It was in the year 1224 that the first great Tartar invasion
took place and that the hordes of Jenghiz Khan, the conqueror
of China, Bokhara, Tashkent and Turkestan made their first
appearance in the west. The Slavic armies were beaten near
the Kalka river and Russia was at the mercy of the Mongolians.
Just as suddenly as they had come they disappeared.
Thirteen years later, in 1237, however, they returned. In less
than five years they conquered every part of the vast Russian
plains. Until the year 1380 when Dmitry Donskoi, Grand
Duke of Moscow, beat them on the plains of Kulikovo, the
Tartars were the masters of the Russian people.
All in all, it took the Russians two centuries to deliver
themselves from this yoke. For a yoke it was and a most
offensive and objectionable one. It turned the Slavic peasants
into miserable slaves. No Russian could hope to survive un-
less he was willing to creep before a dirty little yellow man who
sat in a tent somewhere in the heart of the steppes of southern
Russia and spat at him. It deprived the mass of the people of
all feeling of honour and independence. It made hunger and
misery and maltreatment and personal abuse the normal state
of human existence. Until at last the average Russian, were he
peasant or nobleman, went about his business like a neglected
dog who has been beaten so often that his spirit has been broken
and he dare not wag his tail without permission.
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