Instructor Manual For Interpreting and

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Instructor Manual For Interpreting and Analyzing
Financial Statements (6th Edition) by Karen P.
Schoenebeck, Mark P. Holtzman
full chapter at: https://testbankbell.com/product/instructor-manual-
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The text and activities format allow the instructor to use this book as a
stand-alone text for the first accounting course.

This text helps students analyze real company financial statement

information. Each activity in the book concentrates on only one aspect
of the analysis and uses data from well-known corporations to pique
students' interest and add relevancy.

Dr. Mark P. Holtzman is Associate Professor and Chair of the

Department of Accounting & Taxation at Seton Hall University. He
holds a PhD from The University of Texas at Austin and a bachelor’s
degree from Hofstra University, and has worked in the Audit Department
of the New York Office of Deloitte. In his academic work, Mark actively
works to innovate in the classroom, creating engaging and effective
learning experiences for his students. Mark loves to explore issues in
earnings management – how and why corporate executives manipulate
their numbers to make themselves look better. In line with these issues,
he believes that basic principles of accounting and accountability are
universal, applying to democracy, the environment, journalism, personal
relationships, and numberless other areas. He has authored Managerial
Accounting for Dummies, co-authored Analyzing and Interpreting
Financial Statements, and runs two blogs: accountinator.com and
freakingaccountant.com
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The importance of this step was well understood in Russia. Its
legality was proven. Iona wrote an epistle to his flock, a special one
to Kief, and several to Western Russia. In those epistles he justified
his installation, a work not superfluous in that time, for even in
Moscow there were men who considered his elevation as contrary to
Orthodox usage.

When news came that the throne in Tsargrad was occupied by

Constantine, instead of Ioann, the defender of the Florentine union,
the Grand Prince sent a letter, in which he explained his whole
course with Iona and Isidor, and asked final blessing from the
Patriarch on the former. But communication with Tsargrad in those
days had grown uncertain, through robber bands on the road, and
disorders in the Empire itself.

Then came the tidings that Tsargrad had fallen, and that Constantine
had died while defending the city, May 29, 1453. This sad event in
the Orthodox East aided the complete liberation of Russia from
Tsargrad.

The close connection between each metropolitan and Grand Prince,

and the tendencies of Moscow to consolidate brought disagreement
between the Moscow metropolitan and the Grand Princes of
Lithuania, since the latter were rivals of the Moscow Grand Prince,
especially after the Latinizing of Lithuania; hence the attempts to get
a separate metropolitan for Western Russia. Finally, in Iona’s day,
despite all his efforts, the separation of the Russian Church into two
parts was effected. This was grievous to Iona. He wrote in vain to the
Western Russian bishops, princes and boyars, to all the Western
Russian people, advising them to stand firmly for the Orthodox
religion.

Three years later Iona died. His successor, Thedosi, Archbishop of

Rostoff, was ordained by Russian bishops; thus this system was
confirmed finally in Russia.

The Grand Prince Vassili died in 1462, before he had reached his
fiftieth year. In the second half of his reign, Vassili the Blind [437]was
no longer the active, rather simple, and somewhat light-minded
person that he had been in his youth. Not so much years as bitter
suffering and experience, and especially the loss of his eyesight,
developed adroitness and stern resolution. He brought into his own
hands almost all the principalities near Moscow, and advanced very
greatly the union effected by his immediate successor. At his death
Russia included, besides the enlarged principality of Moscow, four
independent lands, that is, Pskoff and Novgorod, with the Tver and
Ryazan principalities.

To give a brief picture of affairs in Lithuania and Russia is now

indispensable for an understanding of Moscow. We must return to
the beginning of Vassili’s reign.

The death of Vitold of Lithuania, in 1430, without heirs raised the

great question: Who shall succeed? The former Russo-Lithuanian
Grand Prince, Yagello, at that time King of Poland, hesitated to put
the two crowns on his own head, fearing opposition from the Russo-
Lithuanian boyars, who struggled against merging their own state in
Poland. Besides Yagello, there were two grandsons of Gedimin,
Svidrigello, Yagello’s younger brother, and Sigismund, the youngest
brother of Vitold. There were also grandsons of Olgerd, but being of
the Orthodox faith they were unacceptable to the Poles, and to
Catholics. Yagello gave the preference to his brother, who
succeeded Vitold, and was crowned in the Vilna Cathedral. But
Yagello was mistaken in thinking that he had found an obedient
assistant. Though Svidrigello had gone over to the Latins through the
influence of his brother, he was not a zealot, and was well inclined
toward his former co-religionists. Having ruled in Russian
principalities, he was Russian in language and sympathies; hence
the Russians greeted his elevation, and expected aid from him
against Latinism and absorption.

Svidrigello had no wish to be a servant. He looked on the Grand

Principality as his by right, and wished to preserve the integrity of his
inheritance. In one word, his wish was to follow the policy of Vitold.
Polish magnates were greatly displeased that the king had permitted
this brother to be crowned without pledges, and had yielded Podolia
and Volynia, which they claimed for themselves, and which, as they
said, they had fought for.

The taking of Galitch by Kazimir the Great was the first exploit [438]in
distributing the lands of Russia among Polish nobles and the clergy,
and also of taking lands from Russian owners, and giving them to
Poles. This system had extended to Podolia from Galitch, a part of
which had been joined to Poland. But in Vitold’s day Podolia had
been given back to Russia almost entirely. In cities and castles were
representatives of the Grand Prince supported by Russo-Lithuanian
garrisons.

No one supposed that Svidrigello would surrender Podolia and

Volynia to Yagello, hence the Poles planned to capture them by
stratagem. Kamenyets, the chief Podolian city, was commanded by
Dovgerd, a noted Lithuanian. The local Polish nobles appeared at
the castle of Kamenyets before the news of Vitold’s death had
reached it. They came under protext of friendly consultation, and
invited Dovgerd to meet them with his attendants. He did so. The
Poles threw off the mask then, seized him with his attendants, and
took possession of the castle. At the same time they surprised
Smotritch, with a few other places, and thus won a part of Podolia.
The voevodas of Volynia had heard of Vitold’s death and were
prepared. There the Poles could obtain nothing.
Svidrigello was indignant when he heard of what had happened at
Kamenyets. Yagello was still in Lithuania, hunting; he had not
returned since the funeral of Vitold. Svidrigello reproached the king
bitterly, and declared that he would hold him a captive till Podolia
was returned to its Grand Prince. Yagello met his brother’s outburst
of anger and accusation with mild and insinuating speeches. But
Svidrigello was unyielding. The king’s Polish suite proposed then a
desperate measure: to kill Svidrigello, capture the Vilna castle, and
defend themselves till aid came. The king would not consent to this
murder, but to effect his escape he made an agreement by which he
returned the castles in Podolia to his brother, and commanded
Butchatski to yield Kamenyets to Prince Michael Baba, Svidrigello’s
commander. Svidrigello was delighted. He rewarded Yagello’s
messenger well, then he made rich presents to Yagello and his suite,
and they departed for Poland. Despite his sixty years, Svidrigello had
let himself be badly deceived.

Polish magnates near the king, perhaps with his connivance, thought
out a stratagem. They sent a private letter to Butchatski, forbidding
him to obey Yagello’s order to yield Kamenyets, and
[439]commanding him to arrest Prince Baba and the messenger. The
letter was placed in a tube which was covered with wax and made to
look like a candle. This counterfeit candle was taken to Butchatski by
an attendant of the king’s messenger, who said, as he delivered it:
“You will find in this candle all the light needed.” Real candles were
burned before images, and were sent to chapels and churches,
therefore this candle roused no suspicion. Butchatski cut the candle,
found the letter, and followed its instructions.

When he heard of the trick Svidrigello was enraged. He tried to

recover the castles, but took only a few of them; Smotritch and
Kamenyets remained with his opponents. The Poles now declared
that Svidrigello must surrender not only Podolia, but Lutsk, and the
south of Volynia. They demanded too that he should go to Poland
and take an oath of obedience to Yagello. Svidrigello refused to do
this. He made a treaty with the Germans, and with the Emperor.
Sigismund opposed the growth of Poland, and desired the Order to
assist Svidrigello, to whom he promised the same kind of crown that
he had sent to Vitold.

From the Polish king now came an envoy with reproaches. He

condemned Svidrigello savagely for his alliance with the enemies of
Poland. The envoy added also that Svidrigello was not a Grand
Prince till so acknowledged by a Polish Diet. Svidrigello, borne away
by furious anger, detained the Polish envoy, and had him
imprisoned. After this insult there was no way to decide the dispute
except by armed action.

In 1431 the king led a large army into Volynia. The Poles were
distinguished for their fury in that war; so irrepressible was it that the
people were forced to hide in forests and swamps, and in
inaccessible places. The king, to spare native regions, tried to curb
the troops under him; he even warned people of his coming, and
thus incurred the taunt that he was sparing his rebel brother. The
Poles sacked Vladimir; Volynia was burned. Svidrigello, with
Wallachians and Mongols, was preparing to meet the invasion, but
discovering the great strength of the king’s forces, he withdrew and
burned Lutsk to save it from the enemy. In the Lutsk castle he put
Yursha, a Russian, who defended that stronghold so stubbornly that
the Poles could not take it. Angered by this defeat, they accused the
king of malevolent slackness, and of intentional blunders. [440]

In the Polish camp disease attacked the men, and a distemper broke
out among the horses. Food failed. German knights declared war,
and invaded northern provinces. These calamities caused the king to
offer peace. The Grand Prince accepted, and concluded a truce
without consulting the Germans. Svidrigello retained what he had
when the war broke out, that is Eastern Podolia, and Volynia entire.
He had vindicated independence for the lands under him, but
beyond that the result of the war was merely plunder and bloodshed.

At the head of Polish affairs was Olesnitski, the chancellor, at that

time cardinal. On meeting failure in the field he sought other means
to subject Svidrigello. A rival was selected, Sigismund, Vitold’s
youngest brother. Sigismund was to claim the Grand Principality; and
in various ways a party was created to support him. A revolt was
brought about and Svidrigello, being careless and improvident, was
surprised and very nearly captured by his rival. He escaped by
desperate speed, but his wife was seized. Vilna and Troki
surrendered. Soon Lithuania acknowledged Sigismund, while Russia
adhered to Svidrigello.

Sigismund was crowned in Vilna, where a papal bull was read

freeing Lithuania from its oath to Svidrigello. In Grodno, somewhat
earlier, before senators and Olesnitski, Sigismund had surrendered
the regions of Lutsk, and its lands, as well as Podolia and Goróden.

Meanwhile Svidrigello had no intention of yielding to Sigismund

broad regions which were still in his possession. Help was coming to
him from the Tver prince. His Russian voevodas were successful.
Alexander Nos defended Kief lands, and Prince Ostrogski, Volynia.
Especially distinguished was Fedko, who, with help of Wallachians
and Mongols, not only repulsed the Poles in Podolia, but seized
Kamenyets, luring Butchatski from the fortress, and taking him
captive.

During this war Yagello died at the age of eighty-six. Thus ended a
reign of fifty years, a reign memorable in Eastern Europe. The two
great results of his life were the union of Lithuania and Poland, and
the reduction of the royal power till it was a mere shadow. Now the
nobles, with Olesnitski at the head of them, became all-powerful.
Instead of combining his provinces, and [441]organizing an army,
Svidrigello sought alliances, treated with Sigismund, with the
Germans, with the Khan, and with the Pope. All this proved his
unfitness, and weakened the attachment of the Orthodox party.
Besides he was passionate, given to anger, and cruel. He
sometimes punished with death those adherents of Sigismund whom
he captured. For example, he had one of the princes, Olshanski,
sewn up in a bag and drowned in the Dvina. Worse than all of his
evil deeds, he burned at the stake the metropolitan Gerásim, for an
unknown reason, but presumably for communicating with Sigismund.

A decisive battle was fought near Vilkomir, in which Sigismund was

victor. Svidrigello fled to Kief, and found refuge there, while
Smolensk, Polotsk and Vitebsk received lieutenants from Sigismund.
Svidrigello had still a part of Podolia, much of Volynia and the whole
of the Kief principality, in which Yursha, his brave voevoda, was
commanding, but feeling that he had not sufficient power to continue
the struggle, he went to Cracow and offered to become a feudatory
of Poland.

Sigismund was active against him, and spared nothing in bribery. He

demanded for himself all that Svidrigello had held, and his side
succeeded. Svidrigello, fearing to fall into Sigismund’s clutches,
withdrew to Wallachia, and Kief and Volynia were given to
Sigismund, on condition that after he died Lithuania and Russia
should be given to Poland.

So the war ended with victory for Sigismund, but he had little profit
from his triumph. The humiliating position in which the new prince
had put his own office roused opposition among Lithuanians and
Russians. Especially active were Olgerd’s descendants in fighting
against this son of Keistut, who had seized power unjustly, as it
seemed to them. Their indignation was increased by the cruelty with
which Sigismund hunted down every opponent. Men of the highest
distinction were imprisoned and deprived of their property, while
others were put to death without cause.

When Sigismund summoned a Diet, the report went out quickly that
that was only a trap to ruin princes and boyars. Unable to cast down
the tyrant, for he was surrounded by Polish defenders, they formed a
conspiracy, at the head of which stood a Russian, Prince Chartoriski,
Dovgerd, voevoda of Vilna, and Lelyush, [442]who commanded in
Troki. The conspirators used the hay tribute to carry out their
stratagem.

In the night before Palm Sunday, March, 1440, three hundred sleighs
bringing hay were drawn into Troki. In each sleigh two or three
armed men were secreted, and with each went a driver,—in all a
thousand men or more. The following morning Sigismund’s son,
Michael, went, accompanied by his father’s attendants, to early mass
in the cathedral. During mass the men hidden in the hay came out,
shut the gates of the fortress, and were led into the castle by
Chartoriski. Sigismund, without leaving his bed, was hearing mass
offered up by a priest in a chapel adjoining his chamber. He had a
tame bear which served as a guard near his person; when the beast
wished to enter he scratched at the door for admission. Chartoriski,
seeing the bear in the courtyard, and knowing its habit, scratched on
the door in imitation. The door was opened, and the conspirators
entered. Skobeiko, equerry to Sigismund, but now false to him,
seized an iron poker from the fireplace, and struck the prince on the
head with such violence that his blood and brains stained the walls
of the chamber. Slavko, a favorite and intimate of the Grand Prince,
tried to shield his master; but he was hurled through the window and
instantly killed. The body of the dead prince was conveyed in a
sleigh to the lake, and left on the ice there; later it was buried, near
Vitold’s grave, in the Cathedral of Vilna.

When news of this terrible crime spread through Troki, there was a
great outbreak. Michael and his attendants took refuge in a small
castle on an island of the lake near Troki. Lelyush seized the main
castle in the name of Svidrigello, and hung out his white banner
above it. Dovgerd did the same in Vilna, but in Vilna the upper castle
was taken by adherents of Michael. Meanwhile couriers raced off for
Svidrigello. He hurried back from Moldavia, and appearing at Lutsk,
was received with gladness by the people. Men imprisoned in
strongholds of Lithuania and Russia were freed, but Svidrigello,
instead of hastening to Vilna and Troki and securing the throne,
which had come to him a second time, loitered in Lutsk till affairs
changed again, and not to his profit.

In Olshani a number of noted Lithuanians met and resolved to

depose both Svidrigello and Michael, and make Yagello’s
[443]youngest son, Kazimir, Grand Prince. It seemed to these
magnates that they might rear this young boy in the ways of the
country and manage it themselves during his minority. The Polish
magnates insisted that the Lithuanian throne belonged to their actual
king, Vladislav, who at ten years of age had been named as
Yagello’s successor, but Vladislav, having been made king in
Hungary, and being attracted by the war just beginning with Turkey,
was willing to yield Lithuania to his brother. Still the Poles insisted
that Kazimir, not being a sovereign, but only a viceroy, should be
called prince, and not Grand Prince. This angered Lithuanians, who
considered him sovereign, and they acted as follows:

Young Kazimir came to Vilna with a large, brilliant suite, and

attended by senators from Poland. The Lithuanian magnates
prepared a great banquet to show him honor, and plied Polish
senators with wine so generously that they were all fast asleep on
the following morning. Very early in the day of July 3, 1440, the
Lithuanians crowned Kazimir in the Vilna Cathedral, putting on his
head the Grand Prince’s cap worn by Gedimin. They then gave him
the sword, and placed on his shoulders the Grand Prince’s mantle.
The Poles were roused from their slumbers by the thundering shouts
of the people, who were greeting their new sovereign. Rich gifts
were given to the senators, and they could do nothing but hide their
mortification and displeasure, and reply with good wishes.

Not slight was the task which confronted young Kazimir. The
preceding wars with their manifold miseries, the frosts, untimely and
terrible, the failure of harvests, famine, the pestilence, and other
visitations are mentioned continually in the chronicle. Besides, many
regions refused to accept him as Grand Prince. The king would not
acknowledge him, and the Poles were ever ready to uphold his
opponents, so as to break up the Grand Principality, and take in its
fragments one after another more easily. Hence Svidrigello received
Volynia and part of Podolia from the Polish king. Michael, son of that
Sigismund murdered at Troki, joined with Mazovian princes, and
gave them Berestei. Jmud, which rose against Kazimir, sided with
Michael. Smolensk was rebellious in like manner, but Ivan Gashtold,
the Grand Prince’s guardian and chief of his council of magnates,
pacified all. Even [444]Michael came finally to Vilna, and made peace
with Kazimir, receiving from him those same places which
Sigismund, his father, had held till he was murdered.

This peace, however, proved hollow, for Michael was raging against
Kazimir in secret, and plotting to take the throne from him at any
cost.

Once, when the Grand Prince was learning to hunt, some hundreds
of men well armed and mounted appeared in the forest. The moment
notice was given of their coming, Andrei Gashtold, the son of Ivan,
seized young Kazimir and galloped away with him to Troki. Gashtold,
the father, sent warriors to hunt down the horsemen. Some were
killed, others made captive; among the latter were five Russian
princes, the brothers Volojinski, who were put to death straightway in
Troki. Gasthold then hurried off toward Bryansk to meet Michael. But
Michael had fled to Moscow, and his lands were confiscated
straightway.

With Svidrigello the action was simpler. He abandoned the king, and
gave oath to Kazimir, who was his nephew. Kazimir left Svidrigello,
his old, childless uncle, in Volynia, giving Kief with all its connections
to Alexander, his cousin, a grandson of Olgerd and son of Vladimir.
Smolensk was not managed so easily, but still it was managed, and
kept for the Grand Principality.

Barely had Kazimir, acting through Gashtold, brought peace to the

princedom and saved its integrity, when new troubles and new
dangers came from Poland. The Polish-Hungarian king, Vladislav,
brother of Kazimir, attracted by his kingdom of Hungary and his
struggle with Turkey, left Lithuania and Russia unmolested; but in
1444 that young king fell at Varna, and his death destroyed the new
union between Hungary and Poland. The Poles had their election in
1445, and chose Kazimir. The union with Hungary being lost, they
were all the more eager for the Russo-Lithuanian connection. If a
king, not descended from Yagello, took the throne, every bond
between Poland and the Grand Principality would be severed, but as
the election of Kazimir gave the chance not only of preserving this
bond, but of merging the Grand Principality in Poland, his election
was favored by Poles without exception. This desire of the Poles to
subject the principality and find in it lands, wealth and offices was
irrepressible, and roused great indignation in Russia, for the nobles
valued their [445]independence, and the Orthodox clergy feared Latin
encroachment.

Young Kazimir, grown accustomed to Russia, liked its ways and its
language. Besides, the sovereign had power in Russia, while in
Poland he had none. So when first his election was suggested, he
answered evasively, saying that his brother’s death was still doubtful.
At last the Poles used diplomacy to force him. They feigned to elect
a Mazovian, Prince Boleslav, and to prepare for the coronation. This
election meant war for the land claimed by Boleslav, and also a new
war with Michael by Boleslav himself. The prospect of two wars, and
the words of his mother brought conviction to Kazimir. In June, 1447,
he was crowned with solemnity in Cracow.

The time following Kazimir’s election was remarkable for boisterous

Diets. The Poles sought to turn Lithuania and Russia into provinces
of their kingdom. They claimed all Podolia and Volynia, with the
Upper Bug region. Feodor Butchatski succeeded in seizing some
castles, and placing Polish troops in them. The Russo-Lithuanian
magnates were indignant. With burning words they defended the
integrity of their country at the Diets, and demanded the return of
Volynia and Podolia to their proper connection. They showed that
historically those regions were theirs beyond question. The Poles
referred to their own former conquests, as they called them. They
referred to the Horodlo union, and treaties with various Lithuanian
princes. The Lithuanians rejected those statements, and declared
that from the Horodlo pact should be excluded certain words
touching the union of Lithuania and Poland, words inserted without
their knowledge, and in secret.

The position of the king was unenviable. At first he was under the
influence of Gashtold and others, and also of his own feelings, but as
king he was powerless to counteract the demands of Polish nobles,
who, besides the union of Russo-Lithuanian provinces, asked for
confirmation of certain rights granted by Yagello, and demanded still
others restricting royal action. There were two Polish parties at this
time, those of Great and Little Poland. Great Poland formed what is
now Poznan, Little Poland that part of the present Austrian Poland
which has its center at Cracow. The men of Great Poland were
mainly indifferent to questions [446]in the Grand Principality, because
they were distant. Little Poland, on the contrary, turned every effort
toward those questions. Immense lands, great careers, and much
power were to be won through getting Lithuania and Russia. The
head of the Little Poland party was Olesnitski, the chancellor. He
held the first place in all councils; behind him stood the party in
Cracow. The queen mother supported the chancellor. The young
king yielded much to Olesnitski, who had made Sigismund Grand
Prince, and was now working ardently for Michael, and urging the
king to give him lands in Lithuania and be reconciled. The king would
not listen to this; he did not forget that this same Michael had striven
to kill him.

Michael, after fleeing from Gashtold, had tarried in Moscow for some
time, and, with help of the Mongols, had endeavored to seize lands
from Lithuania. Vassili the Blind had supported him, while Kazimir
had upheld the opponents of Vassili. Failing at last, Michael went to
Moldavia, then to Silesia, and afterward back to Moscow. But by this
time Vassili of Moscow had agreed with Lithuania, consequently he
refused to help Michael further. At last Michael died, it is stated
through poison given by some abbot,—poison of such power that the
prince died immediately. Then the abbot, terrified by the thought of
vengeance from Michael’s cousin, Sophia, the daughter of Vitold,
also drank of the poison and died.

That same year, 1450, died Svidrigello at Lutsk. Persecuted by the

Poles all his life, he had hated them thoroughly, and had taken from
his boyars an oath to give the land only to agents of the Grand
Prince of Moscow. After his death all places were occupied by
Russo-Lithuanian garrisons in the name of the Grand Prince. The
Poles were incensed, and announced a campaign to recover those
places. But the opposition of the king, and the unwillingness of Great
Poland to take part in a struggle, cooled Cracow statesmen, who
were forced to be satisfied for the moment with verbal attacks on the
king, and hot quarrels with the Russo-Lithuanian contingent of the
Commonwealth. The quarrels at last became so savage that all save
Poles left the Diet, and went from the place secretly in the night-time.

After that the king had great trouble in allaying the bitter hatred and
rancor of parties, and in the next Diet, formed of Poles only, he
yielded, confirming all the rights demanded, and taking an [447]oath
never to alienate from Poland any lands which had ever belonged to
it, among others the lands of Lithuania, Moldavia, and Russia. More
important still, the king bound himself to keep near his person at all
times a council made up of four Poles, and to remove the
Lithuanians who were hostile to Poland.

In 1455 Olesnitski, the cardinal, died, at a time when the Poles were
beginning a war which proved most serious.

In Prussia there had long been a dull and stubborn conflict between
towns and lay landholders on one side, and the Order, composed of
Knights of the Cross, on the other. The Order, retaining all authority,
burdened the people with great dues and taxes, and hampered the
Hanse towns in their traffic. Certain landholders had formed against
the Order a league called the Brotherhood. To this Brotherhood
almost all the large trading towns joined themselves. In the struggle
which followed, the Pope and the Emperor inclined toward the Order.
The league turned to Kazimir, and signed a pact making the
Prussian lands subject to Poland, reserving for itself various
privileges as to trade, taxes, and government.

But now the need came to defend this position. The German Order,
notwithstanding its fall, had much force still left, as well as the energy
to resist for a long time, and even in 1454 it inflicted on Kazimir a
notable defeat on the field of Choinitsi. After that the war lasted with
changing results for twelve years. Then the Order, having exhausted
its forces, sued for peace, and in 1466 received it at Thorn through
the aid of the papal legate.

By this peace the lands of Culm and Pomerania, with the cities
Marienburg, Dantzig and Elbing, went to Poland, but Eastern
Prussia, with Königsberg, its capital, remained with the Order, which
assumed certain feudal relations to Poland. The main reason why
the war was so long and ended without conquering the Order
completely, is found in the quarrels and struggles between the Poles
and the Russo-Lithuanians. The latter refrained almost entirely from
taking part in the conflict, and the whole weight of it fell upon Poland.
Though the same sovereign was both king and Grand Prince, he had
so little authority in Poland, and was so hampered by parties that he
had no power to make the three countries act as one body. Dlugosh,
the Polish historian, declares that in the Grand Principality Russians
and Lithuanians [448]opposed to the Poles had secret relations with
the Order, against which the Poles were then warring.

The first prince in Kief descended from Gedimin, and under a Grand
Prince of that descent also, was Gedimin’s grandson, Vladimir, son
of Olgerd. In his long rule of thirty years, from 1362 to 1392, the old
city rested to a certain extent, and recovered considerably from the
terrible destruction wrought by Batu and other Mongol khans.

Orthodox in religion, and Russian externally, Vladimir cared for the

Orthodox Church of Kief regions, and wished the metropolitan to
reside in that ancient city; hence he supported Cyprian when Dmitri
would not admit him to Moscow. When Vitold became Grand Prince
of Lithuania, he drove out Vladimir, and put him in Kopyl, a small
district. Kief he gave to Vladimir’s brother, Skirgello, in 1392. Vladimir
tried hard to get the aid of Vassili of Moscow, but he met with no
success, and spent the last years of his life in Kopyl. Skirgello, who
in action was much like his brother, lived only four years. After his
death Vitold, who wished to break up the old system, put no prince in
Kief; he governed the city through agents, the first of whom was his
confidant, Prince Olshanski.

Svidrigello, at the beginning of his rule as Grand Prince, placed

Yursha, his valiant assistant, in Kief. When expelled from
northwestern regions by Sigismund, Svidrigello found refuge in Kief,
and that city became the center of a large political division.
Svidrigello, notwithstanding his official change from Orthodox faith to
Latinity, was attached to his old Church. When the dignity of Grand
Prince went to Yagello’s son, Kazimir, Svidrigello got Lutsk, and Ivan
Gashtold, the guardian of Kazimir, thought it needful to yield to the
boyars and the Russian party; hence he gave the Kief region to the
son of Vladimir of Kopyl, that is, to Prince Alexander, whose
surname was Olelko. Alexander, being a grandson of Olgerd, and
married to the daughter of Vassili, the Grand Prince of Moscow, was
a man of distinction, therefore Sigismund, the son of Keistut, thought
him dangerous, and imprisoned him with his wife and two sons. He
remained in prison till death removed Sigismund.

Alexander governed fifteen years in the spirit of Vladimir, his father.

He died at Kief in 1455, and was buried in the Catacomb
[449]Monastery of that city. His two sons, Simeon and Michael,
thought to divide the Kief region between them, but Kazimir forbade
this, adding these words: “Vladimir, your grandfather, fled to Moscow
and deserted his Kief rights.” Still Kazimir gave Kief to Simeon to
govern, and to Michael the younger he left Slutsk and Kopyl as a
property. Simeon ruled in Kief till he died in 1471. After his death,
right to Kief went to Michael, his brother, and to his son Vassili.

But the Polish king felt so strong now in Western Russia that he
determined to give a blow to the system, and put an end to Kief’s
separate existence. Kazimir, remembering that the Russo-Lithuanian
boyars had demanded that he should live in Lithuania at all times, or
send viceroys, indicating Simeon while they did so, not only refused
to give Kief to any son of Alexander, but appointed a viceroy, Martin,
son of Gashtold. The Kief people now refused to admit this man, but
Martin brought with him an army, took Kief by assault, and seated
himself in the so-called “Lithuanian castle.”

Michael, the son of Alexander, was at this time in Novgorod, whither

the Boretskis had called him as Kazimir’s lieutenant. Hearing that his
brother Simeon was dead, he left Novgorod quickly and went to Kief,
but finding that Martin was already master there, he was forced to
take Slutsk and Kopyl. This loss of a princedom offended him deeply.

Kazimir had adopted the method of Vitold, and was supplanting the
princes by his own men. The princes, of course, did not yield without
a struggle. A conspiracy was formed; at the head of it was
Alexander’s son, Michael, and his cousin Feodor Bailski, also a
grandson of Vladimir. The plans of the conspirators have not been
made clear to us; according to some historians, they intended to
seize Kazimir, dethrone, or kill him, and make Michael Grand Prince.
According to others, they planned to take possession of certain
eastern districts, and put them under the Grand Prince of Moscow.

Feodor Bailski, who was marrying a daughter of Alexander

Chartoriski, had invited the king to his wedding. The king went, but
the plot was discovered, and Bailski’s servant, under torture,
revealed the whole secret. Bailski, learning of this in the night,
jumped out of bed, and when only half dressed sprang on horseback
[450]and galloped away toward the boundary. He reached Moscow in
safety, and entered the service of the Grand Prince. Kazimir kept
Bailski’s young wife in Lithuania, and Bailski found a new wife in
Moscow. His associates, Prince Olshanski, and Alexander’s son,
Michael, were seized, brought to trial, and received a death
sentence. Straightway Kazimir confirmed the sentence, which was
carried out August, 1482, in front of the “Lithuanian castle” at Kief.

Though the conspiracy is involved in deep mystery, both as to details

and object, it is evident that the old order had been given a blow
from which it could not recover. Some princes retained their lands,
but those petty rulers, serving superior princes, were no longer
dangerous to political unity. They took high offices willingly, and very
gladly received the incomes going with them. The only danger was
from princes whose lands bordered on Moscow, and who thus had
the possibility of joining the capital. Therefore the Grand Prince of
Lithuania tried to hold them by special treaties. Such treaties proved
of small value, however, and toward the end of Kazimir’s reign some
of those princes left Lithuania for Moscow.

Smolensk was deprived of its old princely stock, and the city was
held, through commanders, as a kind of corner-stone to the
Lithuanian state in northeastern regions.

In the reign of Kazimir IV took place the final separation of the

Orthodox Church in Russia into two parts, the Eastern and Western.
Isidor, now in Rome, but whilom metropolitan of Russia, played his
part in this movement. At the wish of Callixtus III he surrendered to
Gregory, his pupil and friend, his right to a part of the Russian
Church, namely, nine bishoprics in Lithuania, Western Russia and
Poland, and the former Patriarch, Gregory Mana, living also in
Rome, ordained in 1458 this Gregory as metropolitan of Kief,
Lithuania, and all Western Russia. King Kazimir protected Gregory;
but the Orthodox bishops, and generally the Orthodox people, were
so opposed to a metropolitan from Rome, that Gregory did not go to
Kief; he lived mainly in Kazimir’s palace, and died in 1472 at
Novgrodek.

Two years later the Smolensk bishop, Misail, was made

metropolitan. Being opposed to church union, he received
confirmation from Tsargrad, and hence was accepted by all Western
Russians. [451]With him began the unbroken succession of Kief
metropolitans, independent of Moscow. Kief for a second time
became the church center of Western Russia, and through the zeal
of the clergy and the people the old city gradually rose again.

In 1492 Kazimir IV fell ill while visiting Lithuania, and hastened

toward Poland; but he died on the way, at Grodno. In his will he had
designated his second son, Yan Albrecht, to the Polish throne, and
Alexander, his third son, to the throne of Lithuania. The Poles and
Lithuanians afterward confirmed each selection.

During Kazimir’s time rose the Khanate of the Crimea. Information

touching the origin of this Crimean dynasty is obscure and
misleading. There is a tradition that the Black Sea Horde, crushed by
civil war, after Edigai’s death chose as Khan a certain Azi, one of
Jinghis Khan’s descendants. In childhood, Azi’s life had been saved
in Lithuania, and he was reared by one Girei, whose name Azi and
his family afterward assumed out of gratitude. Some chronicles
describe the accession of the new Khan as happening in Vitold’s
time, and under his auspices; according to others, it took place in the
days of King Kazimir. One thing is clear, that this Azi lived really in
Lithuania, and was descended from Tohtamish, who, as is known,
found a refuge in that land.
According to the second account, when Mongol raids increased
against Russia, Kazimir was advised by his counselors to establish a
Khan who might be devoted to Poland, and opposed to the Golden
Horde rulers. So advantage was taken of the tendency to establish a
Mongol state on the Black Sea.

In 1446 the king sent Azi Girei to the Crimea with a convoy of his
own men, commanded by Radzivill, and on his arrival, the murzas
made him Khan. Besides the Crimean populations, Girei had under
him the Nogai Horde, which lived between the Sea of Azoff and the
Dnieper. In general he is considered the real founder of the Khanate.
This separation of the lands along the Black Sea from the Golden
Horde on the Volga was attended by a strife which was increased
through inherited hatred between the descendants of Tohtamish and
Kutlui.

Kutchuk Mohammed was a grandson of Timur Kutlui, and under

obligations to King Kazimir for his election. Azi, or Hadji Girei,
remained faithful to the king all his life, and frequently punished other
Mongols for attacking Russo-Lithuanian lands. [452]Especially
distinguished for such robber expeditions at that time was Sedi
Ahmed, apparently ruling in the steppes between the Don and the
Dnieper. In 1451 Ahmed’s son, Mazovsha, was sent by him to collect
tribute. He reached Moscow in July, and burned its outskirts, but at
the walls of the town his men were defeated by the Russians, and
withdrew in a panic, leaving everything behind them. The following
year, while Sedi Ahmed’s men were making raids in Chernigoff, Girei
attacked him suddenly and crushed his forces. In 1455 he was
forced to seek refuge in Lithuania, but was later captured and
imprisoned at Kovno, where he died in confinement.

The Genoese colonies felt the weight of this Crimean Horde, which
extended its lordship throughout the steppes on the north of the