The Washington herald., 1915-04-25

years for the pioneer woman ruler OF
Russia.
was e s daughter Of the 20 detective ivan Y
the Empress Ann. who reigned cruelty
for ten years. Soon palace revo-
luton brought in another monarch in pet
As the Empress Elizabeth she reigned
until her death. eleven years after her
Following her came another Empires.
atty of Europe had disdained to unite
with the Russian ruling house until a
beautiful Saxon princess of Is was be-
trothed to a grandson Of the witless War
moved from idiocy and he had no
more than put on the crown than his
German wife pushed him of the throne
and seated herself upon it. leaving hin
Thus began the long and famous rule
Of Catherine II, or Catherine the Great
Possibly a candid history might make
h &so 0s sars ss si as aSsns S Naas
mirers. admitted that there were some
trifies with which she might be re.
PREACHED. but he dIscreetly declined to
eneSss to S say IN saeh hasty SUMMARY
as this that in GATHERINGS reign OF
thirty-four years the empire took it,
place for the first time among the powers
Black Sea and shared in the three parti.
tons of Poland. To Russians generally
this German woman remains the only
companion in glory Of Peter the Great.
Romanons No More.
After Russia had been under the rule
Of women for fifty-eight out Of seventy
years since the death Of Peter the Great
Catherine died in 17S6. when the crown
passed to her son and the supposed son
of the husband she had dethroned. Neg.
God ofv,aI h1y iYnY NH
mother. and morbidly reGretful of the
fate of his father, this Paul I was SC
unframed and ill-fitted for rule that he
quickly won the unhappy name Of the
mother. he decreed that no woman ever
again should be Empress except In the
total absence of male members of the
imperial race; and he paid imperial hon.
ors to his fathers remains.
At first Paul was filled with horror by
the French Revolution and next with
idolatry for its champion. Napoleon. COW
ering the walls OF his rooms with por-
The aristocracy grew alarmed by the
fits and turns OF the Car. who made the
oft-quoted remark. The only person OF
distinction in Russia Is he whom
ment I am addressing him.. A party
Of noble thugs beat and strangled Paul
to death es he lay In his bed.
The Modern Csars.
Old Russia passed out Of one gate Of
the Kremlin as Alexander I entered an
other in 1901, when he went to Moscow
to receive the crown of his murdered
father. The new Gar and the nineteenth
century had come in together and their
appearance signalized the passing of the
Muscovite dynasty tragedies. The age Of
the Ruriks and the Romanoffs was gone.
Although Cars still boast the ancient
family name, they are neither Romanoffs
nor Russians-at least not Slavic Rus
SLAMS. Rather they are Germans In blood
and Russians only by residence. For the
founder of the present reigntng house
was not the Russian Michael but the
German Catherine II.
Catherine brought up Ter son and
grandsons In the Western manner and
married them to German princesses. Still,
Notwithstanding that his grandmother
and mother. his tutor and his wife were
all from the West, Alexander's nature
was shot through with the mysticism of
the East and ne was as full OF baflins
contradictions as any Muscovite Of old.
Hating war, he delighted in military
drills. Ardently plunging into the cam
paigns against Napoleon, whom he dis
dained to address as my brother" he
fell In love with him at first sight when
they met IN Tilsit. Becoming his sworn
ally. he was yet >acclaimed the liberator
Of Europe at the downfall Of the French
Empire. His reign Of twenty,four years
however sincerely made to the ear. were
broken to the hope.
Alexander. who had no children. achiev-
ed tho astonishing feat OF persuading
his brother and lawful heir. Constantine.
to renounce the throne on the ground of