CHAPTER III.
SECOND PERIOD, FROM THE TATAR DOMINION TO THE TIME OF IVAN THE TERRIBLE, 1224-1330.
During the Tatar Dominion, or yoke (1224-1370), Kieff lost its supremacy, and also ceased to be, as it had been up to this time, the center of education and literature.

The dispersive influence of the Tatar raids had the effect of creating centers in the northeast, which were, eventually, concentrated in Moscow; and in so far it proved a blessing in disguise for Russia.

The conditions of life under the Tatar sway were such, that any one, man or woman, who valued a peaceful existence, or existence at all, was driven to seek refuge in monasteries.

The inevitable consequence was, that a religious, even an aesthetic, cast was imparted to what little literature was created.

One celebrated production, dating from about the middle of the fourteenth century, will serve to give an idea of the sort of thing on which men then exercised their minds and pens.