reaped, and the people bought and sold, only a little more patient and
submissive than before. The burden had grown heavier, but it must be
borne and the tribute paid. The Princes, with wits sharpened by
conflict, fought as they always had, with uncles, cousins, and brothers
for the thrones; and then governed with a severity as nearly as
possible like the one imposed upon themselves by their own master--the
Great Khan.

The germ of future Russia was there; a strong, patient, toiling people
firmly held by a despotic power which they did not comprehend, and
uncomplainingly and as a matter of course giving nearly one-half of the
fruit of their toil for the privilege of living in their own land!
When her sovereigns had Tatar blood in their veins and Tatar ideals in
their hearts, Russia was on the road to absolutism. All things were
tending toward a centralized unity of an iron and inexorable type--a
type entirely foreign to the natural free instincts of the Slavonic
people themselves.




CHAPTER VIII

RUSSIA BECOMES MUSCOVITE

The tumultuous forces in Russia, never at rest, were preparing to
revolve about a new center. Whether this would be in the East or West
was long in doubt, and only decided after a prolonged struggle.
Western Russia grouped itself about the state of the Lithuanians on the
Baltic, and Eastern Russia about that of Muscovy.