RUSSIANS CONVERSION--GREEK AND LATIN CHRISTIANITY So the scattered clans of the Slav race were roughly drawn together into something resembling a nation by the strong arm of the Scandinavian.

But the course of national progress is never a straight one.

Nature understands better than we the value of retarding influences, which prevent the too rapid fusing of crude elements.

This work of retardation was performed for Russia by Sviatoslaf.

When, instead of leaving his dominions to his oldest son, he divided them among the three, he introduced a vicious system which was to become a fatal source of weakness.