The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1881-04-13
OLD AND NEW RUSSIA.
A Brief History Of its Political and Social
Growth, in Connection With the Rise
" Of the Romanofs.
written for the RIVER PREss.1
NUMBER w.

arms. which ne did after his union With the
imperial family q Co%nstantinople, also as
sumed the title of Car Of all the Russias.
He introduced N and manufactures
into Russia, bringing architects and a~rtizians
from Constantinople and from Italy, and
borrowing from everywhere in fact the
reign Of this Prince was a continued effort to
civilize and instruct his people and restore
the exhausted energies Of the empire. He
was the first to formulate the laws of the sew
eral Russian municipalities into one code; and
although his acts, when measured by modern
standards, were barbaric and relentless, they
were in perfect keeping with his times and
surroundings; his best justification is his sue
cess and the far-reaching effects Of his poll
cy. His son, VassiliII continued his fathers
policy, although he was not 50 aggressive,
and his only conquest was the department. Of
Smolensk, taken from the Lithuanians.
Ivan ". (Terrible) succeeded, and, being
only three years of age, the country was gov
erned by q sort Of regency or council, under
which Russia was partially disorganized, and
again became q prey to internal dissentions.
On reaching his majority, however, Ivan dis
played splendid ability and proved himself
eninently capable of governing the anarchi-
Cal elements of his extended empire. He
first reformed the code introduced by his
grandfather, and then created the first Rus
sian standing army, that for q N was to do
good service, but which afterwards becamea
sort of praetorian guard, that became the
master Of the CARBON instead Of its ser
want, and was the direct cause Of many reyO-
lutions. He married Anastasia Romanoff,
the daughter Of 8 Russian Noble, whose Ter
ritories lay ii the principally Of Vladimir.
The family Of Andrew Kobyla, which
Anastasia, Roman Jureivitch, originally came
from the little county Of Holstein, in Prus-
STA, and the disposition and capacity for gov
eminent which has been characteristic of
this family seems borrowed from this Prus-
sian line. -
Under Ivan the Terrible Russia was much
enlarged, and the power remaining to the
Tartars in..Europe broken in the subjugation of
Astrakhan and Kazan, only the Crimea re-
NAMED, from which Moscow was to suffer
once more. Western Siberia Was added to
Russia by q peculiar accident. A Cossack,
Temak, who was in the employ of Ivan, was
disgraced and in exile for INSTRUMENTATION, and
this adventurer gathered together a band Of
malcontents and formed quite an army,
which went out on an errand Of plumber Of
its own, having no other ezra nd or purpose
in the world. Turning his face Eastward,
Yermak crossed the Ural into Siberia and
soon conquered the entire western half Of
that vast empire. Roaming and plundering
for some years and constantly adding to his
conquesta, he at last become tired, and MAX
ing an overture for pardon to Ivan, it was
accepted, and the devoted Yermak laid the
whole of his conquests at the feet of the
Emperor IS the price of peace. Thus was a
vast dominion added to the Russian posses
sions without an effort on the part of the
government retaining it.
The brother of Anastasia, Nitka Romono-
witch, intermarried with the royal family of
Rurick (making q double alliance), and his
son was made metropolitan, or head Of the
Greek Church Of Russia. AT this time the
Czarina Anastasia died, supposed to have
been poisoned, TO further ONE court intrigue
with which the Czardom at this time was
permeated. This infamed and unsettled Ivan
who began that season Of prescription, muir
der and terror which has left him the name
Terrible" Large numbers of the nobility
were murdered, and others fled to foreign
countries, and thousands of people were put
to death in the principal cities in fact who
ever was suspicioned by the insane Gar to
have any connection with the intriguing no.
bles and this suspicious disposition had be-
come SO chronic that at last he murdered his
eldest son. Russia, now being thoroughly
d~isorganized, was a prey to famine, raplne,
and foreign invasion. The Tartars OF the
Crimea made an eruption and burned Mos
cow, while the King Of Poland made war
upon him and detached the province OF
Livonia, and this same king, through the
power of arms and intrigue, came near cap
turing the Imperial sceptre Of the Cars.
Ivan at last died and left his empire to his
son. This son, Feodor, left the government