ver the development of a
new type of statesman, the statesman with the personal feelings of the
slide-rule and the cash-register. Jan de Witt was the first successful
exponent of this new school of politics. William III was the first
great pupil. And Louis XIV with all his fame and glory, was the first
conscious victim. There have been many others since.

THE RISE OF RUSSIA

THE STORY OF THE MYSTERIOUS MOSCOVITE EMPIRE WHICH SUDDENLY BURST UPON
THE GRAND POLITICAL STAGE OF EUROPE

IN the year 1492, as you know, Columbus discovered America. Early in
the year, a Tyrolese by the name of Schnups, travelling as the head of a
scientific expedition for the Archbishop of Tyrol, and provided with
the best letters of introduction and excellent credit tried to reach
the mythical town of Moscow. He did not succeed. When he reached the
frontiers of this vast Moscovite state which was vaguely supposed to
exist in the extreme Eastern part of Europe, he was firmly turned back.
No foreigners were wanted. And Schnups went to visit the heathen Turk in
Constantinople, in order that he might have something to report to his
clerical master when he came back from his explorations.

Sixty-one years later, Richard Chancellor, trying to discover the
North-eastern passage to the Indies, and blown by an ill wind into
the White Sea, reached the mouth of the Dwina and found the Moscovite
village of Kholmogory, a few hours from the spot where in 1584 the town
of Archangel was founded. This time the foreign visitors were requested
to come to Moscow and show themselves to the Grand Duke. They went and
returned to England with the first commercial treaty ever concluded
between Russia and the western world. Other nations soon followed and
something became known of this mysterious land.

Geographically, Russia is a vast plain. The Ural mountains are low
and form no barrier against invaders. The rivers are broad but often
shallow. It was an ideal territory for nomads.

While the Roman Empire was founded, grew in power and disappeared again,
Slavic tribes, who had long since left their homes in Central Asia,
wandered aimlessly through the forests and plains of the region between
the Dniester and Dnieper rivers. The Greeks had sometimes met these
Slavs and a few travellers of the third and fourth centuries mention
them. Otherwise they were as little known as were the Nevada Indians in
the year 1800.

Unfortunately for the peace of these primi