Prince Ivan

“ Tsar Dolmat was to the last degree wroth with Prince Ivan and roared at him in a thunderous angry voice: "Young man, aren't you ashamed for being a thief? Now who are you, and of what country, and who is your father, and what is your name?"
Prince Ivan answered him, saying: "I am the son of Tsar Vuislaf, and they call me Ivan. Your Magic Bird used to fly every night into our garden and rob my dear father's favourite apple-tree of its golden apples, and so my father sent me off to capture the bird and bring her to him." ”

“ Prince Ivan replied: "How can I help being troubled? The sovereign, my father, has ordered me to provide him a new shirt in a single night."
"Do not be distressed, Prince Ivan. Do not disturb yourself for nothing: Morning is cleverer than Evening."
She got the prince off to sleep, and then she laid aside her frogskin and once more became the Soulmaiden, Vasilisa the All- wise, and so beautiful that neither tongue could describe nor pen depict her beauty. She went to the stairway and called out in a loud voice:
"Maidies! maidies! ”

“ Prince Ivan pastured the colt in green meadows, and he grew into a wonderful horse. Then the prince came riding up to Marya Morevna. She came running to meet him, threw herself on his neck, and said: "How did God deliver you?"
"So and so," said he; "come with me."
"I am afraid, Prince Ivan! If Koshchei should catch us, he would make mincemeat of you again."
"No, he will not catch us this time! I have a wonderful and a gallant horse; he flies like a bird." ”

“ But Prince Ivan rushed to the left, quaffed a deep draught of the Water of Strength, and became the mightiest hero in the whole world. Then seeing that Vikhor was perfectly enfeebled, he snatched from him his keen faulchion, and with a single blow struck off his head. Behind him voices began to cry:
“Strike again! strike again! or he will come to life!”
“No,” replied the Prince, “a hero’s hand does not strike twice, but finishes its work with a single blow.” And straightway he lighted a fire, burnt the head and the trunk, and scattered the ashes to the winds. ”

“ Then said Prince Ivan: “I am the prince of princes, and the knight of knights, and you are a cossack.” “Ay, indeed!” replied Yaroslav, “you are prince in your tent; but let us meet in the open field and we are equals.” Prince Ivan saw that he had no coward to deal with: he took a golden flask, fetched some cold water, and gave it to Yaroslav to drink. Then they mounted their horses and rode into the open country. ”

“ At length he came to where two old women were sewing, and he begged them to let him live with them. But they said:
“Gladly would we do so, Prince Ivan, only we have now but a short time to live. As soon as we have broken that trunkful of needles, and used up that trunkful of thread, that instant will death arrive!”
Prince Ivan burst into tears and rode on. Long, long did he ride. At length he came to where the giant Vertodub was, and he besought him, saying: “Take me to live with you.”
“Gladly would I have taken you, Prince Ivan,” replied the giant, “but now I have very little longer to live. ”

“ Prince Ivan visited with them three short days, and then said: "I cannot stay any longer; I am going to find my wife, Marya Morevna, the beautiful queen."
The Eagle replied: "It will be hard for you to find her. Leave with us your silver fork; when we look at it we shall have something to remember you by."
He left them his silver fork and started on his way. He went one day, he went a second day, and at dawn of the third day he saw a palace still better than the first two, and near the palace grew an oak-tree, and on the oak-tree sat a Raven. ”

“ Prince Dimitri and Prince Vasili had conceived a bitter hatred against their youngest brother, Prince Ivan, because he had succeeded in getting a feather from the Magic Bird's tail. They received their father's blessing and went forth together to hunt for the bird. Then Prince Ivan also began to ask his father for his blessing. However much the Tsar strove to detain Ivan he could not help letting him go, because he was so urgent in his beseeching. So the young man got his father's blessing, chose a horse for himself, and started on his journey, not knowing at all what way it would take him. ”

“ In 1330 Ivan extended his influence over Rostov by the drastic methods of blackmail and hanging. But Great Novgorod was too strong for him, and twice he threatened that republic in vain. In 1340 Ivan assisted the khan to ravage the domains of Prince Ivan of Smolensk, who had refused to pay the customary tribute to the Horde. Ivan’s own domains, at any rate during his reign, remained free from Tatar incursions, and prospered correspondingly, thus attracting immigrants and their wealth from the other surrounding principalities. ”

“ Prince Ivan read this inscription, became greatly afflicted, and went off to his tutor.
“I’ve been in the great hall,” says he, “and I picked out for my bride Anna the Fair; only I don’t know whether it’s possible to win her.”
“Yes, Prince; she’s hard to get. If you go alone, you won’t win her anyhow. But if you will take me with you, and if you will do what I tell you, perhaps the affair can be managed.”
Prince Ivan begged Katoma to go with him, and gave his word of honor to obey him whether in joy or grief. ”

“ Stay with me for a little while. And if Prince Ivan will forget his worldly rank in the presence of great Death, who makes all men equal, I pray you both to partake with me of what may be to all of us our last meal upon earth.”
Ivan readily consented; and the attendants left in the house, who watched carefully over their aged master, served a comfortable repast. One of them informed Ivan that his servant was in their quarters, awaiting his orders. Michael had been a deeply-moved spectator of the parting between Petrovitch and his family. ”

“ When the old woman had washed herself in it she became young again; she sang and danced with joy, and accompanied Prince Ivan on his journey.
The czar and czarina received their son Ivan with great joy and honour. They sent messengers to all parts of the world, announcing that their daughter, the beautiful Vasilisa with the Golden Tress, had safely returned home. There were great rejoicings: bells rang merrily, trumpets sounded, drums were beaten, guns were fired. Vasilisa obtained a husband and Prince Ivan a wife. At the marriage feast there were mountains of meat and rivers of mead. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Ivan would never have gained the title of Great from his deeds in war. He won it, and with some justice, from his deeds in peace. He was great in diplomacy, great in duplicity, great in that persistent pursuit of a single object through which men rise to [Pg 63] power and fame. This object, in his case, was autocracy. It was his purpose to crush out the last shreds of freedom from Russia, establish an empire on the pernicious pattern of a Tartar khanate, which had so long been held up as an example before Russian eyes, and make the Prince of Moscow as absolute as the Emperor of China. ”

“ This old man, whose heart was filled with gall and envy, whispered suggestions which found ready response in Ivan's diseased fancies.
"If," said he, "you wish to be absolute monarch, have no confidant wiser than yourself; give orders, but receive advice from no one; always command and never follow the lead of others; thus you will be indeed a king, terrible to your lords. Remember, above all, that a counsellor, even of the wisest prince, inevitably becomes his master." [3]
The poisonous seed bore fatal fruit. Ivan, then but thirty years of age, seemed to lose all faith in mankind. ”

“ My readers will recollect the episode of the Polish letters intercepted by Ivan. Some of the persons for whom these missives had been intended, and on whom suspicion now fell—old Ivan Petrovitch Tcheliadnine and his wife, Prince Ivan Kourakine-Boulgakov, three Princes Rostovski, and others—were whirled into the tempest, handed over to the executioner, tortured horribly, and put to death. Even the Church had her turn. ”

“ Victorious in war, Ivan was, in peace, a wise, enlightened, and magnificent prince. He assumed great state, embellished his capital, welcomed at his court scholars fleeing from the infidel conquerors of Byzantium, and endeavored, in Moscow, to revive the glories of Constantinople. He extended his favors to all members of the Greek communion; prelates came to the Russian metropolitan for consecration, and the patriarch of Jerusalem found refuge in Russia from the tyranny of the Sultan of Egypt. While solicitous for the national faith, he was tolerant of other religions. ”

“ The pupilage of the prince was an uninterrupted scene of horror; and he was crowned czar of all the Russias in his eighteenth year, after a minority of blood. The citizens, unsafe and trembling under a despotism which was so capricious in its enormities, were at length driven to desperation. They fired the city in several places one night, and Ivan awoke the next morning amidst flame and smoke, the tossing of brands, and the imprecations of the multitude. ”

“ Prince Ivan went into the house, and the maiden received him kindly, gave him to eat and to drink, and then began to question him. He told her how he had come to rescue his mother from Koshchei the Deathless. Then the maiden said:
“It will be difficult for you to get at your mother, Prince Ivan. You see, Koshchei is not mortal: he will kill you. He often comes here to see me. There is his sword, fifty poods in weight. Can you lift it? ”

“ Ivan preferred his dog-boys to members of the aristocracy, whom he was apt to suspect and dread as being fresh Chouíski. In May, 1546, while he was hunting near Kolomna, he found himself face to face with a troop of armed men who barred his way. They were the Novgorod musketeers, coming to complain of their governor. Ivan, who understood nothing about their business, ordered them to be put aside. There was a scuffle, in the course of which several shots were exchanged. The young Prince was not hurt, but he was very much frightened. His physical courage was always to fail him. ”

“ Couldn't you turn into the gold-maned horse? Because it seems to me as if I could not part with this gold-maned horse!"
Suddenly the Gray Wolf struck the moist earth and turned into a gold-maned horse. Prince Ivan left the beautiful Queen Helena in a green meadow with the real horse, mounted the Gray Wolf, and rode to the palace, to Tsar Dolmat. And as soon as he got there, Tsar Dolmat recognised Prince Ivan coming on the gold-maned horse. ”

“ What pleased him most was the prince's remark about his being a splendid specimen of a toad. He imitated for me how he crept out of the conservatory on his crutches, and how he laughed when he saw the gentleman wanted to take the knife from his sister. You will hear from me again the day after to-morrow."
The day after to-morrow! These words to a man who might be lying stark and stiff by that time! They gave Ivan a sudden chill; but he said to himself he would not die easily, he would fight for his life. ”

“ In The Citizen we have a beautiful picture of the vision of freedom that came to Big Ivan in downtrodden Russia, and we see him and the gentle Anna as they follow the beckoning finger of hope across Europe and the broad ocean until, in the words of Ivan, they found a home in a land “where a muzhik is as good as a prince of the blood.” ”

“ A second invasion, and a third, on a larger and larger scale, ensue, and Ivan and Bulat repulse the enemy with greater and greater loss. Ivan each time goes back to his kitchen; his servant has all the glory, and after the third and decisive victory marries the princess. Ivan gets permission from the cook to be a spectator at the wedding-banquet. The tsar’s daughter, it must now be observed, had overheard the conference between the pseudo-prince and Ivan, and even that between Ivan and Bulat, and had hitherto, for inscrutable reasons, let things take their course. ”

“ Ivan sent troops to lay waste the districts around Tver; Michael hastened to appease him and concluded a new treaty with him, by which the prince of Tver was placed on a level with the second brother of the Moscow grand prince and bound himself not to appeal to Lithuania without his consent. Meanwhile the departure of the boyars from Tver continued and Ivan encouraged them by his policy; in the event of frontier disputes, if the men of Tver were injured they could not obtain justice, but if those of Moscow were injured, Ivan rigorously demanded satisfaction. ”

“ Kourakine, Prince Ivan, death of, 247
Kourakine-Boulgakov, Prince Ivan, death of, 247
Kourbski, Prince Andrew Mikhailovitch, writings of, 78, 129, 130, 132; reference to, 165, 227–230, 250–252, 270, 311; Livonia, conquests in, 182; Nevel, defeat at, 194; council, member of, 224; flight of, to Poland, 230; Poland, in, 231–236; Ivan, correspondence with, 231–234, 382, 384, 388; possessions of, 235; character of, 235, 236
Prince Feodor, 350
Simon, councillor, 118
Kourliatev, Prince Dmitri, councillor, 224, 229
Koustar, 53
Koutchoum, Khan, 353 ”