At the time of the Reformation the great and still half-barbarian country of Russia was under strong rulers named Tsars (possibly a form of 'Caesar'). In the Middle Ages Russia had been ruled first by the Northmen, and then, for two hundred years, it had been a part of the Empire of the Tartars of Asia.
At last (1430) the Russians made themselves independent of the Tartars, and the Prince of Moscow became the ruling power. In 1547 one of these princes, Ivan, took the name of Tsar of Russia [? i.e.Muscovy]. Ivan was named ' the Cruel,' and with good reason—he had any of his chiefs who made trouble given to the dogs ! However, like Charles V before him, he became a monk in his last years (1584).
The most noted Tsar after Ivan was Peter the Great (1689-1725), who, though still ruling with a rod of iron, was a man who had great designs for his country. His purpose was ' to make a bridge between Europe and Asia 'and to put Russia on the same plane of development as the countries of the West. To get the experience necessary for this, he went about Europe for two years taking note of everything—going to the hospitals, museums, and libraries, getting medical knowledge, going over grain-crushing, paper-making, and printing works, and even putting on the dress of a common workman and working with his hands for a time at the ship-building trade. In England he was greatly surprised by the great number of law-experts in full dress at Westminster. " Why ! " he said, " I have only two such men in all my Empire, and I am going to put one of them to death when I get back !"
In forcing the ideas and ways of the West so suddenly, however, . . Peter was attempting to go more quickly than was wise. (Etc.)
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Now at this time the Swedes had a great King, Charles XII, and a great Empire on the Baltic, and the Turks were in control of the Black Sea, shutting in Russia north and south. So Peter went to war with the Swedes and the Turks. After a number of ups and downs he at last made a peace with Sweden by which Russia was given the Swedish lands t the east end of the Baltic. Against the Turks, however, he made little headway. After much fighting he took Azov on the black Sea, but only to have it taken back by the Turks later.
On the land given up by Sweden, Peter put up a great town, Saint Petersburg, which was to be for Russia ' a window looking out on the West.' The new town went up on the wet fields of the river Neva as if with the help of a power greater than man. In one year it was done, but at the price of thousands of deaths among the workmen. (Etc.)
In this way Peter made Russia one of the great nations of Europe. In the space of one rule, by the force of one man, Russia came out of the shade into a place in the sun. but he was a ' barbarian ' to the last. He even put his son to death some years before he himself came to his end. (Etc.)
Some years after Peter's death Russia and the other countries near her made, to their shame, a division among themselves of another Slav country, Poland—the first and worst example of the cruel
wrongs done in the name of nation-building. That . . . country, whose great king had, only a little before Peter's time, kept the Turks from Vienna (1683),, was taken completely off the map by one of the greatest crimes in history.
A little less than two hindered years later . . . the Crimean War (1853-56) between Russia and Turkey, in which fear of the increasing power of Russia made France and England give their support to the Turks. The outcome put an end to Russia's attempts at further expansion in Europe, and after this her attention was turned chiefly to Asia, where3all this time she had been slowly pushing forward. Before long she had got to the Pacific in one direction and to the north limit of India in another.