The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1881-03-30
Oh . AND NEW RUSSIA.
A Brief History Of It's Political and Social
Growth, in Connection With the Rise
Of the RomanofHs.
written for the RIVER PRESS

1lC I6ItaISs VIII VCIC ~ AOuL CCuLuI1CS
to exert the greatest political int1uenue in
Russia, and leave behind them SO little of
their characteristics that two centuries have
almost obliterated them, occupied all that re-
gion from the Caspian to Cochin China and
from the Arctic Ocean to the Hi1nalayas,
with some outlaying spurs in European Rus
STA in the Crimea, Astrakan and Kazan. At
this time, (about the 18th century,, they
were a people without either wealth, govern
ment or popular traditions. Indeed, it is be-
You'd the historic period we must look if we
are to find any tendency to tie themselves to
the soil, or to become civilized beyond the
crude and almost total rudeness Of the pres
ent, and even then We will be disappointed,
for beyond the shadowy traditions Of con-
tending populations who were being relent-
lessly pushed westward by the sWarming
masses of northern India which passed over
10 the land of promise beyond and left moth
ing Of their movement but the %stragglers who
casually dropped by the way, We shall find
nothing but all absolute blank. These popu-
lations left behind, like an ocean in its ever
shifting mass, have been rocking to and fro
between the civilizations Of the Aryan race,
which have always presented an impossible
barrier to other than a temporary overflow
when its depths were stirred by some unto
ward event into furious storm that raised to
the poWer of tidal wave, and then settled
back again into its bed OF troublesome anar-
chy and bottomless incapacity for improve
ment, or to receive two or three conquering
armies that have hurriedly passed through
the southern extremity Of the Scythian
wastes,
Why they would never settle nor show 8
tendency to settle into q condition Of stabili-
ty, or chrystalize into any form of political
life, is an chronological mystery, unless their
ever and present tribal formation can be CALI
ed an chronological trait, as thoroughly i'm
bled in them as is in the Phpni-
clan and Hebrew race, Or war 10 the Aryan
But more likely it is due to geographical po-
sition, and the fact that it has been the stamp
ing ground for SO many sWarming and mi
gratory races, for centuries beyond the his
toric period, causing such a mixture of race
instinct as to destroy all instinct, and create
such confused restlessness that its elements
could not combine.
It is here that the mission Of Russia is so
apparent in its usefulness as a civilizing
agent, by reducing this hive of unrest and an
archy to quiet and lava mission in which
England has signally failed, because Of the
individualism of her people.
II is only in late years that anything was
definitely learned Of this nomadic people,
and the most trustworthy information, and
vivid pictures of their social life and habits,
as well as political forms, are given by YAM
brey, who was sent by the Hungarian Geo.
graphical Society to discover. if possible,
the source Of. the Hungarian branch Of the
Turanian family. He Travelled, disguised as
q derVSM and Oriental merchant, as far as
Samarcand and Khiva, and made q study of
the people under conditions more favorable
than any before or since.
The country is divided into numberless
petty soyereignties, existing in walled towns,
with a country tributary of only a few miles
in extent. Where the Persian race had
nhuc duy AnP1CcS OA tAO PCopASs oAS AA@au-
facture of carpets, shaWls, felts and leather
is carried on with q degree Of excellence un-
known elsewhere in the world; a skill which
has come down to us with the centuries, with
no change WhateYer-the skill OF Tyre and
Damascus existing to-day in the self same
method and channel it did forty centuries
ago, or for aught we know to the contrary,
when the old Sanskrit civilization, which was
old and worn out when Homer was creating
q new one with! the imperishable Iliad, was
young and enterprising and aggressive.
The petty sovereignties have each the form
of an aristocracy on q democratic tribal
foundation, but each petty chieftain is a law
unto himself and a terror to his neighbors.
The democracy is Of the kind called public
opinion, and has no legal expression, but oc-
casionally manifests itself against the chiefs
by the arbitrary method Of revolution and
destruction; and the changes are the result
of continual intrigue and internal turmoil.
Several times one of these chieftains have
conquered, and for q time politically amalga-
mated the entire group, and in these periods
Of a~malgamation have poured the destruc-
tive flood upon the world, almost to its del
uge. Among these the most powerful We're
Genghis Khan and TimuT, who, during the
brief period of their lives created q central
lied power which for centuries he's held q
y. - ~ Z---.A .- H.-~--