Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1882-05-13

The Ancient Capital Surviving 90 Out.
shine st. Pesersburg-The Dangers
that VIII Beset Alexander when he
shows Himself.
Cor. ". Y. Sum-
Moscow, April H-In view of the approach
ing coronation Of the Car of All the Russlas,
this quiet, ultra Russian city, the city of famous
churches. of dirty and narrow streets, of long
boards and long kaftans, of stchee, kvas and
mead. has suddenly waken ed to an unusual activ-
ity. Moscow, or, as the Moscovites say Moskva,
now recalls the fact that she is the ancient capt.
tai Of the CARBON, the sacred city" the .teIn-
pie of orthodoxy and the fortress OF autocracy;"
that she has been sung by the Russian poets far
more than any other Russian city; that though
the Northern Palmyra" st. Petersburg, has
robbed her of her right of being the capital of
All the Russias. and made her widow wear
ing the purple" yet she has strictly preserved
the unique privilege Of browning the Cars,
which she has enjoyed for nearly five centuries
The coronation festivities usually last for a
month or so. and cost the treasury from
100000 to 100000 600 roubles (S7 .OO0. 600 to
Sl5OOO,U0). which chiefly go into the Mesco-
vites pockets. No wonder then, that the Mos
covtes arc now setting themselves to work in
good earnest at repavng and cleaning the
streets. painting and kalsomining the houses.
and scrnbbing things in general. Besides the
coronation. they have another reason for max
my as good show as possible During all of
last year the Moscow journals most earnestly
urged that the Cars capital be transferred
back to Moscow. Now. Moscow must prove to
the hundreds of thousands of Russians who will
come to witness the coronation that she is not
inferior to her young, proud and successful rival
on theshOre of the Baltic. national Industrial
exhibition which is to be held here at the time
wi of o6I I'm 70,
the crowds which will throng the ancient streets
OF Moscow.
Russia had three successive capitals before
Moscow. namely, NovgOrod, on the VOrkhoff !;
kleff, on the Dneper. and Vladimir, on the
kliasma. Moscow was founded in the twelfth
century by Prince YOury Dolgorooky Qong-
armed), and in the fourteenth century, when all
the small, independent princedoms were an
nexed to the MOscOvte state, became the CAPT.
tai of Russia. In the fifteenth century Ivan III.
OF MOSCOW married Princess SOphy. the niece Of
Constantine, the last emperor of the Eastern
Roman Empire. SOphy lived in Rome, and when
she came to Moscow she brought along a num-
Der OF Italian artists One of these. the architect
Aristotel Fioraventi immOrtazed his name by
building the Cars palace in kreml the church
tower OF Ivan Veliky the Great), the highest i'm
Russia. and the Uspensky AssumptiOn) Cath
edral. From that time to the present day all
the Cars and CZaritas of Russia have been
crowned and anointed in the Uspensky Cathe-
dral in Moscow.
What tale the walls of that ancient and
now insignificant cathedral could tell Within
it Ivan the Terrible stood and took an oath be
fore God that he would be an ever-loving father
to his subjects, and yet during the fifty years of
his reign he proved himself one of the cruelest
tyrants that ever lived. Metropolitan Phillip.
who anointed him with chrism, afterward
called him "a mad dog" and blessed the hand
that should kill him. Nevertheless, that crowned
maniac in his bright hours was genius
Among statesmen We 70,
him in knowledge, and he knew the Bible by
heart. In that same cathedral stood TheOdor.
the last ruler of the Rurik family. which reigned
IN Russia over seven centuries. Next there ap-
peared in. the cathedral sly Tartar prince
Boris GOdunOff. who murdered the last de-
scendant OF the Rurik family, Dmitry, the little
brother of Theordor, ard snatched the Cars
crown tor himself BY his ukase the free peas
ants were converted into the serfs of the
Boyards: whose land they happened to occupy
by an impostor. self-called Dmitry, tool of the
Poles. In the same year he was killed, his body
was burned, and his ashes were fred out of a
cannon. In the next year Vastly Shooysky, a
Bayard, was crowned, and four years later was
depOsed by the BOyards. During the interreg-
mum from 1910 to 1913 the Russians looked to
Metropolitan HermOgen of the Uspensky Cathe-
dral for orders.
In 1913 the old cathedral witnessed the coro-
nation Of q youth of Is, Michael Romanoff, a re-
Although he was elected by the national assem-
bly,. even the first Romanof Gar preferred to
call himself an autOcrat by Gods grace instead
OF by the will Of the people, as he was in fact
seventy years later two Cars were crowned at
once in the Uspensky Cathedral-Ivan, a youth
of 16, weak in mind and body. and Peter, a boy
OF 10. The young Cars were ruled, along with
their country by their treacherous sister, Sophy,
whom Peter, when he attained his seyenteefh
year, put into convent for life. This was
uio Dot
0nd, was the last male ruler of the Romanoff
family, and he died when only IA years old.
Four female autocrats have been crowned in
the Uspensky Cathedral. of whom only two were
Of the Romanof house. Catherine l., the wife
Of Peter the Great. who ruled after her hus-
bands death, was German by BIRTH and of low
origin. Catherine H., the murderess of her hus-
band, Peter I'LL, was a German princess Of An
hait-Zerbst.' Anna, the daughter Of Car Ivan.
snatched the imperial crown with bloOd-stained
la DdS. 1t was she who was accused of poison
ing the boy Car. Peter ii. Elizabeth, the daugh-
ter OF Peter the Great. was crowned after having
thrown into prison the baby Gar Ivan VI, the
son of prince of Brownschweig.
With the death of Elizabeth, in 1861, the house
of Romanoff was extinguished. The son of a
prince of Holstein. Gottorp, who married Anna,
the daughter of Peter the Great, was crowned
under the name of Peter III. He wore the
crown only six months, when he was dethroned
and killed by order of his wife, Catherine the
SSSoiiu' ITO sun. dui buOuSIt d UOfu lUiOG.
was crowned as autOcrat of All the Russias.
Four years afterward he was strangled by con-
spIratOrs one of whom was his own son, and
who was then crowned under the name of Alex
ander l., called the Blessed. Next came Mich
Olas l. and Alexander H., the Liberator, and
there the list Of the anointed Cars of Russia at
present ends.
1t appears, after all, that the throne of Russia
has not been always occupied by members of the
Ruvik and ROmanOff families; that there have
been seated on it Tartar, a Boyard, an impos-
tor, and a number Of small German princes:
that the Car Of to-day as well as six of his i'm
mediate predecessors, belongs to the Holstein-
GottOrp family; that among those who have
worn the Cars crown were some maniacs.
idiots, and murderers Of both sexes; that the
four women who welded the scepter of Peter
the Great added anything but honor to the
throne of Russia, and that court revolution is
the most promising feature of the history of the
Russian rulers.
The rite Of the Cars coronation is performed
according to the custom Of the ancient Chris
tian rulers aud of the first Russian Cars On
the appointed day the highest dignitaries of
the state and the representatives Of all classes
and tribes found in Russia appear at the Mos
cow Kreml. In the Uspensky cathedral. where
Of fhn fOypr fnoy, nov,Izc 80