Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

346APPENDIX.

brilliant renown of Ivan survived the recollection of his bad qualities. The groans had ceased, the victims were reduced to dust; new events caused ancient traditions to be forgotten ; and the memory of this prince reminded people only of the conquest of three Mogul kingdoms. The proofs of his atrocious actions were buried in the public archives; whilst Kazan, As-traehan, and Siberia remained in the eyes of the nation as imperishable monuments of his glory. The Russians, who saw in him the illustrious author of their power and civilisation, rejected or forgot the surname of tyrant, given him by his contemporaries. Under the influence of some confused recollections of his cruelty, they still call him Ivan the Terrible, but without distinguishing him from his grandfather, to whom ancient Russia had given the same epithet, rather in praise than in reproach. History does not pardon wicked princes so easily as do people."

Thus are the great prince and the monster together identified under the appellation`of Terrible!!—and this by posterity ! Such is Russian equity ; and time is accomplice in the injustice. Lavau, when describing the Kremlin, does not blush to invoke the shade of Ivan IV., whom he dares to compare to David weeping the faults of his youth.

I cannot resist here inserting another extract from Karamsin, illustrative of the character of a prince in whom Russia gloried — Ivan III., grandfather of Ivan IV.

" Without being a tyrant like his grandson, he had received from nature a certain harshness of character, which he knew how to moderate by the strength of his reason. Founders of dynasties are rarely distinguished by the sensibility of their feelings; and the firmness requisite for great political achievements is very nearly allied to stern severity. It is said that a single glance of Ivan's, when he was excited with anger, would make timid women swoon; that petitioners dreaded to approach his throne ; and that even at his table, his grandees trembled before him—not daring to utter a single word, or to make the slightest movement, when the monarch, fatigued with conversation, and overcome with wine, fell asleep towards the end of the banquet: all then sat in profound silence, waiting for a new command, to divert the Czar, and to enjoy themselves."

It was Ivan III. who was the true founder of the modern