Jeremiah Curtin

“ Be of good courage,—there is no God like our God. Life and death are in his hands. Remember the glories of your ancestors, Vladimir Monomach, the terror of the Polovtsi; and Dmitri, who conquered the Mongols on the Don. He boldly faced Mamai, notwithstanding his oath of allegiance. We will release you from an oath extorted by violence—a breach of faith which will save the Empire is preferable to a fidelity which will ruin it. God will grant you a glorious reign, you and your sons and your sons’ sons, from generation to generation. ”

“ When Roman heard of the retreat from Kolomna of the allies, he returned and attacked Pronsk a second time. Turning the river, he deprived the place of water and brought the people to great suffering. Then he tried to capture Pronsk by treachery, and at last succeeded in this way: Sviatoslav, who held the city, became an enemy of Vsevolod, his brother, who had gone to Vladimir. “Destroy not thyself and thy men with hunger,” said Roman to him. “Come out to us. Thou art our brother, why fear us? We are fighting not against thee, but against the Prince of Vladimir.” ”

“ If Ivan, as Grand Prince of all Russia, preferred his demands against Novgorod so insistently, we may understand very well that he was not tender with princes of small strength. Attendants and boyars of small princes went to serve him by preference, Moscow’s success was desired by all people who toiled and produced, because order and quietness came from it. No prince could rival Ivan in power and in resources. He surpassed not only each Russian prince separately, but he was stronger than any combination which might be made among them. For long years Ivan had worked at winning wealth and power. ”

“ Upon the decline of Kief, Suzdal, in the basin of the Volga, became the chief city, but loving neither Suzdal nor Rostoff, Andrei determined to make Vladimir the capital of Russia. The majesty of buildings had always attracted him, and he now invited from every part of Russia, not only skilled workers in stone and in wood, but clever craftsmen of all kinds. In Bogolyuboff he established many artificers; a whole ward was occupied by masters in silver and gold work, and makers of holy images. He brought in not only Russian artists, but artists from other lands, from Tsargrad and Italy. ”

“ Strange was the fate of Yuri, the last Smolensk prince. He did not remain long in Novgorod, and when the break came between Vassili and Vitold he appeared in Moscow a second time, with Prince Simeon of Vyazma. Vassili gave Yuri Torjok to support him. Now his unrestrained temper brought the man to a crime of foul aspect. He flamed up with passion for the wife of Prince Simeon. Meeting with strong resistance on her part, he strove to use violence, and when she defended herself with a keen weapon, he killed her. ”

“ If Vladimirko kisses this cross, survives, and breaks his oath, I will lay down my life, or capture Galitch and give it to thee. I cannot kill a man on his death-bed.”
Izyaslav yielded, but Mystislav, his son, who was present, added these words: “He will break the oath surely, and I repeat here before this holy cross, forget not thy word, O King of Hungary, but come again with thy warriors to Galitch, and do what thou hast promised.” ”

“ It is clear that the inheritance of the Moscow throne from father to eldest son, not being in accord with ancient usage, was not yet firmly established. Toward the end of Dmitri’s reign, this became the greatest of all the cares which weighed on him. Living, as it were, in one family with his cousin, a friend faithful and devoted, his only near relative, peerless for magnanimity, a man who had “a golden heart,” as Dmitri himself declared with much emphasis, it was all the more difficult to touch upon this very delicate question. ”

“ When Mystislav began the campaign and took Zubtsoff, he sent to Yaroslav, saying that he did not like to make war on Vladimir, that peace would be better. “I do not want peace,” replied Yuri; “to your one man we have a hundred.” “Thou hast power, but we have the cross,” answered Mystislav. A month had not passed after that, when the opponents stood face to face, waiting for battle. ”

“ Like the founder of Riga, his successor, the Grand Master did not cease to baptize pagan people, who later on complained to all Europe in these words: “Listen to us, O princes spiritual and secular! The knights are not seeking our souls for God; they are seeking our land for their own use. They have brought us to this,—that we must either beg or be robbers if we are to save the lives in us. The knights are worse than the Mongols. All that the land gives, or that bees gather in they take. They do not let us kill a beast, or catch a fish, or trade with our neighbors. ”

“ They became real torturers, squeezing the last copper coin from the people. They imposed grinding interest for arrears of tribute. They were worse than the most cruel usurer. Men who were unable to pay they sold into slavery or beat savagely with whips and clubs. This terror extended from end to end of the country. From those galling oppressions came riots. The riots were suppressed most unsparingly, and with bloodshed. No longer could safety and peace be connected with any place. There were disorders in Suzdal, in Pskoff, even in Pereyaslavl Beyond the Forest. ”

“ These words softened Vyatcheslav and he kissed the cross to consider Izyaslav as his son, and Izyaslav swore to regard him as a father. “I am going to Zvenigorod against Vladimirko,” said Izyaslav. “Be pleased thou to enter Kief and let me have thy warriors.” “I will send all of my warriors with thee,” replied Vyatcheslav.
Vladimirko was now in the field to help Yuri, and Izyaslav marched westward at once to hasten the struggle, but when he came near the enemy his men forsook him. “Vladimirko has a countless host,” cried they. “Do not destroy us and forfeit thy own life. ”

“ No man knew the relative strength of the Mongols and Russians better than Alexander Nevski; no man was more devoted to Russia than he; no man was more respected by his own; therefore his words had weight, and when he explained that resistance would be ruin and submission was the only road to salvation the people believed and obeyed him. In this way he rescued Novgorod and many another city from utter destruction, and saved the lives of untold thousands. ”

“ Those ill-fated princes, when the Mongols appeared on their southern border, sent to beg aid of Prince Yuri of Vladimir, and their relatives in Chernigoff. Kolovrat, who had been sent to Chernigoff, led back some men to the ruins of his birthplace. Amazed and maddened when he saw those ruins, he rushed forward to strike the rear of the Mongols. He overtook them at night, as they were leaving the Ryazan borders. The Mongols were terrified when they saw him. “Are not those the dead of Ryazan,” cried they, “who have risen and come to avenge their own deaths on us?” ”

“ At once Yurieff Mountain was seething, and soon the army marched down, and moved off on the road to the capital. The Pskoff prince now joined the main body. But Constantine delayed yet at Lipetsk, where doubt and dissension seemed evident. He feared “the desperate move,” as he called it. He said that his men were simple villagers, unaccustomed to battle; he feared that they might disperse on the march. It was better, he thought, to remain on Yurieff Mountain. Mystislav answered with passion: “The mountain will give neither victory nor defeat! In the cross and in truth lies our triumph.” ”

“ No man could discover the springs through which decisions were made and brought to fulfilment.
It was noised about in the Horde that Yaroslav had been poisoned. Some thought that the Mongols did not like his strong influence at home, and would not let him go back to Vladimir; others said that his own relatives had calumniated the Grand Prince to Batu, and Batu had written about him to Kuyuk, that stern-faced and marvelous Mongol, of whom it was said by his intimates that no man had ever seen a smile on his face, or heard a jest from his lips. ”

“ Fight to the death. He who is not killed will be living. Hit hard! God is in truth, not in numbers. Forward like men! Hit hard! Forward on foot or on horseback, but forward!”
The Novgorod men remembered the fight of their great-grandfathers when they were led by the great-grandfather of Mystislav, and the blood rose in them. “We will not fight on horseback,” said they. Steam was rolling now from the oncoming enemy. The Novgorod men threw off their boots and upper clothing and rushed to the fight with axes and clubs, vying with the men of Smolensk in their valor. ”

“ At the same time, in the region about Ryazan, through all villages and monasteries, similar seizures and slaughters were enacted. For the Mongols it was not enough to capture cities and towns; they destroyed all the people from the aged to infants. They amused themselves with inflicting various kinds of cruel death singly; they loved also to kill men in multitudes. Made drunk, as it were, by abundance of bloodshed, they rose to a wild, boundless ecstasy. ”

“ Nothing harmed Novgorod more than a quarrel with Vladimir, whose prince could stop grain from reaching the city and surrounding country, and arrest Novgorod merchants wherever he found them in his own territory. But this was not sufficient to change the quarrelsome disposition of Novgorod, where factions fought with one another continually. When a posadnik displeased them, they beat him, or hurled the man from the bridge to the river. Big Nest did not interfere with their freedom. On the contrary he apparently commended it. “Love him who seems good to you, but execute bad men,” said he. ”

“ The lands now included in the governments of Vladimir, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Tver and Moscow, with a part of Novgorod and Vologda, were scenes of ruin and terror. Everywhere the same marks of Mongols. Such noted places as Tver, Torjok, Volokolamsk, Yaroslavl and Mologa were sacked and burned to the ground, as well as villages and settlements beyond reckoning. The Russians looked on this invasion as a testimony of God’s anger, such an evil as a flood or an earthquake, irresistible and almighty. In small villages, when the Mongols appeared, the people grew helpless from terror ”

“ Mystislav now gave command to say to Yaroslav: “Free thou our Novgorod men, and withdraw from Torjok. Make peace with us, and let no blood be shed.” “The men whom I took,” answered Yaroslav, “I shall retain. The army has seized all their property; where could I find it at this day?” Then the allies met in council, and again sent proposals of peace to Yuri and Yaroslav, with the statement that this message was final: “Brothers, we have come not to spill blood, not for conflict, not for ruin, not to take your rightful possessions. God forbid. We are all of one stock and race. ”

“ The Prince of Vladimir in anger sent against “The Gallant” a numerous army, with his three elder sons at the head of it. But immediately after he hesitated. He now, as on a time Dolgoruki, his father, had done, thought proper to say when he faced an untamable enemy: “I am old, he is young in all the passions of this world. It is not for me, near the end of existence, to be occupied with quarrels and bloodshed. I should be patient.” And he sent envoys to Mystislav with this message: “Thou art my son; I am thy father. Free Sviatoslav with his boyars, and return what thou hast taken. ”

“ Roman was feared still more by his enemies in Galitch. Almost all the boyars were traitors to the people through their love of power and delight in loose living, in which they resembled their western neighbors. To raise themselves high above the people and bind them in absolute slavery, so as to hold Galitch as the Poles and Hungarians held their lands, was the ideal of those boyars, and that is why they yielded so gladly to Hungary. ”

“ Trenyat, being quicker than Tovtivil, killed him and reigned unassisted, but his reign was not long. Four of Mindog’s equerries, to avenge their late prince, murdered Trenyat.
Voishelk, when he learned of his father’s death, went to Minsk, but when he heard that Trenyat had been assassinated, he set out with Pinsk forces for Novgrodek, and from there, taking more warriors, he went to Lithuania, where his father’s adherents received him most joyfully. He began to reign, and as if to make men forget that he had ever worn a monk’s habit, he fell to slaying his enemies wherever he found them. ”

“ On the third day Arsenie, an abbot, took action. “Is our prince,” said he, “to lie before the church door unconsidered, guarded by Kuzma? Open the door, and I will chant the sacred words over the body. I will place it in the coffin myself, if no man will help me. God will then have mercy and make an end of this disorder. Men will come from Vladimir to bear hence the coffin with reverence.” Andrei’s body was put in a coffin, and placed in front of the altar, and all the people of the city wept and sang in the sacred service. ”

“ Turn thy ear from calumniators, for they, with feigned loyalty and fawning, are working not for the good of the country, but for their own profit. God has placed thee, O great prince, as a ruler to judge and give justice to His people. It is proper for thee to punish the guilty, God himself commands thee to do so, but there is need also for mercy, and not of punishment in anger. I, thy lowly petitioner, have been sent to thee at the prayer of all the Ryazan men. ”

“ Then, seizing the swords from Mongols slain by them, and dropping their own weapons, they cut and slashed with more fury than ever. There was uproar and chaos in the whole Mongol army. The Mongols succeeded, however, in capturing five of the raging pursuers, whom they took to the Khan, their commander. “Who are ye?” asked the Khan. “Wonder not, O Tsar,” answered they, “that we have strength to fill the cup of death for all Mongols. We are servants of Prince Ingvar; we are of Kolovrat’s regiment, sent to conduct thee and thy warriors with honor. We conduct as many as we are able.” ”