Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-05-30
The Crown Of the Cars.

From the New York Times.
The fashion of Russia's imperial coronations
has changed almost as often as the spot where
they were celebrated. Ruric, the first Russian
sovereign. fixed his capital at Great Novgorod,
about 100 miles from the present site of St.
Petersburg. In the ensuing century it was
superseded by Kieff, on the Dnieper. Kieff in
turn gave place to Vladimir, between Moscow
and Nijni-NOvgOrod. Moscow itself ranked as
the metropolis Of Russia from the middle OF the
fifteenth century to the foundation of st. Pc
tersbufg at the opening of the eighteenth In
the eyes OF oil true Russians, Mother Moscow"
as they affectOnately call the great city is still
the real center of national life, and the fitting
place for the coronation of their soverelgns and
the conservation of their archbishops. In fact
the bulk Of the population rank their "Eelo-
kamennaya MOskva." (White-walled Moscow. J
as far above st: Petersburg as the Italians rank
Rome above Florence. or as the Afuhans rank
Kandahar above Cabul.
The gorgeous ceremonial which has lust
drawn upon Moscow the eyes of the whole civil
LIED world has certainly but little In common
with the barbarOus rite Of the tenth century,
when the fierce spearnen Of the Unieper raised
their great prince" upon buckler of hide and
swOre by their weapons'-the customary oath
OF these wild warrOrs-to be true to him and to
each other. But the various cOrOnatiOns of the
house of ROmanOT undoubtedly form very
gloomy retrospect. Its founder, Michael Feo-
dorovitch was crowned amid the ruins of Mos
COW, which had been destroyed by the Polish in
vaslOn OF 1872 and but for the devotion of o
RUSSIAN peasant his reign would have been ended
by treacherous nrtEler before 1t had well begun.
Asimilar fate overlook his third successor. Peter
the Great. who signaliZcd his accession by behead-
Ing hundreds of his insurgent Lifeguardsnen
close to the gate by which Alexander ILL., en-
tered the kreniin yesterday. Peters daughter,
Eiizabeth owed her crown to the violent depO-
sition OF her predecessor, Anna IvanOvna Cath
arne H. g coronation was celebrated while the
corpse of her murdered husband Peter III Law
unburied In the gloomy old palace of Oranien-
baum, twenty niles away, and the very hands
which held ont the crown to Alexander L. at the
opening OF the present century, had straugled
his father Paul.
But even more sinister Omens attended the
accession Of Nicholas in 1926 Only few
months before 1t two-thirds OF St Petersburg
had been laid in ruins by the overlooking of
the Neva. and to the fury of the elements was
added the yet more fatal rage Of civil war In
December, 1925. the capitalwas c0nvused bv q
deadly conflict between the adherents of the
Grand Duke COnstantine-knOwn in history as
the Deceinbrists-and those of his brother
Nicholas. The Dccembrist party fought des-
perately. but the powerful artillery and ruthless
determination of Nicholas speedily crushed all
resistance. Thousands were slain, thousands
more dragged away to Siberia, and not a few
hanged or shot after the fight was over. Among
these last was Russian poet of some note who
dehed his doom In a causttc parody of one of
Nicholas proclamations, often remembered and
repeated during the thirty years tyranny that