g, errors had crept. The
demand for revision met with great opposition, and ended ultimately in
producing a great schism in the Russian Church, which has never been
healed. But, with the exception of the Little Russians, there was no
one at Moscow capable of preparing texts for printing or of conducting
schools. The demand for schools and the decision to revise the texts
were simultaneous. The revision was carried out between 1653-7, and a
migration of Kiev scholars to Moscow came about at the same time. In
1665 Latin was taught in Moscow by SIMEON POLOTSKY, who was the first
Russian verse-maker. It is impossible to call him a poet; he wrote
what was called syllabic verse: the number of syllables taking the
place of rhythm. As a pioneer of culture, he deserves fame; but in the
interest of literature, it was a misfortune that his tradition was
followed until the middle of the eighteenth century.

In the latter half of the seventeenth century, another influence
besides that of Kiev and Poland made itself felt. A fresh breach in
the wall came from another quarter. The German suburb in Moscow in the
seventeenth century, called the _Sloboda_, became a centre of European
culture. Here dwelt the foreign officers and soldiers, capitalists and
artisans, who brought with them the technical skill and the culture of
Western Europe. It was here that the Russian stage was born. The
Protestant pastor of the _Sloboda_, Gregory, was commanded to write a
comedy by the Tsar Alexis, in 1672, on the occasion of the birth of
the Tsarevitch. A theatre was built in the village of Preobrazhenskoe
(Transfiguration), and a play on the subject of Esther and Ahasuerus
was produced there. It was here also in 1674 that the ballet was
introduced. A regular company was formed; several plays translated
from the German were produced, and the first original play written in
Russia was _The Prodigal Son_, by Simeon Polotsky.

Thus, at the end of the seventeenth century, Russia was ready for any
one who should be able to give a decisive blow to the now crumbling
wall between herself and the West. For, by the end of the seventeenth
century, Russia, after having been centralized in Moscow by Ivan III,
and enlarged by Ivan IV, had thrown off the Tartar yoke. She had
passed through a period of intestine strife, trouble, anarchy, and
pretenders, not unlike the Wars of the Roses; she had fought Poland
throughout the whole of the seventeenth century, from her dark