tle states were too weak and too divided to render any
sort of defence against this terrible enemy.

It was in the year 1224 that the first great Tartar invasion took place
and that the hordes of Jenghiz Khan, the conqueror of China, Bokhara,
Tashkent and Turkestan made their first appearance in the west. The
Slavic armies were beaten near the Kalka river and Russia was at
the mercy of the Mongolians. Just as suddenly as they had come they
disappeared. Thirteen years later, in 1237, however, they returned.
In less than five years they conquered every part of the vast Russian
plains. Until the year 1380 when Dmitry Donskoi, Grand Duke of Moscow,
beat them on the plains of Kulikovo, the Tartars were the masters of the
Russian people.

All in all, it took the Russians two centuries to deliver themselves
from this yoke. For a yoke it was and a most offensive and objectionable
one. It turned the Slavic peasants into miserable slaves. No Russian
could hope to survive un-less he was willing to creep before a dirty
little yellow man who sat in a tent somewhere in the heart of the
steppes of southern Russia and spat at him. It deprived the mass of the
people of all feeling of honour and independence. It made hunger and
misery and maltreatment and personal abuse the normal state of human
existence. Until at last the average Russian, were he peasant or
nobleman, went about his business like a neglected dog who has been
beaten so often that his spirit has been broken and he dare not wag his
tail without permission.

There was no escape. The horsemen of the Tartar Khan were fast and
merciless. The endless prairie did not give a man a chance to cross into
the safe territory of his neighbour. He must keep quiet and bear what
his yellow master decided to inflict upon him or run the risk of death.
Of course, Europe might have interfered. But Europe was engaged upon
business of its own, fighting the quarrels between the Pope and the
emperor or suppressing this or that or the other heresy. And so Europe
left the Slav to his fate, and forced him to work out his own salvation.

The final saviour of Russia was one of the many small states, founded
by the early Norse rulers. It was situated in the heart of the Russian
plain. Its capital, Moscow, was upon a steep hill on the banks of the
Moskwa river. This little principality, by dint of pleasing the Tartar
(when it was necessary to please), and opposing him (when it was safe to
do so), ha