Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/106

Rh RUSSIA [HISTOKY. lord of the town. 1 In 903 Oleg chose a wife for Igor, named Olga, 2 said to have been a native of Pskoff, the origin of which place, now mentioned for the first time, is unknown. We are told that it was a city of importance before the arrival of Rurik. The derivation of the name is disputed, some deriving it from a Finnish, others from a Slavonic root. Oleg next resolved to make an attack upon Byzantium, and his preparations were great both by sea and land. Leo the Philosopher, then emperor, was ill able to resist these barbarians. He attempted to block the passage of the Bosphorus, but Oleg dragged his ships across the land and arrived before the gates of Constantinople. The Greeks begged for peace and offered tribute. Oleg is said to have hung his shield in derision on the gates of the city. We may believe this without going so far as to give credence to Stryikowski, the Polish writer, who says it was to be seen there in his time (16th century). The atrocities committed by Oleg and his followers are described by Karamzin, the Russian historian ; they are just such as the other Norsemen of their race were committing at the same time in northern and western Europe. The Byzantines paid a large sum of money that their city might be exempted from injury, and soon after Oleg sent ambassadors 3 to the emperor to arrange the terms. The treaty was ratified by oaths : the Byzantines swore by the Gospels, and the Russians by their gods Perun and Volos. In 911 Oleg made another treaty with the Byzantines, the terms of which, as of the preceding one, are preserved in Nestor. The authenticity of these two treaties has been called in question by some writers, but Miklosich truly observes that it would have been impossible at the time Nestor wrote to forge the Scandinavian names. Soon after this Oleg died ; he had exercised supreme power till the time of his death to the exclusion of Igor, and seems to have been regarded by the people as a wizard. He is said to have been killed by the bite of a serpent, which had coiled itself in the skull of his horse, as he was gazing at the animal's unburied bones. The story is in reality a Scandinavian saga, as has been shown by Bielowski and Rafn. It is also found in other countries. In the reign of Igor the Petchenegs first make their appearance in Russian history. In 941 he undertook an expedition against Constantinople and entered the Bosphorus after devastating the provinces of Pontus, Paphlagonia, and Bithynia. Nestor has not concealed the atrocities com- mitted by the Russians on this occasion ; he tells us of the churches and monasteries which they burned, and of their cruelty to the captives. They were, however, attacked by the Byzantine fleet, and overpowered by the aid of Greek fire ; many were drowned, and many of those who swam to land were slaughtered by the infuriated peasants; only one of their number escaped. Thirsting to avenge his loss, Igor fitted out another expedition in the spring of the following year. The Greeks were unwilling to run a risk again ; they renewed the treaty which had been signed with Oleg, and were only too glad to purchase deliverance from their adversaries. The Russian at first demanded too much, but was finally persuaded by his more prudent attendants: "If Caesar speaks thus," said they, "what more do we want than to have gold and silver and silks without fighting? Who knows which will survive, we or they ? Who has ever been able to conclude a treaty with the sea ? We do not go on the dry land, but on the waves of the sea ; death is common to all." 1 This story is considered by the historian Bestuzheff Riuniin to be a mere legend invented to explain tke connexion between Novgorod and Kieff. a Here again we have a Norse name. Olga is equivalent to Helga, which in its older form is Holga. 3 It has been observed that the names of the ambassadors in this treaty are purely Scandinavian. A treaty of peace was accordingly concluded, which is given at full length by Nestor ; of the fifty names attached to it we find three were Slavonic and the rest Norse. The two races are beginning to be fused. From this expedi- tion Igor returned triumphant. He was, however, unfor- tunate in a subsequent attack on the Drevlians, a Slavonic tribe whose territory is now partly occupied by the government of Tchernigoff. The Drevlians had long suffered from his exactions. They resolved to encounter him under the command of their prince Male ; for they saw, as a chronicler says, that it was necessary to kill the wolf, or the whole flock would become his prey. They accordingly laid an ambuscade near their town Korosten, now called Iskorost, in the government of Volhynia, and slew him and all his company. According to Leo the Deacon, he was tied to two trees bent together, and when they were let go the unhappy chief was torn to pieces. Igor was succeeded by his son Sviatoslaff, the first Regency Russian prince with, a Slavonic name. Olga, however, of ^S* the spirited wife of Igor, was now regent, owing to her son's minority. Fearful was the punishment she inflicted upon the Drevlians for the death of her husband, and the story lacks no dramatic interest as it has been handed down by the old chronicler. Some of the Drevlians were buried alive in pits which she had caused to be dug for the purpose previously; some were burned alive; and others murdered at a trima, or funeral feast, which she had appointed to be held in her husband's honour. The town Iskorost was afterwards set on fire by tying lighted matches to the tails of sparrows and pigeons, and letting them fly on the roofs of the houses. Here we certainly have a piece of a bUtna, as the old Russian legendary poems are called. Geoffrey of Monmouth and Layamon give the same account of the capture of the city of Cirencester by Gurraund at the head of the Saxons, and something similar is also told about Harold Hardrada in Sicily. Finally, at the close of her life, Olga became a Christian. She herself visited the capital of the Greek empire, and was instructed in the mysteries of her new faith by the patriarch. There she was baptized by him in 955, and the emperor Constantino Porphyrogenitus became her god- father. She did not, however, succeed in persuading her son Sviatoslaff to embrace the same faith, although he Sviato- took no measures to impede its progress among his sub- s' aff - jects. This son was as celebrated a warrior as Oleg ; his victories were chiefly over the Petchenegs previously men- tioned, a people of Mongol origin inhabiting the basin of the Don. He began, however, the fatal custom of break- ing up Russia into apanages, which he distributed among his sons. The effects of this injudicious policy, subse- quently pursued by other grand princes, were soon felt. Thus was paved the way for the invasion of Russia by the Mongols, who held it for two hundred years, and com- municated that semi-Asiatic character to the dress and customs of the country which the ukazes of Peter the Great could hardly eradicate, and which perhaps have not entirely disappeared even in our own times. In his division of the country, Sviatoslaff gave Kieff to his son Yaropolk ; to another son, Oleg, the conquered land of the Drevlians ; to another, Vladimir, he assigned Novgorod. It would be impossible to interest the reader in the petty wars of these princes. After having gained several victories over the Petchenegs, Sviatoslaff set out on an expedition against the Bulgarians, a Ugro-Finnish tribe, dwelling on the banks of the Volga, the remains of whose ancient capital can still be seen. He made himself master of their country, but his victorious career was cut short at the cataracts of the Dnieper, where he and his soldiers were slain by the Petchenegs. According to the barbarous custom of the times, their prince Kurya made his skull