Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 1.pdf/45

 The grand prince of Kiev was an absolute monarch. His throne was supported by the boyars, the—aristocratic caste, from among whom he formed a council, the duma of boyars. After their conversion to Christianity, the princes took the hierarchy into their counsel as well. In the towns, which in Old Russia as in the west were the strategic centres, there existed in addition a popular assembly, the věče (folkmote). In Novgorod alone did this body flourish; elsewhere the institution proved incapable of development and ceased to exercise any influence.

. Moscow replaced Kiev. From the twelfth century onwards the Kievic realm was threatened more and more seriously by external enemies. lnadequately consolidated, it was attacked from the south and the east by Mongol and Turanian nomadic tribes; Poles, Lithuanians, and Germans pressed in upon the west and the north; the Finns constituted a hostile element against the Russians. Kiev ceased to be the capital of the grand princedom (1169). After the middle of the twelfth century the realm broke up into a number of principalities, whose mutual struggles for supremacy so greatly lessened the resisting power of the loose Russian federation that it proved unable to withstand the Tatar onslaught. In 1223 Russia passed under Tatar suzerainty, which endured for two and a half centuries, till 1480. In 1240 Kiev was destroyed by the Tatars.

From the north and the north-west, Russia was hard pressed by the Swedes, and also by the Livonian order of the Brethren of the Sword (founded 1202); and soon afterwards by the Teutonic Knights, who in 1225, proceeding from Transylvania, had settled on the Vistula and in 1237 absorbed the Livonian order. Lithuania likewise underwent centralisation towards the middle of the thirteenth century, threatened Russia, and conquered certain Russian territories. In 1386 Lithuania was united with Poland; South Russia and West Russia were annexed by Lithuania.