The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

193 BTTSSIA IN EUROPE.But many objections have been raised against this theory. The numerousgeographical terms containing the root rus or ros are met especially in Pomerania,Riigen, Lithuania, White Russia, on the Dnieper. Ros is the Lithuanian nameof the Nieinen, whence the designation of Po-Russi, or " People by the Rus,"given to the Prussians. The Kiev country, at that time the very heart ofRussia proper, had also its legend of three brothers founders of the city, butassociated with Danubian, not with Baltic traditions. The Patriarch Photiusspeaks of the Russians as already a strong and victorious people, well knownto the Byzantine Greeks ; and Arab writers about the end of the ninth andbeginning of the tenth century describe the Russians as a Slav nation comprisingthree branches—that of Kuyaba (Kiev), that of the Novgorod Sloveni, and theArtsanie group, identified either with Razan, on the Oka, or Rostov, near theYolga. Altogether it seems evident that at the end of the ninth century, if notearlier, there was already a compact Russian nation in the Dnieper basin, enjoyinga certain culture, and even with a knowledge of writing.In the midst of all the Slav tribes described in the early chronicles as possessingdistinct usages and institutions, three local centres were first established—Novgorodamongst the Yolkhov Slavs, Polotzk on the Dvina, and Kiev, the city of thePolani, or "Men of the Fields," in the Dnieper basin.This last was the most favourablysituated on a navigable river opening the road to Constantinople and theMediterranean, with a relatively mild climate, and in one of the most fertile tractsin the world.Hence the Slav tribes were naturally attracted to the Dnieper basin,and Kiev, where are found the oldest historical monuments of Russia, includingthe famous " Golden Gate," was, next to Constantinople, the largest and richestcity in Eastern Europe, taking the rank of metropolis in a temporary federation ofGreat and Little Russians.But this southern region was, on the other hand, exposedto the first and fiercest onslaughfs of hostile tribes, such as the Avars, Khazars,Magyars, Petcheneghs, Kumans, Turks, and Mongols, who either sought settlementsin these rich plains, or else endeavoured to force a passage through them to the west.Thus it was that Russian civilisation was eventually driven north and north-east.But towards the end of the twelfth century two other centres began toacquire importance—Vladimir Yolinskiy, capital of Vladimiria, or Lodomeria, soonreplaced by Galitch (Halicz), capital of Galicia, in the west, and in the eastSuzdal, succeeded by its neighbour Vladimir Zaleskiy, political precursor ofMoscow. Galicia endeavoured to maintain itself in the struggle against theTatars ;but being exposed to the attacks of its neighbours, the Poles, Lithuanians,and Magyars, it fell under Polish rule about the middle of the fourteenth century.The princes of Vladimir and Moscow sought in a less chivalrous spirit to conciliatethe favour of the victorious Tatars, content to rule in their name in order tosecure possession of all North-east Russia. But while the Muscovite princes werethus augmenting their military sway, the republican cities of the north-west,Pskov, and especially Novgorod, became, between the thirteenth and sixteenthcenturies, the exponents of the national culture and traditions of the region whichthen assumed the title of " Great Russia," and which has become the domain of