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The millenary of that event was celebrated in 1862 at Novgorod, as the foundation of the Russian empire. Ruric died in 879. In the next hundred years his successors conquered many neighboring lands and added them to the empire. Kieff became the capital.
Eight years afterwards Oleg made a treaty of alliance and commerce with Constantinople, in which Greeks and Russians stood on equal footing. Russia had made a remarkable stride forward as a nation since Rurik was invited to Novgorod a quarter-century before. For thirty-three years Oleg held the throne. His was too strong a hand to yield its power to his ward. Igor must wait for Oleg's death.
"Should you remain much longer in that position," I remark, "you will have a headache." There follows no reply. "Am I disturbing you?" I continue. "Oh no; not at all." And, lowering her hands, she looks at me. "Whence do you come?" "From Nizhni Novgorod." "Oh, from a long way off!" "Do you care for that young fellow?"
'Didn't my master say anything to you? 'No.... What is it? 'When my master was in Novgorod, he went on, fingering the door-post, 'he made acquaintance, so to say, with a girl. So here is this girl, wants to see you. I met her the other day in the street. I said to her, "Come along; if the master allows it, I'll let you see him." 'Ask her in, ask her in, of course. But ... what is she like?
As he was on his return he laid the foundations of a new city, Nijni Novgorod, at the confluence of two important streams about two hundred miles west of Moscow. The city remains to the present day. It will be perceived through what slow and vacillating steps the Russian monarchy was established. In the earliest dawn of the kingdom, Yaroslaf divided Russia into five principalities.
The vetche had decided to refuse the tribute, and send back the Mongol ambassadors with presents. However, on the rumor of the approach of the Tartars, they repented, and Alexander could announce to the enemy that Novgorod submitted to the census.
The two flotillas, with fluttering pennants and resounding music, and crowded with gayly-dressed and sanguine warriors, floated down the streams until they met, at the confluence of these rivers, near Nizni Novgorod. Here the two fleets, covering the Volga for many leagues, were united.
Eight hundred women were drowned in one frightful mass, and their relatives were forced under torture to point out where their wealth lay hidden. It is said that sixty thousand people were slain by Ivan's orders in Novgorod alone; how many perished in the whole realm history does not relate. His only warlike campaign was against the Livonians.
Though seated in Russia, still largely a land of barbarous tribes, Novgorod became one of the powerful cities of the earth, making its strength felt far and wide, placing the tribes as far as the Ural Mountains under tribute, and growing so strong and warlike that it became a common saying among the people, "Who can oppose God and Novgorod the Great?" But trouble arose for Novgorod.
Ivan IV. accepted the overtures, though he returned a reproachful and indignant answer. "Your people," he wrote, "have exhausted their ferocity upon our territories. Not only have they burned our cities and massacred our subjects, but they have even profaned our churches, purloined our images and destroyed our bells. The inhabitants of Novgorod implored the aid of our grand army.
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