VOL. I. PETER THE GREAT BEHEADING THE STRELITZ. (Frontispiece.) VIGNETTE TITLE-RUSSIAN CAVALRY ENCOUNTER. MAP OF RUSSIA IN EUROPE, SHOWING ACQUISITIONS SINCE THE TIME OF PETER THE GREAT THE KREMLIN THE BATTLE OF PULTOWA THE NEVSKOI PROSPECT, ST. PETERSBURG THE COLUMN OF ALEXANDER, ST. PETERSBURG NAPOLEON I. BATTLE OF EYLAU TO FACE PAGE 1 51 6.0 152 152 379 396 BRITISH LIGHT CAVALRY ATTACKING THE RUSSIAN GUNS AT THE BATTLE OF BALACLAVA BOMBARDMENT OF ODESSA BOMBARDMENT OF ODESSA BY THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH PRINCE GORTSCHAKOFF. (Frontispiece.) VIGNETTE TITLE-TOWER OF THE NIKOLSKOI CHURCH, ST. PETERSBURG. INTRODUCTION. WITH the abolition of serfdom, Old Russia disappeared for ever, and New Russia arose from its grave. The old distinction of classes into nobles and bondsmen was merged into that beautiful weapon of constitutional despotism, known on the continent as universal compulsory service in the army. Henceforth, instead of fighting for their king, emperor, or czar, the people of such happy lands now fight for their country only. It is true, the common populace is so blinded by its prejudices, that it is apt not to understand the difference as long as the country is under the immediate and irresponsible control of its whilom sovereign; and Russia forms no exception to this rule. Consequently, though the form has somewhat changed, the material remains the same; and where it has altered it has been sagaciously made use of to fit into the new order of things, and to form an integral portion of the new system. Thus the result of abolishing serfage was the creation of a fresh national feeling; the ex-bondsman felt that he had a stake in his newly-acquired soil; whilst, on the other hand, the noble felt that a new danger was threatening him by the growth of this national consciousness and the growing conviction of the ex-serf that he really was a unit in the empire, and that many units piled up on the top of the other, amounted to a very considerable sum, and no mean force if united in action. To counterbalance these ideas it was necessary to shape certain grooves for the new national feeling to run in. Thus three principal channels were fashioned. 1. Compulsory military service. 2. The institution of communal self-government. 3. The reunion of the Schismatics and other dissidents under the paternal care of the Orthodox Greek Church, as represented by the Holy Synod, as represented by the czar, who in turn represents the Deity himself, in Russia. These grooves having been duly fashioned, the next thing to be done was to furnish a reservoir for them to run into-a vast reservoir that would contain the national flood for long years to come, and prevent its overflowing the channels cut for it, and causing serious damage at home. This great goal was set up in the shape of Panslavism; the object of Panslavism being the reunion of all the various Slav races in Austria, in Prussia, and in Turkey, under the sceptre of him who rules at St. Petersburg. The attention of the freshly-made freeman was thus to be diverted from home matters to foreign affairs, and his black bread spread with the butter of glory abroad rather than with the fat of the land at home, for which it appears that the noble has a remarkable fancy Of the working of this new system, of the bad that exists, and the good that is latent in the communal system; of the atrocities of the Holy Synod; of the burden the army imposes upon the nation, we shall speak in the proper place. The above rapid sketch is simply designed to give in a few words the character of the change that has come over Russia, and made her again an enemy and a standing menace to the peace of Europe, and the cause of liberty, commerce, and progress. And if, as Goethe says, "The gods against ignorance battle in vain," it may well be imagined what a task Europe has before her, when she is called upon |