HANDBOUND AT THE UNlVtRSITY OF Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Toronto http://www.archive.org/details/historyofrussia01kliu :iS^7 1 A HISTORY OF RUSSIA All risplits reseJT'ed. 1 ^ :^ A // HISTORY ^/RUSSIA BY V. O. KLUCHEVSKY LATE PROFESSOR OF RUSSIAN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF MOSCOW TRANSLATED BY C. J. HOGARTH ^^^'^' X K\/pc, pycCKOM iicrQ^i^m(j:u>aKuiii<^oi VOLUME ONE LONDON: J. M. DENT ^ SONS, LTD. NEW YORK: E. P. BUTTON ^ CO. 191 DK Ho Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson &• Co. At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh — -V CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE The two points of view in the study of history— The principal factor in the development of Russian social life —The iour principal periods of Russian history —The Ancient Chronicle ; its genesis, authorship, and contents . I CHAPTER n Historical value of the Ancient Chronicle— Its importance for later Russian historians—A chronological error—The origin of that error—The work of compiling the Chronicle—Defects in the older versions—The theory of Slavonic unity—Manuscripts of the twelfth century—The divergent points of view of their authors 19 CHAPTER III Principal factors of the first period of Russian history —The two theories as toils starling-point—The races who inhabited Southern Russia before the coming of the Eastern Slavs—The Ancient Chronicle's tradition concerning the dispersal of the Slavs from the Danube—Jornandes on their distribution during the sixth century—The military union of the Eastern Slavs in the Carpathians—The period and peculiar features of their settlement of the Russian plain— Results of that settlement ....... 28 CHAPTER IV Juridical and economic results of the settlement of the Eastern Slavs upon the Russian plain —Outline of their mythology and ancestor worship—Coming of the Chozars, and their influence upon Russian trade—Origin of the old trading towns 39 h CHAPTER V The political results of the settling of the Eastern Slavs upon the Russian plain The Pechenegs in the South Russian Steppes—The fortification of the Russian towns—The Varangians : the question of their origin and the time of their appearance in Rus—The formation of the town provinces : their relation to the tribes—The Varangian principalities—The legend of the invitation sent to the Three Princes : its historical foundation— Activity of the Scandinavian Vikings in Western Europe during the ninth century i Formation of the great Principality of Kiev as the first step towards a C^ II Russian State— Importance of Kiev in the creation of a Russian State— T ('Summary 55 v — — —— vi CONTENTS CHAPTER VI PAGE Policy of the early Kievan Princes—Federation of the Eastern Slavs under the Prince of Kiev—Tax-administration in the Principality of Kiev—Foreign policy and trading relations with Byzantium—Influence of the Greek treaties upon early Russian law— Perils of Russian foreign trade—Defence of the Steppe frontiers—Composition and extent of the Principality of Kiev —Origin, composition, and functions of the princely retinue—Social divi- sions in the Kievan community— Slave ownership—Successive meanings of the term Rus—Gradual assimilation of Varangians and Slavs ... TJ CHAPTER vn The order of princely rule in Rus previous to the death of Yaroslav—Parti- tion of the country after that event—The rota system of rule : its origin, theory, and working—Causes of its disruption Riadi (conventions) and feuds—The idea of the otchina — Izgoi princes—Indirect hindrances to the working of the rota system —The importance of that system ... 94 CHAPTER VHI Results of the rota system of rule—Gradual political disintegration of Rus during the twelfth centur}- —Reappearance of the great towns as a political influence Vietcka and their conventions with the princes—The effect of princely relations upon the social order of the country' during the twelfth century—The political order during the same period—Rise and growth of a sense of popular unity 114 CHAPTER IX The civil order in Rus during the eleventh and twelfth centuries—The Russkaia Pravda2iS3i guide to that order—The two views taken of the Code Its origin and genesis—Its monetary reckoning— Its sources—Russian law, and enactments of the princes—^Judicial decrees of the princes and of the Church —Supplementary sources drawn upon by the codifiers of the Russkaia Fravda 128 CHAPTER X Preliminary questions with regard to the composition of the Russkaia Pravda — Process of its collation and elaboration — Its composition and contents Its relation to previously existing law —The civil order of the period as reflected in its articles—Importance of old legal annals in the study of a given civil order—The distinctions drawn by the Pravda between civil and criminal law — Its system of punishments and sums to be piaid in compensation —Its original basis and later interpolations — Its relative solicitude for property and the person—Its double demarcation of classes—Its importance as pre- eminently the code of capital ......... 144 —— CONTENTS vii CHAPTER XI PACE The Church Ordinances of the early Christian princes of Rus— Ecclesiastical jurisdiction as defined in Vladimir's and Yaroslav's Ordinances' respectively — Innovations introduced by the Church into the theory of crime and the system of legal penalties—The monetary reckoning observed in Yaroslav's Ordinance as evidence of the period of its composition —The original basis of that Ordinance—The legislative powers of the Church —The process of ecclesiastical codification —Traces of the same in Yaroslav's Ordinance Relation of Yaroslav's Ordinance to the Russ/caia Pravda—The influence of the Church upon the political, civil, and social orders of the period . .^165 CHAPTER XII The principal phenomena distinguishing the second period-^The conditionsl which brought about the disruption of the social order and economic pros-n perity of Kievan Rus—The life of the upper classes of the community, and ' the progress of culture and the civic spirit among them— Position of the lower classes —The development of slavery—The attacks of the Polovsti The depopulation of Kievan Rus—-The double stream of emigration thence —The western stream of that movement—A glance at the fortunes of South- western Rus—The question of the origin of the Little Russian stock Evidence as to the north-eastward exodus from Kiev—Importance of that Lmovement ............. 182 CHAPTER XIII Ethnographical results of the Russian colonisation of the Upper Volga—The question of the origin of the Great Russian stock—The Finnish tribes for- merly inhabiting the region of the Oka and Upper Volga, and the traces now left of them— Relations of the Russian settlers to the aboriginal Finnish tribes of Suzdal —Traces of Finnish influence upon the Great Russian physical type, form of town-building, popular beliefs, and social com- position —Influence of the natural features of the region of the Upper Volga upon the industry of Great Rus and the racial character of the Great Russian stock 203 CHAPTER XIV Political results of the Russian colonisation of the Upper Volga—Prince Andrew Bogoliubski — His relations with Kievan Rus— His attempts to convert the patriarchal rule of the Suzerain Prince of Rus into absolute rule — His policy in Rostov— His relations with his kindred, with the older towns, and with the senior grade of his retinue —The princely and social feud which arose in Rostov at his death—Opinion of a chronicler of Vladimir upon that feud Supremacy of Northern Rus under Vsevolod III. — Effect of the political achievements of Andrew and Vsevolod upon the community of Suzdal Summary of the foregoing . — viii CONTENTS CHAPTER XV PAGE Survey of the position of the Russian land during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries—The appanage system of princely rule under Vsevolod's succes- sors—The princely appanage—The chief items of evidence with Regard to the appanage system—The origin of that system—The idea of separate, de- visable rule among the princes of the South—Conversion of Russian princes of provinces into princes subject to the Lithuanian Empire—Strength of the clan tradition among the senior lines of Yaroslav's stock—Relations between the princes of the Upper Volga and the princes of Riazan at the close of the fifteenth century— Fundamental features of the appanage system—Causes of its successful growth among Vsevolod's successors—Absence of impediments to that system in the region of Suzdal 239 CHAPTER XVI Observations on the importance of the appanage period in Russian history—Re- sults of the appanage system —Questions preliminary to their study—The process of territorial subdivision into appanages— Impoverishment of the appanage princes—Their mutual estrangement —The status of an appanage prince—His juridical relation to private landholders in his appanage—Com- parison of appanage with feudal relations—Composition of the community in an appanage—Decline of local patriotism and the territorial sense among the appanage princes — Results of that decline 254 CHAPTER XVn Moscow begins to combine the appanages into a single great principality Early references of the Chronicle to Moscow—The original area of the Kremlin— Economic advantages of Moscow's geographical position—The city as the meeting-place of three great roads—Traces of early settlement of the region—Moscow as the ethnographical centre of Great Russia—The river Moskva as a trade route— Political results of the geographical position of Moscow—Moscow as the junior appanage— Influence of that circumstance upon the external relations and internal policy of the Muscovite