RUSSIA AND CONSTANTINOPLE

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 70, 23 March 1915, Page 4

RUSSIA AND CONSTANTINOPLE

The Russian approach to the Bosphorus and tfce Allies' advance to the Narrows bring perceptibly neirer the hour when the future of Constantinople will have to be discussed by Europe. What is to be done with it we have so far no official indications, and we can only surmise from the trend of events. If it falls, as seems inevitable, before the conclusion of the general war, what may be expected at first is a joint occupation by France, Russia, and England, pending the final settlement. After this preliminary stage has been passed through, the city might possibly be neutralised and placed under some form of European control or protectorate, although in practice joint control by two or more Powers, when prolonged indeflenitely, has always meant, as it did in Egypt and in the New Hebrides, incessant discord and confusion. But if it is to be allotted to one nation alone it can hardly be to any but Russia.

The Greek claim is indeed even stronger, judged by abstract rules of national right. Before its fall, Constantinople was the capitaJ of the GrecoRoman Kmpire. and its capture meant the scattering of the Greek race. A considerable remnant of Greeks still re mained in it, and in spite of outburets of Moslem fanaticism they increased in numbers, wealth and influence. It was mainly the Greek element of the population which kept alive trade, finance, commerce, industry, and whatever there was of art or letters, during five centuries, until first one. then another Western nation- of Eutope began to manage its-.'affairs. Even- now the Greeks, form a very considerable proportion of its' population, while outside of its boundaries the members of the "raor stitl regard it as the centre of their nationality and of their religion.

To the dovout Russian Constantinople is the portal through which he must pass on his way to the Holy City of .Jerusalem. Hutjthf Greek, though he might acknowledge the superior sanctity of Jerusalem, feels that in reality it is Constantine's city that means the most to him. Within its bounds the Orthodox i Russians are \inder the protection of the Greek Patriarch, their ancient head, and this fact indicates the relative position of the two races towards the city and the relation of their religious claims. More than once the Greek nation has been reproached with its "insane" aspiration to extend its territories as far as the shores of the Bosphorus. But if there was ever a shadowy possibility of their doing this, it vanished when they failed to join the Allies' fleet in the siege of the Dardanelles.

The claim of Russia is second only to that of Greece. The Greeks themselves arc likely to accept Russian domination within and without the city as next best to their own. In their past centuries of subjection they constantly looked for and invoked in the person of the Russian Czar the ''Deliverer from the North," foretold in prophecies and traditions. The two races have a common religion, and to the Greek religion is more than nationality. Krom time to time Kiiosia, as the most powerful nation professing the Orthodox faith, has fought in the name of her fellow Christians. ~ 'Curs-elves'flEating irthis connectiotf-itHb.,* set motives and with two Satinet Kns'Biae'—ffte 'Russia of the- ambitious soy«Kiiglnm<| the politician, who, since the days of Czar Peter, have intrigued for rule over the great city, and , the Straits and • seae it would unlock/ to the Empire. X)n the other hand we have to do with the Russia of the devout monk, the" peasant, the soldier, and the enthusiast who sec in 'its capture the regeneration and deliverance of their sacred Mother Church and of their oppressed brothers in the faith.

. No other race except the Hellenes have liaS so long and close a connection with' Constantinople as the Russians. In the early centuries of the Christian era the Muscovites traded with it, and their first Czars formed treaties with its EmperoTS, while it was unknown to Western Europe. About a century 'before the Norman Conquest of England, Czar Vladimir accepted the faith of Byzantium, and Christianised his people by means of its missionaries. For some time it remained the spiritual capital of the Russian Church, and acknowledged its Patriarch as head. From the time of the Fall of Constantinople, Russia considered itself as inheriting the .position of upholder of Orthodox Christianity. The mass of the Russian nation have remained to the present day religious in a profound way little understood by the rest of Modern Europe. Today (says Mr. Harold Williams) *he devout "await the coining of -the Lordi from the Hiills of Zion and the mountaing of the Turkish land-" Stephen Gra'h&m, in describing the pilgrimage of Russian peasants to Jerusalem, quotes the words of one of them: "Grid grant we Russians shall take Czargrad at last, and then Sophia will be no more a mosque and the pilgrims will no more bepersecuted."

The- Russian name "Czargrad" for Constantinople is itself significant. Apart from the most fervent religious sentiment, there are very solid reasons to desire ■ its conquest. Every year thousands of Russian .pilgrims journey, as 'their fathers did, to Jerusalem, and even to-day -they are subject to insult and persecution. "In the days preceding the Crimean War," Mr. Graham writes, "it is marvellous how many poor ■Russians the Turks and Arabs murdered or put to the torture. Not more than half of them came back alive. The Mohammedan in the Caucasus persecuted the Christian wayfarer until the beginning of the present war."

The direct political advance of Russia towards the Bosphorus can be traced to tile seventeenth century, when the Pha-nariote Greeks hoped to find in Peter the Great the destined deliverer of their race. They sent a secret deputation to lay before him a scheme to wrest Constantinople from the Porte, and to build up an Oriental Empire for Russia. The prospect looked remote in those days, when Russia wag still a backward and barbarous Power of 10091111117 import-

ance in Europe, and without .any Asiatic Empire. But Peter, with extraordinary foresight, entered into the project, and began with caution feeling 'his way towards initiating a new policy in the East, the fulfilment of 'which he left to his successors. He opened up friendly relations on the one hand with the Greeks of the city, and especially with their Patriarch, and on the other hand with the Porte itself, imperceptibly strengthening Russian influence and keeping the attention of the Sultan's Orthodox subjects fixed upon Russia. A definite step farther was ta-ken when by the Treaty of Belgrade the Czar proclaimed himself the Pfotector of the Orthodox, the divinely appointed successor of Constantine. This announcement was for a time little moTe than a form, biit it prepared the way for more practical consequences.

Tn the eighteenth century the Greeks again called upon a Russian sovereign (Catherine the Great) to seize flic inheritance 6f the Turks. Catherine went so far as to entrust the mission as a kind of experimental adventure to h«r favourite, Orloff, but when he failed, both Empress and favourite abandoned the Greeks to the vengeance of the Turks. In 1774 the Czar's claim to protect the Orthodox subjects of Hie Sultan was formally acknowledged by the Porte. Consulates, nominally Russian, were then set up in all the seaports of the Empire. In practice, the consuls ■were always resident Greeks, and they used their privileges to found a navy which ultimately helped to set Greece free. In the provinces still left subject the Russian protectorate was inadequately carried out, as numerous ■massacres prove. But the Orthodox never quite ceased to believe in it, and even as a theory it has helped to accustom them to the idea of Russian supremacy. On the Russian side, while politicians have been e6veting (and with pood reason) the city that opens to thpm a highway through the lesser and the greater seas, the enthusiastic a"nd unworldly amongst the nation have pro-phe-ied it* capture timf nftor time. In 1871, the Panslavist Danilevsky wrote: "What enormous significance would Constantinople have for us. torn, despite nil Europe, from the hands of the Turks. With what breathless delight would we not hail the gleam of the Cross raised by us to the summit of Santa Sophia," But f-rr t'lie veto of Eirrope this longedfor triumph wncuM hav<> been accompli shied in IS7S. This time Europe will no longer.interfere to check the inevitable. If Russia doe* not satisfy every Tequisitc she will at least he a octYer keeper of Constantinople than the Turk has shown himself. •