nation, and had always about him a coterie of distinguished scholars,
still there was no intellectual life in Russia, and owing to the
Oriental seclusion of the women there was no society. The men were
heavily bearded, and the ideal of beauty with the women, as they looked
furtively out from behind veils and curtains, was to be fat, with red,
white, and black paint laid on like a mask. It must have been a dreary
post for gay European diplomats, and in marked contrast to gay, witty,
gallant Poland, at that time thoroughly Europeanized.

Next to the consolidation of the imperial authority, the event in this
reign most affecting the future of Russia was the acquisition of
Siberia. A Cossack brigand under sentence of death escaped with his
followers into the land beyond the Urals, and conquered a part of the
territory, then returned and offered it to Ivan (1580) in exchange for
a pardon. The incident is the subject of a _bilina_, a form of
historical poem, in which Yermak says:

"I am the robber Hetman of the Don.
And now--oh--orthodox Tsar,
I bring you my traitorous head,
And with it I bring the Empire of Siberia!

And the orthodox Tsar will speak--
He will speak--the terrible Ivan,
Ha! thou art Yermak, the Hetman of the Don,
I pardon thee and thy band,
I pardon thee for thy trusty service--
And I give to the Cossack the glorious and gentle
Don as an inheritance."