Project Gutenberg's A Short History of Russia, by Mary Platt Parmele

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: A Short History of Russia

Author: Mary Platt Parmele

Release Date: October 23, 2005 [EBook #16930]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: Peter the Great.]

A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA

BY

MARY PLATT PARMELE

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

1907

Copyright, 1899, 1904, 1906,

BY MARY PLATT PARMELE

PREFACE.

If this book seems to have departed from the proper ideal of historic
narrative--if it is the history of a _Power_, and not of a _People_--it
is because the Russian people have had no history yet. There has been
no evolution of a Russian nation, but only of a vast governing system;
and the words "Russian Empire" stand for a majestic world-power in
which the mass of its people have no part. A splendidly embroidered
robe of Europeanism is worn over a chaotic, undeveloped mass of
semi-barbarism. The reasons for this incongruity--the natural
obstacles with which Russia has had to contend; the strange ethnic
problems with which it has had to deal; its triumphant entry into the
family of great nations; and the circumstances leading to the
disastrous conflict recently concluded, and the changed conditions
resulting from it--such is the story this book has tried to tell.

M. P. P.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Natural Conditions
Greek Colonies on the Black Sea
The Scythians
Ancient Traces of Slavonic Race

CHAPTER II.

Hunnish Invasion
Distribution of Races
Slavonic Religion
Primitive Political Conceptions

CHAPTER III.

The Scandinavian in Russia
Rurik
Oleg
Igor
Olga's Vengeance
Olga a Christian
Sviatoslaf
Russia the Champion of the Greek Empire in Bulgaria
Norse Dominance in Heroic Period

CHAPTER IV.

System of Appanages
Vladimir the Sinner Becomes Vladimir the Saint
Russia Forcibly Christianized
Causes Underlying Antagonism Between Greek and Latin Church
Russia Joined to the Greek Current