CHAPTER XX. The Noblesse

THE NOBLESSE

The Nobles In Early Times--The Mongol Domination--The Tsardom of Muscovy--Family Dignity--Reforms of Peter the Great--The Nobles Adopt West-European Conceptions--Abolition of Obligatory Service--Influence of Catherine II.--The Russian Dvoryanstvo Compared with the French Noblesse and the English Aristocracy--Russian Titles--Probable Future of the Russian Noblesse.