Russia’s Expansive Policy.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3534, 13 June 1905, Page 3

Russia’s Expansive Policy.

A PEEP INTO HISTORV* [Continued.'! Bloodstained xvan, whose storv is a <3 read ml roma'ice, must not he accused of unusual boldness on account of his offering marriage to Queen Elizabeth of Enghiud. since his predecessor Vladimir had espoused the Princess Anno, sister of Basil, Emperor of the Ea?,(, who, as part of her dowry, fil'aimed the baptism of the wifd 'Russians, hundreds of whom, in obedience to their chief, plunged into the Dnieper and were baptized, after having witnessed their big idol, the *God of Thunder, hacked and disgraced and dragged at a. horse's fail to be cast over a precipice. So perished Pefoun, a broken D/igon. a prostrate Baal; and, wrote, a "Greek historian, “in that great Heaven and tarlh rejoiced and. fore glad togcTner.” If might hay e i )e(Ml pn , Iy (1 t [lien- v.ere great trouble and strvigghs storm and strife plough y«t in * fore for people and princes. The family of Ivan fell before a n^Pr'pcr—Boris Gudnnoff, * j9B—find hlter an interregnum the /louse of Plomauoff, as already stated, occupie'd the throne in 1613, the third and present dynasty commencing tinker Michael 111. P.y the dcsmulSUlits of this 'strong race the Russian 3krone is now tilled,—and it is desirable j that students of history should note : how much, in the beginning at least of peoples, is due to individual monarch s and to families, who constantly advance their state upon weaker sovereigns or crumbling democracies. Of it Peter the. Great, fourth nr third sovereign—-for he was joint king with Ivan V —is the chief and hero. Russia had increased in the north, cast, and west, had gained victories over Poland, and had beaten the Cossacks and had annexed their territories, as is their wont, in a temporary W ay, without much iinprovciy.gpj- or occupation —for Russia and still has, the characteristic a sprading nomad tribe rating (] iau 0 f a settled conquer, ing From these causes tribal or v *lfage communities in Russia are very { re e, anc | have laws and customs , 0 / their own. A survival of this feeling ; W/hieli makes the Russian style every ' man his little brother and the Czar his ! big brother, and he at once free and . subservient, may at any time alter the whole complexion of Russian government ; it undoubtedly makes the) executive watchfully afraid of the people, while at the same time it tyrannizes over them to an extent perhaps no other people would endure. The Czar, or chiet of such a people—simple, untaught, very patient, very brave and affectionate, very sad and melancholy, as induced by their climate ' •"and witnessed by their songs, exceedingly devoted to one they esteem, and, women-like, distrustful and even cruel toward one they despise—must be, above all things, strong. His word must be. law. It is God and the Czar, and not only sometimes but often the Czar first, as living to the Russ the . most present-potent. Thus, to-day, we sec on the throne a weakling, one , whose will docs not rise above that ot , his attendant Ministers, and though the hopelessness of the present struggle must he apparent to him he cannot make his own choice for peace or war and enforce it. Pepeated and overwhelming disasters to the Russian anas, added to the severities of executive tyrannies at homo, have rendered the people morose, and the house of Romanoff trembles to its base. Not of such was the “ madman of intense genius.” Peter the Great—the ideal monarch for his time and for Russia. Bloody, forceful, drunken, and thoughtless, he was yet a genius , of high order, full of'great qualities, and fitted for his post. Observing that if Russia increased as he dreamed Bhe would, to have 011 three sides water—ihe Baltic. Biack, and Caspian Seas —navies must be provided, Peter visited Holland and England and taught himself to build ships. He governed by the stick and the sword. 1 Recalled to Russia by the revolt of his ; guard—the Strelitz —Peter caused them to be massacred and tortured, and slew two thousand of them, Striking off the heads of many with his own hand. With a wine-cup in one band and a sword in the other, he beheaded twenty in an hour, rejoicing l in his dexterity as executioner; but the j tortures he inflicted on others are too j terrible to relate. Ho caused St. Petersburg—the worst-placed capital In the world, as Constantinople may be said to be the best—to be raised in a Bvvamp and upon piles 011 the shore ot Lake Ladoga. Built with incredible labour, Petersburg—city of magnificent distances —may be said to be cemented by the blood ot the poor wretches who built it and perished in the work. The whole story ot Pctciy is like' that of some cruel giant ot ! romance which, in this age of peace associations, arbitration arguments, and deprecation of capital punishment by those whom Carlyle used to call • shovel-hatted quack-heads,” seems 1 mpo=sible; but it needed some iron will like Peter’s to build up and bind , the Russian empire. And for the want of some such iron will we see t -day a mighty fabric in danger of tottering to a thousand pieces. As a commander Peter was unequal. Defeated by Charles of Sweden at Narva, he as totally defeated him some eight years afterwards at Puhowa, and fourteen thousand Swedish prisoners were scut to Siberia. Charles having fled to Turkey, Peter crossed the Pruth, and was defeated and surrounded by the Turks (1711); but by the cunning of the Empress Catherine—a rough bride for as rough a soldier —a truce was made, and the Russians escaped, Throughout these years, whoever suffered, Russia did not. 1 line was a gradual accretion of power, statu aftei state was swallowed, and Peter’s system continued. After him the Crimea was won, Poland—whose kings had meditated the absorption ol Rus-aa —was dismembered and absyroed durihg the last quarter ot the •iglvcert’i century, Persia and i mk- y were again invaded; and in he Napoleonic wars Russia was wi-e enough to side with England and Austria until dctacned by Napoleon, from whom she revolted. (To be Continued.) 1