Northmen--Popular Liberty in Novgorod--The Prince and the Popular Assembly--Civil Dissensions and Faction-fights-- The Commercial Republic Conquered by the Muscovite Tsars--Ivan the Terrible-- Present Condition of the Town--Provincial Society--Card-playing-- Periodicals--"Eternal Stillness."

CHAPTER XII

THE TOWNS AND THE MERCANTILE CLASSES

General Character of Russian Towns--Scarcity of Towns in Russia-- Why the Urban Element in the Population is so Small--History of Russian Municipal Institutions--Unsuccessful Efforts to Create a Tiers-etat--Merchants, Burghers, and Artisans--Town Council--A Rich Merchant--His House--His Love of Ostentation--His Conception of Aristocracy--Official Decorations--Ignorance and Dishonesty of the Commercial Classes--Symptoms of Change.

CHAPTER XIII

THE PASTORAL TRIBES OF THE STEPPE

A Journey to the Steppe Region of the Southeast--The Volga--Town and Province of Samara--Farther Eastward--Appearance of the Villages--Characteristic Incident--Peasant Mendacity--Explanation of the Phenomenon--I Awake in Asia--A Bashkir Aoul--Diner la Tartare--Kumyss--A Bashkir Troubadour--Honest Mehemet Zian--Actual Economic Condition of the Bashkirs Throws Light on a Well-known Philosophical Theory--Why a Pastoral Race Adopts Agriculture--The Genuine Steppe--The Kirghiz--Letter from Genghis Khan--The Kalmyks-- Nogai Tartars--Struggle between Nomadic Hordes and Agricultural Colonists.

CHAPTER XIV

THE MONGOL DOMINATION

The Conquest--Genghis Khan and his People--Creation and Rapid Disintegration of the Mongol Empire--The Golden Horde--The Real Character of the Mongol Domination--Religious Toleration--Mongol System of Government--Grand Princes--The Princes of Moscow-- Influence of the Mongol Domination--Practical Importance of the Subject.

CHAPTER XV

THE COSSACKS

Lawlessness on the Steppe--Slave-markets of the Crimea--The Military Cordon and the Free Cossacks--The Zaporovian Commonwealth Compared with Sparta and with the Mediaeval Military Orders--The Cossacks of the Don, of the Volga, and of the Ural--Border Warfare-- The Modern Cossacks--Land Tenure among the Cossacks of the Don-- The Transition from Pastoral to Agriculture Life--"Universal Law" of Social Development--Communal versus Private Property--Flogging as a Means of Land-registration.

CHAPTER XVI

FOREIGN COLONISTS ON THE STEPPE

The Steppe--Variety of Races, Languages, and Religions--The German Colonists--In What Sense the Russians are an Imitative People--The Mennonites--Climate and Arboriculture--Bulgarian Colonists--Tartar- Speaking Greeks--Jewish Agriculturists--Russification--A Circassian Scotchman--Numerical Strength of the Foreign Element.

CHAPTER XVII

AMONG THE HERETICS

The Molokanye--My Method of Investigation--Alexandrof-Hai--An Unexpected Theological Discussion--Doctrines and Ecclesiastical Organisation of the Molokanye--Moral Supervision and Mutual Assistance--History of the Sect--A False Prophet--Utilitarian Christianity--Classification of the Fantastic Sects--The "Khlysti"-- Policy of the Government towards Sectarianism--Two Kinds of Heresy--Probable Future of the Heretical Sects--Political Disaffection.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE DISSENTERS

Dissenters not to be Confounded with Heretics--Extreme Importance Attached to Ritual Observances--The Raskol, or Great Schism in the Seventeenth Century--Antichrist Appears!--Policy of Peter the Great and Catherine II.--Present Ingenious Method of Securing Religious Toleration--Internal Development of the Raskol--Schism among the Schismatics--The Old Ritualists--The Priestless People--Cooling of the Fanatical Enthusiasm and Formation of New Sects--Recent Policy of the Government towards the Sectarians--Numerical Force and Political Significance of Sectarianism.

CHAPTER XIX

CHURCH AND STATE

The Russian Orthodox Church--Russia Outside of the Mediaeval Papal Commonwealth--Influence of the Greek Church--Ecclesiastical History