Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/117

Rh 1721-1775.] RUSSIA 99 Anna and the duke of Holstein, who took the name of Peter Feodorovich on assuming the Greek religion, and was declared heir to the throne. In 1744 he married the Princess Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst, who by her baptism in the Orthodox Church became Catherine. Thus the line of descent was secured to the direct heirs of Peter the Great. In 1743, the armies of Elizabeth having gained some victories over the Swedes, the treaty of Abo was signed, by which Russia acquired the southern part of Finland, as far as the river Kiumen. The next event of importance is the war between Russia and Frederick the Great (1756- 1762). In 1757 Apraksin crossed the frontier with 85,000 Russians, occupied Eastern Prussia, and defeated Lewald at Gross- Jagersdorf ; but, instead of taking advantage of the victory, he soon afterwards retired behind the ISTiemen, having been tampered with by the grand-duchess Catherine and the chancellor Bestuzheff-Riumin. In 1758 Fermor, the Russian general, was completely defeated by Frederick at Zorndorf, but he was allowed to retreat without molesta- tion. In 1759 Saltikoff beat the Prussians at Paltzig, and in the same year Frederick was obliged to submit to a greater defeat at Kiinersdorf, where he lost eight thousand men and one hundred and seventy-two cannon. It was on the loss of this battle that he meditated committing suicide. In 1760 the Russians entered Berlin, where they committed great havoc and destruction. "We have to do," said Frederick, " with barbarians, who are digging the grave of humanity." In the following year they took Pomerania. The cause of Frederick seemed on the verge of ruin ; he was saved by the death of Elizabeth in Decem- ber 1761. The empress was an idle, superstitious woman of lax morals, who was greatly under the influence of favourites. Since the reign of Peter I. no successor had appeared worthy of him. Still Russia made more progress under Elizabeth than it had made under Anna. In 1755 the university of Moscow, the oldest in the country, was founded through the influence of Ivan Shuvaloff. Litera- ture made great advances, as will be seen below. Peter III. Elizabeth was succeeded by her nephew Peter, son of her sister Anna and Charles Frederick, duke of Holstein- Gottorp. He was suspected of German leanings, but his first measures made him very popular. In February 1762 he published an ukaze by which the nobility were freed from the necessity of entering upon any state employment, and he abolished the secret chancery. On the other hand he acted in some matters injudiciously, and offended the prejudices of the Russians, as the false Demetrius had done a century and a half previously. He ridiculed some of the ceremonies of the Orthodox Church, and showed a fondness for the Lutheran. He introduced many German tactics into the army, and evinced a great preference for his German corps of Holsteiners. His personal habits were very coarse : he was constantly seen drunk. Moreover he sent out of the country many of the talented Frenchmen who had during the reign of Elizabeth been helping Russia to get rid of her barbarism. Frederick II. of Prussia, who was at his lowest depths after the battle of Kiinersdorf, now saw to his delight a complete change in the Russian policy. Peter was an ardent admirer of the Prussian sovereign ; in order to ensure peace, Frederick would have ceded Eastern Prussia ; but Peter dreamed of nothing of the kind ; he restored all the Russian conquests and formed an alliance with him, offensive and defensive. He lived very unhappily with his wife Catherine, and meditated divorcing her and imprisoning her for the rest of her life in a convent. The condition in which she passed her time may be seen from her memoirs, first published by Herzen, the authenticity of which there seems to be no reason to doubt. She, however, quietly waited her time, and a conspiracy was concocted in which she was assisted by the Orloffs, Potemkin, the princess Dashkoff, and others (see PETER III.). Leaving her residence at Peterhof, Catherine boldly put herself at the head of twenty thousand men. The miserable emperor abdicated without a struggle, and was soon afterwards secretly assassinated at Ropcha, near St Petersburg. Many of the details of this catastrophe are given in the interesting memoirs of the Princess Dashkoff, which were published by an English lady, Mrs W. Brad- ford, in 1840, having been taken down from her dictation. Thus had a German woman, by adroitly flattering the Catherine prejudices of the Russians, succeeded in making herself H- head of this vast empire. Two years afterwards Ivan VI. , who is said to have become an idiot from his long confine- ment at Schliisselburg, was murdered by his guards on account of the attempt of a certain Lieutenant Mirovich to set him free. Whether Mirovich was incited to this adven- ture, by secret promises of the Government, so that there might be an excuse for the murder of Ivan, has never been clearly shown. He expiated his crime by public execution, and is said to have expected a reprieve till the last moment. The Seven Years' War was now over, and the next great European complications were to be concerned with the partition of Poland, throughout the struggles of which country the Russians were constantly interfering; but for a fuller discussion of this subject the reader must be referred to the article POLAND. In 1767 Turkey, urged on by France, declared war against Russia ; the object was to aid the Poles by creating a diversion. The Russian general Golitzin attacked the grand vizier, took the town of Khotin (1769), and in the following year Rumantzoff defeated the khan of the Crimea, the Turkish feudatory and ally, and in 1770 won the great victory of Kagul. In 1771 Dolgoruki overran the Crimea, and Alexis Orloff defeated the Turks in a naval engagement at Chesme, on the coast of Asia Minor. In their naval expeditions the Russians were at this time greatly assisted by the number of Englishmen in their service. In 1774 was signed the peace of Kutchuk-Kainardji, whereby the sultan acknow- ledged the independence of the Mongols of the Crimea. The Russians thus detached this province from the sultan's dominions, and after exercising a kind of protectorate over it added it to their own. He also ceded Azoff on the Don, Kinburn at the mouth of the Dniester, and all the fortified places of the Crimea. The Greeks, who had been induced to rise, were abandoned to the vengeance of the Turks. In 1771 the plague broke out at Moscow, and many of the inhabitants perished. The archbishop Ambrose was massacred in a popular tumult, while endeavouring to carry out some measures which were necessary for the preservation of the public health. Soon afterwards occurred the rebellion of Pugatcheff, a Cossack of the Don, who declared himself to be the emperor Peter III. The czar, he alleged, had escaped from the hands of his would- be murderers, and would soon regain his throne. A large band of disaffected peasants and Raskolniks gathered round him, and he was joined by many of the Mongol races, who were inimical to the Russian rule. At first the generals sent against him were defeated. The rebel's path was everywhere marked with bloodshed and pillage ; he even got possession of several towns, including Kazan. Had he been something more than a vulgar assassin he might have made Catherine tremble on her throne, but his cruelties estranged his more moderate followers. He was after- wards beaten by Bibikoff and others, and finally surrendered by his accomplices to Suwaroff. He was taken to Moscow in an iron cage and there publicly executed in 1775, together with four of his principal followers. In the same year the empress put an end to the republic, as it was called, of the Zaporogian Cossacks. A great codification of the laws took place under Catherine, which may be