The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1881-04-06

which prevailed down to Peter the Great,
all were reduced into one dominion, with the
chief grand duchy at Moscow.
Moscow had, during all this time, received
the favor Of the Kahn, and also had the ia
vor of the church, whose head had been re-
moved hither by the Metropolitan from Val
dimir in 1926. The sons of Ivan pursued the
same policy, and it was continued without
feature or intermission till Dimitri, who at
last attempted to shake off the shameful
yoke Of Mongol supremacy, defeated the
hordes, now divided into four sections, on
the banks of the Don. But he was not
strong enough to follow up bis victory, and
the Tartars, taking the lesson Of weakness,
reunited under the succeeding Kahn. burned
Moscow and riveted anew the chains that had
only just been thrown off this was soon
followed by a new invasion by Tamerlane,
and again a little later by Edijei. But none
doing anything but plumber.
A Russian spirit was now thoroughly man.
| ifest, and was arising into q vigor Of its
through the kindly Intervention of taxes and
servitude without stint, nor could Tartar nor
Khan keep him down. After g. reign OF con-
tinual civil war by Vassili the Blind, whose
blindness blinded the horde s into q false Sc
curity, that gave the disunited parts time to
again unite; when the blind grand duke gave
gave up at once the ghost and the relns OF
power, that fell into hands which knew how
10 guide the fiery steeds that had often run
their riot of destruction-Ivan the Great.
Ivan availed himself Of every opportunity
s'for a%bolishipg the petty principalities which
| owed him allegiance as grand duke, and man
euvered SO %skillfully, that some Of the princes
voluntarily surrendered their rights, others
bequeathed their lands to him; while others,
as the prince of Tver, were reduced by force
Of arms, but so vigorously did Ivan carry out
his schemes, that in 1873 this last Of the great
then took advantage of the dissensions be-
tween Achmet, Kahn of the Golden Horde,
and Mengli, kahn of the Crimean Horde, to
deliver Russia from the state Of servitude by
uniting with the latter: their combined arms
DESTROYING the power Of the former in 1880;
and the kingdom Of Astrakhan, which rose
on its ruins, was wholly unable to cope with
the now powerful monarchy. He next turn
ed his attention to the western provinces,
which had formerly belonged to the descend
ants of the Sunny Vladimir, bat were now
in the hands Of the Lithuanians, under whom
the adherents Of the Greek church were bit
terly oppressed by the catholics, and accord
ingly hailed the advance guard of Iyan's
| army as a deliverance from persecution"
1t is difficult to estimate the Importance Of
these events or the policy which resulted from
them. Ivan the II. showed a genius for gov
eminent and q power of foresight that has left
an indellible impress upon all its subsequent
history. The policy of alliance and absorb
ton by which Russia has taken into her fold
almost all the nomads Of Asia has been
always and is q policy Of taking up the cause
Of the weak against the strong and then ab-
sorbing them both and with the same i%rreeisti-
BILE impulse which guided old Rome to pre-
dominance, and by q process almost exactly
similar, under conditions of social life
that form nearly exact parallels with those
which Rome assimilated and reduced, if not
to political ~homogenity, at least to degree
of social1unitY-a tendency it has continued
to advance until it has resulted in the
civilization Of Western Europe. And we
shall see this process, under Russian
direction, carrying this civilization to the
Hordes Of Asia, and although the process is
not nearly yet completed, it has received q
momentum which will not be turned aside
from the sure result.
1t was with this Ivan that began the popular
Russian idea that she was alegacy Of Greece,
and, strangely enough, this Enthusiastic idea
has had powerful fascination and wonderful
influence on the formation of the national in
stinct, and in shaping its peculiar destiny:
it is the pivotal animus Of what is termed
the eastern Question" This has been due
to several causes, which, when viewed, re-
duces the phantasma to . logical fact. In
the first place, the people, who had just
emerged from beneath the Tartar yoke, and
formed into national conference, were without
q past, or national traditions, and were ready
to adopt the heroic and splendid Greek,
which had already fastened itself upon the
nation through the medium Of the Church.
And this foWery and imaginative people
could not fail to be dazzled by that fantastic
outgrowth of classic Greek and oriental
crlondnr which had ar fhio f;ua rannhad ita