policy was markedly influenced by his second marriage with Sophia (Zoë), a niece of the last Byzantine emperor, who had been educated in Rome at the papal court. Cardinal John (Basilios) Bessarion (the humanist and advocate of the union of the churches), had first prompted that alliance. The proposal in question reached the Grand Duke, then twenty years old, in 1469, and had been received by the Boyars with enthusiasm. In the year 1472 Sophia entered Moscow accompanied by many of her countrymen and by the papal legate Antonio, and her arrival brought a new spirit into the Russian court. She it was who realised the humiliation of the Mongol yoke. Moscow regarded itself now as the heir of Byzantium and Ivan adopted the double-headed Byzantine eagle as the new arms of Russia (cf. p. 144). The outlook of Russian policy widened; henceforward Russia was regarded as the representative and seat of orthodoxy. Moscow took up the cause of the Greek Christians in the East and actually waged war in the name of this idea, which was translated into deeds against the Osmans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Pope indeed, when he sent the fair daughter of the Palaiologi to Russia, was intent on the plan of winning the whole of Russia for Rome; but the cunning of the Russian sovereign frustrated such intentions. Ivan derived all possible advantages from that alliance without conferring the slightest benefits in return. The entry of the Roman legate into Moscow was a humiliation for Rome; he was forced to put aside the silver crucifix, which he wished to be borne in front of him, and to face an argument with a learned Russian monk, which only caused him annoyance. Even the young Greek princess, once arrived on Russian soil, seemed to have forgotten her Roman education and her papal benefactor.

It was Sophia also who taught her husband "the secret of despotism." Ivan came forward now in a quite different character from the earlier Grand Dukes. He stood before the eyes of the Russians like an avenging deity, and was called not only the "Great" but the "Awful" (gnosnyi; the surname "Terrible" suits Ivan IV better). He inflicted death penalties and martyrdoms lavishly. When he slept after meals, the Boyars anxiously kept watch by him; women fainted at his gaze. He treated foreign potentates with almost Oriental presumption. When the Mongol Khan Ahmed sent envoys with his portrait, in order to demand the tribute, he stamped on the portrait, and ordered all the envoys to be killed except one who was to bring the tidings to Astrakhan. He communicated with the Mongol envoys only through officials of the second rank. In a word, the bearing of the Grand Duke testified to unbounded pride of sovereignty. He governed without the Boyars; when one of them complained that the Grand Duke decided every point alone, he was beheaded. Herberstein (cf. the explanation to Figure 6 of the plate at page 452) asserts that no monarch in Europe was so implicitly obeyed by his subjects as the Grand Duke of Russia. This self-consciousness of the Russian court often, indeed, amounted to an absurdity, and barbarous customs considerably detracted from the magnificence which was displayed at the reception of foreign embassies.

Ivan carried on the work of uniting Russia in the most unscrupulous manner. He began by entering into a series of contracts with his relations, in order to secure to himself the supremacy. He then put an end to the more or less independent petty principalities and lordships which existed round Moscow. Thus in the first years of his reign Tver, Vereja, Rjasan, and then Bjelosersk, Rostow, Jaroslav, etc.,

were placed under the immediate government of Moscow. The union of Novgorod with Moscow cost much bloodshed. This once powerful free city on the Ilmen, the cradle of the Russian State, brought on its own fall by internal factions. The princes of Moscow had long been indignant that Novgorod barred their access to the sea, and also entertained the suspicion that it might join their enemies, Lithuania or Poland. Its freedom must therefore be crushed; it was not enough that, having long recognised the suzerainty of the lords of Moscow, it paid them tribute without difficulty; its self-government was to be taken away. Ivan understood how to form a political party out of the supporters of the Greek faith in Novgorod, and to play them off against the others, who were devoted to the Catholic cause, and therefore to Poland. The Lithuano-Polish party was led by the Borecki family, whose head was Marfa, the energetic widow of a former Possadnik. Ivan waited until Novgorod was guilty of a breach of faith by opening negotiations with Poland, in order to seek protection there against the attacks of Russia. The Muscovite army then entered the territory of Novgorod and defeated the untrained Novgorodian troops, who had been collected with great difficulty, in 1471 at the river Schelona. The Novgorodians submitted, recognised Ivan as sovereign, and actually accepted the jurisdiction of the courts of Moscow. But in 1478 Ivan took from them the rest of their self-government, deported the most famous families into the interior of Russia, sent his governors to Novgorod, and brought to Moscow the bell which for centuries had summoned the people to the popular assembly. The fall of Novgorod has often been sung by the poets and made the subject of drama, Marfa Borecka being celebrated as the heroine. But no one will deny that the republic outlived its day, that it never properly fulfilled its duty as a middleman between the merchants of the East and West, and that it now really stood in the way of the union of Russian countries. The capture of Novgorod and its environs gave Moscow an overwhelming superiority over the other principalities.

Besides this, Ivan conquered Perm, "the land of silver beyond the Kama." The second free city, Vyatka, was conquered in 1489; an advance was made to the Petchora, the Ural was crossed, and the country of the Voguls and Ugrians made tributary. Russia thus expanded as far as the Arctic Ocean, and for the first time set foot in Asia. Vasilij III then subjugated the free state of Pskov, where the dissensions of the citizens had opened the ground for him; many families were sent from thence to other towns. "Alas, glorious and mighty Pskov, wherefore this despair and these tears?" exclaims the poetical chronicler. "How shall I not despair?" answered Pskov. "An eagle with the claws of a lion has swooped down on me. . . . Our land is wasted, our city ruined, our marts are destroyed, our brethren led away whither neither our fathers nor grandfathers dwelt." But subordination to Moscow was for Pskov an historical necessity if the unification of Russia was to progress. When Vasilij had banished the princes of Rjasan and Novgorod Severskij and united their lands with Moscow, the union of European Russia under the leadership of Moscow would appear almost finished. Russia already directed her eyes toward newly discovered Asiatic districts, where the Arctic Ocean formed the frontier. Only the Lithuanians and the Tartars were still left to be conquered.

Ivan III had the good fortune to shake off the Tartar yoke. several Tartar kingdoms, Kasan, Astrakhan (Sarai), the Nogai ince of the Crimea, and numerous smaller independent hordes,

There were then Horde, the provwho all fought

with each other, and thus lightened the task of the Grand Duke. In the year 1480 Ivan advanced with a strong army against the great horde of Sarai, but could not make up his mind to strike; for months the two armies stood opposite each other in inaction, until at last the Tartars withdrew. It was not therefore a great victory; Russia had only ceased to pay tribute. Once again, in the year 1521, the Tartars of the Crimean horde united with their tribesmen beyond the Volga in the Nogai steppe and in Kasan to attack Moscow. The town was so suddenly invested on all sides that the Grand Duke Vasilij hardly made good his escape. The citizens in their first panic promised to pay again the old tribute. Then discord broke out among the Tartars; they withdrew. From that time the Tartar danger was as good as ended. But another Mohammedan power, Turkey, threatened Russia from the south; in 1475 Mohammed II (p. 145) brought the Crimea under his suzerainty. At the same time a growing danger arose in the union, Poland with Lithuania. How could Russia have withstood this powerful neighbour if she had been still politically divided, and dependent on Tartar hordes? It was the merit of the Grand Dukes of Moscow that a liberated and united Russia could not only defend itself, but could also advance victoriously against the menacing foe.

The prestige of Moscow grew not only in all Russian districts, but also in foreign countries. The courts of Western Europe sought to win the alliance of the Grand Duke. Apart from their relations to Rome, Lithuania, and Poland, Ivan III and his son Vasilij received envoys from Venice, Hungary, the emperor Frederick III and his son Maximilian, Sweden, and Denmark. From the East came envoys from Turkey, Georgia, and Persia.

Russia now found the leisure and also felt the wish to devote time to the work of civilization. Just as when formerly the Grand Duke Vladimir married the Greek princess, Anna (p. 452) the art and religion of Byzantium was transplanted with her to Russia, thus the second wife of Ivan and her Greek suite now called a new age of culture into life. Byzantine scholars brought Greek books with them, which formed the nucleus of the later libraries of Moscow. Ivan III himself took pleasure in distinguished foreigners. Artists and scholars from Western Europe found a brilliant reception at his court. In Aristotele Fioraventi of Bologna he acquired a distinguished architect, artillerist, and tutor for his children. Pietro Antonio built a palace for him. Monks from the famous monastery of Athos came to Russia; amongst them a learned Greek, Maxim by name, was conspicuous. He is said to have been astonished to find such a mass of old manuscripts in the Kremlin at Moscow. The monks were intrusted by the Grand Duke with the translation of Greek books into Slavonic. The Grand Dukes owed their successes against the Tartars and petty princes partly to the artillery perfected by foreigners. The whole system of warfare was revolutionised. At the same time mineral treasures were exploited. Ivan III also devoted attention to the judicial system, which in the Tartar age was often a matter of caprice, and in 1497 caused the common law to be published in the new Russian code Sudebnik.

(b) Vasilij III Ivanovitch. - The question of the succession, that open wound from which Russia so long bled, and to which she formerly owed her subjugation, was at last settled. The testamentary dispositions of Ivan III showed his opinion on the point. After he had long hesitated whether to nominate as his successor his grandson or his son by his second wife, he decided in favour of his son Vasilij,

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATE OVERLEAF

Left above: Ivan III Vassilievitch, the first "High Prince and Autocrat (Gossudar) of all Russia (1462-1505). From "La Cosmographie universelle" d'André Thevet, cosmographe du Roy; Paris, 1575. Thevet found the portrait in the possession of a Greek at Brussa in Asia Minor.

(From the work of Rovinski, “Portraits authentiques des Tzars Jean III, Basil son fils, et Jean IV le Terrible," in the Royal and Imperial Familienfideikommiss Library at Vienna.)

Right above: Ivan IV Vassilievitch the "Terrible" (Grosnyi, 1533–1584).

(From the contemporary woodcut “ Abcontrafactur des Herren Quar und Grossfürsten Iwan Bassilowitz, aller Reusen ein Monarcha, etc.,” in the Royal and Imperial Court Library at Vienna.

Below: The emperor Maximilian I receives the embassy of Vassilie III Ivanovitch (1505– 1533). After the woodcut by Hans Burgkmair.

(From "Der Weiss Kunig" (the white king). A narrative of the exploits of the emperor Maximilian I. Compiled from his memoirs by Marx Treitzsaurwein, with specially drawn woodcuts by Hannsen Burgmair; Vienna, 1775.)