesenski Convent. Russian bells are not swung, but are
sounded by moving the clapper, to the tongue of which the bell rope is
attached; the clapper of the "Kolokol" is 14 feet in length and 6 feet
in circumference. The famous bells of Moscow are:--
"The Tsar Kolokol, 185 tons; Assumption or 'Big Bell'--in use--64
tons; The Thunderer (Reut), 30 tons, cast by Chokov in 1689, it
also fell in 1812 but was not broken; The Every Day (Vsednievni),
15 tons, cast in 1782; The Seven-hundredth (Semisotni), 10 tons;
Bear (Medvied), 7 tons; Swan (Lebeda), 7 tons; Novgorodsk, 6 tons;
The 'Wide' Bell (Shirokoi), 4½ tons; Slobodski, 4½ tons;
Rostovski, 3 tons."
The casting of the great bells was made a state function as well as a
church ceremony; as late as the nineteenth century, the old form of
blessing the bell was followed in the case of the Big Bell, which is
described at length by Dr Lyall who was present:--
"On the 17th March 1817, the Archbishop Augustine went into the
cavity in which the metal was to be run, and sprinkled the place
with holy water, as also the metals to be used in founding the
bell; gave his benediction to the masters of the foundry, and
called the workmen to receive his blessing and kiss the cross. The
molten metal ran by a gutter into the mould; and, the casting
finished, the Archbishop again gave thanks to God. The leading
inhabitants were present at the casting, and freely threw in gold
and silver trinkets. On the 23rd February 1819 this bell was
removed from the foundry. It was placed on an oak sledge, and after
the Te Deum had been sung, a willing crowd seized the many ropes
attached and drew the sledge down the Srietenka and Lubianka to the
Kusnetski Most, Mokhovaya, and the whole length of the Kremlin wall
to the Borovitski Gate by which it made its entrance, and reached
the Belfry of Ivan Veliki, where the Te Deum was sung again. It was
hung in the summer of 1819."
Closely allied to the art of the bell-maker was that of cannon-founder,
and the Kremlin contains some curious and excellent specimens of old
weapons. The most striking is the huge gun known as the Tsar Pushka,
"King of Guns," familiarly as the "drobovnik" (fowling piece), which was
cast in the reign of Theodore Ivanovich (1586), by one Chokof. It weighs
36 tons, and is of too large calibre and too weak metal ever to have
been used as a weapon. When Peter I. after the battle of Narva, ordered
old cannon and church bells to be cast into new ordnance, this was
spared. So was the mortar by its side, for it was cast by the false
Dmitri, who not only took a great interest in the manufacture of fire
arms, but tested them himself. Among the cannon arranged along the
barrack terrace is "The Unicorn" cast in 1670; the carriage of this, of
the Tsar Pushka, and of others are new, made by Baird, of St Petersburg.
Along the front of the arsenal are arranged the 875 cannon, 365 French,
taken from "the twenty nations" who invaded Russia with Napoleon.
It has already been stated that the Kremlin was at one time a complete
city; to a certain extent it is so still. Again and again buildings have
been destroyed and restored; streets made, and swept away. In sinking
the foundations for the Alexander memorial the debris of three distinct
ruins superimposed showed how one town has succeeded another, and as at
that point, so at many others. The exercising ground was long covered
with dwellings; there were the hostelries of the Krutitski monastery,
the houses of the priests, seminaries, private dwellings--at one time as
many as twenty streets were to be found within the Kremlin walls. Under
the barracks and the Chudov monastery are immense vaults of ancient
brick; below the Synod are known to be two large chambers which have
not
[Illustration: CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR BEHIND THE GOLDEN GATES]
been examined, and, in the very centre of the Kremlin, between the Tsar
Pushka and the Chudov Monastery, but three feet beneath the pavement, is
the basement of an old edifice, vaults of white stone, probably the
remains of the palace of the Tsar Boris Godunov. The smaller palace is
built upon the side of an early cemetery; at one time in the open space
near Ivan Veliki criminals were publicly executed and the _ukases_ of
the Tsar proclaimed. In the same way that the Kremlin is honeycombed
with vaults for the storage of great quantities of food and munitions of
war, it is penetrated by different conduits for the water drawn from the
bed of the neighbouring stream; a supply so plentiful and constant that
the Tsar Alexis used it to flow through great lead bottomed tanks and
ornamental lakes, whereon, like later Tsars, he amused himself with a
toy fleet.
The railed in Sobornia Ploshchad has been from time immemorial the Grand
enclosure. Here the religious processions formed, and form; here Dmitri
Ivanovich unfurled the black standard before going out to give battle to
Mamai; here most Tsars have passed to their coronation, or have walked
with their brides to the altar for the wedding sacrament; across it the
princes and Tsars of Moscow have been carried to their last resting
place. Outside that door crouched the excommunicated Ivan Groznoi, from
this the frenzied people dragged their priest, towards that the
threatened metropolitan bravely made his way to officiate at a forbidden
mass. Before the Grand entrance (Krasnoe Kriltso) foreign ambassadors
drew up in pomp to make their calls of state, on that same terrace Ivan
with his staff transfixed the foot of the brave messenger of the not
less bold Kourbski, there, too, he gazed at the comet supposed to
foretell his death. To this place the basket for the petitions of the
people was daily lowered from the Tsar's palace window; on this spot
fell the body of the murdered false Dmitri. Here at different times have
gathered Tartar envoys, merchant venturers, turbulent Streltsi; the
famished, the terrified and the pestilent stricken; Polish soldiers,
French grenadiers, foreign fightingmen as a bodyguard, the dreaded
"opritchniki"; bountiful boyards, Napoleon's riff-raff; humble Russians
to petition, pious ones to pray, grateful ones to return thanks.
The imaginative visitor may conjure up amidst the buildings whatever
scene he will from the history of Moscow and find adequate setting. May
picture state pageantry; church ceremonial; military display; the
expression of perfervid piety; the ruin following fearful
disaster--whether wrought by the hand of man or the act of God. Such
scenes that the walls will seem to echo in turn the laughter of homely
merry-making, the huzzahs of victory, the wails of the afflicted, the
uproar of the turbulent, the sighs of the worshipper--for here every
emotion has been many times expressed by the varying multitudes that
have thronged these courts.
Entering by the tower of Philaret, the Church of the Twelve Apostles is
on the extreme right, the Cathedral of the Assumption immediately in
front, that of the Archangels on the left, opposite it is the Cathedral
of the Annunciation communicating with the royal palaces by a terrace
from which descends the wide flight of steps which as their name,
Krasnoe Kriltso, indicates is the grand or state entrance to the
palace. It was on this terrace that the Tsars of old allowed the people
to see "the light of their eyes," and there that those of noble race
stood to be "beholden of the people." At one time this flight had the
usual porch at the foot, and a red roof above, just as the approaches to
the old churches and the modern house, Dom Chukina off the Tverskaia.
Fires have destroyed the roofs and now an awning only is used upon state
occasions. These steps flank the old Granovitaia Palace and on its other
side, in an obscure corner, almost behind the Cathedral of the
Assumption, is the Holy Spot of the Kremlin, being to the church what
the Krasnoe Kriltso was to the state.
It is the old entrance to the private apartments of the Patriarchs, and
the chapel of the metropolitans, that known as the Pecherski
Bogeimateri, raised on the site of the earliest stone edifice built in
the Kremlin. Founded by Jonas it suffered the fate of most buildings in
Moscow, but was always rebuilt in much the same style, and still
conserves many characteristics of the most ancient of Moscow churches.
The present building is composed of the fragments left from the fires of
1626, 1637, 1644 and 1682. The roof is vaulted, supported by four
columns; the walls have pictures of the virgin and saints, and above the
altar is that of the Madonna. The ikonostas has four stages and is
adorned with most venerable ikons, notably those of "The Reception of
the sacred vestments of the Virgin" of the Virgin of Vladimir (an early
copy), and of the Holy Trinity, before which are ancient candelabra with
the remains of tapers made like the old rushlights and gaily coloured.
The inscription is to the effect that they were placed there by the
Patriarch Joseph in 1643 and 1645. The old chandelier in the centre is
by Sviechkov, a master craftsman of the Tsarian workshops in 1624. The
Virgin of Pechersk, brought from Kiev, is hung upon the wall and
surrounded with portraits of Peter, Alexis, Jonas, Philip, and other of
the patron saints of Moscow: before this ikon all must bow or suffer
eternal punishment. The church is never closed; day and night it is
visited by pious pilgrims and the sacred lamp is ever burning before the
ikon. It communicates with the corridor of the Terem, and behind it rise
the domes of the churches within the palace, notably those of the
Saviour behind the Golden Gates and St Catherine's: near them the roof
of the Terem and the walls of the Granovitaia Palace complete a picture
wholly Muscovite; but, if tradition may be trusted, the work upon the
most picturesque portion, St Catherine's, is due to an Englishman, one
John Taylor, in the service of the Tsars.
On Palm Sundays there used to form in the little square before the porch
the head of that procession in which the Tsar led the Patriarch, seated
upon an ass, by the Redeemer Gate to the Lobnoe Mesto. Peter the Great
turned the procession to mere burlesque, mounting the Patriarch upon an
ox and himself playing the buffoon. Here, too, were the miracle plays
and church mysteries performed in the seventeenth century, and here the
church processions still form for the more stately pageants of to-day.
The only old private dwelling remaining within the Kremlin is that now
known as the Potieshni Dvorets, or "palace of amusements," which was
originally the house of the boyards Miloslavski and was acquired by the
crown after the marriage of the Tsar Alexis with Maria Miloslavski. The
interior has now nothing of particular interest, but the exterior is an
excellent example of Russian architecture as modified by mid-European
influence in the late seventeenth century. Part of the third and fourth
storeys instead of retreating, in the Russian style, is made to project,
but the "belvedere," with a balcony all round, is retained for the top
storey; retained, too, are the bulbous pillars which serve as, or
decorate the side posts of doors and windows, and the long pendant
keystones to form the double-arch instead of a lintel; all of which are
peculiar to Russian architecture.
[Illustration: POTIESHNI DVORETS (PLEASURE PALACE)]
Several explanations for the common use of the ogival arch, the bulbous
dome, and the double arch with hanging keystones, have been advanced by
antiquaries, but none are altogether satisfactory. The errors have
possibly resulted from studying masonry to the exclusion of carpentry,
and the early Slavs were users of wood--not of stone or brick. It may be
that these forms were due to the execution in light elastic wood of
arches and vaults copied from foreign work composed of voussoirs, but
such is unlikely. Assuming that round wood poles, the stems of the
plentiful young birch trees, and wattles were the materials of which the
frames of the early dwellings were constructed, then such forms
naturally result.
If the ends of poles are stuck into the earth, and the opposite
extremities brought to a common centre and weight--as that of the
roof--added, the timbers will sag and a concave section result. That
this was one Russian form of roof, the illustration of the Belvedere of
the Terem exemplifies (see page 117), where the curve is purposely
exaggerated for the purpose of decorative effect. If, instead of being
placed loosely in the earth to allow of this set, the poles are thrust
down deep into the soil or otherwise made immovable and the upper
extremities forcibly brought in towards the centre and fastened there,
then when the weight of the roof bends the poles, they will bulge
outward in the middle, and when the weight of the roof has been so
adjusted as to correct the curve in order to give to the structure the
desired greatest possible interior space for domestic accommodation,
then the bulbous dome naturally results if the poles be arranged in a
circle. The ogival arch is only a section of that.
Granted that if the poles cross each other near the tops a more or less
concave cone will result--as exemplified in the tepoes of the American
Indians--yet if instead of two or three poles, many more have to be
brought to the common apex it will be easier not to cross them but bind
all firmly to each other--or a central post--then the ogival section
must result. If a single pole is bent to form the support of a roof and
both its extremities are thrust into the ground, the horseshoe arch is
obtained as soon as the weight of the roof acts upon such supports. If,
instead of the single pole, two shorter ones are taken and instead of
being lashed together to form the pointed arch the upper extremities are
brought towards each other and downwards and then lashed, a more rigid
bow is obtained, and this is the crude form of the double arch with
pendant keystone so common in Moscow; and its use generally is over
doorways, etc., where a wide span with great stability is required, and
with poles as the only available material this form gives rigidity not
obtainable by bending to any other so simple form.
The form of arched vault that had served as the lowly dwelling of a
primitive people was retained in its entirety for the roof of later and
larger buildings; the walls, whether of logs or shaped timber, served as
imposts, just as the soil had done, and so the bulbous domes, the square
and oblong attic roofs with their characteristic gonflements have been
retained. It is merely an example of the persistence as decoration of
forms which were originally wholly utilitarian. This is particularly the
case with the double arch where the pendant keystone descends to the
level of the imposts and is of course supported from the lintel when
executed in masonry. Another characteristic Russian form is the circular
arch of masonry, which has the voussoirs of the intrados of the usual
regular form but of the extrados slightly elevated at the corner to
indicate the "ogival arch," which was the common form of the wooden arch
in Moscow. As already stated (ch. ii.) the early forms of Russian
dwellings may be studied from the models in the Historical Museum; one
peculiarity is that each successive storey is set back from that
immediately below instead of projecting as in the half-timbered houses,
of mediæval England. In addition to the belvederes of the Terem and
Potieshni Dvorets, it is noticeable in the towers of the Kremlin wall.
They were originally of timber and the earlier form is retained--even to
the double walls and tiers--so necessary to a wooden bulwark, but quite
foreign to the method of the Italian masons who erected these buildings.
The steep roofs of the towers is also common and convenient in
constructing with timber, but needless and difficult when working with
tiles and bricks. So long as these remain the wooden original Moscow
cannot be wholly forgotten.
The attempt to retain the pyramidal or retreating form when building
with bricks has resulted in a distinctly Muscovite style for towers and
spires. Instead of a parapet on the walls of the tower, a tier of small
circular arches is imposed, and form the crowns of these, also set back,
spring the voussoirs of a second tier, and in like manner other tiers
until the desired height is reached for the spire, or the cylindrical
shaft that is to support the dome, or whatever other ornament is used to
crown the structure. One of the best examples of this form is the church
of the Nativity on the Mala Dmitrovka, which was built in the "golden"
period of Moscow--1625-1680--when for all buildings of first importance
masonry had supplanted the use of wood (see p. 181). The earlier form
may be seen in the roof of the Blagovieshchenski Sobor; and the
varieties of pattern are reproduced in the attic roofs of the Historical
Museum building.
The absurdity of the pendant keystone in the double arch is
demonstrated by the arch over the doorway to the courtyard of the synod,
and the lintels of doors and windows of the Potieshni Dvorets.
The magnificent monument to the Great Tsar Liberator, Alexander II., is
the latest addition to the Kremlin, that heart of Moscow which echoes
the glorious past of the Russian empire and is its true Pantheon. None
have graced it more than those early Romanofs whose work is evident in
every ancient building, but still more imperishable was the noble labour
of him to whom this generation has expressed its gratitude in an
imposing and characteristic memorial to the most loved Tsar.
CHAPTER IX
_Moscow of the Ecclesiastics_
"Come, brothers! your heads you may bow,
Before grand and most holy Moscow;
Where the old altars of our land,
Where shrines of saints, and ikons stand,
Our inmost sanctuary."--BOROZDNA.
Holy Moscow, so reverently and affectionately regarded by the orthodox
as the Mother of the Church, is to them more than a mere agglomeration
of sacred shrines and ecclesiastical edifices. Neither the
churches--though they are numerous and important enough to warrant the
familiar appellation--nor yet the wonder-working, incorruptible remains
and the miraculous ikons most endear Moscow to the true-believer--for
there are such elsewhere which receive like humble homage. Holy Moscow
comprises all that has served to nurse and sustain the faith amidst
infidel aggression; the white-walled and golden-crowned city is symbolic
of the lasting reward of heroic endeavour in the upward struggle of the
race towards supremacy. Not indestructible itself, but its spirit
undying; razed time after time only to appear again greater and more
glorious than before, Moscow seems to the Russian not so much a part of
the national entity personified in empire, as the very soul of his race;
possessed, even as each individual, with strength to endure adversity
and unfailing vigour to accomplish a predestined purpose. Traditions of
divine intervention; the finding and promulgation of Law; much that is
miraculous and legendary as well as all that is credible in early
national history the Russian associates with Moscow, and feels what the
stranger cannot be made to perceive, may even fail to comprehend, for
the outward and visible sign of the living spirit that actuates the
Church is but faint and imperfect, even as performance is so often but
an inadequate rendering of intention. Although the sanctity of Moscow
may not be apparent to the unorthodox, the observer will expect some
characteristics of motive to stand revealed in externals. But to the
uninitiated the ritual of the Russian Church is bewildering, and the
true significance of such symbols as are exhibited in ecclesiastical
architecture and ornament is likely to be missed by over accentuating
the importance of whatever may be unusual. For many, who are quite
ignorant of its tenets and practice, the Eastern Church has an
irresistible fascination; the danger is that these, on a first
acquaintance will over-praise such details as they may appreciate and
too hastily condemn others they may not rightly comprehend, and fail to
arrive at a just conclusion by means of further study when no longer
attracted by the novelty of the subject. To confine oneself to the
consideration of externals is insufficient, being tantamount to the act
of one who, absolutely ignorant of card games, endeavours to obtain an
idea of the amusement derived from their play by careful examination of
the accurate printing and careful finish of certain cards in the pack.
On the other hand an attempt to convey by words alone an accurate idea
of the full teaching of the Eastern Church is foredoomed to failure, and
the most that can be done is to indicate the broad lines of the policy
that has actuated it, and risk such errors as must accrue from possible
mistranslations of meaning.
All Christian races treasure some legend as to the conversion of their
forefathers by one of the Apostles. The Russians are no exception, and,
in any event, the introduction of Christianity into their country took
place in the heroic age.
"Novgorod, a city of great antiquity, having been founded by Rha, a
grandson of Noah and son of Japhet, was visited by the Apostle St
Andrew who wished to preach the gospel. The people would not listen
to him, and having disrobed the saint threw him bound into a
scalding bath. The saint distressed, and almost suffocated by the
vapour, called out '[Greek: idrôsa]' (I sweat), whence the name
Russia. Other histories state that the conversion of the race took
place some thousand years later, when, strange as it may appear,
the Polyans were first called Russ, as some think from 'ros,' the
old German name for 'horse.' There is a tradition that Vladimir the
Great, having conquered fresh territory, became tired of his pagan
gods and expressed a desire to embrace a newer faith. With the
Christianity of Rome he would have nothing to do, for, he said, his
relations in the west had embraced that, and yet were always at war
and without good fortune. The Karaïm Jews of South Russia wished to
convert him, but when he learned that they were exiled from the
land of their fathers and had no country of their own, he refused,
saying they were receiving the harvest of their sins and that he
had no wish to cause his people to share their punishment. Then
hearing that at Constantinople another religion was professed he
sent delegates thither to observe and judge whether or not it would
suit him. These Russians were astonished at the many lights in the
temple; were moved by the singing and the stately procession of
deacons, sub-deacons and others to and from the sacristy, and,
particularly, at the humble manner in which the people prostrated
themselves when the priests appeared. The ritual they did not
understand and asked their guides what it all meant. 'All that we
have seen,' they said, 'is awful and majestic, but what seems to us
supernatural is the young men who have white wings and dazzling
robes, and cry "Holy! Holy! Holy!" in mid-air--this truly surprises
us.' 'What?' answered the guides, 'do you not know that angels come
down from heaven to our services?' 'You are right,' said the
Russians; 'it is enough--more we do not wish to see; let us return
to our country and tell of that which we have already seen."
If the early chronicles may be trusted, the Bible was first translated
into Slavic by Cyril and Methodius, two Greek monks of Byzantium, about
the year 863, and so prior to the advent of the Norseman Rurik. In all
probability, the faith was spread by proselytising clergy, in part
helped by the devotion of the noble women of Byzantium who wedded with
the savage Ros, and from the first was wholly independent of the civil
power.
Of persecution there was little; Kiev furnished one Voeroeger
martyr, and, as elsewhere among heathen, the Christian religion appears
to have been readily embraced. Before the Kremlin was raised, before
Moscow was, the church was represented on the banks of the Moskva by the
little wooden chapel "spass na Boru." Ivan Kalita was one of the first
to recognise the usefulness of the church as an adjunct to civil and
military power; he made priests not only welcome in Moscow but all
important there. How the reigning princes caused the church in Moscow to
rival in authority that of Kiev and, later, to attain supremacy
throughout Russia, has already been stated. Of equal importance to the
work initiated by any Tsar were the services of St Sergius, founder of
the great monastery at Troitsa, which at one time possessed immense
tracts of land and owned more than 100,000 serfs. Sergius was born at
Great Rostov, and in his youth passed some time near Moscow, and later,
having a dozen disciples and the aid of the Patriarch of Constantinople,
helped greatly the colonisation of Russia by sending out monks trained
at Troitsa. He lived the life of a hermit, and even when abbot did his
full share of the menial labour. A commonly seen picture represents him
as an old man seated on a rough bench sharing his piece of bread with a
bear. Then came St Peter, an apostle sent from Macedonia, who, as a sign
"passed through the fire" uninjured; after converting many he settled at
Kiev and was of great assistance to George Danielovich in raising the
clerical status of Moscow, and to his "incorruptible remains" many
miracles are attributed. A large number of relics assigned to him are
still preserved in the Uspenski Sobor and the sacristy of the
Patriarchs. Next in importance to Moscow was Alexis, the Metropolitan,
afterwards canonised. From the earliest times, the clergy, living the
life of the people and not that of the military caste, had great
influence with citizens and peasants: many times the church has raised
the spirit of the nation when oppressed by foreign invaders. It spurred
on Ivan III. to overthrow the Mongol rule, and stirred up the people to
repulse the Poles and secure national independence. One source of its
power has been the use of the vernacular in all services; the church
most certainly during the centuries of Tartar dominion also preserved
the Slavic tongue from foreign dialects. The clergy have always held it
their chief duty to pass on to their successors their faith as they
received it. Schism is not tolerated; the slightest modification of
ritual is forbidden. The Metropolitans of Moscow were long able to
preserve the independence of the church against the encroachments of the
reigning princes; Ivan the Terrible's chief plaint against the clergy
was that they exercised their privilege of forbidding the execution of
those whom he had condemned to death. Boris Godunov gave Moscow a
Patriarch, and added to the power of the church by appointing seven of
the clergy to seats in the States Council. When, in 1615, the Tsar
Michael met his father, the Patriarch Philaret, on the banks of the
Pressenaia (near the Drogomilov Bridge) both bowed low and remained long
recumbent, unwilling that either should consider the head of the church
superior or inferior to the head of the state. From that time until
Philaret's death in 1639 father and son practically ruled conjointly.
Nikon was scarce content to be the equal of his sovereign, and ranked
the church above the state: he fell. Peter the Great scornfully
suppressed the Patriarchate, but did not arrogate to himself the powers
of the head of the church, substituting a synod to be elected from the
hierarchy he himself appointed. So it remains to the present day, the
reigning monarch having no right, from his position, to interfere in
spiritual affairs, yet still controlling the administration of church
law.
In matters of belief the Eastern church nearly approaches the
Anglican, the main divergence is that whereas the Anglican and
Roman churches agree that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father
and the Son, the Eastern Church holds that it proceeds from the
Father only. The bible may be read; the church may interpret its
teaching, "for the traditions of the church have been maintained
uncorrupted through the influence of the Holy Spirit." God the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, "perfectly equal in nature and
dignity," may alone be worshipped; but homage may be paid to the
Virgin Mary, and reverence shown to the saints, to ikons and to
relics. That this may not be abused, bishops at their consecration
are requested to promise that "honour shall be shown to God only,
not to the sacred ikons, and that no false miracle shall be
ascribed to them.... The _moshi_ or incorruptible remains which are
so greatly venerated, are the corpses of those long dead, whose
burial-place has been forgotten and is made known by a supernatural
manifestation. These remains must not be subject to the ordinary
process of decay, and may possess such virtue as to miraculously
cure the sick--which is the quality usually attributed to them."
The ecclesiastical architecture of Moscow, or of Russia, is not so
complex as it appears to be at first sight; originally the place for
Christian worship was but a square log-hut; add an apse at the east end,
cover the building with a dome roof supporting a cross to indicate its
sacred character, and the external structure of the primitive church is
complete. Instead of a dome roof it was found easier, as larger
buildings became necessary, to cover with the dome only the centre of
the church, which was still further elevated to make more prominent the
dome and cross denoting the purpose of the building. Three apses,
symbolic of the Trinity, took the place of one; five and seven are
sometimes found. When the idea of the original whole dome roof was
expressed by four small domes arranged around the higher central one,
the model became the permanent type from which all other forms have been
elaborated. The primitive type is best exemplified in the church of St
Michael within the Chudov monastery, but the cathedrals of the
Assumption and of the Archangels, on the Sobornia Ploshchad of the
Kremlin, will serve equally well to illustrate the permanent form. The
origin and development of the bulbous dome, as well as the size,
position and number of secondary domes, may be traced by comparing the
various old churches in South Russia, and those of wood, formerly or at
present existing in "wooden" Russia. For this purpose a convenient
series of framed drawings is to be found on stands in Room [Greek: B] of
the Historical Museum. They confirm what has already been stated in the
preceding chapter, concerning the origin of Russian architecture, and
show that the number of domes--some churches have seventeen, if not
more--is immaterial, since all should be so arranged as to increase the
importance of the central one. Those in which all are equal in size and
height--as the roof over the chapels of the Terem--are quite
exceptional. The chief modification arose from the necessity of
preserving the structure and its valued contents from the great cold of
the winter and the excessive moisture of the summer. To overcome the
first difficulty the church was surrounded with a gallery; to obviate
the second the floor of the church raised to a higher storey; when the
two were combined as in many churches of the sixteenth and seventeenth
century, some elaboration of proaulion and _Kriltso_ was natural. The
best specimens of this class are the churches of St Nicholas of the
Great Cross on the Ilyinka, and of the Assumption on the Pokrovka; the
ordinary design is that of the porches and approach to Vasili Blajenni,
and of the Blagovieshchenski Sobor before the ground was raised to its
present level.
The belfry, a somewhat late comer to the Russian church, was usually a
separate building adjacent to, but not a component part of, the church
itself. When masonry superseded wood, the old designs were for the most
part retained: so possibly the only other important point of general
application is the subsequent employment of the tapering spire--and its
modifications of superposed arches, etc.--to support the dome and cross,
instead of the cylindrical shaft peculiar to Russian architecture, which
last was evidently derived from round towers of very remote origin. The
windows are small and unimportant--often mere oblong slits in the
wall--and, though the accepted form admits of little modification
towards the elaboration of elegance and grace in the design, and the
decoration is limited by the ecclesiastical objection to carved
figures--and climatic conditions which preclude the employment of
projecting mouldings and all fine work in high relief--the brilliant
colouring and mural decorations of plane surfaces convey an impression
of richness, which, combined with the absence of the usual and
conspicuousness of strange decorations, magnify the whole, in many
instances, into the resemblance of whatever the imagination may picture
as most ornate and brilliant.
In essentials the interior arrangements of all the churches are similar:
east of the pillars that support the central dome, the church is divided
by the ikonostas--a development of the rood-screen--which separates the
officiating priests from the worshippers. In old churches seats were
placed round the walls and stalls provided for persons of high rank, but
for long it has been customary for the congregation to stand during the
services. Behind the ikonostas is the sanctuary; there females may not
enter, nor any male if physically imperfect; it is disclosed to the
worshippers during the celebration of Mass by opening the "Royal Doors"
in the centre of the ikonostas. There are in all churches sacred ikons,
having the place of honour on the ikonostas; decorative and illustrative
pictures are placed there also, and the same--as frescoes, or
otherwise--around the central columns and along the walls of the church.
Usually the north wall is appointed for those pertaining to the saint to
whom the church is dedicated; the south wall to the seven councils, the
west to other sacred subjects. Although the ikonostas is the equivalent
of the rood-screen in the old English churches, it is not only always a
fixture, but sometimes a solid partition of masonry, being really that
barrier which shuts off the Holy of Holies, that may be entered by the
consecrated priests alone, from the rest of the temple. It is always
decorated, but the high ikonostas, having five, or even seven, tiers of
pictures is a development later than the fifteenth century. The "Royal
Doors" must have representations of the Annunciation and the four
Evangelists, since through this entrance came the glad tidings of the
Eucharist; right and left of the doors the Saviour and the Madonna;
also, usually, Adam, as the first fallen, and the Penitent Thief as the
first redeemed; above, the Trinity; Abraham entertaining the three
angels and John the Baptist most frequently figure on the screen, and,
on the pillars facing the entrance, the Publican and Pharisee as
symbolic of an all inclusive congregation of worshippers.
In the Sanctuary is a tabernacle or Sinai, upon the altar, and over it a
baldachino on which the cross is laid horizontally--or nearly so. In the
apse behind
[Illustration: CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY AND FLIGHT]
the altar is the _thronos_ or seat of the head of the church, with other
seats for priests on both sides; the choir is a raised dais before the
ikonostas.
The Russian cross has eight points. To the Latin cross are added the
titulus, and a lower diagonal crosspiece which is assumed to be a rest
for the feet. _Post hoc, propter hoc_, and that this rest slants is said
to be due to the fact that Christ was lame; others think that its
purpose is merely to give the idea of perspective of the hill Golgotha
on which the cross was placed, and others as indicating the earthquake,
whilst those versed in mystic symbolism will recognise a totally
distinct signification.[B] To these last too, the accepted explanations
of the crescent from which the cross rises will be insufficient. It was
common in Russia prior to the Mongol occupation, so is not the result of
placing crosses upon mosques, or intended to denote the subjugation of
Mahommedanism to Christianity. More probable is the explanation, that in
ancient pictures the Virgin is shown standing upon the crescent, and the
cross was later placed by the Russian ecclesiastics to denote that the
cross issues from the Mother of God. Maxim, the Greek, in the sixteenth
century, declared that the crescent represented Upsilon, the initial of
[Greek: hupsos], and so is emblematical of the uplifting of the cross;
but if its application as a sign of Christian dogma is open to various
constructions, all will at once recognise the sign as one of the most
ancient and general of mystic symbols.
[B] The Russian cross is derived from the old eastern form of the
Greek letter _xi_.
The ecclesiastical art of Russia is of a different nature to that of any
school of the west. The ikons, or sacred pictures, must be exact copies
of the originals, thus the practice supports Gibbon's contention that
the religious value of a sacred image depends for its efficacy upon its
resemblance to the original.[C] In Moscow there are several pictures of
the Saviour "not made with hands," being in that respect, and that only,
similar to the Veronica and the miraculous image of Edessa. They are not
alike, and their origin is not known, but it is conjectured that the
initials [Greek: O T H], on the nimbus, have been wrongly interpreted as
the initials of _ot, otsa, Nebesnavo_, which means "From Our Father on
High" instead of _On, Otets, Nash_--"He is Our Father." The Greek
characters were little known in Russia, and one of the pictures has this
legend in Greek [Greek: O.Ô.N.] In the same connection it is worth
noting that our I.H.S. is a misreading into Latin of [Greek: IÊS], the
Greek contraction of [Greek: IÊSous], where the long e was mistaken for
a capital H, and the dash above it developed into a cross. The ordinary
ikons are restricted to fixed types; the artist therefore has never
needed to create, only to reproduce. There are no Russian Madonnas, all
are replicas of pictures brought from Greece or Byzantium; "the ikon
painter knows but one costume, for all places and all times it changeth
not; tradition fixes the form of the head, the pose, the proportion, the
attitudes and the attributes." Most are produced by monks and
probationers who follow the instructions given in a tenth century MS. by
Dionysius of Mount Athos. Rigorously it is only the features of the
saint that must be exactly reproduced; in practice it is customary to
cover all but the face and hands with thin metal--gold, silver, or gilt,
and to ornament the setting lavishly. In the seventeenth century, the
golden age of Muscovite ecclesiasticism, there were several branches of
ikon painting, not differing sufficiently to warrant the appellation of
"schools." These were known as the Imperial or Court style; the Village,
the Strogonov, and the Monastic. Novgorod would have the faces yellow;
the Strogonov insisted upon dark green--an introduction from Byzantium,
and sometimes known as Khorsunski. Black virgins are not unknown--the
result of time upon impure pigments; those with three small scratches on
the face are copies of the Iberian Mother of God, a twelfth century
ikon of the Virgin. Graven images are not allowed in the Russian
Church, being held to be a violation of the second commandment. The only
exception is that of St Nicholas. Holy Statues were abolished by order
of the Patriarch Philaret, and when these were removed from the churches
all went well until hands were laid upon one of the representatives of
the patron Saint; no force could stir that; where, by extraordinary
means, the statue was broken from the pedestal, the image of the saint
reappeared. This is the only figure seen in high relief, and is usually
made with the model of a church in his hand. The popularity of the saint
may be estimated from the fact, that at one time there were as many as
118 churches in Moscow dedicated to St Nicholas.
[C] "By a slow though inevitable progression the honours of the
original were transferred to the image; the merit and effect of a copy
depends upon its resemblance with the original."--_Gibbon,--Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire_, chapter xlix.
The rites of the Russian Church are complex, and to the unorthodox,
perplexing. The celebrant by the minute observance of minor details
gives to every act a symbolic meaning, and to even the least significant
of them some dogma of the church is attached. The service is in
Slavonic, of which the ordinary people do not understand the letter, but
can follow the general meaning; it is impressive apart from its
significance, and is intended so to be. It commences with a call to
worship--the _vozglass_--singing of psalms; a series of
prayers--_ektenia_--for the welfare of the church, intoned; the evangels
or epistles also intoned; "choral and part-singing of unequalled harmony
and richness; prayers; consecration of the elements; administration of
the sacrament, which the priest takes every service, and the
congregation at will, but at least once yearly; thanksgiving, and the
parting benediction; chanting and incense-burning are frequent
throughout, and asperging is practised at the commencement and
termination. For the greater part of the time the "Royal doors" are
closed: the deacons remain before the ikonostas, but now and again some
enter the Sanctuary for a short time. From time to time priests and
acolytes pass to and fro among the congregation, incensing all the
sacred ikons in turn. The voice of the officiating priest is raised
within, and is answered in deep tones by the deacons without. Now from
some unnoticed corner comes a clear ringing chant from many voices, from
another a deep single voice is heard intoning the epistle, or evangel,
of the day; then suddenly the Royal doors fly open and a glimpse is
obtained of the celebrant through thick rolling clouds of incense; the
people prostrate themselves and the doors close." Later the priest
emerges and the service has concluded--to the unorthodox stranger of any
creed it has been almost meaningless.
The history of Moscow is so intermingled with that of the Russian
Church, and the cathedrals of the Kremlin and private chapels of the
palace the scene of so many notable events, that the reader will not
need a recountal of the stories concerning the historical characters who
have made them famous. Here it will suffice if the minor details to be
examined are enumerated, and the tale of the struggle between orthodoxy
and dissent succinctly related.
USPENSKI SOBOR
The Cathedral of the Assumption, formerly known as that of the
Patriarchs, originated with the Metropolitan Peter, who said to Ivan
"Kalita," "If thou wishest that my old age be graced with peace,
content, and fulness, thou wilt raise on this site a grand temple to our
Holy Mother of God, then shalt thou likewise be happy, become the most
illustrious of the princes of our age, and thy race powerful throughout
the earth." So in 1326 Ivan erected a fine wooden church, which, in
1472, when the wood buildings were being replaced
[Illustration: USPENSKI SOBOR, THE IKONOSTAS]
by those of stone, was taken down and an attempt made by Russian
artisans to build its equal in brick. Before this work was complete the
walls fell, and Aristotle of Bologna, who had been entrusted with the
removal of the Campanile there, and the repair of the leaning tower of
Cento, was ordered to construct the cathedral anew. Aristotle taught the
Muscovites how to make larger and harder bricks than the pantiles to
which they were accustomed; how to turn an arch and make vaulted roofs.
He took as his model for this cathedral the church of the Virgin in
Vladimir and used the white stone of Kolomna hewn into rectangular
blocks which he fastened together with iron cramps.
_Structure._--The foundations are 15 feet below the surface, but
the floor of the cathedral was originally seven or more feet lower
than at present: height to cupola 128 feet. The walls were
strengthened in 1626 after the injury done by the Poles; in 1684
the domes were covered with gilded copper, and the mural
decorations restored after the fire of All Saint's day, 1737, and
the French occupation, but otherwise the edifice, is practically as
completed in 1497.
_The South Porch_ is closed by the Golden Gates of Korsoun, which
were carried from that town to Suzdal, and thence to Moscow--they
are actually of coppered iron gilt, divided into twenty
compartments exhibiting scenes from biblical history, and below
Apollo, Plato, and mythological figures. Before them the Grand
Princes of Muscovy were invested with the authority of the Khan by
his bashkak during the centuries of the Mongol supremacy. The Royal
entrance is by the western doors; the public entrance by those on
the north side.
_The interior_ is remarkable for its ikonostas and ikons. The
screen is of masonry and descends 10 feet below the surface; it is
adorned with frescoes, which may be inspected only when the sacred
ikons are removed for that special purpose. The upper range has
been recently restored to its condition prior to the French
invasion, when the old one was stripped of all its precious metal;
the great silver chandelier of 2940 lbs., made in England in 1630,
was put in the casting-pot and scales suspended from its place;
horses were stabled in the chapel, and tethered to the coffins of
the metropolitans. Not content with robbing the sanctuary of its
precious metals the French deliberately placed the mannikins from
the old suits of armour in the Orujenni Palata as idols in
conspicuous positions about the church. The chandeliers are of
silver--some 900 lbs. of which in the one from the central cupola
is that recovered by the Cossacks from the retreating French: some
five tons of precious metal are in the present ikonostas.
_The ikons_ include the most prized Mary of Vladimir attributed to
St Luke, which was brought from Tsar Grad--Constantinople--to
Kief, taken by Andrew Bogoloobski to Vladimir and brought to Moscow
on the Tartar invasion. It is regarded as miraculous, having saved
the city from Tamerlane, and on subsequent occasions. Tsars and
people alike in past generations have regarded this picture as
their Palladium. Of its artistic merits it would be idle to write;
black with age and discoloured by the accidents incidental to
preservation in an oft burned city, it is as represented in the
frontispiece. Completely enveloped, but hands and face, in precious
metal and handsome garniture, it exhibits a richness of decoration
few articles of _vertu_ can equal; the gems alone being valued at
upwards of £100,000, and the great emerald itself at £10,000. The
next ikon of importance is that of the Holy Virgin of Jerusalem,
which, according to tradition, was the work of the apostles. Taken
to Constantinople in the fifth century and to Kherson in the tenth,
it came thence to Moscow--but others say, it is but a copy, the
original having disappeared during the French occupation. On the
right of the royal doors is the image of our Saviour in the golden
chasuble, painted by the Greek emperor Manuel, and brought from
Novgorod the Great in 1478. By its side is an ikon with most
brilliant colouring representing the Assumption, which is said to
be the work of the metropolitan Peter, the founder of the church;
but if it be not his handicraft is still a remarkable specimen of
the ikon painter's art in Russia of the fourteenth century. These,
with others, are all on the lower tier. On the tiers above are
usually placed: highest, the Madonna and the Infant Jesus, the
fathers of the church in pre-mosaic days, portraits of persons
mentioned in Genesis; on the second stage, the prophets from Moses
to Jesus Christ; on the third, incidents in the life of the Saviour
illustrative of church feasts; on the fourth, portraits of the
saints of the orthodox church; on the fifth, the sacred ikons.
_Other pictures_ in the cathedral include portraits of the
patriarchs and saints; many frescoes on a gold ground are ranged
around the four pillars that support the central cupola; and, on
the walls, the martyrdoms of orthodox saints are depicted. A
bas-relief, supposed to represent St George slaying the dragon, has
been identified by Sneguirev as once part of a triumphal arch the
Christians erected in Rome to Constantine the Great.
_The Sanctuary_ has a tabernacle of precious metal (17 lbs. gold
and 17 lbs. silver) on the grand altar, which contains the Host and
formerly also held a number of important state papers which were
transferred to St Petersburg in 1880. Also a large Bible of Natalia
Naryshkin set with gems worth several thousand pounds.
_The Chapel of Sts. Peter and Paul_ is before the most northern
apse, with the tomb of St Peter immediately on the right when
entering; just beyond it is that of the metropolitan St Theognitus;
on the left are sacred relics: (_a_) the "Holy Coat" or a portion
of the "tunic" worn by the Saviour; (_b_) a nail of the true cross;
(_c_) the right hand of St Andrew the Apostle; (_d_) the head of St
Gregory the theologian; and (_e_) the head of St John Chrysostom.
The shrines were profaned by Tokhtamysh, and ransacked by the
French. Here in olden times the rulers of the principalities in
vassalage to Moscow embraced the cross and swore fealty, and here
the metropolitans were appointed to their office.
_The Chapel of St Dmitri_ of Thessalonica, called "The Peaceable."
is on the south side of the sanctuary. It contains the oldest tomb
in Moscow, that of Yuri, brother of Ivan "Kalita," and it was in
this Chapel that Yuri Glinski, brother of Ivan the Terrible's
mother, was slain.
_The Chapel of the Virgin Mary_ is reached by a flight of steps
near the south apse, for it is situated under the southern cupola.
There the patriarchs were elected. In its sanctuary are: (_a_) Copy
of the gospels, printed in Moscow and presented to the boy-Tsars,
Ivan and Peter, with beautiful initials and rich binding, the work
of foreign artisans in the palace; (_b_) an illuminated psalter of
the fifteenth century; (_c_) an illuminated MS. of the gospels by
Russian scribes, 1664; (_d_) a cross of cypress wood, enclosing a
piece of the true cross; (_e_) cross of the Emperor Constantine;
(_f_) Jasper vases which were ornamented with the Latin cross--they
were brought from Novgorod, having belonged to the old monastery
there, by Ivan. IV.; (_g_) a sacramental chalice, which was
presented to Monomachus by Alexis Cominus, and is used to the
present day for the Holy Oil with which the Tsars are anointed at
their coronation.
_The Tombs_ of the Patriarchs are ranged along the western wall;
that of Jonas is on the north-west, and near the ikonostas is the
shrine of St Philip, murdered in Tver by Maluta Skutarov to please
Ivan IV.
_The Thrones_ or stalls of the Tsar and Tsaritsa are situated, the
first between the south column and the south wall, the second just
before the north column; the large stall in front of the south
column is for the Patriarch, and dates from the days of Philaret
only. The canopy in the south-western corner is for the "Holy
Coat" sent by the Shah Abbas, but this is usually kept in the altar
of the north chapel.
It is pretty generally known that the Uspenski Sobor is the State
Cathedral; that in it the Tsars of Russia must be crowned; there,
too, several have been married, foreign princes have renounced
their faith and accepted the orthodox religion prior to marriage
with the Royal princesses, and there Peter the Great caused his son
Alexis to repudiate his right to succeed to the throne: actually it
is the mausoleum of the Patriarchs and heads of the Orthodox
Church.
There is nothing in its architecture that demands comment, the external
mural pictures are common place, and from the artistic standpoint the
work that merits closest attention and highest praise is the open
scroll, bent and hammered metal on the lattices of the different
shrines, and almost equally good is much of the chiselled, moulded and
other decorative metal work on the ikonostas. It is a typical church,
richer in precious metal, sacred ikons and holy relics than other
churches in Moscow; it is the pious wish of the guardians of the other
churches to make theirs even as is this.
ARCHANGELSKI SOBOR
The Cathedral of the Archangel Michael is of even plainer appearance
than the Uspenski; its south wall has been propped by a common buttress
which, pierced for the lancet windows, gives that side much the
appearance of a fortress. Its history is similar to that of the other
cathedrals; the first wooden church on the site was erected in the
twelfth century. Ivan "Kalita" built it anew as the place of sepulture
for himself and his descendants. Ivan III. demolished that church and
employed the Italian Aleviso to construct the present edifice,
consecrated in 1500. It has suffered severely at different times,
especially during the French occupation, when an attempt was made to
destroy it by exploding a large quantity of spirit the French brought
within for the purpose, but this served only to scatter the tombs, wreck
the interior and spring the south wall. The church contains the remains
of the princes and all the Tsars of Moscow. The petitions of the people
laid upon the tombs of the Tsars were taken and read by Peter I.
himself. Most of the religious ceremonies peculiar to this church relate
to masses for the dead, and homage paid to the memory of ancestors. It
has the usual rectangular form, the four central columns, the five
cupolas, which the people think always dedicated to the Saviour and the
four evangelists. The chapel on the west side is a later addition--the
sole remaining one of four, which existed in the seventeenth century. On
the south side is a small chamber which was the _izba_, or Palace of
Justice, and below it are vaulted arches which extend almost the whole
length of the Kremlin; the original paving is now some 12 feet below the
level of the squares adjoining. Here the Tsar's gift of money was
scattered at his coronation. The most noteworthy objects in the church
are: the ikonostas, high, brilliant and sparkling with gems; the
excellent metal-work of the shrines; the mural paintings--portraits of
the Tsars whose tombs are below, and the richly worked palls over the
tombs.
_The ikonostas_ is of five stages; the sacred ikons are: (_a_) The
Virgin "Beneficent," brought to Moscow by the Tsaritsa Sophia
Vitovtovna; (_b_) the Virgin of Tikhvin, the ikon of the Tsaritsa
Maria Nagoi, mother of the murdered Tsarevich, Dmitri; (_c_) St
Basil the Great, near the south wall; (_d_) St Simeon Stylite.
_The tombs_ of forty-seven princes of the line of Rurik lie upon
the floor: though not arranged in chronological order, no
difficulty will be found in recognising any one of them. Only one
Emperor, Peter II., grandson of Peter the Great, is buried here;
those of the Tsars Michael and Alexis Romanof are on the right hand
near the first pillar, surrounded by those of their sons and
grandsons. Near is the tomb of the murdered Dmitri, whose portrait
in gold is hung on the pillar over the coffin. The silver
candelabra before it was presented by the inhabitants of Uglitch
where he was murdered when but six years old. Vasili, the blind, is
buried near the ikonostas; and by his side lies Ivan III., the
maker of middle Moscow and uniter of the Russian-lands. Near the
first pillar on the left is the tomb of Alexander, Tsar of Kazan:
near the second pillar, the Tsarevich Peter, son of Ibrahim, and
grandson of Mamotiakov, once Tsar of Kazan. The remains of Ivan the
Terrible are near the high altar, a testimony of the forgiving
temperament of prelates of the orthodox church. The tomb is covered
with a black pall, indicating that he had been received into the
church as a monk before his death. Horsey states that persons
passing his tomb uttered a prayer that he might never rise again:
to this day, twice yearly, a special mass is celebrated invoking
forgiveness for that "burden of sins voluntary or involuntary known
to themselves or to themselves unknown" committed on earth by those
whose bodies are buried within the church. In a side chapel,
dedicated to the martyred Tsar, are the remains of Michael Skopin
Shooiski, the popular military hero of the "Times of Trouble," and
a bronze shrine covers the remains of Chernigof and his boyard
Theodore, martyred by the Tartars.
_The decorations_ are mural pictures, dry frescoes of portraits of
the Tsars, the best that of Vasili II. habited as a monk: also
illustrations of the Last Judgment, the "Symbol of Faith," and
miracles of the Archangel Michael, which represent Russian
pictorial art of the seventeenth century.
_The sacristy_ contains some very beautiful sacerdotal robes
presented to officiating priests on state occasions; the gems on
the richer _sakkos_ being exceptionally beautiful. There is also an
ornate copy of the gospels brought from Novgorod in 1125; it has
picturesque portraits of the evangelists, and characteristic
illuminated initials; the golden filigree work on the cover is
excellent. A psalter of 1594 has elegant marginal decorations.
There were also rich crosses of gold and silver--the one that
belonged to Ivan IV. with large pearls, best worth
examination--reliquaries, and a curious gold chalice some 7 lbs.
weight. Many will be more interested in the fine needle and jewelry
work on the elaborated palls of which the church has a great many
exquisite specimens.
_The relics_ are not numerous: those which formally belonged to the
Tsar Alexis are within a reliquary of the cross above mentioned:
and a drop of the blood of John the Baptist is shown under a
crystal in one of the ikons.
BLAGOVIESHCHENSKI SOBOR
[Illustration: BLAGOVIESHCHENSKI SOBOR]
The Cathedral of the Annunciation is of a more elaborate and picturesque
style than either the Uspenski or the Archangelski, which, in part, may
be attributed to the fact that it is more intimately connected with the
Royal Palaces than they are. Reached directly by the palace terrace, it
is the complement of the Krasnoe Kriltso, and was used for the baptism
of the royal children, the confessions of the Tsars, and religious
ceremonies of a semi-state character. Its earlier designations were,
among others, the "Church of the Grand-Ducal Court," "Church of the
Tsarian Vestibule," and "Church of the Tsarian Treasury," which clearly
indicate the court uses for which it has been employed. It has nine
cupolas; the roof of pointed vaults rising tier above tier is most
characteristic of Muscovite architecture, and the entrance is by a
flight of steps communicating with a covered gallery which surrounds the
church, see page 178. Its early history is that of the others; first, a
wooden church erected by Andrew in 1291, rebuilt in 1397; in 1409 the
walls decorated with pictures by Rublev; in part demolished by Ivan
III., who built again from the first floor up, and, completed in 1482,
painted during the reign of Vasili Ivanovich; damaged by the fire of
1547 Ivan IV. restored it, and furnished cupolas covered with the gold
he seized at Novgorod. The Poles in 1610 and the French in 1812 both
spoiled it, but the last only partially, the fact that most of its
treasures had been taken away to Vologda probably misleading them so
that they did not make a thorough search for the valuables left within.
During its recent restoration the architect found that earlier
decorations existed beneath the outer coverings of plaster and paint;
they were carefully uncovered and remain exposed.
The entrance is by the northern porch within the railed-off Sobornia
Ploshchad; among the first mural paintings on the right are portraits of
the ancient philosophers, Aristotle, Plato, Ptolemy, Socrates,
Thucydides, Zeno, and others, with lengthy quotations from their
writings on tablets they support; beyond, representations of the Saviour
and the apostles, these pictures dating from 1771, the year of the great
plague. The side posts of the doorways, richly carved, are of early
sixteenth century native work--and some of the best specimens now
extant. The interior of the church is small, and looks even smaller
than it really is owing to an elevated tribune, or gallery, against the
west wall, which served for members of the Tsar's family to participate
in the services without being exposed to public view, the Tsar himself
being on the ground floor, opposite the ikonostas. The parquet is of
Jasper mosaic, a present from the Shah to Alexis. Concerning it, an
enthusiastic, travelled native author remarks: "It is a facsimile of a
mosaic in St Mark's, Venice; the only difference being that whereas the
floor of St Mark's is uneven, to represent the ripples of the sea and
symbolise that Venice rules on the foaming waves, this is quite regular
and uniform, emblematic of the vast steppes of which Moscow is the
sovereign."[D]
[D] This church has the further distinction of being the first
supplied with a public clock, which was placed there by Lazarus
Serbin, in the seventeenth century. About the south porch the last
public discussions were held with dissenters led by the able Pafnuty.
Even more interesting are the old mural paintings, pre-Raphælite in
point of time and in the _argot_ of the studio "more than pre-Raphælite"
in style. The subjects are biblical: the adventures of Jonah; the
mysterious visions recorded in the Apocalypse; the punishment of the
damned; the glories of Paradise, with much else that is curious. They
are already the joy of a "school" and the admiration of Russian
antiquaries. Though crude, unreal, and not a little absurd now, in the
long ago, among the uncultured people to whom they were first presented,
they cannot have failed to impress beholders powerfully, notwithstanding
that their influence upon the art of the time was infinitesimal.
The columns are square, from them hang the chains and jewelled
crosses worn by former princes. The ikonostas is of five stages,
separated by rails of brass and bronze columns--the precious
metals with which it was formerly covered were looted by the
French. The more remarkable ikons are (_a_) one of the Saviour's
agony--a typical specimen of Byzantine work in the fourteenth
century; (_b_) the richly decorated Holy Mother of God, known as
the Donski Virgin, because carried by Dmitri at Kulikovo; the ikon
only was saved, in 1812, the frame was mistaken by the French for
copper and has been repaired; the ornaments are modern, except the
eighteen portraits of saints on the margin, which are foreign.
Near the altar are the two crosses of Korsun. There are four
chapels on the higher storey; they are quite independent of the
church with separate entrances from the gallery. That dedicated to
St George is quite modern, but that of the Virgin has one of the
most primitive rood-screens to be found in Moscow; on it the ikons
are set round with great flat bands of silver; like that of the
Saviour, and that of the archangel Gabriel, it quite escaped
pillage in 1812. The sacristy--in a small building on the south
side--is peculiarly rich in relics, a complete collection of sacred
remains brought from Constantinople in 1328. It includes bones of
different saints--contained in thirty-two silver and gilt caskets;
a reliquary with the sponge used at the Crucifixion of Christ; a
portion of the rod with which He was beaten; some drops of His
blood; spikes from the crown of thorns; an eight pointed cross, of
the wood of the "true cross," and a fragment of the stone that was
rolled away from before the Saviour's tomb. To them must be added a
great number of Russian Tsarian and ecclesiastical antiquities
collected in Russia.
SPASS NA BORU
The church of the Transfiguration, known colloquially as Spass na Boru,
St Saviour's in the Forest, is supposed to be on the site of the first
building ever raised on the Kremlin hill--that of the skeet of the
hermit who inhabited it prior to the tenth century. The first stone
church there dates from 1330; restored in 1380, and rebuilt in 1527, and
again restored in 1529, 1554, 1737, and 1856. Still much of its
architectural primitiveness has been preserved, but it is typical of a
church with monastery attached, as once the case (see page 29). There
are now no external mural paintings, but those inside are curious; the
small, low belfry is very quaint and the bells now hung there are old
foreign bells--among the first brought to Moscow. The central chapel,
that of the Transfiguration, is the oldest, the "Royal Doors" are of
primitive type. Its sacristy is poor: the relics are those of St Stephen
the apostle to the Permians, and some fragments of bones and vestments
found during the alterations in the present century. It is best seen in
the early morning, a service is held daily, and the church is much
visited by those about to marry, for, according to tradition, Sts Yuri,
Samon and Aviva, to whom its side chapels are dedicated, are patrons of
those whose love affairs do not run smooth. On the higher storey is the
chapel of St Stephen the Permian.
PATRIARSHIA RIZNITSA
The Church of the Twelve Apostles and Sacristy of the Patriarchs is on
the site of a fifteenth century church on the north side of the Uspenski
Sobor. It was built by Nikon and is still used in connection with the
synod. It is on the second storey, and above it is the Chapel of St
Philip--the private chapel of the Patriarchs after Nikon. In the rooms
adjoining are kept the Holy vessels, most valuable church plate, and
relics of the patriarchs and the Church. Many are contained in the cases
arranged round the walls, the others may be inspected on application to
one of the attendants--who will expect _adin rubl na chaiu_--or to those
much interested will be shown by the Sacristan, who will explain their
use and relate their history. A complete catalogue may be had, but the
best account is that of the learned antiquarian, Sabas, Bishop of
Mojaisk, whose book is known to all interested in the lore of the
Eastern Church; a French translation of it has been published in which
the author's name is spelled "Savva." Among the more interesting
articles of art workmanship are the panagies or jewelled crosses worn by
the Patriarchs and others after consecration to their high office.
"Among the objects of greatest antiquity are the sacerdotal robes
of the high clergy. They are in the case near the altar; the
'Omophorium of the sixth OEcumenical Council' of the catalogue,
is said to have belonged to St Nicholas the wonder-worker,
Archbishop of Mirliki, and worn by that saint at the Council at
Nice: Sabas thinks that it was presented to Alexis by Gregory of
Nicea who visited Moscow in 1655, with letters from the Patriarchs
of Jerusalem and Constantinople testifying to its genuineness. It
belonged to the Patriarch of Alexandria, who was present at the
Assembly of the Three Hundred and Eighteen Fathers of the Church,
and, latterly, opinion inclines to its having originated with him.
Equally ancient is a mitre, easily recognised from other 'crowns'
in the case by its pointed shape, similar to those of ancient
Byzantium. It was presented to the Tsar Theodore; the donor,
Miletius Piga, of Alexandria, wrote that, apart from the gems with
which it is adorned and the rich material, its age and reputation,
it is to be esteemed above its intrinsic value because taken to the
Council at Ephesus by Cyril, in 431. The mitre of the Patriarch
Job, 1595, differs from those of later date by reason of its very
flat top--the shape of a _klobook_, hat, or ancient crown--rather
than a mitre. The mitres ranged with it were constructed by the
directions of Nikon, and equal in richness and other details the
royal crowns.
"Of croziers and their equivalents there are many specimens, the
most venerated, however, is that of St Peter, by the altar on the
Uspenski Sobor,--_the staff_ that passed from pontiff to pontiff
through the centuries. There are three of the five in the sacristy
of tau shape and beautiful, they belonged to Philaret; the others
to Nikon. The processional cross of Nikon has but four points. Of
copes there are forty-one; the oldest is that of Peter, the
Metropolitan (1322), used afterwards at the consecration of the
Patriarchs. The _panagia_ or pyx worn by a bishop, or higher
prelate, is often an exquisite piece of jewelry. That catalogued as
No. 4 is of onyx, with a superposed layer having the crucifixion
_in relievo_; on the reverse, a Greek cross, the Emperor
Constantine and Helena, his mother. It belonged to the Patriarch
Job and has a most beautiful setting of Russian enamel and niello
work of the sixteenth century. No. 11 is also of onyx, with ruby
and pearl decoration, it appertained to Peter. No. 3. is a sardonyx
of elaborate workmanship and unusual size; it has a reliquary
containing a fragment of the robe of royal purple with which the
Saviour was mockingly invested, and is believed to have been
produced to the order of Ivan IV. to commemorate the birth of
Dmitri. No. 25 contains an emerald of purest water, three-fifths of
an inch in diameter. In another is also a fine emerald which weighs
38 carats. There are in addition jewels, rings, seals, cups,
goblets, crosses, and other trinkets of the fathers of the Russian
Church, and amongst them an object known as the 'Antik,' which has
puzzled the learned. It is a shell of mother-of-pearl, shaped like
a woman's breast, and on this in fine gold, beautifully enamelled,
the Gorgon's head, the fanged heads of the serpent-locks
intertwined and biting each other. It is on a base of rock-crystal,
gold encrusted, and the medallions enamelled with representations
of different buildings--it has figured in the inventory since 1648,
when it had a double case of dark green velvet. The fine collection
of church plate is principally of the seventeenth century and
later.
"In the adjoining Mirovarennaya Palata, the Holy Chrism is prepared
every other year, in strict conformance with the original
instruction. It is, when prepared, taken in sixteen silver phials
to the Uspenski Sobor and then at a special service during Lent
(usually Holy Thursday) consecrated by the Metropolitan, and
further hallowed by the addition of a few drops of the oil from the
vessel of 'Alabaster' in which the Holy Chrism was first brought
into Russia from Constantinople, the vessel having never been
emptied, since the quantity taken for this purpose is immediately
replaced by the addition of that newly made. The 'Alabaster' is a
long-necked flask of copper, wholly covered with scales of
mother-of-pearl, and is supposed to be of the same size and form as
that box of ointment Mary Magdalene offered Jesus.
"The library of the Synod contains about one thousand Slavic MSS.
on Church rites and copies of the scriptures, many between the
seventh and twelfth centuries, and five hundred Greek MSS. of even
earlier date. They were got together by the patriarch Nikon for the
purpose of comparison, and restoring the ritual of the Russian
Church to its original, or at least earlier, rule. The printed
books have mostly been removed to other collections, and the MSS.
are of interest only to those well acquainted with the rites of the
early Christian Church, and such students are readily granted
access to them."
Such a brief account does scant justice to one of the finest and most
complete collections of ecclesiastical furniture the world has produced;
but, interesting as some of the objects are to all beholders, it is to
the student of ecclesiasticism that they will appeal with greatest
force. To him also, the technique of ritual; the customs appertaining to
the dispersion of relics among newly-built churches and restoration of
those injured by time and accident; together with many other matters of
Church rule and procedure which find illustration in this collection,
should prove both attractive and instructive. Of greater general
interest is the story of the struggle between orthodoxy and heterodoxy,
the rise of heresy and states of different forms of dissent; that
dramatic movement of ecclesiasticism which is world wide, continuous,
and of perennial concern to all.
Whatever heresies may have existed in early Russia, with the ascendancy
of Moscow these perished, and the prelates had only to guard against the
wiles of Rome and to stay its power on the confines of the kingdom.
During the reign of Vasili the Blind the unsuccessful attempt of the
Metropolitan Isidor to introduce Romish practices intensified the
conservatism of the prelates. In 1582, Anthony Possevin, a Jesuit
emissary of the Pope, Gregory XIII., had long discussions with Ivan the
Terrible in the Granovitaia Palata respecting the union of the Churches.
Ivan was outspoken: the emissary returned unsatisfied.
The false Dmitri's view has already been given: he was overthrown and
the supremacy of the orthodox prelates increased by Boris Godunov's
initiation of the Patriarchate. The Tsar Michael and his father Philaret
appear to have been always in accord, and then the temporal power of the
prelates was equal to that of the sovereign. Alexis, a boy of seventeen,
was unfortunate in having as collaborator the sturdy Nikon. After his
absence in the war against the Poles he found Nikon, as Veliki Gossudar,
a title reserved for the Tsars, absolutely autocratic. The Tsar objected
to the use of the title by the Patriarch; Nikon resigned his office, and
retired to the Vosskresenki Monastery on the Varvarka, expecting Alexis
would seek him, but the Tsar did not visit him nor did he appoint
another patriarch. Nikon had already given great offence to the clergy
for, attracted by some text on one of the ecclesiastical vestments that
had been received from Greece, he recognised a considerable difference
between the Greek rendering and that current in Slavonic; prosecuting
his investigations further he found many discrepancies and tried in all
things to revert to the older practice. His action was construed as the
introduction of new procedure--and consequently vigorously opposed--and
orthodoxy split into two camps; those who agreed with the head of the
Church that the ancient practice was correct and should be introduced
and the more conservative who would not depart from that to which they
had been accustomed, and it is they who are known as the "Old
Believers," for the alterations proposed by Nikon ultimately became
general. Although the Patriarch had resigned he continued to receive the
clergy and concern himself with the direction of ecclesiastical affairs.
In 1654 he angered the people by going into private chapels and houses
and removing all copies of the ikon Nerukotvorenni, "not made with
hands," because unlike the ikons of Mount Athos. The priest visited
Moscow, and the people paraded the empty ikon cases and the defaced
ikons, attributing to this outrage the plague from which so many
suffered, and the clergy then left Moscow in large numbers fearing
assault. In 1659 the Tsar's emissaries informed him that he ought no
longer to interfere. He thereupon withdrew from Moscow. In Advent 1664
he suddenly reappeared with many monks at early matins in the Uspenski
Cathedral, peremptorily ordered the officiating clergy to perform
certain offices. The clergy at once apprised the Tsar, who in turn
ordered his boyards to command Nikon to leave the Cathedral. Nikon
pleaded that he had been instructed by Jonas in a vision to act as he
had done, but the Tsar only repeated the command; he stated then that he
had power to heal the sick, but the Tsar was inflexible and Nikon
retired. At a council in 1666 he was formally deposed, and withdrew to a
distant monastery where he continued his researches; he was pardoned by
the Tsar Theodore in 1681 but died whilst on his journey to meet his
sovereign.
Joachim, the succeeding Patriarch, opposed Nikon's innovations, and held
tenaciously to the customary practice and attempted to stifle schism by
persecuting relentlessly. He forbade Catholics to worship, banished
Jesuits, barely tolerated Calvinists and Lutherans, and burned to death
Kullman the German mystic for proclaiming false doctrines. When he died
in 1690 he besought Peter to drive all heretics and unbelievers from
Russia--it is to him that Peter erected the chapel on the Srietenka. As
in 1682 and earlier, the "old believers" had been cruelly tortured for
not conforming to the innovations of Nikon, more especially the
unfortunate and obstinate Boyarina Morozov and her sister Princess
Urusov, so with the change of the head of the Church the people were
condemned for such acts as they had previously been commended for
performing, and now knew not whom to believe. With the accession of
Peter to sole power, and the enforcement by him of practices foreign to
former habit, the people associated all his innovations with those
purely clerical ones which had recently met with opposition and caused
persecution and suffering. It was impossible to stamp out opposition,
exile but spread the discontent. When Peter quarrelled with the Church,
the clergy were unable to cope with the popular reaction against the
innovations of Nikon and his disciples. Peter was at last induced to
persecute the noncontents, but these, disgusted with his secular
innovations, fled into distant parts of the country and even abroad,
where for long they were politically an element of grave danger to the
state, but, the rule of Nikon was established and the old believers
regarded as Raskolniki, or dissenters.
These, under persecution, and lacking adequate direction again split
into two sections; one, the popovtsi, or those who acknowledge the
priesthood and depend for their clergy upon schismatics from among the
orthodox, who after ordination, find their practice preferable.
They are quite insignificant in comparison with the Bezpopovtsi, or
those who do not have ordained priests, but are more powerful because
united, whereas the bezpopovtsi number as many different brotherhoods as
there are distinct dissenting sects in England. The best known among
these are the _Dukhobortsi_, who deny the divinity of the Holy Ghost,
strongly oppose civil authority, refuse to pray for their sovereign or
the head of the orthodox church, and consider death by starvation or
fire, so long as it is self-wrought, to be the highest duty. Nearly akin
to them are the terrible _Skoptsi_ or mutilators, and the fanatic
_Khlysti_, or Flagellants, and many others. To the orthodox church all
who are not _slavopravni_ are alike. The civil government has always
discriminated between the harmless and those whose tenets are opposed to
the welfare of the individual and to the commonwealth.
The orthodox regard the discussion as terminated: the Tsaritsa Sophia
herself was present in the Granovitaia Palace, at the discussions of the
Patriarch with the chief of the Ras Kolniks, a fanatic Nikita. There
were stormy scenes; at the close each sect claimed to have the right,
and for long afterwards there were frequent discussions between the
supporters of both parties, around the porch of the Blagovieshchenski
Sobor.
[Illustration: CHURCH AND GATE OF MARY OF VLADIMIR]
Of the churches of the orthodox, the number in Moscow is indeed great;
add to these the cathedrals, the new Xram, chapels, monasteries and
convents, and the claim of Moscow to its title of City of Churches will
not be questioned. It is quite impossible even to enumerate those worth
seeing. Instead take a typical street, say the Nikolskaya in the busiest
part of the commercial Kitai-Gorod. It contains the Monastery of the
Images, Za-ikono-spassky Monastyr--once, 1679, an academy; Church of the
Virgin of Kazan, interesting as founded in 1630 by Prince Pojarski; the
Nikolævski Monastyr, Greek, founded in 1556, and in 1669, with two
churches; opposite it the old Monastery of the Epiphany, Bogoyavlenni,
founded in 1396, with a church to Boris and Gleb and several others of
lesser note--a large establishment with an extensive cemetery but the
buildings of course modern. The Synodalia Typografiia; the printing
house of the Synod, founded in 1645, the façade always painted a light
blue, with the lion and unicorn, and other Byzantine decorations, in
white. Then near the Vladimirski Vorot, the church to the Virgin, dating
from the time of the boy-Tsars, Ivan and Peter, and opposite the second
largest monastery, and most often used church in the Kitai gorod, that
of the Trinity. In all eleven churches or chapels within less than 200
yards--and that is characteristic of Moscow. Among other tserkvi well
worth seeing are:--
_Kitai-Gorod._ In the Varvarka: St Barb, St George the Martyr, St
Maxim the Confessor, and the Monastery of the Resurrection. In the
Ilyinka: St Nicholas of the Great Cross, St Elias. Also the Holy
Trinity in the Cherkassky, St Anne in the Zariadi, and of the
Virgin of Georgia, but St Ipatius is in the Ipatievski, and St
Nicholas near the Moskvretski Bridge.
_Bielo-Gorod._ The Srietenka, built by John Taylor; All Saints, the
Transfiguration, and the Manifestation.
CHAPTER X
_Moscow of the Citizens_
"Fair Moscow crowned: now towering high
And, seated on her throne of hills,
A glorious pile from days gone by."
DMITRIEV.
Peter "The Great" who is credited with having created the history of
Russia did little for Moscow, a town he, after his travels abroad,
always despised and constantly distrusted. He evicted the last private
owners from the Kremlin, and spoiled its palaces and treasures, but took
no measures to enhance its beauty or increase its wealth. It is
customary to date progress and civilisation from his reign; an anonymous
Russian poet has even written:
"Russia and Russia's strength lay hid in dreary night;
God said 'Let Peter be'--straightway they burst to light,"
but, so far as Moscow is concerned, his coming would be more truthfully
regarded as of the nature of an eclipse than as the harbinger of light.
Probably his reputation is due to the prominence of his person in
western Europe--where it is customary to mistake renown for
greatness--rather than his achievements.
Peter forsook Moscow, left her to the Church, which he served badly--and
to her citizens, whom he treated even worse. Benevolence was foreign to
his character; he could not mould Moscow to his ideal--if a passing whim
can be so termed--but before he realised his impotence in this, he
became brutal and fierce. He quarrelled with the Church, cruelly ill
used his wife--whom he forsook eventually, shamefully treated his
blood-relations--even torturing his half-sisters himself, and was to his
subjects such a father as he proved to his own unfortunate son Alexis,
who was done to death at his hands; in all these things behaving so
savagely that even the strongest were awed into hypocrisy. The citizens
of Moscow considered themselves the children of the Father of the
people--the Tsar who lived in the Kremlin--who cared for them and never
ceased to be anxious for their welfare. He alone was responsible for
their direction, with him was the Church, they knew not how to act
independently. The streltsi, the fighting men, the armed citizens, were
first of the Moscow townsmen to act of their own initiative, but they
were disciplined men who trusted their leaders--even when betrayed.
Peter exterminated the streltsi, the men who first of all his subjects
had supported his claims and protected his rights; it is in connection
with the streltsi that Peter is most enduringly associated with Moscow.
The scenes of that long struggle were, for the most part, enacted
outside the Kremlin; in the Kitai-Gorod of the merchants, in the
Bielo-Gorod of the freemen, in the sloboda of the foreign settlers, and
the Preobrajenski quarter where Peter was reared. It is this Moscow that
has suffered most from the invader and from fire; its memorials of
antiquity are few, those appertaining to Peter the Great and his time
may be counted on the fingers of one mutilated hand. The most
conspicuous marks are those of the Church. Continuing by that route
indicated in the last chapter, on issuing by the Valdimirski Gate from
the Kitai-Gorod, the road north is the Big Lubianka, running along the
crest of the hill towards the old village of
[Illustration: SRIETENKA--SDKHAREV BASHNIA]
Kuchko, long since incorporated with the town; on the right hand is the
palace of that Count Rostopchin who ordered the destruction of Moscow in
1812; on the left at the corner of the Kuznetski Most is the old church,
set apart from time immemorial for the benediction of fruit. As an old
writer states, "the Mahommedans would as soon eat pork as a Russian
unconsecrated apples." Further on, also on the left is the old monastery
of the Srietenka (Meeting), founded by Vasili Dmitrivich in gratitude of
the deliverance of Moscow threatened by the Tartars under Tamerlane in
1397; rebuilt by Theodore II. and containing a chapel to the Patriarch
Joachim, constructed by Peter I. in 1706. It has two other old churches,
one dedicated to St Nicholas, and the other to the Egyptian Virgin Mary,
neither of particular interest. This is a part of Moscow longest
inhabited by the peasant class, and continuing on past the boulevard,
which marks the old wall of the Bielo-Gorod, the Srietenka traverses the
Zemliaa Gorod, or earthen town, until the Sadovia is reached, where was
once the by no means formidable rampart of the outer wall; beyond this
the Miaschanska continues the road to the Kammer College earth rampart
at the Krestovski-Zastava. Beyond that is the highway to Ostankina, the
Marina Roshcha, and the village of Mordva. The eighteenth church passed
after leaving the Grand Square is dedicated to the Trinity and is
remarkable for a number of small shops within its walls, the windows but
a couple of feet high and the ceiling so near the pavement that buyers
have to stoop or kneel to bargain. An old order forbids that shops be
within a church, and a more recent one, any without it. These being
neither within nor without continue unmolested. In this district the
Streltsi were living at the close of the seventeenth century, and a
little further on is the Sukharev Bashnia, Peter's memorial to the
fidelity of a regiment of the force he exterminated. It is a curious
pile: an octagonal tower rises 200 feet above the roadway over high
archways and a large two-storeyed gallery above them. The beholder who
is told that this is like a ship will possess the credulity of Polonius
if he assent; but actually Peter modelled it as a ship to serve for the
elementary instructions of his future sailors. As all know, Peter
derived his idea of ships from the Dutch, but even that explains little
and leaves much to the imagination. As remote is the connection of
Sukharev with ships and the sea, so if not exactly a suitable monument
for an officer of Moscow's soldiery it was what Peter thought would
serve his purpose better than any other design. Its closest connection
with ships is at present; as a water tower it is not wholly useless
still. Its architecture is not remarkable, a mixture of Lombard with
Gothic that might have resulted from copying the Vosskresenski Gate and
substituting a tall straight tower for the ornate Gothic spires then the
fashion in Moscow. Considered a ship--the tower is the mast, the rooms
below are supposed to resemble the poop-deck and quarter-galleries of an
old man-of-war. The entrance is by a flight of steps from the Srietenka;
in the large room a number of Moscow youths were instructed in
arithmetic by a Scotch schoolmaster named Farquharson, and two Christ
Church scholars, Gwynne and Graves, whom Peter held practically as
prisoners there. Sometimes these pupils were taken to St Petersburgh to
drive piles for foundations of the new town, at others they were
exercised in elocution and deportment that they might the better
represent comedies for the diversion of the Court.
The teachers of the school knew nothing of Russian and the scholars only
their native tongue--such was Peter's way. Unhappy the scholars
[Russian poetry in cyrillic letters][E]
[E] "Stolid, forlorn, mum and glum,
Being Russian born--not deaf and dumb."
It is said a lodge of Freemasons used once to meet in a room of the
tower, and there not only were "black arts" practised but Peter convened
secret meetings of the State Council, a sort of Star Chamber. The
society of "Neptune" really consisted of Lefort the Swiss General,
Archbishop Theofan, Admiral Apraxin, Farquharson, Bruce, and Princes
Cherkassky, Galitzin, Menshikov, and Sheremetiev. Those in fact who were
for westernising Russia.
The story of the Streltsi and the part they played in the history
of Moscow is worth telling. They originated with the _oprichniks_
of Ivan the Terrible: transformed into a sort of hereditary
militia, they fought for Moscow when called upon, and in return
were allowed to reside tax free, to trade, to keep shops, mills and
ply various handicrafts. Their commandants tried to make serfs of
them. When some complained that the colonel of one regiment was
keeping back half the pay, Yazikov, the chief of the commanders,
ordered these petitioners to be flogged so as to teach them not to
complain of those in authority over them. Three days before
Theodore II. died, they accused Griboiedov of extortion, cruelty
and withholding pay and forcing them to work for him housebuilding,
even during Easter week. This complaint reached Dolgoruki: he
ordered the messenger to be flogged, but as the man was led away he
called to his fellows, "Brothers, I was but obeying your orders,"
thereupon they attacked the guard and released him. Complaints
became general: it was practically a revolt of the armed citizens
the government had to fear. For the moment it yielded. Griboiedov
was ordered to Siberia, but after only a day's imprisonment
reinstated. The Streltsi became alarmed. On the death of Theodore
they, among themselves, took the oath of fealty to Peter. Sophia
and her advisers intrigued and split the Streltsi. One regiment
under Sukharev remained faithful to the secret oath, to Peter, the
Naryshkins and Matvievs: the others demanded and received their
colonels whom they flogged--Griboiedov with the knout, the others
with rods--their property was confiscated, and the claims of the
Streltsi paid. The Sukharev regiment took Peter and his mother to
the Troitsa Monastery for safety, and it is in commemoration of
this action that the Tower was built.
The real cause of the later conflict arose from a deeper trouble, the
struggle for the throne between the children of Alexis by his first
wife, and Peter the eldest of those by his second. Ivan was weak, but
his sister Sophia, with her lover Galitzin and a court following opposed
to the innovations to be expected of Naryshkins' friends, supported him
most loyally. The Streltsi insisted that Peter should reign conjointly
with Ivan and carried their point, but Sophia, as regent, was entrusted
with certain powers. Both princes were crowned in 1682, but, owing to
intrigues, the court was divided into two factions--the supporters of
Ivan and Sophia, of Peter and the Matvievs. The Khovanskis were accused
of compassing the death of Theodore, and beheaded. Doubts as to Peter's
parentage were expressed; the trouble made previous to the marriage of
Natalia was remembered; others declared that Peter was a changeling,
really the son of Dr Van Gaden. Peter himself, according to the picture
of his patron saint painted on a board his exact size on the day of
birth, was then some twenty inches long by five and a half broad.
Moreover, there was a doggerel song of the period:
"What luck, oh, what joy! To the Tsar has been given
A heir, aye, a boy! sent us from heaven!
'Tis wondrous! 'tis rich! With laughter and mirth,
Great Peter Alexevich, first lord of the earth!"
Peter is said once to have met his reputed father, a rough haunter of
taverns in the foreign suburb. Throwing him roughly to the ground Peter
determined to learn whether or not he was his father. "_Batuch ka!_ How
should I know--I was not the only one," the fellow is reported to have
answered; but it was only a stale and salacious witticism of the sort
Peter loved--certainly not evidence. The struggle was further
complicated by camps of orthodox and dissenters. It was fought to the
bitter end by Sophia on behalf of her mother's children, against Peter
who was only her father's son; on behalf of herself too, for she had a
lover, and no liking for the seclusion of the cloisters to which the
daughters of the orthodox Tsars were relegated because they were of too
high birth to wed with their father's subjects, and their faith--which
they were not allowed to relinquish--an effectual barrier to matrimony
with a foreign prince. At first the revolt of the Streltsi had little
political significance beyond the fact that it was the forcible demand
of a part of the citizens for common justice.
For seven years Sophia directed the affairs of state with more or less
success; Ivan was simply her tool, with Peter she had greater trouble,
and in 1689, after a quarrel with her, he withdrew from Moscow and went
to Troitsa. A large party followed him. Sophia feared revolt and
appealed to the people in an eloquent address of three hours' duration.
"Wicked people have sown the seeds of discord; have made my brother
Peter believe his life is in danger. Do not credit such rumours. Do
not allow these to lead astray those faithful to the throne: they
will torture such until they can no longer endure, and nine persons
will denounce nine hundred. You know how I have directed the
affairs of this state for seven years; have made a glorious peace
with Poland, and worsted in battle the Turks and infidels; how I
have always thought of your needs and striven for your welfare. As
I have already done so shall I continue."
Sophia thought she had won over the crowd; instead this speech lost her
the support of influential leaders. When Galitzin left Moscow there was
a general rush of the people to Peter; then her friends were seized by
his order and she tried to escape to Poland, but was captured and
imprisoned in the Novo Devichi Convent where she was forced to take the
veil as Susannah, and lived in strict confinement until 1704. Ivan was
thrust aside; Peter usurped the throne, his weakly half-brother
surviving until 1696. Then Peter married Eudoxia Lapukhin, daughter of a
boyard. Trouble next arose when Peter, against the advice of nobles and
clergy, went abroad and worked like a slave under foreign rulers; it
was considered sacrilege of God's anointed so to do, and of its impolicy
there were soon signs, and Peter hurriedly returned to stamp out
discontent. He had found a new love, one Anna Mons, a German in Moscow,
and would have married her but she slighted him and took one of her own
countrymen; his wife he refused to see, accusing her of "certain
thwartings and suspicions." He wished also for proof of Sophia's
connection with the discontent amongst the Streltsi and people; in this,
notwithstanding all his energy and cruelty, he was unsuccessful.
"Peter on his return reopened the inquiry, and fourteen torture
chambers were conducted under his surveillance in the Preobrajenski
suburb. The fires were never allowed to burn down, nor the
gridirons on which his victims were charred to become cool either
by night or day. A most compromising letter from Sophia to the
Streltsi is generally considered to be a forged document, made up
of stray, incoherent scraps of information wrung from maddened
creatures in the torture chamber. Whereas fifteen blows with the
knout were equal to a capital sentence, one of the Streltsi was put
to the torture seven times and received in all ninety-nine blows,
yet confessed nothing. Korpatkov, unable to bear his tortures,
killed himself. Others of the Streltsi having been put to the
strappado, flogged, and burnt without getting any accusations; the
wives, sisters and female relatives of the Streltsi were tortured;
so were the ladies and sewing women in attendance on Sophia. Still
no evidence was forthcoming. Then Sophia herself was put to the
torture, Peter doing the hangman's work. She never wavered in
denying all connection with the movement. Her younger sister,
Marfa, was then strung up in turn and all that could be learned of
her was that she had apprised her sister Sophia of the return of
the Streltsi to Moscow and of their desire to see her rule
re-established. Peter was unwearying in his attendance in the
torture chambers, and it is said [F] took a fiendish delight in the
agony his own wrought cruelties produced on his relatives, but when
he failed to obtain evidence he determined to punish
indiscriminately. The executions of the Streltsi, like those of
Ivan the Terrible's victims, were in wholesale fashion. Five were
beheaded just outside the torture chamber by the Tsar Peter
himself; the courtiers of his bodyguard he commanded to do the
same, thinking doubtless they would enjoy the shedding of blood
even as he did. Two foreigners alone refused to comply with this
order. Some 200 Streltsi were crucified, impaled or hanged before
Sophia's windows in the Novo Devichi Convent: but most were
executed in the Grand Square under the wall of the Kremlin, viz.:--
200 on Sept. 30th, 1698
144 " Oct. 11th, "
205 " " 12th, "
141 " " 13th, "
109 " " 17th, "
65 " " 18th, "
106 " " 19th, "
"On some occasions a tree was used as a block; the victims placed
in rows along it, and their heads struck off by men of Peter's new
guard. Others were hanged; as late as 1727 the heads stuck on pike
points stood round the Lobnoe Mesto. In January 1699 came more
enquiries, more tortures, more executions, and then the
extermination of the Streltsi determined upon. There was a break
from 1699 to 1704 as Peter required the remaining Streltsi to aid
in the wars against Swedes and others, but after the revolt in
Astrakhan, the executions were renewed. Stragglers and deserters
from the corps, those related to them and who associated with them,
were placed under a ban--they might not be employed by anyone; none
might give them food, shelter, or assistance. They perished
miserably. In such manner did Peter exterminate the old Muscovite
militia."
[F] _Kostomarov_, vol. ii. p. 516.
Peter's cruelties, like those of Ivan Groznoi, did not pass unnoticed by
the Church. His treatment of the Streltsi called forth a fierce
denunciation from the Patriarch Adrian, who "beseeched him in the name
of the Mother of God to desist." "Get thee home!" answered Peter, "I
know that I reverence God and his most Holy Mother; more, perhaps, than
thou dost thyself. It is the duty of my sovereign office, and a duty I
owe to God, to punish with the utmost severity crimes that threaten the
general welfare." Unfortunately the Church had been deprived of its
privilege of intercession for the life of one accused, and Peter cared
nought for the spiritual power of the Church, as already stated. He even
with his own hand killed two priests, but afterwards expressed
contrition. The Church regarded him almost as anti-christ; the citizens
dreaded him and kept out of his way. "The nearer the Tsar the greater
the danger," a proverb of that time was believed in by all. Peter had
his proverb also, "the knout is no angel but teaches men to speak the
truth," and even as Ivan did, he went constantly in fear of
conspiracies, chiefly dreading his own relations. Eudoxia, now the nun
Helena in a convent at Suzdal, was believed to have corresponded with
Dositheus an Archimandrite who had predicted, or prayed for, Peter's
death. Glebov was the intermediary in the matter; he was impaled; the
prelate was broken on the wheel; a brother of the ex-tsaritsa was
tortured and beheaded; thirty others were executed or exiled, and
Eudoxia herself flogged and confined in an isolated convent at New
Ladoga. Peter, when there were no more conspirators, or accused, offered
a bribe of six roubles to all who made secret accusations, and
threatened with severe penalties any who held back information. The
better to protect his informers from reprisals by the people, they went
through the streets with their faces veiled, in order to search for
those whose names they did not know, but whom they had overheard in
indiscreet speech. The people hid away when "the tongue," as the masked
informer was called, was abroad in the streets, and for days the city
would appear to be quite deserted.
"Peter was hairless and decreed that those who could grow beards
should not be allowed to wear them. Ivan Naumov was flogged because
he would not shave; 100 roubles was the ordinary fine for wearing a
full beard, and many paid the tax repeatedly rather than submit to
Peter's order. These had also to wear a badge with the legend 'a
beard is a useless inconvenience,' and pay a fine whenever passing
the Redeemer Gate. There is a touch of irony in the fact that Peter
died of a chill which, may be, the full beard of a Moscow _Otets_
would have prevented. Although Peter was epileptic, he had no mercy
for those who suffered similarly. A woman, who in addition to this
infirmity was also blind, was put to the torture for disturbing a
congregation. A tipsy man had thirty lashes with the knout for
committing the like offence. A woman who found strange chalk marks
on a barrel of beer in her cellar, knew not what they meant, nor
did any one else; but she was put to the torture, and died under it
because unable to decipher them. Those whom Peter wished specially
to honour he made hangmen. An old boyard who liked not salad, as
'sour things did not agree with him,' was made to empty a large
bottle of vinegar by Peter; and a Jewess in his company who
declined to drink to the extent Peter wished, was there and then
beaten by him and made to drink much more."
It was an unequal struggle: a powerful autocrat attempting to force a
proud, stubborn people from the habits they had been taught to revere,
from practices that had made their city great and beautiful. The more
successful Peter became the greater was the opposition. His courtiers
wore wigs at court, as commanded, but even in the throne room removed
them immediately Peter was out of sight. After ten years Peter knew that
he could not conquer the Muscovites though he might kill them. As late
as 1722, when he had ordered all ladies above ten years of age to appear
at a reception, only seventy of the hundreds qualified did as commanded.
At St Petersburg it was different. There, no feeling of shame, no loss
of dignity followed the, to Moscow citizens, most ridiculous behaviour
of westerns. Peter's son Alexis, the Tsarevich, preferred Moscow and
Muscovite customs: in him Moscow trusted, and for this Peter hated him.
His friends wished him to enter a monastery until his father's death and
then "as they cannot nail the cowl to one's head," throw it off and
assume the crown. He did not, and his boast to forsake St Petersburg and
reinstate Moscow enraged Peter who, from that time, never ceased to
search for conspiracies, prompted by, or on behalf of Alexis, and
persecuted his son unmercifully. As all knew the young man was lured to
St Petersburg by his mistress, who was lavishly rewarded for her perfidy
by Peter, and that there he was repeatedly put to the torture, more than
once with Peter himself as executioner, and that he died mysteriously
one day after being "put to the question," _i.e._ tortured, earlier in
the day by a party of whom his father was one.
[Illustration: ST NICHOLAS "STYLITE"]
The Matviev's lived in that part of the city just outside the
Kitai-gorod, where Alexis had settled a number of little Russians from
the newly-acquired territory, the Ukraine. The Marosseika preserves the
name of this settlement, and passing up it from the Lubianski Ploshchad,
leaving All Saints' church on the right, Armianski, a street on the
left, will soon be reached. There, a couple of hundred yards along, on
the left is the old parish church of St Nicholas, built by Mikhail
Theodorovich, contiguous to the house of the Matviev's and the Tsarista
Natalia, where is now the tomb of the old voievode--a mean mausoleum, in
the classic style. The church shows but few traces of western influence:
it is of two storeys like most of the churches of the seventeenth
century and is surrounded with a gallery, formerly open, but now glazed
between the pillars. Near by is the Lazarev Institute, for the study of
eastern languages, and peeping over the trees will be seen the green
domes and pink belfry of the Monastery of St John Chrysostom, with five
churches of which the oldest was founded by Ivan Vasilievich in 1479;
the entrance is from the Zlato-ustinski pereulok. Opposite the Armianski
is the Kosmo-Damianski pereulok, with the Lutheran Church founded in
1582 by the Englishman Horsey for the foreign colony.
Continuing along the Marosseika, past the Church of the Assumption (p.
89), an interesting church will be found on the right, that of the
Pokrovka (Protection), and further along the same street, where it
changes its name to the Basmannia, the church of Vasili Ivanovich built
in 1517 and reconstructed in 1751, to which latter date its architecture
belongs. Turning into the Sadovia on the left, in the Furmanni pereulok,
the second on the left, will be found the oldest large house in Moscow,
the residence of Prince Usupov, quite in the style of the early
seventeenth century. The entrance is from the Charitonievski Boulevard,
the next turning on the left. The whole of this district suffered much
from the fires of past centuries and only such buildings as these
isolated churches and houses in their own courtyards escaped the general
conflagration. A little further along the Sadovia is the "Krasnoe
Vorot" or Red Gate to mark the old tower on the outer wall. It was built
as a triumphal arch for the Empress Elizabeth on her coronation, when
tables spread with viands for the people reached from there to the
Kremlin wall. The French made it a butt for musketry practice, using
sacred ikons for a bull's eye.
Architecture of a different type is to be found in that residential
quarter of the city between the Kremlin and the Prechistenka Boulevard.
Behind the Riding School is the Mokhovaia, a street to which front both
Universities and the Dom Pachkov, an old mansion in which is stored the
Rumiantsev art collection and museum of antiquities. The entrance is in
the Vogankovski pereulok, near the Znamenka.[G] It contains:--
[G] Open daily, 11 till 3; free on Sundays; 20 kopecks entrance on
other days.
(_a_) Foreign ethnological museum.
(_b_) The Dashkov ethnographical collection of Slavic antiquities;
life size figures of the races inhabiting Russia; in another hall
of Slavic races inhabiting Austrian and other adjacent lands.
(_c_) Mineralogical collection.
(_d_) Zoological collection; includes mammoth and Muscovite and
Siberian fossils.
(_e_) Slav and Christian antiquities, consisting mostly of early
specimens of eastern iconography from Mount Athos, and
archæological fragments. They are in four rooms on the _upper_
storey, and one ikon of Mosaic is particularly interesting, as are
also many of the specimens of Byzantine and Muscovite enamel and
niello, including an eleventh century Gold Cross.
(_f_) Picture Galleries.--Copies of Flemish, Spanish, Italian and
other schools, and the Pryanichnikov collection of Russian artists,
of which the best are: 1-10 by Ivanov; 42, 43, Chiernakov; 65, by
Repin; 157, 158, Aviazovski, and 201-203, Chedrin.
(_g_) Manuscripts and early printed Slav books, some very
beautifully illustrated. This section is closed during July and
August.
(_h_) Library of 200,000 standard works, and old prints and
engravings.
The Russian school is seen to better advantage on the south side of the
Moskva river, in the Tretiakov Galleries (Lavrushenski pereulok; open
daily, 10 to 4, except Mondays; admission free, catalogue in French, 20
kopeeks), a collection made by the brothers Paul and Sergius Tretiakov,
and now the property of the town. Most of the pictures are modern by
native artists; views of Moscow and of the historical and interesting
buildings in the town are by no means numerous. Apparently Russian
artists have not yet discovered that the Kremlin, as seen from across
the river, is as good a subject as is the Piazza San Marco at Venice, or
any other hackneyed city scene in Europe.
Most noteworthy among the paintings illustrating the history of
Moscow are:--The murder of Alexis by Ivan the Terrible, by J. E.
Repin (No. 782); a portrait of the same Tsar, by V. N. Vasnetsov
(No. 966); The Execution of the Streltsi, by B. J. Surikov (No.
737); St Nikita, the impostor, before the Tsarina Sophia, by B. G.
Peroff (No. 733), and the same Tsarina in the Novo devichi Convent
during the execution of the Streltsi, by J. E Repin (No. 761). Some
of the ancient customs and costumes of Moscow are represented in
No. 808, A Boyard Wedding, by C. B. Lebedev, and No. 1367, The
Handsel of Innocence, by Polenov--an excellent specimen of this
painter's best work, who does not show to advantage in his views of
the Terem (Nos. 1356-1366) and church interiors (Nos. 1349-1355).
Instructive also are the sketches Nos. 304-307, made by V. G.
Schwartz to illustrate Count A. Tolstoi's novel "Prince
Serebrenni," and 308-312, those made to Lermontov's "Bread Seller."
Notable pictures taken from scenes in Russian history are:--The
Battle of Igor Sviatoslaf's son against the Polovsti (No. 950), by
V. M. Vasnetsov; The "Black Council," held during the rebellion of
monks at the Solovetski Monastery in 1666, by S. D. Miloradovich
(No. 742); Peter the Great questioning his son Alexis, by N. N. Gay
(No. 636); The Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861, by G. G.
Myassoiedov (No. 495), and No. 252, by C. D. Flavitski, the
imprisonment of Princess Tarakanov in the fortress of Sts. Peter
and Paul, during a rise of the Neva--a sensational incident the
truth of which was questioned and disproved, when this picture was
exhibited at Paris in 1867. The incident represented in No. 394 by
N. B. Nevref, the enforced taking of the veil by the Princess
Usupov, was of such common occurrence in mediæval Russia, that no
question as to its possibility need be raised. Some of the best of
the war pictures of Vereshchagin are in this collection, and other
painters have contributed works illustrating the French invasion,
and more recent events, in a style quite as original and striking
as that of the Russian artist best known in western Europe. In all
the subject appears to be far more suggestive and interesting than
the craftsmanship. This is often weak, or worse, an unsatisfactory
imitation of the most impressive methods of the modern French
school.
Religious pictures are numerous and good: N N. Gay is represented
in forty-six works which include "The Morning of the Resurrection"
(641), "The Remorse of Judas" (642), "The Judgment" (643),
"Golgotha" (645), "What is Truth?" (640), and "Christ in
Gethsemane" (634). Several of his studies of "Christ on the Cross"
may be compared with the work of T. A. Bronnikov, "Campus
Scleratus" (461). The conventional style of "Ikon" painting is
evident in Nos. 727-730 by M. B. Nesterov, more particularly in the
pictures illustrating the life of St Sergius. No. 739, by B. J.
Surikov, represents the Boyarina Morosov being removed from among
the dissenting sect she did so much to establish.
The lighter, merrier, and more general life of the Russian people
is shown in a far greater number of pictures. Pryanichnikov has
humour as well as style (416-432), in 542, Maximov shows the
arrival of the "wizard" at a village wedding; 682 is an every day
village scene representing the homage paid to the ikon on its
visits; Yarochenko (701) shows the transport van with its exiles
committed for life and the free birds of the air mocking them.
Repin depicts truthfully the happy life of the peasants; 766, a
dance, 781, "The Unexpected Return," 797, St Cene. In the same vein
are also 857, Lebedev "Farings"; 863, Korovin, The Common Council;
775, 776, Answer of the Zaporogians to Mahomet's ultimatum;
1221-1224, the Second-hand market at Moscow, and 1256, An Evening's
Amusement, are by V. G. Makovski; The Emigrants, No. 1520, by S. B.
Ivanof, is depressing, but in 930 Madam A. L. Rievski shows in "A
Moment of Gaiety" the true character of the peasant.
In the streets Znamenka and Vozdvigenka are some characteristic Russian
mansions of the eighteenth century, for it was then that this quarter,
which had formerly been inhabited by palace servants and craftsmen,
began to take a more aristocratic character. That of Prince Sheremetiev
is the most bizarre; there also is the old
[Illustration: DOM CHUKINA]
town hall and the Foreign Archives. In various parts of the town, even
on the south side in the Kaloujskaya, will be found modern mansions,
that is, erected or rebuilt since the great fire, in the style of the
Moscow of the golden age. One of the best is the Dom Chukina near the
Tverskaya Triumfalnia--a monument no visitor can escape seeing. But
there is no long street without one or more buildings which attract the
attention of the stranger by some idiosyncracy of form or colour. No
matter in which direction one may go--in the bustling Kitai-Gorod, the
quiet and aristocratic Ostogenka, or the bourgeois Zamoskvoretski--soon
will be seen some interesting fane reaching above the buildings that
flank the street, and a portal distinguished by its cross and ikon
indicate the entrance to the sacred enclosure of some monastery, where,
amidst leafy foliage and bright verdure, is quiet and seclusion like
that of the oasis of the Temple amidst the dreary turmoil of London's
vastness. Take that very ordinary street, the Nikitskaya for example; it
is wholly common place, wedged in between districts devoted to ordinary
commerce, and the chilling respectability of moderate affluence, and
leads nowhere in particular. Yet even its name is interesting; did it
obtain it from the worthy founder of the Romanof dynasty? or from the
religious fanatic who argued points of ritual with Sophia and the
Patriarch? or from St Nikita, the saint who shut up Satan in a jar and
released him only on stipulated and agreed conditions?
It starts from the Alexander Gardens, the old western bank of the stream
Neglinnaia that once strengthened the defences of the Kremlin; passes
the entrance to the riding school, one of the great things Moscow has
produced since the fire of 1812. The length of this building is 360
feet, breadth 168, and its wooden roof, unsupported by perpendicular
stanchions, was considered a wonder of the world, when Alexander first
manoeuvered 2000 infantry, and 1000 cavalry beneath it. Then come the
Universities, the old and the new, one on each hand; beyond, on the
left, is the Nikitsky Monastery, enclosing four churches, one dating
from the founding of the monastery in 1682, at the end of the "golden
age." On the opposite side is the Academy of Science, on this the
Conservatorium, facing it a quaint old church of primitive architecture
and diminutive size; above its lowly belfry rears the square brick-built
tower of an English Church. The house of a boyard here, of a prince
there, bear names of note in Moscow's history, as Gagarin, Galitzin,
Chernichev, designate the owners of the houses on either side, and of
the side streets to right and left. The further from the Kremlin, the
centre, the more frequent and greater the inducement to turn aside to
inspect more closely the glittering and gaudy domes of churches, old and
new, which are thickly sprinkled over the whole district. Nor can the
stranger easily do amiss whichever way he turns. If towards the left, a
curious lofty belfry of open masonry will repay careful scrutiny, and
reveal close by other domed and pinnacled temples, lost amidst this
multitude of white walls and luxuriant verdure. If to the right, two
churches in close proximity, of unique design and, probably, oppressive
colouring, will encourage to further explorations in the same direction.
The oldest churches in the neighbourhood of the Arbat are, Boris and
Gleb, 1527; Tikhon, the wonder-worker, 1689; but the Church of the
Transfiguration is one of the most beautiful. In the Povarskaya, is that
of St Simon Stylite, 1676, and near, another interesting
church--Rojdestvenka.
Probably Moscow does not charm so strongly by reason of any particular
building or style as by the great diversity of its houses and churches,
both in design and colouring. More especially in those quarters where
the wooden log-houses still linger in their gardens, and where the
frame-houses are all made gay with white, cream, blue-gray, yellow and
pink body colour, and the roofs of dark green or still darker crimson;
there Moscow seems to belong to another world. It is, alas, disappearing
fast, and the spacious courtyards, with their trees and the gardens gay
with giant lilacs and golden-chain, are being built on, and houses that
stand shoulder to shoulder in plain and hideous uniformity level up the
largest village to the standard of a modern town made in Germany.
There is another aspect of Moscow which the summer visitor can never
know. That comes when the thermometer falls from its summer _average_ of
64.9° F. to its winter average of 14° F. This difference of 50° explains
much that appears wanton in the architecture of buildings great and
small; accounts for the galleries round the outside of the churches, for
the extensive vestibules; for thick walls, still thicker roofs, and
great spouts; for the plain surfaces and lack of projecting decorations,
gargoyles and angular mouldings; for the distempered walls, which alone
successfully stand the biting frosts of winter and the blistering summer
sun.
With the change to winter temperature a great quiet comes over the town,
wheeled traffic is stopped, sledges glide over the frozen roads, and
from the windless sky the great snowflakes can ever be seen idly and
slowly floating in their long and leisurely descent to earth. A reddened
sun appears for a short time each day in a leaden sky, and Moscow lives,
is more active, more itself, than when the light of summer decks its
walls and pinnacles in holiday garb. But at whatever season studied,
Moscow will reveal traces of the past; will show that she has long
smiled under the summer sun of good fortune and been wrinkled by the
winter of adversity; scorched, too, by the volcanic fire of her own
excesses, but now staid, hoary, strenuous, and of surprising vitality in
all--[Russian in cyrillic letters].
CHAPTER XI
_Ancient Customs and Quaint Survivals_
"The customs are so quainte
As if I would describe the whole
I feare my penne would fainte."
G. TURBERVILLE (1568).
Strange and unaccountable to the men of the Elizabethan age were the
manners and customs of the Muscovites; at this day, some of the things
these early visitors minutely described seem scarcely credible.
In many ways the life of the old boyards was not unlike that of their
Tsar. They fought and worshipped and maintained state; bought, sold and
sought wealth even as he did. There remain at least two old houses of
boyards in Moscow. One, the Potieshni Dvorets in the Kremlin, formerly
the dwelling of the Miloslavskis, is at the present time chiefly useful
as indicating the architecture of a Russian house in mediæval times; and
that only so far as the exterior is concerned, for the internal
arrangements have been so many times altered as to bear now but little
resemblance to a typical dwelling of the seventeenth century. The other
house, the Palata Romanovykh, or Dom Romanof, was at one time the
dwelling of the Romanof family and has been restored to as nearly as
possible resemble the state in which it was when the Tsar Michael was
elected to the throne in 1613. It is situated in the Varvarka,
contiguous to the spot on which the English factory stood, and in
addition to being a museum of minor antiquities serves well to
illustrate some of the habits of the nobles of Moscow in the sixteenth
century, for the house belonged to Nikita Romanof, grandfather of the
Tsar Michael, who himself gave the house in which his own father was
born to the adjoining monastery. Incorporated with those buildings, it
shared their vicissitudes; was injured by fire repeatedly, altered,
added to, then spoiled and sacked by the French.
It is not a large house: the frontage to the Varvarka is scarcely sixty
feet and built on sloping ground it presents but one storey to this
street. The principal entrance was from its own courtyard, where the
south front presents four storeys looking over the Moskva (_v._ page
108).
The ground floor is of undoubted antiquity; brick built, plastered and
painted. On this foundation is reared the wooden house in the true
Russian style. The low clock tower over the entrance has for a weather
vane, a griffin, the arms of the Romanofs; the windows are small,
ogival, and glazed with mica panes.
It is impossible that in so small a house there could have been any
accommodation for the multitude of retainers and body servants a boyard
had always about his house. These lived in separate dwellings around the
courtyard. The ground floor of Russian houses consisted of cellars and
storerooms. In these vaults were kept: wine, mead, kvas, ice, frozen and
salted meats and fish. The next storey in this house consists of
kitchens and domestic offices--in a house not built upon sloping ground,
these would be on the ground floor. The first floor, the _Bel étage_,
which, in all old Russian buildings--houses, churches and shops--is
reached by steps very similar to those from the courtyard to the
Varvarka street level in the Dom Romanof.
[Illustration: KRESTOVAIA IN THE DOM ROMANOF]
Entering the vestibule from the Varvarka, on the right are two small
rooms, one for the use of attendants the other now fitted as a nursery,
but undoubtedly originally an ante-chamber. The largest room on this
floor is called _Krestovaia_, or Chamber of the Cross. It was the
state-room. Here the boyard received the priests who came at
Easter-tide, Christmas, and other feasts and on special occasions to
offer congratulations or perform sacred offices. The roof is vaulted,
and, in addition to the niches seen in the walls, there are secret
recesses for the concealment of treasure. In the "sacred corner" is an
ancient ikon, and on the table before it, covered with a rich Persian
cloth, are two crosses. The stand, or mountain, was the rack on which,
upon all solemn or festive occasions, the family plate was displayed.
Among the old treasures preserved here are a cocoa-nut shell mounted as
a drinking-cup, and various other curious drinking-cups, bowls, and
vases; an equestrian statuette, silver-gilt, of Charles I., a gift from
that monarch to the Tsar Michael; two ewers presented by Charles II.; a
silver salt cellar, and a _puisoir_ presented by Martha Ivanovna, wife
of the Patriarch, to her son the Tsar in 1618. No doubt it was in this
room that the great banquets given by the boyard took place, but
ordinarily the boyard would eat in his own apartment, his wife in hers.
From this room a doorway leads to the private room of the boyard. This
"study" is heated by a stove of coloured tiles, variously ornamented and
bearing quaint inscriptions and designs, as a tortoise, "There is no
better house than one's own"; doves, "Fidelity unites us." The cases
contain some of the personal attire and weapons of the early boyards and
their descendants, as: a silk mantle, some swords and daggers, a staff,
the sceptre of the Tsar Michael, riding-boots, walking-sticks, and the
like. The high narrow-heeled riding-boots are very curious, so too, on
the copper inkstands, as antique in appearance as those of Chaucer's
day, will be seen the lion and unicorn, a Byzantine device often found
in Russia. There is also a low seat used for writing, for the Russian
placed the paper upon his knees, not on a table; his lines were not
straight, and much good paper was wasted.
There is an oratory communicating with this four-windowed apartment,
also two rooms used as nurseries; one for boys, the other for girls. In
these close, small rooms the children were reared, for it was the habit
of the Russians not only to hide their children from all strangers, but
to keep them from all but their most intimate friends and relatives.
A small doorway leads to a steep narrow staircase communicating with
the top storey, the _terem_ or women's apartments, consisting of a
reception room, a bed-chamber and turret; from these rooms the nursery
may also be reached by a still narrower staircase. The walls of the
reception room are covered with stamped leather, the woodwork is carved
in high relief, the stiff benches round the wall have stuffed seats and
are covered with brocade. There are a number of old coffers and close
wardrobes, also some curious clothing is displayed in cases.
The four-post bedstead cannot be considered a native institution. It is
peculiarly Scandinavian. The English adopted it from the Danes; the
English reintroduced it into Russia, finding that the Russians
themselves slept either on the stove, or on an eastern divan. More than
once the early English ambassadors to Russia have complained that
bedsteads were lacking, and it was long before their use became general.
The boyards kept their women folk hidden away in the _terem_ in almost
eastern seclusion. Jenkinson states that "the women be very obedient to
their husbands, and are kept straitly from going abroad but at some
seasons." Other travellers write that the women are hardly used by their
husbands, who beat them unmercifully; "and the women, though young and
strong, never resent even if the husband be old and weak." Herberstein
relates that a foreigner in Moscow married to a Russian woman was
upbraided by his wife because he never beat her as Russian husbands did
their wives, and that he then beat her to please her; but as
subsequently he cut off her legs, and finally her head also, the story
is worth nothing as evidence of a custom.
Sylvester in his "Domostroi" says a wife ought never to take the title
of Lady, but always to look on her husband as Lord. She was to concern
herself only with household affairs, and might be treated like a slave;
only the husband is enjoined "not to use a too thick stick, or a staffe
tipped with iron, nor to humiliate unduly by flogging before men."
Out of doors she was carried in a shuttered litter, and she wore the
_fata_ or veil; a special part of the church was assigned women, but the
wives and daughters of the boyards usually worshipped in their own
private chapels, and went to the Cathedrals but upon special and state
occasions. Then it was that suitors caught a glimpse of their future
brides, and received glances which bespake love.
As among eastern nations, the bridegroom usually did not see his wife
before marriage. When the preliminaries had been arranged and settled by
third parties, the bridegroom sent a present of sweetmeats and a whip to
his bride elect, who always spent the night before the marriage ceremony
at the house of the bridegroom's parents. On the day of the marriage he
put into one of his boots sweetmeats or a trinket, into the other a
whip; the newly wedded wife took off the boots, and to remove first that
which contained the trinket was considered the omen of a happy life for
the woman. "But if she light on the boot with a whip in it, she is
reckoned among the unfortunate and gets a bride-lash for her pains,
which is but the earnest penny of her future entertainment." There were
also other little passes during the complex ceremony, the winning of any
indicating the mastery during wedded life.
Such was the woman's lot in the seventeenth century, but much was done
to better it before Peter the Great introduced western freedom. Collins
wrote in 1674:--
"The Russian discipline to their wives is very rigid and severe,
more inhuman in times past than at present. Yet three years ago a
Moscow merchant beat his wife as long as he was able, with a whip
two inches round, and then caused her to put on a smock dript in
brandy, to which he set fire, and so the poor creature perished
miserably in flames. Yet none prosecuted her death, for there is no
law against killing a woman, or slave, if it happens on correction.
Some of these beasts will tie up their wives by the hair of the
head and whip them stark naked. Now parents make better matches for
their daughters, obliging husbands to contract to use them kindly,
without whipping, striking or kicking them."
Even Peter's code was cruel: it was during his reign that Le Bruyn saw a
woman executed in Moscow by being buried alive; covered up to her neck
in the dank black soil she lived but two days, whereas, on the same
authority, there were others who lingered ten or more. In Russia, as in
countries further west, the crime of petty treason, the murder of a
husband, was considered almost as heinous as high treason, and punished
accordingly.
Kept closely confined to a small apartment, living almost always in
heated rooms the Russian ladies had fair complexions; "white
cream-and-snow tinged with the faint hue of the inside of a camellia"
one poet describes it. Others are not so generous; Turberville writes:
"To buy her painted colours, doth allowe his wife a fee
Wherewith she deckes herselfe, and dyes her tawny skin;
She prankes and paints her smoakie face,
Browe, lippe, cheeke and chinne."
All writers complain that the women painted without art; many blacked
their teeth, and stained their nails with henna, a custom which obtained
with the wives of Russian merchants to the present century. So, too,
after Peter the Great forced women from the seclusion of the _terem_, it
was the custom of ladies to present to each other in public their paint
boxes, even as in the west men offered snuff. It was not until after the
French invasion that this custom died out, and Pushkin endeavoured to
advance the new order by deriding the practice and ridiculing the
English governors who followed it. On the other hand, a lady of the
court who, much to the chagrin of others, refused to paint her face, was
compelled to do so by order of the Tsar, to whom complaint had been
made.
As women were free in the Russia of the Norsemen, the seclusion in the
_terem_ was either a custom adopted from Byzantium or, more probably, a
precautionary measure to protect them from Tartar invaders. The purpose
of these invasions has already been stated, and as on one foray the
Tartars are reported to have taken away 400,000 captives from Russia,
the hiding of women and children in portions of the dwellings to which
men at no time had access was doubtless considered to enhance their
chances of escape during the temporary absence of the master in the
front of the battle; and from being a temporary retreat it became the
ordinary living apartments. But the custom was a town one; not practised
by villagers.
The Russians were largely flesh eaters, meat and fish constituted the
diet not only of the well to do but of the peasants. In the north Le
Bruyn found the natives feeding even their beasts on fish, and Ysbrant
noted the same practice among the inhabitants east of the Ural.
Jenkinson found that the Muscovites had "many sortes of meates, and
delight in eating gross meates and stinking fish." Brandy was served
round before eating commenced, a custom that still obtains and was
originally derived from the Norsemen. Collins states that horse-flesh
was forbidden; also hare, rabbit, and elk. At some seasons veal was
forbidden; any thing sweetened with sugar, or candy, on fast days; and,
at all times, dishes flavoured with musk, civet and beaver. The chief
dish at a banquet given to Herberstein was of swan, served with sour
milk, pickled gherkins and plums. There was abundance of corn, and some
of the commoner vegetables; the fruits were insipid; except filberts,
Herberstein found none of the sweeter kinds of fruit or nuts. Water
melons were grown and then, as now, the Russians fed upon many different
kinds of fungus; some thirteen varieties found in the neighbourhood of
Moscow are edible, but the Russian regards as scarcely wholesome the
only mushroom eaten in England.
Tea was known to the Russians of the middle ages; some quaint samovars
are preserved in the Dom Romanof, but the medieval Russ found his
greatest pleasure in drinking mead, brandy and strong liquors. Before
drinking it was the custom to blow in the cup; to guests and strangers
wine was offered by, or on behalf of, each member of the host's family,
in small cups or glasses, then, to conclude, a huge cup filled to the
brim from which it was the correct etiquette to take but a sip.
In Sylvester's "Domostroi" the correct etiquette for masters and
servants is set forth. At table the diner may "blow his nose, must spit
without noise, take care to turn away from the company, and put his foot
over the place." Instead of advising the lord to sell old slaves and
cattle, as Cato told the Romans to do, Sylvester requires that old
servants who are no longer good for anything must be "fed and clothed,
in consideration of their former services." Then, for the servant; "when
a man sends his servant to honest people, he should on arriving knock
softly at the door of the grand entrance; when the slave comes to ask
what he wants, he must reply 'I have nought to do with thee, but with
him to whom I am sent.' He must say only from whom he comes, so that the
man may tell his master. On the threshold of the chamber he will wipe
his feet on the straw. Before entering he will blow his nose, spit and
say a prayer. If no one calls _Amen!_ to him, he will say another
prayer; if there is still no answer, a third prayer in a louder voice.
If still no answer, he may then knock at the door. On entering he must
bow before the sacred ikon; then he will explain his errand: he must not
touch his nose, or spit, or cough; look neither to right nor left."
The Tsars derived much revenue from a _cursemay_ or drinking tavern in
each town, which was let out to tenants or bestowed upon some courtier
for a year or two, "then, he being grown rich, is taken by the Tsar and
sent to the warres again, where he shall spend all that which he hath
gotten by ill means, so that the Tsar in his warres is little charged,
but all the burden lieth on the poor people."
Jenkinson writes: "At my being there, I heard of men and women that
drunk away their children and all their goods at the Tsar's tavern, and
not being able to pay, having pawned himself, the taverner bringeth him
out to the highway, and beates him upon the legs; then they that pass
by, knowing the cause and peradventure, having compassion upon him,
giveth the money, so he is ransomed."
During carnival there were many deaths due to excessive drinking and the
extreme cold, for it was then that all had licence to drink and make
merry. The Tsar Vasili Ivanievich (1505-1533) gave permission to some of
his courtiers to drink at any time, but in order that their habits might
not corrupt the people they had to live apart in a special suburb, which
was appointed them on the south side of the river, where for a time all
the dwellers were known by the name of Nali or "Drinkers."
"Folke fit to be of Bacchus train, so quaffing is their kinde,
Drinke is their sole desire, the pot is all their pride;
The sob'rest head doth once a day stand needful of a guide,
And if he goe into his neighbour as a guest,
He cares for little meat, if so his drinke be of the best."
TURBERVILLE, 1568.
The Muscovites knew not how to dance. At their merrymakings they made
Tartars and Poles dance to amuse them; their music was obtained from
brass hunting horns, trumpets, cymbals and the bagpipes. Kotoshin states
that the boyards were "dull, ignorant men, who sit in silence, stroking
their beards and making no reply to anything said to them." The common
people amused themselves on the "sway" or sea-saw; they loved to
assemble in crowds and to sing and drink together. Some were drawn up
and down in chairs, others went round and round in flying-chairs affixed
to wheels pivoted, some perpendicularly, others horizontally; in short,
the prototypes of the "merry-go-rounds" and "high-flyers" of pleasure
fairs in Britain and elsewhere. In winter they sped down ice hills on
their small sledges (tobogganing), and few only took pleasure in field
sports, trapping birds and animals being part of the business of the
lives of most; coursing and falconry the privilege of the Tsar and his
suite.
In winter when the boyard stirred out of doors it was always in his
sledge, where he lay upon a carpet in the skin of a polar bear. The
sledge was drawn by a single horse "well decked," a little boy astride
its back, and servants of the boyard stood upon the tail of the sledge.
As traders they had an unenviable reputation. "The people of Moscow are
more cunning and deceitful than all others, their honour being
especially slack in business contracts--of which fact they themselves
are by no means ignorant for, whenever they traffic with foreigners,
they pretend, in order to attain greater credit, that they are not men
of Moscow but strangers." The market was in the Kitai Gorod. There the
foreign merchants had their warehouses, and for centuries a Gostinnoi
Dvor, not unlike the bazaar of Stamboul, occupied the site of the
recently erected New Rows (Novi Riadi), but even at the present day the
picturesque is not extirpated from the wholesale market. The Starai
Gostinnoi Dvor has quite a charm of its own, and the adventurous
sightseer who, not content with passing through it from the Ilyinka,
turns off into the alleys furthest from the Krasnoe Ploshchad towards
the wall of the Kitai-gorod, will see curious courtyards having large
galleries around them; huge hatch-ways communicating with the vast
vaults and stores below. Quaint shops line the wall of the Kitai-gorod
from the Varvarka gate right up to the Nikolskaya; with a sort of
permanent rag fair at that end, where, too, from the introduction of
printing, the stalls and shops of the booksellers have been located.
Another surviving market for miscellaneous articles--from old ikons and
bludgeons to picked up trinkets and immense samovars--is held from six
o'clock till noon on Sunday mornings around the Sukharev Bashnia. From
time immemorial a great fair for frozen fish and game has been held
outside the Kitai-gorod wall as soon as winter's frost sets in. In this
commercial district are various old churches of interest and, in the
Cherkassky pereulok, the place of legal combat for those who justified
their cause by an appeal to strength and skill.
[Illustration: WALL OF THE KITAI-GOROD. VARVARKA VOROT]
In the administration of justice much was lacking, the principle of the
paternal rule of the sovereign necessitating direct appeal by means of a
petition. Later, a _Prikase_ or office of direction was established, and
this was followed by others empowered with the control of affairs
relating respectively to carmen, Siberia, criminals, etc. As in all
countries, misdemeanours against the property or liberties of
individuals was regarded as a matter for personal redress by the party
aggrieved; only those against the crown called for the active
interference of the sovereign through his body-guard. The use of torture
and some western methods of judicial procedure were introduced by Sophia
Palealogus and the Italians who followed her, and were grafted upon
native customs.
In the reign of Ivan the Terrible, legal procedure was as follows:--
"When any dispute arises they appoint, in the first place, the land
owners to act as judges, and these if unable to settle the dispute,
refer the case to a higher magistrate. The complainant asks the
magistrate for leave to summon his adversary to court; the leave
granted, he calls an attendant (sergeant), cites the accused and
hurries him along to the court. The attendant keeps scourging the
man about the shins with the knout, until he can bring forward
someone who on his behalf can satisfy the law. If he has no friend
to go bail for him, the sergeant, grasping him by the neck, drags
him along and subjects him to blows, until before the court to
plead his cause. If it be a suit to recover a debt, the defendant
is asked by the magistrate whether he is in debt to the plaintiff,
and replies that he is not in his debt. Then the judge asks, 'In
what form can you make denial!' The defendant answers, 'Upon my
oath.' Thereupon the sergeant is forbidden by the magistrate to
administer further blows, until the evidence makes the case
clearer.
"The Muscovites are exempt from a great curse to a community, in
that they have no pettifogging lawyers. Every man conducts his own
case, and the plaint of the pursuer and defence of the accused are
submitted to the prince in the form of written petitions, craving
for a just sentence at his hands. When each party has supported his
case with all the arguments available, the judge asks the accuser
whether any arguments remain. He answers that he himself, or his
champion for him, will, with a strong hand, make good his
accusation on the person of his opponent, and he further demands
leave to engage with him in single combat. Liberty to fight is
accorded both disputants, who rush simultaneously to the onset. But
if one or both be not strong enough to fight, they engage
professional pugilists as substitutes. These men enter the lists
armed, chiefly with a war-club and a hunting-pole. The fighting is
on foot. He whose champion is beaten is cast at once in prison,
where he is most shamefully treated, until he ends his dispute with
his enemy. If of high rank it is not allowed to get proxies. If a
poor man has incurred a debt, and is unable to pay, the creditor
carries him off and makes him labour for him, yea he even lets out
his services on hire to someone else, until by his labour he fills
up the amount of his debt."
Harry Best, an Englishman, made good his claim against a defaulter in a
trial by combat, which resulted in an immediate petition by the
Muscovites to the Tsar, to forbid foreigners engaging in the lists with
citizens. As for criminals: thieves were imprisoned and knouted but were
not hanged for a first offence; for a second offence, a thief lost the
nose or an ear and was branded on the forehead; the third offence was
punished with crucifixion, which was a customary penalty long after the
days of Ivan IV. Impalement in various ways was also practised; heretics
were burned; false-coiners boiled in oil; during winter the condemned
were thrust under the ice and drowned. The long category of barbarous
punishments borrowed from the west, being minutely followed in addition
to excisions, amputations, mutilations and cruelties of local origin.
One of these may be mentioned, "the death by 10,000 pieces," when the
condemned was cut away bit by bit and the parts seared to prevent death
by hæmorrhage before it was necessary to attack a vital part. Another
form of it was to insert a hook under a rib and pull the bone out of the
side--the Muscovite equivalent of the western method of extorting money
from Jews by the extraction of tooth after tooth. Ivan "Groznoi"
practised even worse cruelties. The widow of one of his victims he put
astride a coarse rope and drew her to and fro upon it until sawn
through--in this rivalling the excesses of enthusiastic religious
persecutors in the Netherlands. More refined was his fiendish practice
of hanging in the doorway of a boyard's house his wife, child, or some
other loved one of the boyard, then compel the man to go to and fro past
the corpse that day by day became more repulsive. Worse even than this
did Ivan "Groznoi," the cruel Tsar, but his worst need not be mentioned
unless, at some future time, men name him not the "Terrible," but call
him the "Great."
In the days of Peter the Great men were still impaled or crucified; were
burned in small pens filled with straw; were beheaded on a block and
"hanged as elsewhere." Le Bruyn says, one day he saw a man burned alive,
and in another part of the town a woman buried, with small tapers
burning near her; and "all executions with such silence, that what takes
place at one end of the town is unknown at the other." Afterwards, were
such barbarities as the Empress Elizabeth ordered to be inflicted upon
the Boyarina Lapunof, and still later such cruelties as the Countess
Soltikov exercised on her serfs. In fact the tale of Moscow's woe was
not told until the advent to the throne of that greatest of dead Tsars,
Alexander II., the true reformer of Russia.
In the olden days the bearers of too illustrious names were forbidden to
marry; others might not marry without permission first obtained; leave
was necessary before one could carry arms. In times of peace it was
unusual for weapons to be worn, a staff shod with steel took the place
of sword or dagger, the voievodes only wore side arms generally. Trade
was the privilege of the Tsar, and those to whom he granted the right;
pen work was always done by humble secretaries or _diaks_--in the end
they became the masters, rather than the servants of their employers.
In their bearing towards their superiors, ecclesiastic and secular, the
Russian was abject in his deference; the customary mode of address being
similar to that of the east. In Byzantium the petitioner prostrated
himself and called, "May I speak and yet live?" In Moscow the Russ
cried, "Bid me not to be chastised, bid me speak, I the humble, etc.,"
and in Russian a petition, literally, is a "beating of the forehead"
before superiority. Peter the Great did much to discourage the abject
prostration of his subjects before the property of the crown, but as
late as the reign of the Emperor Nicholas some serfs were compelled to
uncover when passing any mansion of their lord, whilst other nobles
expressly forbade it. The Church never expressly forbade prostration
before sacred objects as Peter did before secular property, so in that,
the old custom survives. But it is probably owing to the earlier use,
and not particularly to the image of our Saviour over the Spasski Gate,
that it is customary still to uncover when passing to or from the
Kremlin by the state entrance. For in Russia when a practice has been
once enjoined by a person in authority it will be continued until
expressly forbidden. It is said that many years ago a distinguished
visitor to one of the royal residences inquired why it was thought
necessary to station a sentry in the centre of a grassplot in the
pleasure grounds. It was then discovered that once upon a time, a
Tsaritsa, long deceased, had noticed an early snow-drop budding forth at
that spot, and expressed her wish that the flower should be protected.
To ensure its safety a sentry mounted guard, and so for many years, day
and night, in all seasons, a sentry continued to be posted there; for,
although the circumstances had been forgotten, the order was
conscientiously obeyed.
The rites of the orthodox church are not subject to change, and the
ceremonies of to-day are practically the same as they were centuries
ago. One of the most characteristic is connected with the periodical
removal of some sacred picture from its ikonostas to a special service
in a church dedicated to some other saint, or associated with a
particular episode in the life of our Saviour. After a preliminary
service, the ikon is taken down and reverently borne away by the priests
appointed, attended by prelates, deacons, acolytes, choristers and the
bearers of "standards." These standards--_znamia_, literally
"token"--are akin to the banners of the western Church; they are of
diverse form, usually of metal, adorned with gems, and always have
either a representation of a saint or some sacred symbol upon them. Some
are but a fit setting to a small ikon; many are beautiful specimens of
metal work, others are of curious design, all are attractive; and when,
sometimes to the number of a hundred or more, they are carried aloft
through the streets of the old town, they add greatly to the stateliness
of an impressive pageant.
It is on such occasions as these--and they are many--that the attitude
of the people towards their church may be studied with advantage, and
the beholder will realise how strong is the affection of the orthodox
for all that pertains to their religion. The great reverence shown the
symbols, the fervour and sincerity of the greeting, are convincing
evidence of deeply-rooted belief, simple piety and existing close
relations between the Church and people. In short, a procession of this
kind does more than suggest the religious phase of mediævalism, it is a
revelation of its actual potency.
Easter is of course the great festival; then the Great Bell of Moscow
thunders forth that Christ has risen, and the people embrace each other
and with pious glee call "Vosskresenni Khristos" much as in the west
acquaintance greet each other with good wishes at the new year. Students
of comparative ecclesiasticism cannot afford to miss witnessing the
celebration of the feast in Moscow any more than they can that in Rome.
On Trinity Sunday not only are the churches strewn with newly cut
herbage and decorated with budding branches, but all houses "sport
greenery"--it is a combination of the old time customs of May-Day and
Yuletide in the west. The sacred ikons figure in all ceremonies, and
private individuals in times of distress requisition them. They are
conveyed with considerable pomp to the bedside of the dying, or to the
homes of the fortunate, pious in their rejoicing. The church is all
inclusive and makes no distinction; is as ready to comfort the most
notorious sinner as it is the devout communicant of irreproachable
rectitude and honour.
The ikon most desired is that known as the Iberian Mother of God, whose
chapel stands before the Vosskresenski Gate. Close by a carriage and six
remains in attendance, and usually towards evening it starts forth on
long journeys across the town, its round often unfinished when morning
dawns. Its place on the ikonostas is filled by a copy, but the original
is at once restored on its return. Men uncover as the carriage passes
by; those near, when it is carried to or from a house, prostrate
themselves or attempt to kiss it, some endeavour so to arrange that the
picture must be carried over them. Another ikon in request is that kept
at the Vladimirski Vorot; all have great homage paid them. Priests,
drivers, attendants, are uncovered, even in the depth of winter; and to
be appointed to any post in connection with it is counted a great
honour. It is said that the offerings of the thankful in return for the
privileges conferred by "visiting" have amounted to as much as £10,000
in a single year in respect of one picture alone. This money is part of
the church revenue--the servants attending with the ikon receiving
presents in addition.
[Illustration: A CHASTOK]
Originally the private ikon was a picture of the patron saint of its
owner. As every day in the year is a saint's day, the saint of the day
on which a person happened to be born was considered his patron; often
he took that saint's name, if some other were chosen then the recipient
must be christened on the day assigned to that saint, and thus the
"name" day is distinct from the birthday and is observed, whilst the
anniversary of one's birth may or may not be celebrated. Often, indeed
usually, an ikon of the Virgin now occupies the "sacred corner." It is
so placed that it must be visible on entering the room and receive the
obeisance of the orthodox; it is also, as it were, to be a witness of
all that takes place before it. To do anything wrong in the presence of
an ikon makes the fault the greater; persistent evil-doers screen the
ikon before wilfully transgressing. It was even made one of the charges
in the indictment of the false Tsar Dmitri that he neglected to veil the
ikon the day of his marriage. To western minds such an attitude is as
incomprehensible as the action related in one of Tolstoi's stories, of
the pious peasants who, about to murder their offspring, knelt
reverently by the hole they had made in the ice and prayed to God that
He would protect and bless them. But the Russian understands.
The private ikon, or some other sacred picture, always precedes the
corpse at the funerals of the orthodox. The obsequies of the wealthy are
still conducted with great pomp; the modern practice of hiding the
coffin beneath wreaths and crosses being combined with the more austere
solemnities of a statelier age. The church of St Sophia, on the south
side of the Moskva, opposite the Kremlin, is much used in connection
with military funerals and those of a public character. The peasant's
coffin is simply covered with a pall, and the bier carried through the
streets shoulder-high, with no other pomp than the ikon reverently borne
some paces ahead of the cortege. The hands of the dead one are closed
over a paper on which is printed a prayer for the repose of his soul,
the deceased's baptismal name being written in, and this is the only
justification for the assertions of the early writers that "the Russ
when he dies hath his passport to Saint Nicholas buried with him."
If it is the practice to decorate the ikon with presented jewels, it was
not only counted a sin but a crime to take any back again. Collins says
that the punishment for so doing was the loss of a hand, as befell a
woman "who thought she had but lent to the image" she favoured. With the
private ikon "they do as they will, decorating the ikon one day and with
the same tawdry themselves the next," an indication that the ignorant
peasant may treat his ikon much as the West African negroes treat their
fetiches.
A common object in Moscow of to-day is the watch-tower or chastok, where
night and day sentinels patrol on the look out for fires, not nowadays
so frequent or so disastrous as formerly, since the erection of wooden
houses within the town limits has been forbidden. In summer, when the
signal is run up on the staff, numerous one horse drays, each with a
small barrel of water, hurry to the scene and in somewhat primitive
fashion attempt to quench the conflagration. If a wooden house the fire
usually subsides when the roof with its thick layer of earth between
rafters and plates collapses. Dearly paid for experience has taught the
Muscovite how the spread of fires may best be stopped where water is
scarce and hydrants far distant. Primitive and mediæval in many things,
Moscow reveals how the people of long past ages overcame the
difficulties incidental to life in large cities, and a great fire will
bring together such an array of water carts as will convince the
beholder of the very thorough organisation of a department charged with
the duty of safeguarding public safety.
Even the vehicles exhibit a survival from mediævalism since each horse
is harnessed beneath a _duga_ or piece of bent wood intended to
strengthen the shafts, as it is by them alone the load is hauled, and
traces are unknown. The _duga_, just as it is to-day, was used with the
first wheeled vehicles introduced to Russia and will persist for aye.
But the observant stranger will not lack entertainment in Moscow,
especially if he shows generous toleration of primitive customs. If a
house be building, the simple and superstitious working man, his
original intention being now directed by the church to a manifestation
of piety, will first raise above all the scaffolding a well made, often
decorated, cross, so seeking a blessing from the good by the same sign
that his early ancestors sought to appease the powers of evil. The
carter, whose horse drops with heat sickness, will get the animal on his
legs again and cause him three times to cross the _duga_ he purposely
places thwartwise. To those versed in symbols an act as easy to
understand as the every day remedy of the kitchenmaid who puts the poker
across the bars of the grate to prevent the newly lighted fire from
being extinguished--a not commendable practice yet effective epithem.
Sprite ridden the Moscow peasant is still, but though "it" moves him to
do many things of which he knows not the reason, merely obeying the
prompting intuitively, he has forgotten what this "it" is that must be
appeased. A bridge, a girder cantilever across a wide estuary or a
couple of planks across a ditch, is not finished till some trifle has
been cast into the water, in this the mujik being not unlike the skipper
of a Grimsby trawler who tosses a new coin into the ocean before
lowering his net.
The enthusiast may attempt to trace the direct connection between
baksheesh, nachai, and the extortion of gratuities generally, with the
ancient practice of trifling sacrifices to some mythical demon; both old
as the offer of a cock by Socrates to Æsculapius, and world-wide as the
application of a door-key to the spine as a cure for nasal hæmorrhage.
In such matters may hap Moscow is as other towns, and neither mediæval
nor peculiar.
But whosoever of a summer's night will wander into the suburbs will hear
the policeman on his round beating two pieces of wood together with
aggravating rhythm. If the listener be country-bred the noise will
remind him of the farm boy of old days who, with wooden clapper, scared
birds from the corn. If he be so curious as to examine the instrument he
will find it to be a piece of board with a handle, and a wooden ball
attached to it with a piece of twine. The knocking of the two together
to produce an intermittent whirr is accomplished by a curious turn of
the wrist. The watchman will explain that the noise is to warn
garden-robbers and other depredators of his coming, or to advise his
employers that he is about his duty. The most learned ethnologist of the
west says that an identical instrument, handled in the same manner, is
employed by the minor priests of a wild race in the far far east to
drive away evil spirits from the native temple.
Further a-field--a twenty-five kopeck ride on a _lineika_ from the
Trubaya--Ostankina is reached. There is a curious and elegant church of
red brick built by Moscow artisans in the golden age, at the cost of the
boyard Mikhail Cherkassky. Near by is a great wooden palace, stuccoed
and prim, the property of the Sheremetievs. Passing through its park
where Le Bruyn shot his great crane flying by a single bullet from his
musket, and where the upper reaches of the Yauza are still haunted by
wild fowl, is a thick wood to the north of the stream, and in the middle
of that near the path, a clearing where at midday a drove of mares are
coralled and milked by men who speak a strange tongue, and are of quite
different appearance to the Muscovites. A mile further on is their
village, near a large pool. It is a poor, insignificant, rather dirty
and very untidy place. Mordva its name; Mordva its people, whose
ancestors, many centuries ago, left their home among the Altai Mountains
on the confines of Manchuria and spread westward over Russia, fighting
with their later conquerors almost to their own extermination. Various
isolated groups of this once powerful race are scattered about Russia,
mixing but little with its people. These, who through long centuries
have been resident in the heart of Muscovy, seems as incongruous and
impossible as would be the present occupation of Hampstead Heath by
survivors of ancient Picts in the full glory of their primitive customs.
It is nearest to the great towns that primitive methods and beliefs
persist most strongly, and just as in the villages about London,
antiquated farming implements and old country superstitions are more
plentiful than in the rural districts of England, so near Moscow the old
customs and manners die hard. In villages within easy walk of the
Kremlin, mediæval practices are rife, especially during the celebration
of marriages, and the performance of minor domestic pageants. The
curious, if persistent and lucky, may see the bowl of Tantalus presented
to the mother of the bride of yesterday, and as the liquor escapes the
cup by the hole in its bottom from which the profferer has removed his
finger, guess at the significance of the custom and speculate as to its
origin.
[Illustration: PETROVSKI MONASTYR]
Within the town almost every old building has its legends. Very diverse
are those connected with the Lobnoe Mesto on the Grand Square. It
derived its name--literally "the place of a skull"--from the Golgotha
that was erected there for the Easter Passion play which was performed
yearly before the church of the Trinity disappeared. From time
immemorial it has been _the_ place of public assembly, being to Moscow
what St Paul's Cross was to old London, and the _perron_ to Liége.
Therefore, as all who have studied the migration of symbols will know,
not only is it of very early origin, but associated with stories in some
form common to all peoples.
Another almost universal superstition is in Moscow attached to the
Sukharev Bashnia, which is supposed to be the feminine complement of the
Ivan Veliki tower in the Kremlin. The people call the Sukharev the
_jena_ (wife) of Ivan, and, according to tradition, Jack and Jenny get
nearer to each other every year.
Visitors for whom folk-lore has no attraction will look for the
picturesque in Moscow. The most characteristic view, the prospect the
tourist expects, is that seen by turning westward along the boulevard
from the Lubianka, and keeping along the south footpath, near the wall,
watch the old town appear little by little as the brow of the hill is
reached. Houses--of all sorts and colours--a façade like that of a
classic temple, domes blue, green and golden, the red tower of a
Chastok, a medley of roofs and walls, all these will appear framed in
the foliage of the trees on the boulevards, and those overhanging the
walls of the Rojdestvenka Convent, until the valley of the Neglinnaia is
right below and the crosses and domes of the Petrovski Monastery are
disclosed to view. Then it is time to cross the road to the centre of
the boulevard and see Moscow unfold itself--walls and towers changing
like the coloured fragments in a kaleidoscope. Opposite, where the bank
rises to the Strastnoi Monastery, was once the old village of
Vissotski--older, it is said, than Moscow town, or Kremlin, or even the
hall of Kuchkovo and the twelfth century hamlet on the Chisty Prud at
the back.
Again, ascend the belfry of St Nikita in the Goncharevskaya; time--the
very early morning, and see the rising sun glitter on the domes of the
Kremlin, and the churches of the Bielo Gorod; or, when it has long
passed the meridian, watch the afterglow reflected from the thousand
domes, tinting the white walls from the balcony of Krinkin's on the Hill
of Salutation. Stay on and watch the great white town, silent, reposeful
and glorious, fade into the haze of the "white-night"; see it shimmering
in the moonlight, or the glare of midday sun; sparkling feebly in the
blue star light, or glowing like a new-cast ingot in the blackness of
winter's midnight; see it how, when and where you may, solve the enigma
of its vitality if you can--but neither doubt its strength, nor question
its beauty.
[Russian poetry in cyrillic letters]
CHAPTER XII
_The Convents and Monasteries_
"These are the haunts of meditation,--these
The scenes where ancient bards th' inspiring breath
Esctatic felt; and from the world retired,
Conversed with angels and immortal forms,
On gracious errands bent."--THOMSON.
Russian monks all belong to one order, that based on the rule of St
Basil the Great, practically the only order of "black" clergy recognised
by the Eastern Church. The first monastery in Russia was founded by St
Anthony, a Russian who, after living some time on Mount Athos, returned
to Kiev, and there, in 1055, conjunctly with St Theodosius, established
the Pecherski Monastery, on the same rule as that of the Studemi--one of
the strictest of the clerical institutions in Constantinople. The
Pecherski still ranks highest among the monasteries of Russia. The one
of greatest importance in Moscow, though not the most ancient, is that
of the Miracles (Chudov) founded in the fourteenth century by St Alexis,
the Metropolitan. It stands within the Kremlin, between the two Imperial
palaces, on a spot which long ago was a part of the enclosure around the
dwelling of the Tartar bashkak, or "resident." At the time when one
Chani-Bek was khan, his wife, Taidula, fell ill and was healed by
Alexis, to whom out of gratitude she presented her gold signet ring with
its effigy of the Great Dragon, and a site for the Monastery of the
Miracles. The first building was erected in 1365, and the monastery long
served as the residence of the primates of Moscow; it has been many
times destroyed and rebuilt; the present building dates from the reign
of the first Romanof, and, at the time of writing, is in course of
extensive alteration. Passing before the Church, with the curious paper
ikon outside, a large gateway will be found in the angle where the
Chudov buildings abut against those of the smaller Imperial palace;
passing through this, the visitor will find himself in a large
Courtyard; the Church of St Michael is on the right, a small railed-in
cemetery among the trees on the left. The Monastery, a mean,
dilapidated, straggling two-storeyed building, extends almost completely
around the quadrangle; the chief rooms, on the _bel-étage_, communicate
with a long outside covered gallery, closely resembling the yard of an
old London inn, which is reached by the perron in the western corner.
The Church of St Michael, the Archistratigus, was built conjointly with
the Monastery in 1365, rebuilt in 1504, and later restored in its
primitive style, so has preserved even more than any other church in
Moscow the original character of Muscovite ecclesiastic architecture.
The interior is well worth seeing, but access is not easy; the best time
is after early matins, which are celebrated about thrice weekly at 7
A.M.
The frescoes are very primitive, and for Moscow, original. The
old-fashioned low ikonostas is of a type common to "wooden Russia"; the
ancient ikons call only for the attention of the student, but on the
High Altar is a tabernacle in the form of a church with twelve domes
which has wider interest. It is the work of Remizov in the reign of
Mikhail Theodorovich. Within the courtyard, traces of Tartar graves have
been found; and the cemetery contains the tombs of Edeger--the last
"Tsar" of Kazan, 1565--and of many Moscow families, as the Trubetskis,
Kovanskis, Sherbatovs, etc. The state rooms are still used by the head
of the Church in Moscow; they look out towards Ivan Veliki, immediately
above the little window at which the Holy Bread is sold. Although the
monastery has been the scene of many important events in connection with
the history of the Church and of Moscow--it was here that Maxim, the
Greek, studied, and Latin was first taught, 1506--there is nothing
either in the refectory or common rooms connected with them, for the
monastery was erected during the plague riots of 1771 and spoiled by the
French. The church of the Patriarch Alexis is entered from the Tsar's
Square through a portico, of a pseudo-Gothic style, designed by Kasakov
in the eighteenth century, but the church itself was constructed in
1686, and the remains of St Alexis the Metropolitan then conveyed there
in the presence of the Tsarevna Sophia and the boy-Tsars Ivan V. and
Peter I. It occupies the site of an earlier church founded in 1483, and
contains the incorruptible remains of the Saint. Alexis, the
wonder-worker, was descended from a boyard family named Pleskov. Born in
1292, he passed twenty-two years of his life in Moscow, a student of the
Bogo-yavlenski Monastery; after admission he was for twelve years one of
the household of the Archbishop, and later became bishop of Vladimir,
and Metropolitan of Kief.
His care of the two child princes of Moscow, his direction of Dmitri
Donskoi and sturdy championship of Moscow, and his efforts to maintain
its supremacy, endeared him to the people. When he died in 1378, at the
age of eighty-five, he was buried within the Chudov monastery he had
founded; there in 1439 his remains were discovered undecayed, and
miraculous qualities attributed to them. In 1519, Balaam the
Metropolitan informed Vasili Ivanovich, then the reigning Grand-Duke,
that the blind in visiting the tomb of Alexis were restored to sight.
Since that date the memory of Alexis has been held in highest reverence
by the orthodox, and in the public esteem he ranks with St Peter, first
among the Patron Saints of Moscow. Consequently the church is one of the
richest; it was spoiled by the French, who cast the silver shrine of the
saint into the melting pot, and his _moshi_ were found under a heap of
lumber after the flight of Napoleon. Much of the decoration is new, but
in the style of the time of Alexis Mikhailovich, of which the pavement
is particularly characteristic. The new shrine is of silver, so are the
royal doors of the sanctuary; for them some 420 lbs were needed, and the
tabernacle, the chandeliers and the elaborate ikonostas are all of
sterling metal, and there is a magnificent archiepiscopal mitre
presented by Prince Potemkin. The original coffin of the saint, is
preserved in a glass case near the silver shrine, and by it are kept the
identical pastoral staff he used in Moscow, and other personal relics.
Among these are manuscript copies of the New Testament executed by the
saint, as also his holograph will. The library has some hundreds of old
illuminated and other manuscript books, including a psalter of the
thirteenth century, and a collection of old printed books of the
seventeenth century. This church, the adjoining chapel of the
Annunciation, and the monastery are all closely associated with the
introduction of pedagogy to Moscow; it was here that the first
scholastic seminary for priests was founded, and later an academy was
developed. It became customary for parents to bring their children
hither before their entry to any school, in order that the blessing of
St Alexis might be asked, and some peasants of the village at one time
owned by the saint make a pilgrimage to his shrine on his name day, and
pray for their "Lord." The sacristy has a valuable collection of old
plate; the crosses, panagies, mitres, vases, goblets, etc., are
remarkable for their beauty and rich decoration, and second only to
those of the collection in the sacristy of the Patriarchs.
Naturally the Monastery of the Miracles is closely associated with the
more renowned of the wonder-working ikons of Russia. The most celebrated
now existing there are: the trimorphic paper ikon of the Holy Trinity,
that of St Nicholas the wonder-worker, and that of St Anastasia. In
1771, when Moscow was decimated by the plague, it was believed that the
ikon of the Virgin (Bogoloobski) at the Varvarka Vorot wrought
miraculous cures. It was so thronged by worshippers and the pestilent
stricken that, as a measure of precaution, the Archbishop Ambrose
ordered its immediate removal to the Chudov monastery, but the maddened
people gathered in the Kremlin and threatened that they would not leave
a stone of the monastery standing unless the ikon was at once restored.
The Archbishop was forced to give way. The next day he was dragged by
the mob from the Donskoi monastery where he was hiding and massacred by
the enraged populace. This was on the 17th September: from that date the
plague declined and the daily death-rate of 700 returned to the normal
average with the advent of winter.
Flanking the eastern wall of the Chudov Monastery are the buildings of
the Convent of the Ascension (Vossnesenski), the entrance to which is
from the large square of the Kremlin near the Redeemer Gate. There are
some indications that this nunnery is of greater antiquity than 1393,
the date usually assigned its foundation. Eudoxia, the wife of Dmitri
Donskoi, organised the institution, and, after taking the veil there,
ordered that it was to be her place of sepulture also. The buildings
were destroyed in 1483--ninety years after their erection--again in
1547, 1571, 1612, 1701, and last of all on the great fire of All Saints'
Day, 1737. Its successive rebuildings are due to the great veneration of
the orthodox for the tombs of their ancestors, and from 1407 its
cemetery ranked first as the place of sepulture for the consorts of the
rulers of Muscovy; some thirty-five were interred within its walls
between 1407 and 1738.
"It is said that when Eudoxia retired to the convent in 1389,
although she observed the appointed fasts rigorously and within the
walls wore heavy weights and performed arduous penances, she still
took great interest in the affairs of the outer world, and when
visiting dressed in rich robes befitting her former state. This
gave rise to much scandal, which she refuted by exhibiting to her
accusers the effects of her self-imposed penances. When Tokhtamysh
destroyed the building in 1393 she not only devoted herself to the
task of founding a better community, but did so much work among the
sick and indigent that she more than retrieved her character, being
worshipped almost as a saint and canonised under her adopted name
of Euphrosina, revered through many generations."
The cells are mean, and the low plain façade not unlike those of English
alms-houses of the eighteenth century. It was in this nunnery that Maria
Mniszek was housed prior to her marriage with the false Dmitri, and
here, too, that Maria Nagoi was forced to recognise the same impostor as
her own murdered son. The Cathedral of the Ascension, like that of St
Michael in the Chudov, is of a primitive type, preserving many of the
characteristics of the original building erected by the Tsar Vasili
Ivanovich in 1518; the five domes have not, however, the common bulbous
cupolas, these resemble inverted cups--an original type. The interior
has the customary four pillars supporting the central dome; there is an
ikonostas with four tiers reaching to the arched roof. Of the sacred
pictures the most remarkable are that of the Virgin and that of the
Ascension; there is also a curious one in the north chapel dedicated to
Mary the Mother of the Afflicted.
The tombs of the Grand Duchesses are arranged along the frescoed walls,
north, west and south; some are of the white stone used in the earliest
buildings in Moscow, others of brick; formerly the portraits of those
interred were painted on the walls over their tombs, now many are
covered with splendidly worked palls of native design. The remains of
Eudoxia (St Euphrosina) are in a modern shrine of silver, replacing that
taken by the French; on the right, near the south wall, is the tomb of
another Eudoxia (Shtrchnev), the wife of Mikhail Theodorovich; then come
the tombs of the Miloslavski and Naryshkin, wives of his son the Tsar
Alexis, and the last tomb of all is that of another Eudoxia, the much
tortured first wife of Peter the Great. Four of the six, or more, wives
of Ivan the Terrible also lie here. In the sacristy among many rich
relics are two exquisitely decorated copies of the gospels; the enamel
work and enrichment with gems is the most characteristic of the Russian
art handicrafts. Not less excellent are the two golden processional
crucifixes presented by the Tsar Michael. Such is the summer church of
the convent, to which there is a grand ceremonial procession on Palm
Sunday, and one on the second Sunday after Trinity to commemorate the
great fire of 1737.
The winter church, dedicated to St Michael, is the chapel of Honour of
St Theodore of Persia and was built in the eighteenth century only. In
addition to a much venerated ikon of the virgin, painted in 1739, there
is preserved one of the greatest antiquities of Moscow--a bas relief
representing St George the Conqueror (Pobiedonostzev), the head
uncovered, which originally was one of the decorations of the Redeemer
Gate near by. It was transferred thence to the Church of St George,
which was destroyed by the fire of 1737, a conflagration that threatened
the convent also, but was stayed by the miraculous ikon of the Virgin of
Kazan, now placed in the adjoining new church of St Catherine the
Martyr. This is a modern building on the site of a fine old church of
the seventeenth century, and of a Russified-Gothic style serves to show,
from an artistic point of view, how disastrous is the attempt to combine
native designs with those of the west. On the ground floor of the
western range of buildings are the ovens, etc., where the Holy Bread is
prepared, and the nuns of the convent are celebrated throughout Russia
for the excellence of their work with the needle and brush, their copies
of the ikons of these churches being in particular request.
The monasteries outside the Kremlin have much the character of small
fortified towns, and are the stronger and, architecturally, the more
interesting the greater the distance at which they are situated from the
town. To visit them, drive out to the Simonov--four miles from the
centre of the town--and pass the Krutitski Vorot and the Novo Spasski;
the Spasso-Andronievski and the Pokrovski on the return. On the south
side of the river to the Danilovski and the Donskoi; to the west the
Zachatievski and Novo Devichi. The others, of minor interest
are:--Monasteries of St Nicholas, Epiphany, Znamenski, Petrovski,
Srietenka, and Alexis; Convents: St Nikita, Rojdestvenka, and Strastnoi.
SIMONOV MONASTERY
St Sergius founded the monastery in 1370, but it was not moved to its
present site on a hill commanding the Moskva until twenty years later.
It educated St Jonah in the fifteenth century, and when he became
Metropolitan it increased in importance, but was later surpassed by the
Troitsa, and although it owned 12,000 souls--male serfs--in the
eighteenth century, it has never attained the leading position, nor even
that expected of it. The present walls were built during the reign of
Theodore I. but, finished in 1591, they could not keep out the Poles,
who completely sacked the monastery in 1612. It is a line, strong
looking, dreamy old place, somewhat dilapidated and overgrown with
verdure. The wall is half a mile long, commanded by wonderful spire-like
towers, some 130 feet high, crowned with two-storeyed domed watch rooms,
which look like huge dovecots. There is a covered rampart walk all
round, and from the tower near the river, a subterranean passage to the
Lizin Prud, a holy well at one time much visited by the sick who had
faith in its miraculous healing properties. Some six churches are within
its walls, one the Cathedral of the Assumption, a massive building,
consecrated in 1405, and having a somewhat bizarre appearance, its
façade, in the Byzantine style, being also painted in three colours to
represent quadrangular facets. It is a building quite foreign to
Muscovite style; reminiscent rather of the old country churches of
Portugal. The ikon of greatest celebrity is that of God the Father,
richly decorated, and once, it is said, blessed by St Sergius, when it
was carried with the troops of Dmitri against the Tartars under Mamai.
[Illustration: SIMONOV MONASTYR]
A Moscow merchant defrayed the cost of the great belfry, 330 feet high,
and under the refectory is buried the renowned Field-Marshall Bruce; the
sacristy is rich in vestments and some ornamental work of the Tsar
Alexis's _Masterskaya_ in the Kremlin. The most famous inmate was Simeon
Bekbulatov the converted Tsar of Kazan, whom Ivan Groznoi made Tsar of
Moscow for twelve months; his tomb will be shown. The charm of the
Simonov is derived from its stillness, its out of the world air, its
roominess, the matured trees, the ample orchard, the long rampart walk,
the excellent views of Moscow, the many quaint nooks near the old
stores, the grateful shade of pleasant bosquets and the orderly
negligence that suggests contentment--an ideal home for dreamers, for
cheery mysticism and the inception of unhurried philosophies.
THE NOVO SPASSKI
The new monastery of the Saviour, so called because in the fifteenth
century removed from the Kremlin to its present site, is pleasantly
situated near the Moskva river not far from the Krasnoe Kholmski
bridge. Its walls were of wood until the invasion of Devlet Ghiree,
after which an attempt appears to have been made to turn all the
outlying monasteries into fortresses for the better protection of
Moscow. One peculiarity of the Spasski Monastyr is that the towers which
flank the wall are all different, one is pentagonal, one round, one
hexagonal, and so others vary--some are squat, others have tapering
spires from the towers; the belfry is 220 feet high. Its claim to
greatness is not due to the spirited defence it made to the Polish
attack, but to the fact that within its Cathedral of the
Transfiguration, one of the five churches within the walls, is a picture
"_Neruko-tvorenni_," not made with hands. "In the year 1645, in the
town of Khlinov, in the porch of the Church of the Trinity, before the
image of our Saviour not made with hands, Peter Palkin, blind three
years, stood and worshipped and miraculously received his sight." The
Tsar Alexis ordered the picture to be brought to Moscow for the Spasski
Monastery, and a copy of it to be sent to Khlinov, or Viatka. The church
is also adorned with a set of fresco portraits illustrating the
genealogy of the Tsars of Moscow, from Olga to Alexis: corresponding
therewith, the portraits of the Kings of Israel. Behind the ikonostas
are some extraordinary mural paintings of the Tsars Michael and Alexis,
founders of the cathedral. The Church of the Protection, to the south of
the cathedral, was built in 1673 to the memory of the Patriarch
Philaret, and a third church, near the cells of the monks, was built in
1652 by Nicholas Cherkassky, to whose family Moscow owes several fine
churches. The monastery was the favourite burying place of such noble
Moscow families as the Yaroslavskis, Gagarins, Sherbatevs, Naryshkins
and Romanofs, whose ancestors are mostly interred in a crypt here, the
last being Vasili Yurivich Zakharin.
The monastery of St Andronievski was founded by St Alexis the
metropolitan who made a vow, when in a storm at sea during his voyage to
Constantinople. The relics of St Andronie are preserved in a silver
shrine. All these monasteries were pillaged and profaned by the French,
the Andronievski suffered perhaps more than the others since there some
monks were shot.
DONSKOI MONASTERY
This monastery is in no way connected with Dmitri Donskoi but owes
its name to a picture of the Virgin Mary, presented by the Don
Cossacks (Kazak = soldier) after the great victory over
Khazi-Ghiree and his army of 150,000 Mongols advancing against
Moscow in 1591: they were repulsed by the army raised by Boris
Godunov and the miraculous intervention of the ikon of the
Cossacks, and the grateful Theodore built the monastery on the
field of their defeat as a fit shrine for the ikon, which had been
set up as the standard of the defenders of Moscow. A church pageant
on August 19th (old style) commemorates the victory. The white
walls and red turrets are copied from those of the Novo Devichi.
The principal church was founded in 1684 by Catherine, daughter of
the Tsar Alexis, and differs from those of Moscow town in being of
red brick. The smaller Church of the Virgin is the older, founded
in 1592; the three others are of the eighteenth century.
The Cossacks were the means of enriching the church by recovering the
silver looted by the French. The decorations are for the most part quite
modern, and the paintings by an Italian. The cemetery has fine
monuments, and there the people resort on summer evenings for the shade
of the trees and restfulness of this peaceful retreat. Further along the
Kalujskaya is the Alexandrina Palace, formerly the property of the
Orloffs, with its celebrated pleasaunce "sans souçi," extending to the
wooded bank of the Moskva, with pretty views of Moscow and one excellent
one of the Church of the Saviour seen alone at the extremity of a fine
avenue of great trees.
DANILOVSKI MONASTYR
This has the advantage of being the oldest establishment of its
kind in Moscow. Founded in the Kremlin by Daniel in 1272, it was
transferred in 1330, and in the reign of Ivan IV. rebuilt on its
present site. The walls are less ornate than those of the other
fortifications of their time; the machecoules with superposed
loop-holes over the gun-ports are also unusual and the polygonal
corner towers have greater symmetry than those of Simonov or Novo
Spasski. The chief object of interest within the building is the
silver shrine of the founder placed in the church by the Tsar
Alexis in 1652. The other two churches are commonplace, but in the
cemetery is the tomb of Gogol, one of the most original of
Muscovite authors.
The Zamoskvoretski quarter, south of the river, was in mediæval times
little better than a swamp and long uninhabited. The Mongols settled
there later, and Tartar names indicate some streets, as Balchoog,
"quagmire," and Bolotnaia, "swamps;" as late as the reign of the Great
Catherine, the Island where is now the Babygorodskaia (little town) was
open waste land, and there the rebel impostor Pugatchev, brought to
Moscow in an iron cage, was beheaded in 1773. A raised road Krimski-val,
above the fen-land leads from the Donskoi Monastyr to the Krimski Most,
the tubular bridge over the river near the Ostogenka. It obtained its
name from the fact that the Krim Tartars in their attacks on Moscow
always crossed the river at that point, and it is still better known as
Krimski Brode or "ford."
NOVO DEVICHI CONVENT
West of the Krimski Most, where the river makes a wide sweep and on
three side bounds a large tract of low lying land, is the Maidens'
Field, which tradition asserts is the locality of the market at which
the Tartars in old times purchased Muscovite girls for the Mohammedan
harems in Constantinople and Ispahan. Historians contend that the name
is derived from the convent established there since 1525. There is no
doubt that this was established in the early years of the sixteenth
century to commemorate the recapture of Smolensk by Vasili III. It is
also indisputable that there were already convents existing within
Moscow and that _Novo Devichi Monastyr_ means simply _New Monastery for
Women_. Helen, "the maid," was the first abbess of this, and may have
given it the name, but it was customary in Moscow, before and since, to
name the convents after the dedication, as Conception, Nativity,
Passion, etc., so some earlier use of the popular appellation "Maidens'
Field" is more probable.
The convent is two miles distant from the Kremlin, but also on the
river bank, though a tank serving as a moat actually separates it
from the present raised embankment of the Moskva. The walls were
built by the same Italians who completed the walls of the Kremlin,
and are of the same type, but round and square towers alternate and
both have some of the heavy florid decoration so common in Moscow.
The single and double dropped-arch is most conspicuous, and the
quaintness of the architecture is accentuated by the glaring
disparity of the colouring--dead white for the walls and interior
of the open turrets, dark Indian red for the tops of the towers and
masonry above the corbels of the machecoules. The belfry is of five
lofty stages _en retraite_ surmounted with a gilded bulbous dome
and immense cross; its colours are pink and white with neutral
facings: yellow, green, rose-pink picked out with white or darker
tints are used for the other churches; that over the gateway being
white with green roof, and both green and blue are used lavishly
elsewhere for the roofs of the buildings within the enclosure,
which together with the gold on domes and crosses, gives to the
convent-fortress a beauty that is wholly eastern.
The two churches Vasili founded have been preserved and others
added. They are--
Church of the Assumption, with a chapel dedicated to the Holy
Ghost.
Church of St Ambrose, of Milan.
Church of The Transfiguration of the Virgin.
Church of The Protection of the Virgin.
Chapel of SS. Balaam and Jehosaphat, beneath the belfry.
Church of St James the Apostle, founded in gratitude of the
preservation of the monastery on St James's day 1812.
The cathedral church with chapels to the Archangel Michael; to SS.
Prokhor and Nikanor; to St Sophia and the sister graces, Vera,
Nadejda, and Lubov (Faith, Hope and Charity). Here the daughters of
Alexis Mikhailovich are buried, as also Eudoxia (Helena), first
wife of Peter I. On the ikonostas is a very early copy of the
Iberian Mother of God, before that ikon was taken to Smolensk in
1456.
Its history is unimportant. Julia the wife of its founder was
forced to take the veil here in 1563 when Vasili intended to marry
Helena Glinski; Boris Godunov and his sister Irene lived within it
during the six weeks following upon the death of Theodore I.
Notwithstanding its apparent strength, during the times of trouble
Vasili Shoviski after various struggles to retain it, was forced to
give it up to the invading
[Illustration: NOVO DEVICHI CONVENT]
Poles. Peter the Great imprisoned his sister Sophia within its
walls, and executed many of the streltsi before her windows that
their agony might awe her bold spirit. Some years after he made it
a foundling hospital, and 250 infants were housed there before the
Hospitalrie Dom was built; it was abolished in 1725. Napoleon
visited it in 1812 and at first it suffered little; the King of
Naples ordering divine service to be celebrated daily as usual, but
later Davoust was billeted there, and after the disaster the French
before quitting it did their utmost to blow up the belfry, the
cathedral and stores. The nuns at considerable risk interrupted the
fired train and, by their intrepidity and subsequent perseverance
in combating the fire, saved the convent from destruction.
Russian monasteries and convents are not rigorously closed to the
public like those of the Roman church. Generally from sunrise to
sunset the great gates stand open that all may enter who desire to
do so; and the nuns, so far from being secluded from the world, are
rather encouraged to go out into it, both on errands of charity
and, at need, to supplement by their own handicraft a too scanty
income. For the most part the cells are shared in common by three
inmates who unite their daily rations of tea, salt, and
black-bread, and whilst the infirm sisters busy themselves in
copying ikons or producing lace, needle-work and the like, the more
active go into the town to dispose of the produce. In convents as
elsewhere the Russian rule holds good that one's room is inviolate:
strictly private if the inmates wish, yet open to whomsoever it is
their pleasure to entertain.
CHAPTER XIII
_Moscow of the English_
"O, how glad was I that the Tsar took notice of those few
Englishmen."--HORSEY.
Moscow still bears witness to the thoroughness of English handicraft
just as it shows the unmistakable impress of the French heel. When the
discovery of the new world by Columbus had awakened England to
enterprise and adventure, among the expeditions fitted out to find new
markets for English manufactures was one of three ships sent on the
advice of Sebastian Cabot, to the Arctic seas in 1553. Sir Hugh
Willoughby was in command; Richard Chancellor, a young _protégé_ of Sir
Henry Sydney, his able lieutenant, and King Edward VI. himself the
patron. The merchant venturers each found £25 for the undertaking; £6000
in all was subscribed; two Tartars in the King's stable were
interrogated as to that land on "the East of the Globe," but they
answered nothing at all that was in point. Three ships sailed from
Rudcliff Harbour on the 20th May, but a few days later a storm separated
them. Chancellor sailed on, and notwithstanding "the counsel of three
friendly Scotchmen" to proceed no further, he reached the White Sea
where he awaited the coming of his chief. Sighting a smack he got the
men on board; they at once fell prostrate to kiss his feet but he
himself raised them, "an act of humanity that won for him much
goodwill." The natives dared not trade without leave of their prince,
and in some six weeks an invitation was given Chancellor to proceed from
Kholmogori (Archangel) to Moscow. There he was sumptuously entertained.
Furnished with a reply to King Edward's letter and permission to trade,
he returned to London. In April 1555, Chancellor was again sent to
Moscow; the Tsar in the meanwhile had found the remains of Sir Hugh
Willoughby's other two ships, the crews of which had been starved to
death. The result of this second voyage was the establishment of the
Russia Company at Kholmogori and Moscow, and the visit of a Russian
envoy to the Court of St James's. Ill-luck attended the return voyage;
Chancellor, his son and seven Russians, were drowned when their ship was
wrecked, near Kinnaird Head.
The English were not deterred by untoward events, and pressed trade
briskly. They had to deal with a sovereign whose methods were detestable
and whose aim was a political and matrimonial alliance with the Tudors,
not commercial intercourse with the English people; the Tsar was foiled,
and the English traders succeeded. No doubt the venturers were misled by
the too glowing reports of their servants, who represented Russia as a
new Indies. Wondrous were the stories they gave of the country and its
inhabitants; of the immense wealth of the Tsar; of the strange animals
that roamed in the forests. Of these last one was the "Rossmachia,"
which devoured food so ravenously that it had to pass between great
growing trees in order to reduce its distended stomach--an animal not
identified; another was the Ass-camel, having the attributes of both
these beasts, which was so far believed in as to figure in the arms of
the Eastland Company and is thought to be the yak. To these early
voyagers, earnest and austere in their new-found protestantism, the
religion of the Muscovites seemed idolatrous, and to their prejudiced
writings, reproduced by generation after generation, many of the still
current misconceptions concerning the Eastern Church are due.
The Governors of the Russia Company were hard-headed, bargain-driving
tradesmen, with no soul for empire or an attempt had been made by them
to conquer and annex Russia for their sovereign and their country.
Profitable trade was their one aim and the extravagances of their
servants and apprentices their increasing lament. Many were the
complaints, piteous the explanations; anger on the part of the employer,
indignation and desertion on the part of the unlucky apprentices.
Ivan did not pay for the goods he had, or his chancellor would not; none
dared trade but by his leave; his subjects feared to buy the merchants'
goods lest their sovereign might still require them for himself. The
governors paid no heed to the customs of the country or the needs of
their apprentices--foundlings and charity--reared orphans--no furs were
to be worn; the ells of cloth allowed annually were in no case to be
exceeded, and the use of horses forbidden; "if it be against the manner
of that countrie we will make it the manner rather than forbear our
money with losse to clothe them otherwise, or maintain them to ride when
we go afoot. Let the horses and mares be sold."
So ordered the governors their full-powered servant Anthony Jenkinson,
who was further commanded to "reduce our stipendiaries to a better order
in apparel; forbid them riding, for such excessiveness corrupteth all
good natures, bringeth obloquy to our nation and also loss to
ourselves." "Item 34" of this long command is "no dogs, bears, or
superfluous burdens to be kept; no bond-men or women to wait upon them."
"Item 39, they shall pay for their apparel not at cost price but at the
selling price in Russia." Among other things the unfortunate ill-clad
apprentice bore in the frozen north during arctic winter was punishment
for the company's misdoings, but the governors, "doubt that Alcock's
death proceeded from asking for payment of our debts, as Edwardes
writes, but that he either quareled inadvisedly or else constrained the
people touching their religion, laws, or manners, being given wisdom
wolde to mislike and mock other strangers." No wonder the English left
the factory and tried to make a living for themselves, but withal there
were many of the right grit among them, to wit, Anthony Jenkinson who
passed through Moscow in 1558 determined upon finding a way to the
Indies by the Caspian. This intrepid adventurer reached Ispahan with the
goods of the Russia company and returned burdened with rich barter and
precious gifts. Later he fitted out a fleet on the Caspian and made war
on the Turcomans with some success, an undertaking the difficulties of
which can scarcely be estimated seeing that he could communicate with
England only by way of Archangel,--a port closed by ice for one half of
the year. Jenkinson had not only to contend with pirates on the Volga,
but was warned that the Danes might attempt to seize his
ships,--_Primrose_, 240 tons; _John Evangelist_, 170; _Anne_, 160;
_Trinitie_, 140;--as they passed the wardhouse (Vardso) "where be
enemies that do mislike the newe found trade by seas to Russia."
Sigismund II., King of Poland, tried his utmost to stop the traffic,
"sending messengers with pretended letters of thanks to English
merchants in order to make the Tsar, Ivan, suspicious of them.
He fitted out ships in Dantzig to capture English ships bound for the
Narva, and threatened Elizabeth that loss of liberty, life, wives and
children awaited those who should carry wares and weapons to the
Muscovite who was not only the enemy of the King of Poland but the
hereditary foe of all free nations." Among other of the company's
servants who distinguished themselves were Southam and Spark who
discovered the water-way from the White Sea to Novgorod, and so got
goods thither without such risk as was run from Russia's enemies on the
Baltic when sent by Narva. The Flemings and Germans were jealous of the
new traders and made many misrepresentations concerning both persons and
goods. They themselves furnished an inferior staple, but the simple
people were made to prefer it to English cloth which, as it would not
shrink as theirs did, could not be new.
Jerom Horsey was an apprentice or underling of the Russia company at
Moscow; he attracted the Tsar's attention by his expert horsemanship and
his wit when the Tsar questioned him respecting the Russian ships
building at Vologda for the Caspian. Horsey answered that with others he
had admired their "strange fashion." Ivan would know what he meant by
this description. "I mean that the figure heads of lions, dragons,
eagles, elephants and unicorns were so skilfully, so richly adorned with
gold and silver, and painted in bright colours." "A crafty youth to
commend the work of his own countrymen," remarked Ivan, and then asked
about the English Fleet, but was displeased when Horsey described the
Queen's flag as "one before which all nations bow." These traders were
not the only British in Moscow, others were brought as prisoners by Ivan
on his return from the devastation of Novgorod.
"At which time, among other nations, there were four score and five
poor Scotch soldiers left of 700 sent from Stockholm, and three
Englishmen in their company brought many other captives, in most
miserable manner, piteous to behold. I laboured and employed my
best endeavours and credit--not only to succour them but with my
purse, and pains, and means got them to be well placed at Bulvan
near the Moskva. And although the Tsar was much inflamed with fury
and wrath against them, torturing and putting many of these Swede
soldiers to death--most lamentable to behold--I procured the Tsar
to be told of the difference between these Scots, now his captives,
and the Swedes, Poles and Lithuanins his enemies. That they were of
a nation of strangers; remote; a venturous and warlike people,
ready to serve any Christian prince for maintenance and pay, as
they would appear and prove, if it pleased His Majesty to employ
and spare them such maintenance. They were out of heart; no
clothes; no arms; but would show themselves of valour even against
his mortal enemy the Tartar. It seems some use was made of this
advice for shortly the best soldiers were put apart and captains of
each nation appointed to govern the rest. Jeamy Lingett for the
Scottish men, a valiant, honest man. Money, clothes, and daily
allowance for meat and drink was given them; horses, hay and oats;
swords, piece and pistols were they armed with--poor snakes before,
looke now cheerfully. Twelve hundred of them did better service
against the Tartar than twelve thousand Russians with their short
bows and arrows. The Krim-Tartars, not knowing then the use of
muskets and pistols, struck dead on their horses with shot they saw
not, cried:--'Awaye with those new devils that come with their
thundering puffs,' whereat the Tsar made good sport. Then had they
pensions and lands allowed them to live upon; matched and married
with the fair women of Livonia; increased into families, and live
in favour of the prince and people."--_Horsey._
Unhappily their good treatment was not long continued. Soon Ivan set a
thousand of his opritchniks "to rob and spoil them," and their
sufferings were terrible. Some escaped into the English House, and were
clad and relieved there, "but," says Horsey, "we were in danger of great
displeasure in so doing." But Horsey, a man of wide sympathies, did not
confine his aid to men of his own country; he was instrumental in saving
many other of the captives of Ivan's wars in the west, who were
quartered in a special suburb, the _nemetski sloboda_, "by my mediation
and means, being then familiar and conversant in the Court, well known
and respected of the best favourites and officers at that time, I
procured liberty to build them a church, and contributed well thereunto;
got unto them a learned preaching minister, and divine service and
meeting of the congregation every Sabath day, but after their Lutheran
profession." These people "soon grew in good liking" of the Muscovite
citizens, "living civilly, but in doleful mourning manner for their evil
loss of goods, friends, and country." Horsey was the man chosen by Ivan
to take a private message to Queen Elizabeth in answer to the important
communication she had sent him by Anthony Jenkinson. The Tsar provided
him with horses, and a guard as far as the confines of his territory,
but "forbear to tell you all the secrets entrusted to you, lest you
should fall into my enemy's power and be forced to betray them, but you
will give to the Queen, my loving sister, the contents of this bottle,"
and the Tsar himself secreted a small wooden spirit-flask among the
trappings of the young rider's horse.
Horsey had engaged upon a daring undertaking, and had an adventurous
journey. It was winter; Russia was beset by Ivan's enemies, who hated
the English for the help given the Muscovite ruler. As soon as he
crossed the border he feigned to be a refugee, but was taken as a spy
and cast into prison. The governor of the castle, hearing that he came
from Moscow, would learn some news of his daughter, who had been carried
away a captive by Ivan's troops. She was among those whom Horsey had
helped to settle in the Sloboda, and he gave so good an account of her,
that the grateful jailer liberated him and helped him forward on his
long journey. When he passed through the Netherlands the merchants gave
a banquet in his honour and, for favours he had rendered the foreigners
in Moscow, presented him with a silver bowl full of ducats. Horsey
returned the ducats, as he says, "not without afterwards repenting of
this," but kept the bowl to remind him of their good will. He reached
England, and was received by the Queen and indicted by the sordid
governors of the Russia company, who made a number of trivial and
baseless charges. He returned to Russia more than once, got the
extravagant demands of the company conceded, some thousands of roubles
were "preened from the shins of Shalkan, the Chancellor," and after
living through the "troublous times" he finally settled in England; was
married, knighted, and lived far into the seventeenth century.
Probably his "good friends" at court were Nikita Romanof, grandfather of
the first elected Tsar, and Boris Godunov with whom Horsey was always on
excellent terms. Ivan sent a couple of hundred of his opritchniks to
pillage the house of his father-in-law Nikita Romanof, and the English
then sheltered the family in their house close by, and supplied them
with food and stuffs "for they had been stripped of all they possessed."
In its turn the English House suffered; it was burned by the Tartars in
1591, and the inmates huddled in the cellar for days, lost Spark, the
explorer, Carver, the first apothecary in Moscow, and others, but the
survivors rushed out during a lull in the conflagration and made their
way through the smoke and flames to the Kremlin, where they were helped
over the wall. In 1611 it was again destroyed by fire, in the struggle
between Pojarski and the Poles, and finally destroyed during the French
invasion. Its site is now occupied by the Siberian Podvor, in the
Varvarka. It was not rebuilt, but a plot of land between the Broosovski
and Chernichefski Pereuloks--the streets that connect the Tverskaya and
Nikitskaya behind the Governor-General's residence--was granted the
colony by Alexander I., and there a new English church, parsonage and
library have been erected.
The early settlers were chiefly traders, but they also coined silver
money and made weapons; it was usual for the Tsar to honour the house by
a ceremonial call early in the new year, and towards the autumn, the
Tsar and Court accompanied the merchants the first stage of their
homeward journey towards Archangel, and gave them a parting feast and
toast at a picnic in the forest--a custom observed by Peter I. until he
founded St Petersburgh. Their status was, and is, that of foreign
guests, and they were subject to the common law and custom. William
Barnsley of Worcester appears to have been the first Englishman exiled
to Siberia. Ivan the Terrible thought him too familiar in his behaviour
towards the Tsaritsa, so banished him, but he returned after twenty-six
years, hale and very wealthy. Giles Fletcher, father of Phineas
Fletcher, the poet, obtained an undertaking that Englishmen should not
be put to the torture or put on the put-key--whipping block--before
condemnation. His own book on Muscovy was promptly suppressed on the
petition of the Russia Company, whose members so far from supporting the
rights of their countrymen, were not altogether displeased that an
escaped apprentice--or other roving Englishman--if not roasted, "yet
were scorched." Peter the Great put to death the beautiful Miss
Hamilton, a lady of honour to his wife Eudoxia and nearly related to his
own mother's foster-parents, but he is said to have accompanied her to
the scaffold and picked up the head as it dropped from the block and
pressed his lips to hers.
There were Englishwomen in Moscow in the sixteenth century, for, apart
from the anecdote respecting Ivan's treatment of them, Jane Richard, the
widow of his physician, the notorious Dr Bomel, was sent back to England
in 1583, and in 1602 John Frenchman founded the _Apteka_ in Moscow in
1586, and returned
[Illustration: TOWER OVER THE REDEEMER GATE (SPASSKI VOROT)]
to Moscow with his wife and family in 1602. From the complaints of the
Russia Company of their young employees, it would appear that married
men were sent out, "as also a Divine to exhort the single to righteous
conduct," quite early in its history. From these people who lived apart
from the citizens and enjoyed certain privileges, the Russians derived
new ideas as to woman's place in the household, and many families
adopted the foreign customs long before Peter "commanded" that the
terems should be thrown open and the example of the Court followed by
all.
The visible memorials of the early English settlers in Moscow may be
found about the Kremlin in such works as the great central tower, Ivan
Veliki, built by John Villiers, the beautiful Church of St
Catherine--that behind the Golden Gate (_v._ p. 161) accredited to John
Taylor; and, still more characteristic, those Gothic towers which rise
so majestically above the Troitski and Spasski Gates. In them the
influence of the east is scarcely to be discovered, even such use as is
made of the ogival arch being quite as native to the Gothic of the later
period as to the Russian architecture, whilst those forms of decoration
common to Moscow prior to, and during, the seventeenth century are as
completely ignored as the designs of the Italian builders of the wall
these Gothic towers crown. In the view illustrated the belfry tower of
the Church of St Catherine also figures, in not unpleasing contrast with
the more severe, and beautiful, but commoner architecture adopted by
Galloway.
Foreign craftsmen flocked to Moscow during the glorious reign of Alexis,
and the Russia Company prospered, but the English settlers received a
temporary check when the quarrel rose between King and Parliament.
Alexis, in gratitude for favours shown his ancestors by the English,
sent Charles grain and furs, and banished those who declared for the
Commonwealth. He annulled the charter of the Russia Company when
Cromwell succeeded, and would have no intercourse with the Protector. In
this, as in most matters, Cromwell ultimately obtained his own way. The
difficulty was smoothed away by Cromwell's roaming ambassador, the able
Bradshaw, who did not even need to visit Russia to accomplish so little.
Trade was re-opened, and later Alexis corresponded with the great
Englishman. During the reign of Peter all foreign residents, not
military leaders, were oppressed--their wages were withheld that they
might not escape the country and agreements and contracts disregarded,
but there was no open enmity between the races save for a short time
subsequent to the seizure of Malta, which act greatly embittered the
Emperor Paul against the English. The Marquess of Carmarthen obtained a
tobacco monopoly from Peter the Great, who on his return to Moscow now
punished as severely those of his subjects who would not acquire the
habit as he had previously done those who indulged it. But he
disregarded the provisions of the contract and the result was that Queen
Anne's representative at Moscow was instructed to send home the workmen
and secretly destroy all the material and machines in the factory at
Moscow. The envoy and his secretary "spent long hours and nights" in
accomplishing this service with their own hands--probably the last
actual direct interference of the British Crown with matters commercial
and industrial, for it failed of its ultimate purpose, and brought
disaster.
Scotch soldiers of fortune found their opportunities in Russia, and made
the most of them. One of the best known among them is the sturdy Patrick
Gordon, who entered the Swedish service under the grandfather of Charles
XII.; was captured by the Poles and served them until taken prisoner by
Alexis. The Tsar had heard that Gordon had taken pity upon Russian
captives in Warsaw, and at his own cost fed them, so sent for him that
he might thank him personally for the "favours shown to the poor
captives in Warsaw," whereupon Gordon offered his sword to Moscow, and
served faithfully. One Alexander Gordon, who claimed cousinship, found
his way to Moscow, and was made an officer by Peter "for that he, single
handed, thrashed seven Russian officers who had insulted him." He also
married a daughter of Patrick Gordon, and wrote the best contemporary
biography of Peter I. Crawford helped the Gordons to form a regiment of
regular soldiers, and Field-Marshal Bruce with Gordon rendered such
valuable services, that Peter instituted the Order of St Andrew, for
distinguished military services, and these Scotchmen were the first to
be decorated.
After the peace of Tilsit Napoleon wished Alexander to banish or
imprison the English in Russia, but the Tsar answered, "Their ancestors
have been here during past centuries and I shall not treat my old
friends so ill as to consider them enemies; if they choose to remain in
Russia none shall molest them." They suffered during the French
occupation of Moscow; their Church was burned, and the residence of
their pastor as well as their own warehouses and dwellings. It is said
that one Englishman, more astute than most, buried his treasure and a
little less deep interred the body of a French soldier. The marauders
seeing the newly-turned earth dug until they reached the body of their
comrade, but sought no further, and the next year the Englishman removed
his treasure intact. During the Crimean war, the only inconvenience the
English residents suffered was the loss of trade. The police doubted
whether it was lawful for the community to offer up prayers for the
defeat of the Russians--the Queen's enemies--and the matter was referred
to the Emperor Nicholas, who answered that the English were "to be
allowed to pray for whomsoever and whatsoever they pleased." From the
English settlers have descended men who have distinguished themselves,
as amongst poets, Lermontof (Lear-month); amongst diplomats, Count
Balmaine (Ramsay of Balmaine) and Prince Menzikov (Menzies); among
soldiers, Barclay de Tolly (from a Scotch Protestant refugee) and
Skobelev (Scobie); amongst architects, Sherwood, designer of the
Historical Museum, and Parland, architect of the Memorial Cathedral, St
Petersburg, and in other walks of life, others the equals of these. The
colonists have but one policy--to support the Government--and do not
fuse freely with the Slavs. Some still cling tenaciously to the
nationality of their ancestors, whilst in dress, language, manners and
aspirations indistinguishable from those Russians of the class with whom
they associate. Pathetic figures some; reluctant to relinquish the
passport that alone links them with the land of their fathers, looked at
askant by the Britons newly out, a nuisance to diplomatists, and a
puzzle to the "orthodox."
CHAPTER XIV
_The French Invasion--and after_
"Now, Robber! look what thou hast done:
Come, for the strife prepare thee.
This land we fight on is our own--
And God's revenge is near thee!
ZHUKOVSKI "NAPOLEON."
Not unfrequently Russia has been treated by the powers of western Europe
with less consideration for justice than they have observed in their
dealings with each other, but on no occasion has a civilised country
more grossly outraged the sense of right than did France by its
memorable campaign of 1812. It is possible that Napoleon still felt
piqued because his offer to enter the Russian army had been declined by
Zaborovski in 1789--a rejection which the old general had many times
keenly regretted long before 1812--and it may be that Napoleon resented
his refusal by the Princess Katerina, and was disgusted that the hand of
the Princess Anna, which he had subsequently sought in marriage, had
been bestowed in preference upon a German princelet. It is idle to
suppose that technical breaches of the treaty of Tilsit by Russia--who
was unable to stop commercial relations with England--were anything more
than a mere pretext for the war. Like the wolf in the fable who had
determined to devour the lamb that had disturbed the lower waters of the
stream, any excuse served this wickedly ambitious upstart to gratify
his lust for further spoils and military glory. Doubtless
Napoleon--before whom Latin and Teutonic kings bowed low and their
subjects trembled when he but feigned to unsheath his sword--expected
that the formidable preparations he made for war would awe Russia into
submission, and thus gratify his vanity: but Russia heeded his bluster
as little as did England, so, with the eyes of Europe upon him, he had
no option but to drink up the liquor he had uncorked. Russia doubted his
seriousness, but regarded the inevitable with equanimity. It seemed
improbable that France, after centuries of enlightenment and progress,
with its professed love of philosophy, art and culture, should raid
Russia for pelf--just as Tartars, Kalmucks, and hordes of rough
unlettered barbarians out of Asia had done in ages past. If it were so
to be, Russia doubted not but she could triumph over the forces of the
west even as she had done over those of the east.
On the 10th June 1812 the French army crossed the Niemen unopposed, and
five days later occupied Vilna, where Napoleon expected attack, but,
unmolested for eighteen days, moved on towards Vitebsk. The Russian
army, commanded by Barclay de Tolly, did nothing more than cause the
invaders to manoeuvre unceasingly, and advance further into the
country. On the banks of the Dvina Napoleon thought to end the campaign
of 1812; recuperate his army and march against Moscow the following
spring; but as yet no action had been fought, so he again hurried on
after the Russians, this time towards Smolensk.
It is held that the withdrawal of the Russians disconcerted Napoleon;
but he had already met other armies than the English, so to him this
retreat of his enemy was not new. He expected to come up with the
Russians at Smolensk, but Barclay de Tolly, although assuring the
inhabitants of their safety, sent away the treasure and had determined
to abandon the town. It was garrisoned by but one regiment when
Neverovski fell back upon it after his engagement with the French at
Krasnoe. Raevski, sent to his aid, entrenched his troops and
determined to hold the town until the two armies under Tolly and
Bagrateon, then encamped on the left bank of the Dnieper, should arrive.
But they fell further back instead of advancing, and after one day's
fighting, with terrible loss, the Russians evacuated after setting fire
to the town. Napoleon remained there four days, then followed the
Russians towards Moscow. Notwithstanding his proclamations of amity
towards the peasants, his promises of freedom for the serfs, the people
began to realise that the march of the _Grande Armée_ was as disastrous
as an incursion of the Tartar Horde. The country was devastated; the
houses were pillaged; the owners shot; churches deserted; horses stabled
in the sacred places; holy ikons burnt; matrons and maidens ravished by
these heroes of the "twenty nations" of the west. Resistance there must
be and the villagers took up arms; Kutuzov took chief command of the
army, but Barclay de Tolly still gave his advice, and General Sir Robert
Wilson remained tactical counsellor. On August 24th (old style) the
Russians gave battle on the banks of the Moskva, near Borodino. In this
"battle of the generals" about 120,000 men were engaged on each side,
and 80,000 were killed, among them 18 generals and 15 other officers of
high rank in the French army; and 22 commanding officers on the Russian
side. Over 50,000 corpses and 30,000 dead horses were found in the field
of battle, and though the Russians retreated, the French halted five
days, then they moved forward upon Moscow, being nearly starved and
quite tired of the war. Kutuzov had then to decide whether or not to
risk another battle in an attempt to save Moscow.
At the Council of War, held at Fili. Barclay de Toily said that
when it was a matter of the salvation of Russia, Moscow was only a
city like any other. Other generals, like Grabbe, declared that
although it would be glorious to die before Moscow, the question
they had to decide was not what would add to their glory, but to
the defeat of the enemy. Prince Eugen of Wurtemburg held that
honour ought to be placed before all, and that Moscow ought to
become the tomb of every true Russian, all should choose death
rather than flight. Wilson, whose object was rather the defeat of
Napoleon than the preservation of Russia, said Moscow, to them,
must be only a city, "like any other." Ermolev, Ostermann,
Beningsen and others were in favour of a last battle. "Amid such
diverse counsel." said Kutuzov, "my head, be it good or bad, must
decide for itself," and he ordered a retreat through the town, but
he himself would not enter it, and wept as he hurriedly passed the
suburbs.
During the first decade of the eighteenth century there were joyous days
in Moscow; in 1801 Alexander was crowned; in 1803 he revisited the town
when there were public rejoicings for the victories over the Turks; when
in 1812, after the outbreak of hostilities Alexander came to Moscow, the
patriotic citizens promised to raise 80,000 men in that district and
equip them. The Tsar returned to St Petersburg and appointed Count
Rostopchin governor; a clever man, courtier, wit, cynic, he proved an
able administrator, possessed the gift of inciting and controlling the
uneducated masses, so his plan to destroy the city escaped opposition
from the inhabitants.
Rostopchin studied the peasants' ways and knew how to throw dust in
the eyes of all. "I do everything to gain the goodwill of
everybody. My two visits to the Iberian Mother of God, the freedom
of access I allow to all, the verification of weights and measures,
even the fifty blows with a stick to a sub-officer who made the
mujiks wait too long for their salt, have won me the confidence of
your devoted and faithful subjects. I resolved at any disagreeable
news to question its truth; by this means I weaken the first
impression and before there is time to verify it, other news will
come which will need to be attended to." The Government mistrusted
the people, most of whom are serfs, and might allow themselves to
be tempted by the proclamations of "freedom for all" which were
issued by Napoleon. Rostopchin gave the patriot Glinka 300,000
roubles to be used as would best serve the interests of Moscow, but
Glinka returned the money, for all were ready enough to resist the
invader. Rostopchin invented victories: he caused news of one by
Ostermann and another by Wittgenstein to be promulgated, and though
sensible people did not believe him, the ignorant were faithful to
the end. "Fear nothing," he said to the citizens; "a storm has
come; we will dissipate it; the grist will be ground into meal.
Some think Napoleon is coming to stay; others that he thinks only
to skin us. He makes the soldiers expect the Field-Marshal's
_baton_, beggars think to get gold, and while such simpletons await
him, he takes them by the neck and hurls them to death." Again: "I
will answer with my head that the scoundrel shall not enter the
city; if he attempts this I shall call on all. Forward, comrades of
Moscow! Let us out to fight. We shall be 100,000; we shall take
with us the ikon of the Virgin, 150 guns and be sure we shall
finish the affair one and all." After Borodino he issued another
proclamation: "Brothers, we are many and ready to sacrifice life
for the salvation of our land, and prevent the scoundrel entering
Moscow; you must help. Moscow is our mother; she has suckled us,
nursed us, enriched us. In the name of the Mother of God I call on
you to help to defend the Holy Places of Moscow, of Russia! Arm
yourselves how you can, on foot or horseback, take only enough food
for three days, go with the Holy Cross, preceded by the standards
from the Churches, and assemble on the three Hills. I shall be
there, and together we will exterminate the invaders. Glory in
Heaven for those who go! Eternal peace for those who die!
Punishment at the Last Day for all who hold back!"
To the last Rostopchin nursed the illusion of the citizens; he told them
men were at work upon some wonderful military engine--a fire
balloon--which would destroy the French army instantaneously. Meanwhile
the Archbishop Augustine, who had ordered the procession through the
town of the ikons of the Iberian Mother of God, the Virgin of Smolensk,
was instructed to take the sacred treasures to Vladimir. Rostopchin had
but one serious complaint against Kutuzov; he had asked for three days'
notice if the town was to be abandoned, he got but twenty-four hours.
Everything of value that could be removed was packed and sent away;
there was a general exodus on the night of the 1st September (old style)
and Rostopchin left with the Russian army, the rear-guard of which was
quitting the city by the Preobrajenski suburb at the same time that the
advance-guard of the French army entered it by the Dragomilov Zastava.
Before he left Rostopchin opened the prisons, gave the lowest class the
entry to the arsenal, and ordered the stores to be fired; also, he put
to death one Vereshchagin, accused of publishing Napoleon's
proclamation, a deed that was no less criminal because needless. And
here Rostopchin's work ended; if he had received longer notice of
Kutuzov's decision to abandon the town he would doubtless have saved
more of the valuable portable property of state and church, and _might_
have destroyed the town. With reference to all the correspondence that
ensued as to the party responsible for the firing of Moscow, it can be
said only that Rostopchin and the Russians would like to have had the
credit for making a so magnificent sacrifice, but it was of political
expedience that the Russians should believe the destruction of the holy
places and their revered city directly due to the invader.
The apologists of Napoleon attribute his misconduct of the campaign to
ill-health; as likely as not the thwarting of his plans by the enemy,
his defeats and doubtful victories caused his illness. Whether his
genius failed him or not, there can be no doubt of the magnitude of the
conception and the utter ineptitude exhibited in its execution. After
Borodino his generals lost faith in him; they remained taciturn and
morose, until at two o'clock on the afternoon of September the 2nd, the
staff obtained their first view of Moscow from the summit of the
Poklonnaya Hill, the "salutation" point of the Sparrow Hills. In the
bright sunlight of the early autumn, the city, resplendent with gold
domes and glittering crosses, seemed the fitting goal for their long
deferred hopes and they of one accord raised a joyful shout, "_Moscou! à
Moscou!_"
Even Napoleon expressed his admiration and delight, and received the
warm congratulations of his now enthusiastic generals. It was rumoured
that an officer had arrived from the town to discuss terms of surrender:
Napoleon halted, but grew uneasy when the expected messenger could not
be found and there were no signs of an approaching delegate or of that
deputation of gorgeously robed boyards he had fondly hoped would attend
his coming to surrender the keys of the Kremlin and sue for his clemency
towards the citizens. An hour before he had commanded Count Duronelle to
hurry on to Moscow and arrange for the ostentatious performance of the
customary ceremony. He was now told that the town had been abandoned by
the officials, that the citizens had forsaken it, but Moscow, empty it
is true, was at his feet. Murat had found a few stragglers, amongst them
a French type-setter, and these wretched fugitives were ordered before
the staff, and by their spokesman begged for protection. "Imbecile" was
the only word Napoleon trusted himself to answer. His chagrin, his
wounded self-love, his mortification at the unexpected turn of affairs
unnerved him. One of the Russian prisoners describes the effect of the
news thus:--
"Napoleon was thoroughly overcome and completely lost his
self-control. His calm and regular step was changed into a quick,
uneven tread. He kept looking around him, fidgetted, stood still,
trembled all over, looked fierce, tweaked his own nose, pulled a
glove off and put it on again, tore another glove out of his
pocket, rolled it up into a ball, and, as if in deep thought, put
it into his other pocket, again took it out, and again put it back,
pulled the other glove from his hand, then quickly drew it on
again, and kept repeating this process. This went on for an hour,
during which the generals standing behind him remained like
statues, not even daring to move."
Various accounts are given respecting the first entry of the troops into
Moscow. Some of the inhabitants who remained, having faith in the
assurances of Rostopchin, welcomed the invaders believing them to be
some of the foreign allies of the Russian army. An official who had not
been able to escape states that he saw some serfs carrying arms from the
arsenal, one, who was intoxicated had a musket in one hand and in the
other a carbine, for remarking upon the folly of such an armament, the
man threw first the musket then the carbine at him, and a crowd of
rioters rushed from the arsenal all armed, as the advance-guard of the
French approached. The captain begged an interpreter to advise the crowd
to throw down their arms and not engage in an unequal struggle, but the
ignorant people, excited if not intoxicated, fired a few rounds
accidentally, or by design, and the French thereupon made use of their
artillery, and a wild fight ensued. After some ten or a dozen had been
sabred, the others asked for quarter, and received it. Another story is
to the effect that some of the armed citizens mistaking a general for
Napoleon, fired at him as he approached the Kremlin and were then
charged by his guard and put to flight. When later, Napoleon rode up to
the Borovitski Gate, a decrepid soldier, a tottering veteran, too
stubborn to forsake his post, resolutely blocked the way and was
mercilessly struck down by the advance-guard.
The fires commenced the same evening that the French entered the town;
there were no engines available and the soldiers, hungry and joyful,
disregarded the danger and attended to their more immediate needs.
Rostopchin had ordered that the contents of the "cellars" should be
burned, but there was no lack of liquor, and the conquerors were not to
be denied. As the "Warriors" sing in Zhukovski's epic:--
"O, yes!--the ruby stream to drain
Is glory's pride and pleasure--
Wine! Conqueror thou of care and pain,
Thou art the hero's treasure."
So whilst rank and file caroused, the small beginnings of the great
conflagration were neglected and men were powerless to cope with the
later developments, though some worked like Trojans. The stores of oil,
of spirits, the inflammable wares in the Gostinnoi Dvor were ignited,
and although Marshal Mortier worked well to extinguish the fires near
the Kremlin, the lack of engines and the continuous outbursts of fresh
fires, made complete success impossible. The looting of the town
commenced at once; soon the greedy soldiers left their partly cooked
rations to search for valuables, even the sentinels forsook their posts
and they fought with the rabble from the prisons for such goods as
seemed most easily removed. In time, not content with such as had been
abandoned, they commenced to rob from the person; women were spoiled of
head-dresses and gowns, the men fought with each other for the temporary
possession of pelf. The only lights for this unholy work were the
torches all carried and the fires the looters set ablaze in order that
they might see. When Napoleon thought the conflagration was the result
of a preconcerted scheme he ordered all incendiaries to be shot, and
then none durst carry a light by night without risk of being there and
then shot by some predatory soldier on his own initiative, or, not less
surely executed in due form after a mock court-martial at dawn of day.
Discipline was lax; among the soldiery of the army of occupation, many
bold souls did just as they wished, and of their enormities, their
cruelties and shameful orgies, nothing need be written. Others had leave
of absence--a licence to pilfer. They not only ransacked the occupied
houses, but dragged people from their hiding places, harnessed them to
carts, with bayonet and worse urged them on, heavily laden, through
burning streets, and saving themselves from the crumbling walls and
roofs, saw their miserable captives crushed, buried, or struggling among
the burning debris, and abandoned to their fate. In the immediate
neighbourhood of the Kremlin the pilfering was official; in the
Cathedral of the Assumption, great scales and steelyards were set up,
and outside two furnaces, one for gold the other for silver, were kept
ever burning to melt down the settings torn from the sacred pictures,
the church vessels, the gilt ornaments, aye, even the decorations on the
priests' robes. Horses were stabled in the cathedrals and churches;
Marshal Davoust slept in the sanctuary with sentinels on both sides of
the "royal doors" of the ikonostas. "Destroy that mosque," was
Napoleon's peremptory order to one of his generals with reference to the
Church of the Protection of the Virgin, but he delayed executing the
order finding this cathedral convenient as a stable and storehouse. At
first the fire was most severe in the warehouses flanking the Grand
Square and along the quays. It spread most rapidly amidst the great
stores on the south side of the river. The Balchoog was a sea of flame
and the whole of the Zamoskvoretski quarter was practically destroyed.
On the other side the burning Gostinnoi Dvor ignited neighbouring
stores in the Nikolskaya, Ilyinka and elsewhere on the Kitai Gorod. The
gleeds carried by a north wind threatened the palaces in the
Kremlin--where, under a cloud of sparks, the buildings glowed red and
seemed to many to be also burning. The ammunition had already been
brought there and caused the French great anxiety. Napoleon, after a
peaceful night in the royal palace, was unwilling to believe that the
tires were other than accidental, but as the day waned and the fires
increased in number as well as size, he grew agitated and exclaimed,
"They are true to themselves these Scythians! It is the work of
incendiaries; what men then are they, these Scythians!"
He passed the next night in the Kremlin, but not at rest. It was with
the greatest difficulty that the soldiers on the roof of the palace
disposed of the burning fragments that at times fell upon the metal like
a shower of hail. The heat was intense; the stores of spirits exploded,
and blue flames hid the yellow and orange of the burning timbers and
darted with lightning rapidity in all directions, a snake-like progress
through the denser parts of the town, firing even the logs of wood with
which the streets were at that time paved. When the fire reached the
hospitals, where 20,000 unfortunate wounded lay almost helpless, scenes
of unmitigated horror were witnessed by the invaders unable to succour,
and chiefly intent on their own safety. The famous Imperial Guard
stationed in the Kremlin was divided into two sections; one was occupied
in struggling against the fire, the other held all in readiness for
instant flight. At last the Church of the Trinity caught fire, and
whilst the Guard at once set about its destruction, Napoleon, with the
King of Naples, Murat, Beauharnais, Berthier and his staff, left the
Kremlin hurriedly for the Petrovski Palace. The Tverskaya was ablaze,
passage by that way impossible; the party crossed for the Nikitskaya
but in the neighbourhood of the Arbat lost their way, and after many
adventures and near escapes found the suburbs, and by a roundabout route
reached the Palace at nightfall. In many places the fire had burned out
by September the 5th, and that night a heavy rain, luckily continued
during the next day, stopped the spread of the fire, and on Sunday the
8th, Napoleon returned over the still smouldering embers to his old
quarters in the Kremlin. Amidst or near by the cinders of the capital,
Napoleon remained for more than a month. The remaining inhabitants
suffered great hardships; some fraternised with the French soldiers and
helped in quenching fires, but parties accused of incendiarism were
still led out almost daily to execution. The French residents were in a
most pitiable condition; Napoleon could not or would not do anything for
them; they, and the rest of the citizens, with many of the soldiers were
soon threatened with starvation.
This campaign more than any other undertaking of his life, reveals the
despicable character of Napoleon as a man; even as a commander he seemed
to have lost grip of the serious situation of his troops: he, who at one
time could never make a mistake now only happened on the right thing by
accident, and that rarely. In an impoverished province, amidst a
famished population, he could not possibly winter his army, but acted as
though he intended to do so. He made stupid speeches respecting the
career of Peter the Great; read up the proclamations of Pugatchev,
hoping to find in them something which would enable him to incite the
people to rebel; tried even to make allies of the Tartars, and failed;
at the same time he sent again and again to Alexander professing warm
personal friendship and readiness to conclude peace. Alexander heard
his overtures with silent contempt. The Russian generals were
mercilessly harassing the divisions of the Great Army in the provinces,
and armed bands of peasants sought revenge on those invaders who had
violated women and children, and desecrated the churches.
On October the 6th, Napoleon decided to begin his retreat on the morrow,
and that same evening drew up a scheme for the visit of a Parisian
theatrical company to Moscow and its installation there. Of precious
metal from the churches of the Kremlin, nearly five tons of silver and
four and a half hundredweights of gold had been melted into ingots. The
great wooden cross, thirty feet in length, which surmounted Ivan Veliki,
had been regilt at great cost but the year before, and the French,
thinking it solid gold, threw it down. Like all the crosses, it was of
worthless material, but contained a small cross of pure gold, which
these disgusted pillagers failed to find.
When the time came for Napoleon to leave Moscow he was unwilling that
any should know his intention. "Perhaps I shall return to Moscow," he
said to one of his company, but as he had already given orders to
Lariboisiere, the chief of artillery, to destroy the Kremlin, he
doubtless, better than anyone else, knew that this could not be.
Napoleon thought to destroy everything of value left standing in the
town; walls, towers, palaces, churches, convents, monasteries--all were
ruined. "The defeat of Murat at Tarutin forced Napoleon to hurry away
earlier than he intended, and to Marshal Mortier was left the task of
destruction. He having made the requisite preparations left during the
night of the 11-12th October, and, not far from Fili, gave the signal by
cannon for the firing of the mines. It was a terrible explosion in the
darkness and stillness of night; it killed some and wounded many, and
was followed quickly by minor explosions at different points."
Napoleon failed even in this attempt; the damage done was trifling--the
tower over the Nikolski Gate fell, so did one at the corner of the
Kremlin wall. There were breaches here and there, but churches and other
buildings remained intact. It is said that the heavy rain destroyed the
trains of gunpowder to the mines, from which subsequently sixty tons of
the explosive were taken. Fesanzac states Mortier intentionally used
powder of bad quality, not wishing to destroy the buildings; it is more
probable that he used the best he could get and that the director of
artillery was unwilling to waste serviceable munitions of war he might
require later.
The story of the retreat of the Grande Armée is well known and need not
be recapitulated here. If the French and their allies suffered, the
peasants also endured terrible hardships. Shot down for defending the
honour of their wives and daughters; for protecting their property; for
refusing to honour the false hundred rouble notes Napoleon had ordered
to be printed in order to reward his soldiers; on any and every other
pretence whatever, they yet accomplished a terrible revenge, harassing
the invaders to the last. The French slew and destroyed; wrecked old
walls, desecrated churches, and in sheer spite threw the spoil they
could not carry further into the rivers and lakes. Wilson urged Kutuzov
to engage the refugees, whom he termed ghosts roaming too far from their
graves, but Kutuzov trusted to the cold and the distance to wear out the
remnant of the great army. He underestimated the powers of human
endurance, some 70,000 escaped of the half million or more that had
invaded Russia. Napoleon, that "incomparable military genius," does not
appear on this occasion to have possessed the astuteness even of the
mediæval Tartar Khans, who on their invasions withdrew "without
ostensible cause" at the end of the season. More selfish than they, he
saved himself by deserting his men. They died like flies on the approach
of winter; some were burned during their sleep by outraged peasants;
more were slipped through holes in the ice; many reached Vilna only to
be entrapped by the Russian soldiers, or, if still more unfortunate,
tossed from the upper windows of the Ghetto and kicked to death by old
polish Jewesses in the streets. Piteous? Yes, but it is the pity one
feels for the burglarious murderer who falls on the spikes of the area
railings. The invasion of the twenty nations had even such inglorious
ending; its effect upon the Muscovites was similar to that which
followed a great Tartar raid; it was unexpected--disastrous, and, as
long as remembered, engendered in the Russ that same distrust of the
west it had previously entertained of the east.
In Moscow there are now few traces of the French invasion, for its
effect was general rather than particular. The palace occupied by
Napoleon has been destroyed; in its place the Tsar Nicholas built his
new Imperial residence, from the windows of which may still be seen the
old Borovitski Gate, by which Napoleon first entered and last left the
Kremlin. Beyond that gate there is now an immense and stately pile, the
magnificent new Cathedral of Our Saviour, built by the people in
gratitude for their deliverance from the invaders. A monument that
furnishes conclusive evidence that the spirit of earnestness which
actuated the old cathedral builders is not yet extinct in Russia.
One other memorial of the times will attract the attention of visitors
to the Kremlin: arranged along the front of the arsenal, opposite the
Senate House, are ranged the cannon captured from, or abandoned by, the
_Grande Armée_. The inscriptions, one in French the other in Russian, on
the plates to the
[Illustration: BOROVITSKI GATE AND ST SAVIOUR'S CATHEDRAL]
right and left of the principal entrance set forth the origin of these
trophies. Most of the weapons have the Napoleonic initial boldly
engraved upon the breech; actually only 365 are French; there are 189
Austrian, 123 Prussian, 40 Neapolitan, 36 Bavarian, 1 Westphalian, 12
Saxon, 1 Hanoverian, 70 Italian, 3 Wurtemburgian, 8 Spanish, 22 Dutch, 5
Polish--in all 875.
Before the great fire there were over 2500 brick or stone buildings in
Moscow, and about 6600 of wood; the fire destroyed over 2000 of the
brick buildings and some 4500 of the wooden dwellings. It may seem
strange that so many of the old buildings escaped. Of course the old
convents, monasteries and churches in the suburbs, like the Novo
Devichi, Simonov, Petrovski Palace, etc., were beyond the limit of the
fire; the remainder, many of them, stood in their own grounds or were
isolated from other buildings, much as the Strastnoi Monastyr is now. At
that time, although the town limits were practically the same as at
present--the line of the Kammer College rampart--the houses were fewer
and, outside the Kitai Gorod, few streets consisted of continuous rows
of houses. If the visitor wishes to have a clear comprehension of the
sort of town, in detail, the great village of Moscow was at the
beginning of this century, a drive along the Sadovia or through the side
streets between that thoroughfare and the boundary will help its
acquisition. More, it will bring him face to face with the best of the
buildings of "Skorodom" that sprang from among the cinders of the great
conflagration. A pleasant, bungalow-like, garden-town; spacious houses,
with pretentious façades in the pseudo-classic style of the first
empire; mostly squat and inconvenient, irregular, bright with native
carpentry, stucco, painted metal roofs, and clean washed walls. It is
this Moscow that is so picturesque and so rapidly disappearing before
the march of industrialism, sanitation, and an increasing population.
When Alexander I. visited the town in 1816, great haste was made to
present a fair show of dwellings in the vast open spaces; some, painted
and distempered, were without windows, roofs, staircases, or even
floors; these walls, then little more than the semblances of buildings,
just such as now put on the stage, were later utilised by fitting
dwellings, of a sort, to them. Some have long served their purpose;
others, curious, quaint and singular, still remain--but he who would see
them must not long delay.
With reference to the historic and sacred buildings, those answerable
for their keeping sought only to restore, enrich, and preserve. At no
time has Moscow possessed more or better memorials of the past than she
does at present. The risk of destruction by fire has greatly lessened;
of further demolition by ruthless invaders there is, happily, no longer
a possibility, and the slower but not less certain destruction from the
inroad of industrialism may be stayed by the timely awakening of the
Moscow citizens to the value of the relics they possess, and the desire
not only to preserve them for their own sake, but also as ornaments to
the old town of which all are so fond and now anxious to beautify.
CHAPTER XV
_Itinerary and Miscellaneous Information_
"Some few particulars I have set down fit to be known of your crude
traveller."--BEN JONSON.
To many Moscow seems so far distant, and Russia so unknown, that a few
hints to intending travellers may be welcome. In the first place as to
the best season for the journey; notwithstanding all the claims advanced
in favour of winter--and they are not inconsiderable--for a first visit,
or an only visit, the summer is preferable. Moscow, the brilliant and
gorgeous is seen at its best in the bright sunlight; it is more
picturesque and more conveniently to be viewed in detail or entirety.
The latter part of June is the best period for then is the season of the
"white nights" when there is no need of street lamps and the days are
more than long enough for sight-seeing.
The shortest and best route is by way of Flushing, Berlin, Warsaw and
Smolensk: distance from London 1800 miles; time 65 hours. Return tickets
available for six weeks may be purchased at any London terminus: first
class £16, 13s. 9d., second class £10, 19s. 7d. Through travellers
should start by the night service from London, and change trains in
Berlin at the Zoologischer Garten station; leave Moscow by the 5 P.M.
train and in Berlin change at the Alexanderplatz station; by these
through services the drive across Warsaw is avoided.
Of the many other routes that recommended as the most enjoyable is _via_
Gothenburg, by the canal to Stockholm and thence by the excellent
steamers to Abo, Hango, Helsingfors or direct to St Petersburg and on to
Moscow by the Nikolai railway. By all routes a Foreign Office passport,
visé by the Russian Consul, is indispensable.
Compared with the leading hotels in other great towns, those of Moscow
leave much to be desired. Hotel Billo on the Great Lubianka is centrally
situated and much frequented by the English visitors, who there find
adequate accommodation and the greatest courtesy. Hotel Dresden, on the
Tverskaya, is upon even higher ground, opposite the residence of the
Governor-General; Hotel Continental facing the Grand Theatre, and the
Moskovski Traktir, opposite the Vosskresenski Gate, are also well kept
and are near the Kremlin; the Slavianski Bazaar is in the Kitai Gorod.
The Russian custom, which it is advisable should be followed if a long
stay is made, is to take rooms in a hotel or elsewhere; the rent
includes heating in winter, and the use of the samovar twice daily. The
Kokoref Hotel, on the south side of the river, is one of the largest
establishments on this plan and many of its rooms command superb views
of the Kremlin (see p. 13) and are in demand by English visitors on this
account. The restaurants are good; in summer the visitor should not fail
to lunch in the lofty court of the Slavianski Bazaar which, like the
Bolshoi Moskovski Traktir, is much used by business men. For native
dishes the Praga, on the Arbat, and Tyestov's, on the Vosskresenski
Place, are the best; the Ermitage, on the Trubaya is more ostentatious,
but the cuisine is good; the Saratov (Srietenka Boulevard) is favoured
by university students. At all the service is excellent, and the
old-fashioned attire of the waiters unconventional and pleasing. The
peculiarly local dishes comprise: ikra (fresh caviare), batvennia and
okroshka (iced soups), shchee (cabbage soup with sour cream), ukha (fish
soup), beluga, osternia, etc. (different varieties of sturgeon),
porosianok (cold boiled sucking pig with horse-radish sauce), rasolnik,
yazu and barannybok are made dishes; the appropriate beverage is one of
the many varieties of kvas, which will be served iced in fine old silver
beakers or tankards of native workmanship. Tea with lemon at the Café
Philipov, on the Tverskaya.
Many tourists whilst on a yachting cruise in the Baltic avail themselves
of the steamer's stay in the Neva to make a hurried visit to Moscow. To
them, and others whose stay is necessarily of short duration, the
following itinerary may be useful:--
(1) Drive through the Kitai Gorod, the Grand Square, across the
Moskvoretski bridge, along the quay to the Kammeny Most; cross the river
and enter the Kremlin by the Troitski Gate and alight at Ivan Veliki.
Visit the cathedrals and monasteries of the Kremlin (Chs. viii., ix.);
the Great Palace and Terem (Ch. vii.); Potieshni Dvorets (Ch. viii.).
Later drive out to the Novo Devichi Convent (Ch. xii.); thence to the
ferry before sunset, dine at the Restoran Krinkin, return to the Mala
Kammeny Most by steamer--or by tram to the Kaluga Place--see the Kremlin
by moonlight from the Kokoref.
(2) Iberian Chapel (Ch. vii.); Historical Museum (Ch. ii.); Treasury
(Orujni Palata) in the Kremlin (Ch. vii.); Spass na Boru (Ch. ix.);
Ascension Convent (Ch. xii.); through the Redeemer Gate (Ch. xiii.);
Vasili Blajenni (Ch. iv.); Old Gostinni Dvor, Dom Romanovykh (Ch. xi.);
walk up the Starai Ploshchad, inside wall of the Kitai Gorod, to Church
of St Nicholas of the Great Cross. Then up through the market, or
outside the wall to the Vladimirski Vorot (Ch. ix.); the churches and
monasteries in the Nikolski to St Mary of Kazan behind the Town Hall.
Later up the Lubianka to the church and monastery of the Srietenka (Ch.
x.); the Sukharev Bashnia, along the boulevard to the Strastnoi
Monastery (Ch. xii.); drive past the Triumphalnia to Khodinski Pole, the
Petrovski Palace, Park, etc.
_Note._--The Dom Romanovykh is usually open from 11 until 2 on Tuesdays,
Thursdays and Saturdays; the Treasury on the same days; and the Great
Palace, Terem, etc., on alternate days with these.
(3) English Church, Conservatorium, old and new Universities, Manege,
Rumiantsev Museum (Ch. x.); New Cathedral (Ch. xiv.). Later to the
Tretiakov Gallery (Ch. x.); the Danilovski and Donskoi Monastyrs (Ch.
xii.); drive home across the Krimski Bridge, Skorodom and the Sadovia.
(4) Matveiev memorial (Ch. x.); Church of St Nicholas, Church of the
Nativity (Ch. viii.); Foundling Hospital, Novo Spasski Monastyr (Ch.
xii.); Krutitski Vorot (p. 142); Simonov Monastyr (Ch. xii.) and return.
Later to Krasnoe Vorot and Prud, and Sokolniki.
(5) Taininskoe; Church, Palace and Park at Ostankina, Mordva (Ch. xi.);
Petrovski-Razoomovski, etc.
DRIVES FROM THE TOWN
(_a_) Over the Dragomilov Bridge to the village of Fili, memorial
church, and _izba_ with a museum of memorials of the Council of War held
there by Napoleon in 1812 (Ch. xiv.).
(_b_) By the Krestovski Zastava to the old church of the regency at
Taininskoe; the seventeenth century church at Ostankina; near by is the
"Palace," a wooden mansion belonging to the Sheremetiev family; beyond
the park and village of Sirlovo is the Mordva hamlet, (Ch. xii.).
(_c_) By the Preobrajenski Zastava to the suburb of that name (Ch.
vii.), and Transfiguration Cemetery, and principal establishment of the
Bezpopovtsi sect of Old Believers (Ch. ix.).
(_d_) By the Rogojski Zastava to the cemetery and church of that name
for the religious services of the Old Believers, (Ch. ix.).
EXCURSIONS BY RAILWAY
Few visitors to Moscow leave Russia without seeing the Troitsa Monastery
(67 versts on the Yaroslav Railway), mentioned in Chapter v. and
elsewhere, but although closely connected with the history of Moscow not
within the scope of this book. Other places of like or different
interest are: the New Jerusalem Monastery near Krukova, 36 versts on the
Nikolai Railway and about 14 miles thence by road; the battlefield of
Borodino, (114 versts on the Smolensk Railway); Nijni-Novgorod, 410
versts, but the pleasure fair has been discontinued and the celebrated
yearly market is now exclusively commercial.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Of the English books treating of Old Muscovy the best contemporaneous
accounts have been reprinted in the five volumes of the Hakluyt
Society's publications devoted to early travels in Russia. The best
contemporary Life of Peter I. in English is that by Alex. Gordon; among
the best recently published, the translation of K. Waliszewski's study,
and Eugene Scuyler's account of the Life and Times of Peter the Great.
For matters ecclesiastical Albert F. Heard's Russian Church and Russian
Dissent will be found most informing, and Mr W. J. Birkbeck's history of
the Eastern Church Society's work of more particular interest to
Anglicans. In another field Mr Alfred Maskell's "Russian Art" may be
found useful, and the antiquary will find much that is curious and
suggestive in "L'Art Russe: ses origines," etc., by E. E. Viollet le Duc
(Paris, 1877).
PHOTOGRAPHY
Amateur photographers should join the Russian Photographic Society,
whose members alone have the right to photograph throughout the empire.
Otherwise it will be necessary to obtain permission of the chief of the
police in each town or district. The Kremlin is technically a fortress,
and the use of the camera within the walls forbidden, but leave is
given--on personal application to the Governor--to those who are already
furnished with the police permit, or are members of the Photographic
Society. Application for membership should be made, prior to visiting
Russia, to the Secretary, Russian Photographic Society, Dom Djamgarof,
Kusnetski Most, Moscow.
[Illustration: Plan of MOSCOW]
INDEX
A
ADASHEF, 50, 52.
ALARM TOWER, 58.
ALEVISO, Fioraventi, 44, 148.
ALEXANDER GARDENS, 15, 153, 224.
ALEXANDRINA PALACE, 264.
ALEXIS, St, 23, 176, 253 _ff._
ALEXIS, Tsar, 116, 120 ff, 134, 137.
ALL SAINTS' CHURCH, 205.
ALL SAINTS' DAY, Fire on, 257.
AMBROSE, Archbishop, 257.
AMUSEMENTS, 237.
ANNUNCIATION, Cath. of, 293 _ff._ and
_see_ BLAGOVIESHCHENSKI SOBOR, Church of, 149.
ARBAT, 49, 82, 225, 295.
ARCHANGELSKI SOBOR, 190 _ff._
ARCHITECTURE, Muscovite, 3, 223, 302;
arches, 168;
Church, 181,
diversity of, 225;
Domestic, 169, 225, 228;
Ecclesiastical, 177;
Origin of Muscovite, 168;
of "Skorodom," 220, 301.
ARMS of Moscow, 36, 125.
---- of Romanofs, 125.
---- of Russia, 36.
=Art=, Bookbinders', 192;
Byzantine examples, 122, 142, 261;
church, 192, 194;
decorative, 246;
ecclesiastic, 182;
frescoes, 192;
gems and jewellery, 198;
Gothic influence on Muscovite, 141, 280;
ikon-portraiture, 183;
metal work, 243;
pictorial, 221;
wall-paintings, 188, 195.
ASKOLD AND DYR, 5.
ASCENSION CONVENT, 257, and _see_ VOSSNESENSKI.
ASSUMPTION, Cath. of, 185 _ff_;
and _see_ USPENSKI SOBOR.
---- Church of, 89.
B
BAATI, 16.
BALAAM, Metrop., 253.
BARMI, 140.
BASMANOVS, 74, 91, 98.
BEARDS and Fines, 216.
BELSKIS, 81, 91.
BEST, Harry, 240.
BELLS, Founding, 159.
---- Moscow, 157 _ff._
BELVEDERES, 41, 117, 154.
BIBLIOGRAPHY, 307.
BIELO-GOROD, 40, 82, 207.
BIELO-OZERSK, 52, 92.
BLACK Clergy, 253.
BLAGOVIESHCHENSKI SOBOR, 44, 130, 193 _ff._
"BLESSED WILLIE," 67.
BLESSING the Water, 150.
BOGOLOOBSKI, Andrew, 15, 87.
BOGOYAVLENNI MONASTYR, 27, 255.
BOMEL, Dr E., 72, 278.
BORODINO, Battle of, 286.
BOROVITSKI VOROT, 41, 291, 299.
BOWES, Jeremy, 43, 62.
BOYARDS, 63;
customs of, 227;
duma of, 81, 134.
BRIDES of the Tsars, 118, 120.
BRUCE, Field-Marshal, 210; Tomb
of, 261.
BYZANTIUM and Moscow, 32.
---- Style of in, 261.
---- Symbols of, 140.
C
CANNON, 96, 160, 300.
CARRIAGES and Harness, 140.
CASPIAN, Jenkinson on the, 273.
CATHEDRALS, Location of, 164;
_see_ SOBOR and XRAM.
CHANCELLOR, R., 132, 276.
CHANI-BEK, 253.
CHAPEL of St Dmitri, 189.
---- St Gabriel, 196.
---- St George, 196.
---- Sts. Peter and Paul, 189.
---- St Samon, 197.
_see_ also CHURCH.
CHARACTERISTICS of boyards, 100, 115, 237.
---- Ivan IV., 78.
CHARACTERISTICS of Peter I., 206.
---- Moscow, 1, 141, 301.
---- Moscow Citizens, 237.
---- Moscow Princes, 10, 47.
CHARM of Moscow, 225, 252.
CHASOVIA, _see_ CHAPELS.
CHASTOK, 245.
CHEMIAKI, 28, 31, 145.
CHIBANOV, 53.
CHRISTIANITY in Russia, 3, 6, 32, 86-95, 174 _ff._
CHUDOV MONASTYR, 92, 253 _ff._
CHURCH, Russian, 172 _ff_;
feasts of, 263, and Tsar, 55, 69, 116, 215;
and Western Church, 32, 95;
saves Moscow, 23, 101.
CHURCH of St Ambrose, 266.
---- St Balaam, 266.
---- St Catherine, 259.
---- Sts Constantine and Helen, 174.
---- St George, 259.
---- St James, 266.
---- St Jehosaphat, 266.
---- St John the Baptist, 130, 148.
---- St Lazarus, 41, 45, 127.
---- St Nikanor, 266.
---- St Nikolas, 209.
---- St Prokhor, 266.
---- St Saviour's, 161.
---- the Apostles, 188.
---- Nativity and Flight, 127.
---- Our Saviour on High, 128, 161.
---- Vasili Blajenni, 47, 65, 179.
CHURCHES of the Bielo-Gorod, 205, 209, 225.
---- Kitai-Gorod, 204.
---- Kremlin, 185.
---- Palace, 127 _ff._
---- Suburbs, 246, 249, 307.
---- Zemlianni-Gorod, 181, 209, 225.
CITIZENS AND TSAR, 34, 54.
CITY OF CHURCHES, 138.
CONSTANTINOPLE, _see_ BYZANTIUM.
CONVENT, Ascension, 257.
---- Conception, 260.
---- Nativity, 251.
---- Nikitski, 224.
---- Novo Devichi, 265.
---- Strastnoi (Passion), 260, 301.
---- Zachatievski, 260.
CONVENT-LIFE, 258, 269.
COSSACKS, 91, 263.
CRIMEAN WAR and English in Moscow, 282.
CROSS, Pre-Christian, 7;
Russian, 182, 196.
CRUELTIES, 33, 49 _ff_, 150, 212, 215,
232, 240, 246, _see_ also IVAN IV. and PETER I.
CUSTOMS, of early Slavs, 7;
of Mediæval Moscow, 132;
curious, 248, 265.
D
DANIEL MIKHAILOVICH, 17.
DANILOVSKI MONASTYR, 17, 264.
DELAGARDIE, General, 100.
DISSENT and Dissenters, 202, 204 _ff._
DIVERSITY of Moscow, 225.
DMITRI DONSKOI, 23, 139 _ff._
---- "first false," 91 _ff._
---- Ivanovich, 51, 85.
---- "second false," 101, 103, 107.
---- of the "terrible eyes," 19.
DOGMA and Ritual, 177, 200.
DOLGORUKI, family, 15, 118.
---- Yuri, 12.
DOM CHUKINA, 223.
DOM ROMANOVYKH, 108.
---- USUPOV, 219.
DOMOSTROI, 50, 235.
DON COSSACKS, 91, 105.
DONSKOI MONASTYR, 82, 263.
DRINKING habits, 235-236.
DUKHOBORTSI, 203.
DUMA of the boyards, 134.
E
EDIGER, 27.
ENGLISH in Moscow, 54, 58, 62, 210, 270 _ff._
EPIPHANY, 255, and _see_ BOGOYAVLENNI.
ETIQUETTE, Muscovite, 43, 97.
EUDOXIA, (Donskoi), 258.
---- Striechnev, 119.
---- Lapunov, 216.
EUPHROSINA, 258.
EXPRESS trains, 303.
F
FAIRS, 38, 238.
FAMINE, 38, 106.
FIORAVENTI, Aleviso, 44, 148.
FIRE, The great, 290 _ff._
FIRES in Moscow, 16, 23, 25, 49, 50, 104, 227.
FLORENCE, Council of, 32.
FLOROVSKI, _v._ SPASSKI VOROT.
FOOD of Muscovites, 234, 305.
FOREIGNERS in Moscow, 23, 33, 52, 54,
58, 62, 64, 73, 99, 139, 274 _ff_, 295.
FOUNDLING HOSPITAL, 269.
FRENCH cannon captured, 160, 297.
---- Invasion, 284 _ff_; settlers, 295.
G
GADEN, Dr, 212.
GALITZIN, Kniaz, 145.
GALLOWAY, Chris, 157, 280.
GATES, _see_ VOROT.
GEORGE, Prince, 17.
---- St. 125, 259.
GLINSKI, Helena, 38, 47.
GLUISKI, 49, 71.
GODUNOV, Boris, 73, 80 _ff_, 85.
---- Theodore, 92.
GOLDEN Gates, 133.
---- Hall, 131.
---- Horde, _see_ Tartars.
---- Palace, 82, 128.
---- ---- Lesser, 82, 112, 127.
"GOOD COMPANIONS," 26.
GORDON, Patrick, 281.
---- Alexander, 282.
GOSTINNOI DVOK, 293.
GRANOVITAIA PALATA, 38, 43, 124, 131.
GREETING, Manner of, 242, 244.
GRIFFINS, Heraldic, 125.
H
HAMILTON, Miss, 278.
HERBERSTEIN, 43, 231.
HERMOGEN, Patriarch, 103.
HISTORICAL MUSEUM, 6, 178.
"HOLY BREAD," 255, 260.
---- Coat, 189.
---- Corridor, 131.
---- Moscow, 205.
---- Vestments, 165.
HORSEY, Jerom, 47, 58, 64, 71, 79, 85, 88, 274.
---- Adventures of, 276 _ff._
HOTELS, 304.
HOUSES, early dwellings, 7;
in Skorodom, 223;
of Russia Company, 277,
_see_ also DOM.
I
IBERIAN CHAPEL, 143, and _see_ VOSSKRESENSKI VOROT.
IGOR, 5.
IKONOSTAS, 129, 187, 191, 254.
IKONS, 129.
---- _in relievo_, 184.
---- miraculous, 257, 259, 288.
---- "Nerukotvorenni," 182 _ff_, 201, 262.
---- "Not made with hands," 182 _ff_, 201.
---- private and personal, 245.
---- remarkable, 196.
---- trimorphic, 254, 257.
---- Varieties of, 183.
---- Virgin of Pechersk, 196.
---- Virgin of Vladimir, 187, 257.
---- Wonder-working, 259.
ILYINKA, VOROT, 39.
IRENE, Princess, 80-82, 87.
IVAN I., 21 _ff._
IVAN II., 23.
IVAN III., 32-36.
IVAN IV., 47 _et seq._,
anecdotes of, 53, 61 _ff_;
atrocities of, 49 _ff_, 57 _ff._, 241;
tricks of, 53, 69;
victims of, 76;
wives, 77;
wizards, 77.
IVAN V., 241.
IVAN "GROZNOI" _v._ IVAN IV.
IVAN the idiot, 68.
IVAN KALITA _v._ IVAN I.
IVAN KRESTITEL _v._ ST JOHN THE BAPTIST.
IVAN "the Terrible" _v._ IVAN IV.
IVAN VELIKI, 88, 155.
J
JENKINSON, Anthony, 272.
JERUSALEM GATE, 151.
JITNY DVOR, 149.
JOHN _v._ IVAN.
JOHN THE BAPTIST, 22, 128.
K
KAMMER College Rampart, 209, 307.
KARAMZIN, 145.
KAZAK _v._ COSSACK.
KAZAN, 32, 38, 51.
---- Virgin of, 259.
KAZI-GHIREE, Khan, 82, 88.
KHINGIZ, Khan, 16, 25.
KHLYSTI, 203.
KHOLMOGORI, 271.
KIEF, 5, 9, 22, 253.
KITAI-GOROD, 38, 82, 104, 147, 205, 238, 277, 301.
KONTCHAKA, 19.
KOURBSKI, Prince, 53.
KRASNOE KRILTSO, 126, 164.
---- Ploshchad, 110, 238.
---- Vorot, 219.
---- Ugol, 132.
KREMLIN, 13, 22, 40;
derivation of, 22;
dwellings in, 40;
sights of, 147 _ff_;
view of, 13;
walls, 23, 149.
KRIM-TARTARS, 82.
KRIMSKI-BRODE, 265.
KRIMSKI-VAL, 265.
KRUTITSKI VOROT, 122, 142.
KULIKOVO, 139.
KUTAIFA, 154.
KUTCHKO, Stephen, 12.
KUZNETSKI MOST, 208.
L
LATIN in Moscow, 145.
LAZARUS, Church of St, 41, 45, 127.
LE BRUYN, 232.
LEGAL PROCEDURE, 239.
LIBRARIES, 257.
"LIFE for the Tsar," 110.
LITHUANIA, 52, 76, 82.
LOBNOE MESTO, 93, 152, 251.
M
MAHOMMEDANS and Muscovites, 17, 23, 28, 34, 38, 64, 182, 265.
MAIDEN'S FIELD, 265, and _see_ NOVO DEVICHI.
MAMAI, Khan, 23 _ff._
MARINA-ROSHCHA, 209.
MAROSSEIKA, 218.
MARRIAGE customs, 232, 241, 250.
MARY OF VLADIMIR, 187, 257.
---- Church of, 204.
MATVIEVS, 121, 130.
MEDICH, 147.
MIASCHANSKA, 209.
MICHAEL, Tsar, 109, 111 _ff._
MILOSAVSKIS, 120, 259.
MININ, Cosma, 106, 114.
MNISZEK, Maria, 97, 100, 113, 258.
MONASTERIES, early, 27;
existing, 253 _ff_;
_see_ also CONVENTS.
MONKS and Monasticism, 253 _ff._
MORDVA, 249.
MOROZOF, Boyard, 73.
---- Boyarina, 202, 222.
MOSCOW, Arms of, 36;
charm of, 2, 226, 251;
derivation of name, 11;
fires in, 16, 23, 25, 49, 104, 227;
the golden, 141;
looted by the French, 293;
sieges of, 25, 27, 91, 105, 152;
unconventionality of, 2;
views in, 1, 251;
winter in, 226.
MOSHI, 177, 255.
MOSKVA RIVER, 100, 150, 153, 264.
MOST (Bridge), Kuznetski, 208;
Kammeni, 305;
Krasnoe Kholmski, 262;
Krimski, 265.
MSTISLAVSKIS, 82, 91.
MUSCOVY and Britain, 73, 270.
---- Lithuania, 37.
---- Livonia, 33.
---- Poland, 81 _ff_, 132.
---- Tartary, 23 _ff_, 132.
MUSCOVITES of British descent, 283.
---- allied with Tartars, 21.
MUSEUMS, 220.
MYSTERY PLAYS, 142.
N
NAPOLEON, 124, 290 _ff._
NARYSHKIN, Family of, 121.
NATALIA, Tsaritsa, 121, 130.
NATIVITY, _see_ Rojdestva, 181.
---- Church of 181.
---- Convent of, 251.
NEGLINNAIA, 15, 49, 153.
NEW ROWS, 238.
NICHOLAS, patron saint, 184.
---- of Galstun, 157.
---- Stylite, 218.
NIJNI-NOVGOROD, 38, 307.
NIKITA, Saint, 224.
---- the preacher, 203.
---- Romanof, 277.
NIKOLSKAVA, 153.
NIKOLSKI VOROT, 24, 153, 297.
NIKON, 177, 201.
NOBLES, Muscovite, 42, 81, 87, 114.
NOVGOROD THE GREAT, 5, 38, 57.
NOVI RIADI, 238.
NOVO DEVICHI CONVENT, 87, 265.
NOVO SPASSKI MONASTYR, 262.
O
ODDITIES, 208, 248.
"OLD BELIEVERS," 203.
OLEG, 5.
OLGA, 6.
OPRITCHNIKS, 56, 59 _ff._
ORTHODOXY and Dissent, 95, 202, 204.
ORUJENIA PALATA, 139.
OSLIABIA, 24.
OSMAN and Ahmed, 13.
OSTANKINA, 209.
OTREPIEF, 92.
"OUR Saviour on High," Ch. of, 128, 161, 280.
P
PAGEANTRY, Church, 243.
---- State, 123, 137, 243.
PALACE, Chequered, 38.
---- Golden, 82, 128.
---- Granovitaia, 43, 124, 131.
---- Great, 124.
---- Irene's, 80-82, 87.
---- Lesser Golden, 127.
PALACES, early, 40;
site of, 124.
PALEOLOGUS, Thomas, 32.
---- Sophia, 33, 128, 232.
PANAGIES, 257.
PASSPORT, 304.
---- "to St Nicholas," 246.
PATRIARCHS, Passage of the, 127.
---- Sacristy of, 197.
---- 86, 96, 106, 177 _ff_, 215.
PATRIARSHIA RIZNITSA, 197 _ff._
PECHERSKI, 165, 253.
PERESVET, 24.
PETER I., 111, 121, 206, 209 _ff_, 215.
PETROVSKI MONASTERY, 250.
---- Palace, 301, 306.
---- RAZOOMOVSKI, 209.
PHILARET, Patriarch, 109, 116.
PHILIP, Metropolitan, 55.
---- Church of, 197.
PLAGUE RIOTS, 257.
PLATE, 140.
PLEASURE PALACE, 154, 166.
POJARSKI, Prince, 107, 114.
POLAND and Muscovy, 81, 132.
POLES in Moscow, 101.
POLISH INVASION, 99 _ff._
POTIESHNI DVORETS, 154, 166.
PRINCE and Peasant, 107, 114.
PROCESSIONS, 126, 243 _ff._
PROVERBS, Muscovite, 216.
PRUD, Chisty, 12, 251.
---- Krasnoe, 306.
---- Lizin, 261.
PUBLIC Buildings, 224.
---- Clocks, 195.
Q
QUAINT survivals, 244 _ff_, 249, 276.
QUEEN ELIZABETH, 77, 85.
R
RAMPARTS, Kitai-Gorod, 38, 238.
---- Kremlin, 148;
town, 209, 306.
"RED," _see_ KRASNOE.
REDEEMER GATE, 181;
and _see_ SPASSKI VOROT.
REGALIA, 140.
RELICS, 189, 192, 196, 255; and _see_ MOSHI.
RESTAURANTS, 252, 304.
RIDING-SCHOOL, 224.
RITES, Funeral, 246;
Marriage, 38, 77, 250.
RITUAL of Russian Church, 184, 199.
ROJDESTVA, 181, 251.
ROMAN Church and Orthodoxy, 86, 95.
ROMANOF, Anastasia, 49, 109.
---- Dynasty, 109 _ff_;
House, 108, 228.
_See_ also ALEXIS, PETER, PHILARET, etc.
ROSTOPCHIN, Count, 287.
"ROYAL DOORS," 180, 197.
RUFFO, Marco, 131.
RUMIANTSEV MUSEUMS, 220.
RURIK, 5.
RUSSIA Company, 271 _ff._
S
SACRISTY of the Patriarchs, 197.
SAINTS, Russian, 184 _ff._
ST SAVIOUR'S, _see_ SPASS NA BORU, XRAM, etc.
SAKKOS, 256.
SANCTUARY, 188.
SCANDINAVIAN influence, 8.
SCHLITTE, John, 64.
SCHOOLS in Moscow, 123, 205, 210, 257.
SCOTS in Moscow, 273, 281.
SCYTHIANS, 5, 294.
SEMIRADSKI'S Pictures, 7.
SERFDOM, 86.
SERGIUS, Saint, 175.
SERVANTS' etiquette, 238.
SHALKAN, 277.
SHEIN, Captain, 105.
SHOOISKI, family, 48, 81;
Vasili, 95 _ff_;
Michael, 99.
SHRINES, 256.
SIMEON BEKBULATOV, 69, 262.
---- The Proud, 22.
SIMONOV MONASTYR, 260 _ff._
SKOPIN, Shooiski, 99, 192.
SKOPTSI, 203.
SKORODOM, 301.
SKUTAROV, Maluta, 56, 72.
SLAVERY, 265.
SLAVS, Early, 5.
SMOLENSK, 101, 105.
SNEGUIREV, 151, 188.
SOBORNIA PLOSHCHAD, 163.
SOLARIUS, P. A., 151.
SOLTIKOVS, 118, 241.
SOPHIA, Paleologus, 32, 128.
---- Tsarevna, 145, 211 _ff_, 255.
SORCERY in Moscow, 77, 121, 247.
SPARROW Hills, 1, 38, 42, 50, 251, 305.
SPASS NA BORU, 15, 22, 26, 29, 124, 196.
SPASSKI VOROT, 24, 58, 151, 279.
SRIETENKA (Meeting);
street, 209.
---- Monastyr, 208.
"STANDARDS," Army, 140;
church, 243.
STENKI-RAZIN, 145.
STRELTSI, 152, 207, 211-215.
STRIECHNEV, family of, 120.
STOVES, 95, 128, 230.
SUKHAREV BASHNIA, 208, 251.
SUSSANIN, 110.
SWEEDES, 113.
SYLVESTER, 50.
SYMBOLS, 35, 36, 140;
Cross, 182;
George and Dragon, 36;
Two Headed Eagle, 35.
T
TAINITSKI GATE, 150.
TAKING the Veil, 38, 266.
TAMERLANE, 25.
TARTARS, allied with Muscovites, 21;
cause of the invasions, 16;
defeats of, 23, 32, 35;
insult, Ivan Vasili, 38;
Ivan IV., 64;
invasions, 9, 16, 25, 26, 34, 38, 63, 82.
TAYLOR, John, 166, 280.
TEA, 235, 305.
TEREM, 41, 112, 117, 126;
Life in, 234.
THEODORE I., 80 _ff._
---- II., 123 _ff._
---- Godunov, 92 _ff._
---- Romanof, 123, 128.
---- St. 259.
THRONES, State, 140;
church, 189.
THRONOS, 181.
THURIFERS, 129.
TOKHTA, 19.
TOKHTAMYSH, Khan, 25.
TOMB of Eudoxia, Tsaritsa, 266.
---- of Dmitri, 191.
---- Ivan IV., 192.
---- Simeon, 262.
---- Sophia, Tsarevna, 266.
TOMBS of boyards, 263;
of Matvievs, 219;
of Romanofs, 263;
of Tsars, 191;
of Tsaritsas, 238;
of Varægers, 191.
"TONGUES," 216.
TORTURE, 150, 239;
_v._ CRUELTIES.
TOWER, _see_ also BASHNIA.
---- Alarm, 58.
---- Chastok, 245.
---- of Constantine, 150.
---- Ivan Veliki, 88, 155.
---- Kutaifa, 154.
---- Philaret, 156.
---- Sukharev, 208.
---- Traitors', 150.
---- Tsaritsa's, 150.
---- Watch, 245.
TRADERS, Muscovite, 237.
"TRANQUIL" TSAR, 145.
TREASURY, 139; and _see_ ORUJENIA PALATA.
TREASURY, Churches, used as, 41.
TRETIAKOV ART GALLERY, 221.
TRIAL by Combat, 240.
TRINITY CHURCH, 154, 294.
TRIUMFALNIA, 223.
TROITSA MONASTERY, 12, 24, 27, 31, 101.
TROITSKI VOROT, 154, 291.
TURBERVILLE, 232.
TVER and Moscow, 18, 21, 57.
"TWENTY NATIONS," Invasion of, 286 _ff._
U
UGLITCH, 21, 85, 97.
UGOL, Krasnoe, 132.
UNIVERSITIES, 224.
URUSOV, Princess, 202.
USBEK, Khan, 22.
USPENSKI SOBOR, 22, 117, 130, 158, 185 _ff._
USUPOV HOUSE, 219.
V
VAL, Krimski, 265.
---- ZEMLIANNI, 289.
VAROEGERS, 5.
VARVARKA, 228.
---- Vorot, 238.
VASILI I., 26.
VASILI II., 28, 31.
VASILI III., 37.
VASILI BLAJENNI, 67.
---- ---- Ch. of, 47, 65, 67, 179.
VASILI THE BLIND, 26;
"the squint-eyed," 28.
VASSIAN, Archbishop, 34, 52.
VEHICLES, Primitive, 247.
VERESHCHAGIN, 221.
VEKKHOSPASSKI CHURCH, 128, 161, 280.
VESTMENTS, Sacerdotal, 198.
VIEWS of Moscow, 251.
VIRGIN of Jerusalem, 187.
---- of Kazan, 205.
---- of Pechersk, 165.
---- of Smolensk, 141, 244.
---- of Vladimir, 187 _ff._
VISSOTSKI, 251.
VLADIMIR, the Great, 6, 139;
the Brave, 28;
Town of, 23.
VLADIMIRSKI VOROT, 205.
VLADISLAS, Tsar, 101.
VOIEVODES, 35, 42, 63.
VOROT, or Gate,
---- Arbatski, 82.
---- Borovitski, 41, 149, 291, 299.
---- Florovski, 24, 151.
---- Ilyinski, 39.
---- Jerusalem, 151.
---- Krasnoe, 219.
---- Krutitski, 122, 142.
---- Nikolski, 24, 153, 297.
---- Prechistenski, 41, 149, 291.
---- "Red," 219.
VOROT Redeemer, 24, 58, 151.
---- Spasski, 58, 151.
---- Sukharev, 208.
---- Tainitski, 150.
---- Troitski, 154.
---- Varvarka, 238.
---- Vladimirski, 205, 207.
---- Vosskresenski, 141.
VOSSKRESENSKI VOROT, 141 _ff._, 201, 244.
VOSSNESENSKI MONASTYR, 44, 257 _ff._
VSEVOLOJSKIS, 120.
VSEVOLOSHSKI, 28.
W
WALLS OF BIELO-GOROD, 82.
---- of Kitai-Gorod, 38, 238.
---- of Kremlin, 23, 148.
---- of Zemlianni-Gorod, 209.
WATCH Towers, 245.
WEAPONS, Muscovite, 139.
WINTER in Moscow, 226.
WIVES of Ivan IV., 77.
---- of Peter I., 213, 216.
WIZARDS, 77, 121.
WOMEN in Mediæval Moscow, 8, 33,
48, 61, 62, 72, 81, 86, 118, 121, 137, 213, 216, 231 _ff_, 269, 278.
X
XENIA, Princess, 94.
XRAM, 298, 299.
Y
YAUZA, 249.
YERMAK, 63, 81.
YURI Dmitrovich, 28.
---- Dolgoruki, 28, 36.
Z
ZABIELIN'S private life of Tsars, 134.
ZACHATIEVSKI, 260.
ZA-IKONO-SPASSKI MONASTYR, 205.
ZAMOSKVORETSKI, 264, 293.
ZAPIEHA, 101.
ZAPOROGIANS, 91 _ff._
ZARIADI, 205.
ZARUTSKI, 113.
ZEMLIANNI GOROD, 209.
ZLATOUSTINSKI, 219.
ZNAMIA, 243.
PRINTED BY
TURNBULL AND SPEARS,
EDINBURGH
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
the villiage of Palekh=> the village of Palekh {pg 132}
upon _fete_ days=> upon _fête_ days {pg 134}
timbers will sagg=> timbers will sag {pg 168}
as an old man=> as on old man {pg 175}
a raised dias=> a raised dais {pg 181}
orignal=> original {pg 182}
interest to Anglican's=> interest to Anglicans {pg 308}
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