DEMENT; DAOKIXTAN ; &O.
Sawria.—Tobolak. Tomei, Jenisseiak, Irkutzk, Jakutzk, Okhotzk, Kamtchstka, &o. (Siazeu ; KASITCHATKA ; &O.] Isleada—In the Arctic seas Nova Zembla. Numerous islands oppo site the mouth of the Lena ; the Lialrhov Islands, or New Siberia, north of 75' N. lat.; St. Lawrence, aonth of Bhering Strait; the Kurile Islands ; the Aleutian Islands.
It is said that the Asiatic, territories of Russia have been recently increased by the basin of the Amin, which it is alleged was ceded to the late emperor Nicholas by the Chinese.
(Schubert, Dad Russiache Reich ; Schnitzler; Eiehwald, Reise in dent Caseessus; Erman, Leis durch Nord Asien ; Von Wrangel, Rein kings der Nord !Casts von Sibirien, ePc.; De Haxthausen, Etudes ear in Situation /eUrieure, /a Vie Nationale, et les Institutions Ilurales de la Rossi., Berlin, 1853; Tengoborski, Commentaries on the Productive Forces of Russia, London. 1855; Sir R. I. Murchison, Siluria, 1854; Russia is Europe and the Ural Mown/ohm) llistory.—Tho history of Russia cannot properly be said to com mence before the middle of the 9th century of the Christian era : though we obtain occasional glimpses of the various Scythian and Stavonian tribes which roamed over its vast territory, little more can be ascertained than that it was divided into numerous small inde pendent states, the two principal of which were Kiew and Novgorod. About A.D. 850 however a Varagian (probably Danish) freebooter of the Baltic, named Rurik, who had been called in by the people of Novgorod to defend them against their neighbours, made himself mutter of great part of the country, and founded a dynasty which continued to rule uninterruptedly till A.D. 1598. The reign of St Vladimir the Great (980.1015) was the era of the conversion of Russia. Vladimir himself, who had married Anna, eiater of the emperor Basil IL, became a Cbriatien according to the Greek Church in 938, and his example was speedily followed by his boyars, or nobles, and his subjects. At the death of Vladimir, his dominions were divided and disputed by his numerous sons; and though Yaroslaf, whose reign was signalised by an unsuccessful attack on Constantinople in 1043, reunited them for a abort time, a second partition took place at his death (1055) ; and Rusaia was devastated for half a century by constant civil warn and Polish Invasions. The authority of the grand-prince of Kiew bad been enrtailed by the erection of petty sovereignties under the different branches of the house of Rurik, till Andrew I., prince of
Vladimir. or White Russia (1057-75), arrogated to himself the title of grand-prince of Russia, while the elder line reigning at Kiew sunk into a subordinate rank ; end Novgorod, though still retaining the forms of princely government, had become in effect a free republic, and was the centre of an extensive traffic with both Europe and Asia. The annals of this period present only an unceasing succession of destructive struggles between the different principalities, and wars with Poland. The invasion of the Tartars (1228) produced a momentary unanimity from the sense of common danger. A. heat of 500,000 men under Tonshl, the son of Genghis Khan, encountered and overthrew the combined forces of the Russian princes on the river Kalka, near the Sea of Azof : but though the death of Toushi diverted the victors from the immediate completion of their conquest, they returned in 12351 under his son Ilatu, laid waste the whole country with fire and mood, and took complete possession of its government..
For more than two centuries and a half after this conquest Russia continued to be held in abject vassalage by the Tartars of Kapcbak, whose hordes overspread the eastern and southern province., and the plains between the Caspian and the Volga, on the banke of which river the Golden Horde, or imperial residence of the khans of the race of Ilatu, was fixed ; but the interior of the country was still left under the rovernrnent of the native princes. The grend-prince of Vladimir continued to be considered as the bead of the Russian untion, though this dignity was disputed both by arms and by intrigues at the court of the kinum, who fomented these dissensions as favourable to the stability of their own supremacy. In 1320 the seat of government was removed from Vladimir to Moscow. The principality of Kiew was finally extinguished (1321) by the Duke of Lithuania, who con quered and annexed It to his own dominions, In the meantime Novgorod (which in L276 had joined the Hanseatic league) had acquired very great commercial importance. But the remainder of Russia con tinued to be held in hopeless bondage, till the termination of the direct line of Batu (1361) by the death of Berdi-Bek Khan, gave rise to disputes for the throne of Kapchak, and the discord of their oppressors encouraged the Russiana to endeavour to throw off the yoke. The struggle continued for about a century, till at last Ivan or John III. (1462.1505) succeeded In obliterating the last vestiges of dependence.