Excerpt from A Handbook for Travellers in Russia, Poland, and Finland The reigns that followed the period of Russian history are distinguished by little else than continual civil wars for the possession Of the throne of Kief, but' m 1158 the town of Vladimir became the capital instead Of Kief. In 1224, the Russian people were for the first time threatened with an invasion of the Mongols, whose leader, Chinghiz Khan, after subjecting the cities and ple of Central Asia to his sway, had sent, in about 1223, a portion Of Ishordes to take possession of the west coast of the Caspian, whence they pushed on to the banks Of the Dnieper. The Polovtsi, who had' in vain endeavoured to arrest the progress Of the horde, were at length constrained to apply for assistance to their hitherto inveterate foes, the Russian princes, and, the cause being now made common, the Russians made an intrepid stand on the banks Of the Khalka, near the present. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.