The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

THE GREAT RUSSIANS. 881the subject. Some idea of a Great Russian household, that dark abode of domesticdespotism, may be gleaned from the national songs, such especially as occur inShein's collection, as well as from Ostroviskiy's dramas. Absolutism, thoughperhaps of a kindly type, was the rule in the Great Russian home. " I beatyou," says a favourite local proverb, " as I do my fur, but I love you as mysoul."The commune, and even the State itself, were universally regarded as anenlarged family. An absolute authority, a will without appeal, imposed on all by acommon father—such was the ideal of society as conceived by each of its members.In this respect Little and Great Russia presented a most remarkable contrast.Every Malo-Russian village had an independent development ; no one thoughtof enslaving his neighbour ; the motives of war between communities wereeither the struggle for existence or a love of adventure, rather than the thirstof dominion.Hence their warlike undertakings were conducted without that fixityof purpose, that unflagging tenacity of will, which inspired the policy of the GreatRussian rulers. The right of popular election was upheld to the last in thetowns of Kiyovia, as well as in Novgorod and the other autonomous cities ofWest Slavdom. Whatever may have been the origin of the old supremacy ofKiev, it is certain that it had nothing in common with the supremacy of Muscovy.Kiev was nothing more than "the first among its like," and their politicalsystem was maintained by a free confederation during the early stages ofRussian history. Later on the Cossack communities were organized on the samefooting, and even their chiefs again withdrew into privacy after their temporaryelection by their compeers. Nor were the ideas of the Zaporogs limitedto the enclosures of their strongholds, for the whole of Little Russia existedto form a Cossack community.Nothing of all this in Muscovy, where the power acquired by a single familyAvas respected by the people, and continued, as a divine institution, fromgeneration to generation." Moscow makes not laws for the prince, but the princefor Moscow," says the proverb. The sacred character of the dynasty wastransferred to the capital itself, and Moscow, heir to the Byzantine spirit,became the " third and holier Rome, whose sway shall endure for ever." TheTatar rule contributed not a little to strengthen the power of the Eastern Slavautocrats. In the desire to receive their tribute regularly, the Khans had aninterest in causing it to be collected by one prince, responsible to them alone,while free of all obligation towards his own people.But even in the twelfth centurythe autocracy of the modern Czars already existed in germ in the principalityof Vladimir. This absolute form of Muscovite society may be explained by thehistory of Russian colonisation in a country originally held by Finns and Tatars.The Kiev princes appeared in these lands as conquering and colonising chiefs, andthe race thus developed in Muscovy became at once the most tenacious andsubmissive of all.With the progress of Great Russian centralization the politicalforms and ideas of Muscovy steadily assumed a more intensely national character,and ended by extinguishing the Novgorod and Cossack traditions. In his