NIKON'S ATTEMPT--RASKOLNIKS

In the building of an empire there are two processes--the building up,
and the tearing down. The plow is no less essential than the trowel.
The period after Boris had been for Russia the period of the wholesome
plow. The harvest was far off. But the name Romanoff was going to
stand for another Russia, not like the old Russia of Kief, nor yet the
new Russia of Moscow; but another and a Europeanized Russia, in which,
after long struggles, the Slavonic and half-Asiatic giant was going to
tear down the walls of separation, escape from his barbarism, and
compel Europe to share with him her civilization.

The man who was to make the first breach in the walls was the grandson
of Mikhail Romanoff--Peter, known as "The Great." But the mills of the
gods grind slowly--especially when they have a great work in hand; and
there were to be three colorless reigns before the coming of the
Liberator in 1689--seventy-six years before they would learn that to
have a savage despot seated on a barbaric throne, with crown and robes
incrusted with jewels, and terrorizing a brutish, ignorant, and
barbaric people--was not to be Great.

The reigns of Mikhail and of his son Alexis and his grandson Feodor
were to be reigns of preparation and reform. Of course there were
turbulent uprisings and foreign wars, and perils on the frontiers near
the Baltic and the Black seas. But Russia was gaining in ascendency
while Poland, from whom she had narrowly escaped, was fast declining.
The European rulers began to see advantages for themselves from Russian
alliances. Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden and champion of
Protestantism, made an eloquent appeal to the Tsar to join him against
Catholic Poland--"Was not the Romish Church their common enemy?--and
were they not neighbors?--and when your neighbor's house is afire, is
it not the part of wisdom and prudence to help to put it out?" Poland
suffered a serious blow when a large body of Cossacks, who were her
vassals, and her chief arm of defense in the Southeast, in 1681
transferred themselves bodily to Russia.

The Cossacks were a Slavonic people, with no doubt a plentiful infusion
of Asiatic blood, and their name in the Tatar language meant
Freebooters. They had long dwelt about the Don and the Dnieper, in
what is known as Little Russia, a free and rugged community which was
recruited by Russians after the Tatar invasion and Polish conquest, by
oppressed peasants af