d, during the middle of the fourteenth century made itself the
leader of a new national life. It must be remembered that the Tartars
were wholly deficient in constructive political ability. They could only
destroy. Their chief aim in conquering new territories was to obtain
revenue. To get this revenue in the form of taxes, it was necessary to
allow certain remnants of the old political organization to continue.
Hence there were many little towns, surviving by the grace of the Great
Khan, that they might act as tax-gatherers and rob their neighbours for
the benefit of the Tartar treasury.

The state of Moscow, growing fat at the expense of the surrounding
territory, finally became strong enough to risk open rebellion against
its masters, the Tartars. It was successful and its fame as the leader
in the cause of Russian independence made Moscow the natural centre for
all those who still believed in a better future for the Slavic race. In
the year 1458, Constantinople was taken by the Turks. Ten years later,
under the rule of Ivan III, Moscow informed the western world that the
Slavic state laid claim to the worldly and spiritual inheritance of the
lost Byzantine Empire, and such traditions of the Roman empire as had
survived in Constantinople. A generation afterwards, under Ivan the
Terrible, the grand dukes of Moscow were strong enough to adopt the
title of Caesar, or Tsar, and to demand recognition by the western
powers of Europe.

In the year 1598, with Feodor the First, the old Muscovite dynasty,
descendants of the original Norseman Rurik, came to an end. For the next
seven years, a Tartar half-breed, by the name of Boris Godunow, reigned
as Tsar. It was during this period that the future destiny of the large
masses of the Russian people was decided. This Empire was rich in land
but very poor in money. There was no trade and there were no factories.
Its few cities were dirty villages. It was composed of a strong central
government and a vast number of illiterate peasants. This government,
a mixture of Slavic, Norse, Byzantine and Tartar influences, recognised
nothing beyond the interest of the state. To defend this state, it
needed an army. To gather the taxes, which were necessary to pay the
soldiers, it needed civil servants. To pay these many officials it
needed land. In the vast wilderness on the east and west there was a
sufficient supply of this commodity. But land without a few labourers
to till the fields and