Wirt Gerrare

“ The half century during which Ivan the Terrible reigned over Muscovy is a unique period in the history of Russia. And not that of Russia only, for in no country at any time have so many and diverse outrages been perpetrated at one man’s command. Disasters resulting from human ambition and folly sully the history of every land, but all histories are spotless in comparison with that of Moscow under its first Tsar—a creature of unparalleled ferocity and inconceivable wickedness. ”

“ Holy Moscow comprises all that has served to nurse and sustain the faith amidst infidel aggression; the white-walled and golden-crowned city is symbolic of the lasting reward of heroic endeavour in the upward struggle of the race towards supremacy. Not indestructible itself, but its spirit undying; razed time after time only to appear again greater and more glorious than before, Moscow seems to the Russian not so much a part of the national entity personified in empire, as the very soul of his race ”

“ With the change to winter temperature a great quiet comes over the town, wheeled traffic is stopped, sledges glide over the frozen roads, and from the windless sky the great snowflakes can ever be seen idly and slowly floating in their long and leisurely descent to earth. A reddened sun appears for a short time each day in a leaden sky, and Moscow lives, is more active, more itself, than when the light of summer decks its walls and pinnacles in holiday garb. But at whatever season studied, Moscow will reveal traces of the past ”

“ The adornments are a brilliant crown, with a veil of pearls, a large gem on the brow, another on the shoulder; gold brocade with enamelled plaques representing angels’ heads, and the usual lavish decoration of the vestments, complete this unusual ikon, which is probably the most venerated of any in Moscow. The chapel is exceedingly rich and always surrounded by worshippers; thirteen silver chandeliers with tapers are always burning before the ikonostas, and to this day the Tsar on visiting Moscow dismounts at this chapel before entering the Kremlin. ”

“ Probably Moscow does not charm so strongly by reason of any particular building or style as by the great diversity of its houses and churches, both in design and colouring. More especially in those quarters where the wooden log-houses still linger in their gardens, and where the frame-houses are all made gay with white, cream, blue-gray, yellow and pink body colour, and the roofs of dark green or still darker crimson; there Moscow seems to belong to another world. ”

“ In such matters may hap Moscow is as other towns, and neither mediæval nor peculiar.
But whosoever of a summer’s night will wander into the suburbs will hear the policeman on his round beating two pieces of wood together with aggravating rhythm. If the listener be country-bred the noise will remind him of the farm boy of old days who, with wooden clapper, scared birds from the corn. If he be so curious as to examine the instrument he will find it to be a piece of board with a handle, and a wooden ball attached to it with a piece of twine. ”

“ This method, so characteristic of Russia, is perplexing rather than intricate, but he would be very learned or foolhardy who, acting on the rule that to see the house is to know the inmates, if shown Moscow should at once predicate the character of its inhabitants.
Yet more than most towns Moscow reflects the life history of its people; whatever there is of beauty, of strength, of individuality, is the result of human intelligence, experience and effort. No town of like importance owes so little to nature, so much to man. ”

“ Macarius, the metropolitan, complained that “He who blasphemes his maker, meets with forgiveness amongst men, he who reviles the Tsar is sure to lose his head.” Ivan chose as his companions the worst people whom he could find. At one time he withdrew from Moscow, taking umbrage at the prelates, still too powerful to be touched. The people clamoured for his return.
“The Tsar has forsaken us: we are lost, who will now defend us against the enemy? What are sheep without the shepherd? Let him punish all who deserve it: has he not the power over life and death? ”

“ Those whom Peter wished specially to honour he made hangmen. An old boyard who liked not salad, as ‘sour things did not agree with him,’ was made to empty a large bottle of vinegar by Peter; and a Jewess in his company who declined to drink to the extent Peter wished, was there and then beaten by him and made to drink much more.”
It was an unequal struggle: a powerful autocrat attempting to force a proud, stubborn people from the habits they had been taught to revere, from practices that had made their city great and beautiful. The more successful Peter became the greater was the opposition. ”

“ Brothers, we are many and ready to sacrifice life for the salvation of our land, and prevent the scoundrel entering Moscow; you must help. Moscow is our mother; she has suckled us, nursed us, enriched us. In the name of the Mother of God I call on you to help to defend the Holy Places of Moscow, of Russia! Arm yourselves how you can, on foot or horseback, take only enough food for three days, go with the Holy Cross, preceded by the standards from the Churches, and assemble on the three Hills. I shall be there, and together we will exterminate the invaders. ”

“ He quarrelled with the Church, cruelly ill used his wife—whom he forsook eventually, shamefully treated his blood-relations—even torturing his half-sisters himself, and was to his subjects such a father as he proved to his own unfortunate son Alexis, who was done to death at his hands; in all these things behaving so savagely that even the strongest were awed into hypocrisy. The citizens of Moscow considered themselves the children of the Father of the people—the Tsar who lived in the Kremlin—who cared for them and never ceased to be anxious for their welfare. ”

“ It was not until the nineteenth century, and the complete abandonment of Peter’s policy, that Russia once more advanced towards civilisation.
A country devastated by foreign invaders and surrounded with bitter and relentless enemies; a territory wasted by internecine warfare; the cinders of a capital; an empty treasury; a famished and pestilent ridden people—such was the gift of the electors in 1613 to Michael Theodorovich Romanof, a boy of sixteen, whose mother was in a convent and father in a foreign prison. ”

“ Intense colours, sharp contrasts characterise Moscow. The extravagances of design and colouring, unconcealable even in the general prospect, are obvious on closer inspection. The stranger arriving by railway gets no bird’s-eye view of the town; but on his way from the station in the suburbs towards the central town sees the painted roofs, coloured walls, pretentious pillars, cupolas with golden stars, strange towers, fantastic gates, immense buildings, tiny cottages, magnificent spaces, narrow winding streets ”

“ Very characteristic of Moscow are these three towers, of different styles of architecture, massed to form one building; that the three should all be white is a pleasing convention which has long endured. It is needless to state that there is an excellent view from the upper storeys, one well worth the toilsome ascent. Moreover the bells are interesting; though some visitors are content with an examination of the great Bell of Moscow which, broken and flawed, stands upon a pedestal at the foot of the Ivan Veliki tower. ”

“ Near by is a great wooden palace, stuccoed and prim, the property of the Sheremetievs. Passing through its park where Le Bruyn shot his great crane flying by a single bullet from his musket, and where the upper reaches of the Yauza are still haunted by wild fowl, is a thick wood to the north of the stream, and in the middle of that near the path, a clearing where at midday a drove of mares are coralled and milked by men who speak a strange tongue, and are of quite different appearance to the Muscovites. ”

“ Even Peter’s code was cruel: it was during his reign that Le Bruyn saw a woman executed in Moscow by being buried alive; covered up to her neck in the dank black soil she lived but two days, whereas, on the same authority, there were others who lingered ten or more. In Russia, as in countries further west, the crime of petty treason, the murder of a husband, was considered almost as heinous as high treason, and punished accordingly. ”

“ RUSSIANS very rightly regard the Kremlin as their Holy of Holies. All that Moscow is to Russia, the Kremlin is to Moscow. Nowhere else are so many and diverse relics grouped in so small a space; no place of its size is so rich in historical associations. ”

“ The walls were built by the same Italians who completed the walls of the Kremlin, and are of the same type, but round and square towers alternate and both have some of the heavy florid decoration so common in Moscow. The single and double dropped-arch is most conspicuous, and the quaintness of the architecture is accentuated by the glaring disparity of the colouring—dead white for the walls and interior of the open turrets, dark Indian red for the tops of the towers and masonry above the corbels of the machecoules. ”

“ If no one object can be pointed to as typical of race or period, no public work shown as the result of persistent policy or genius of peculiar citizenship, Moscow in its entirety demonstrates the development of a people. Even the opposing principles of diffusion and cohesion, and the parts they have served in the history of this race, are so unmistakably expressed that the sight-seer, even, feels that in Moscow, most surely, must be found the key not only to the history of Russia, but also to the character of men{4} who have conquered and hold the largest part of two continents. ”

“ Thirteen years later a second invasion of the Tartars resulted in the fall of Vladimir and the subjection of southern and eastern Russia to Mongol rule. Livonians, Swedes and Danes attacked Novgorod, but were repulsed. Pressed on these sides the Russians could extend only towards the inhospitable north. In these times and with this environment Moscow was founded, and nursed; became a rallying point for the Slav race; grew strong and rich; and, by the genius of its rulers, dominated Russia. ”

“ The boyards Mstislavski, Vasili Shooiski, Belski and others, went out to argue with the citizens, but they were met with cries of “The day of Godunov is over! To-day the sun rises upon Russia; Dmitri! Long live the Tsar Dmitri! Down with the Godunovs! Cursed be the memory of Boris! Long live Dmitri!” So shouting, this crowd made its way into the Kremlin.
The rioters were masters; the guard fled, and the townsmen who had forced their way into the palace actually pulled the young Tsar from the throne. His mother begged them to spare his life, and her cry was heeded. ”

“ The young Prince Peter had a small state coach to himself; it was drawn by small white ponies, and he had as a special retinue a number of dwarfs. In the golden age of the three Romanofs Moscow thrived as never before and became beautiful beyond other cities. Alexis busied himself in erecting new and better buildings where fire destroyed the old, and his example was followed by the boyards, who commenced of their own accord to build churches or to enrich those existing, and were even so western and modern as to present bells. ”

“ Ivan looked round at the opritchniks. ‘You see I am right in saying that the Boyard will have his joke. I have no right to promote him to the office of jester, eh?’
“ ‘Tsar, I implore you to withdraw your words. Before you were born I fought for your father with Simski against the Cheremiss; with Odoevski and Mstislavski drove back the Krim-Tartars, and chased the Tartars away from Moscow. I defended you when a child; fought for your rights and the rights of your mother. I prized only mine honour; that has always remained unstained. Will you mock the grey hairs of a faithful servant? ”

“ At that time the Tsar held territory in Europe larger than that ruled by any of his contemporaries; the conquests of Yermak in Asia brought as much more under his dominion. Enemies, active, watchful, virulent, were ever ready to harass its rulers. Poles and Swedes expected Moscow sooner or later, to fall to them, and lost no opportunity to effect the overthrow of the Russians. Tartars and others kept up predatory wars and, within the empire, towns and districts, devastated by the wanton cruelties of Ivan, were anxious to get back their independence. There were no men able to rule. ”