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102 PROBLEMS CONFRONTING RUSSIA
In prehistoric times Finnish Mongolic tribes occupied the
territory stretching from the Caspian and Aral Seas to the
shores of the Baltic. In the times of early Russian history
Slavonic tribes which had their habitat west of the tribes
of Mongolic race succeeded in subduing them and
subsequently intermingling with them, thereby making a wide
breach in their previous uninterrupted chain running from
south to north. In the south the Kalmucks, Kirghis,
Tcheremis, and other tribes ; in the north the Finns in
Finland, the Esthonians, who up to the present time populate
Esthonia and the northern half of Livonia, the Lives, who
held the southern part of Livonia, and the Coures inhabiting
Courland, were not Slavonised. But the Lives and Coures
fell a prey to the Letts, who, together with the Lithuanians,
pushed forward from the south and occupied the territory
which afterwards formed the Principality of Lithuania,
Courland, and the southern part of Livonia. The last
descendants of the Lives could some fifty years ago still be
found in the west of Livland, and of the Coures in the west
of Courland, but both tribes must nowadays be considered
as extinct. The reason why the Letts fought their way
towards the Baltic shore was the necessity of having an
outlet to the sea.
In the twelfth century German adventure brought about
a new change in the fate of the Baltic shores by sending
colonists from the North of Germany, chiefly from Bremen,
Liibeck, Hamburg, Hanover, and Westphalia, the abode of
the great tribe of the hardy Saxons who gave Charlemagne
so much trouble in subjugating and Christianising them.
In 1201 Riga was founded by Bishop Albrecht.
Just as the Saxons had themselves been converted to
Christianity by fire and sword, so they turned the same
methods prevalent in that time upon the Letts and Esths.
The Pope of Rome gave them his blessing, and under his
auspices the Holy Livonian Order of the
Brother-Sword-bearers was formed with a view to stamping out paganism
in the Baltic lands. These fighting monks cannot be
regarded as Conquistadores, as they were imbued with the
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