When they gladly complied with her request she sent the tame birds back home with flaming firebrands tied to their tails, and they entered their lofts or rests and started fires which destroyed the city of Korosten. The ascendancy of the Romanoff dynasty, which maintained in Russia through the centuries, was established through the atrocities of Ivan the Terrible, who is said to have absolutely destroyed the descendants of the Rurik, the first Norse chieftain. Ivan the Terrible was the first Czar of Russia. He conquered Servia and his domestic infamies and intrigues are among the historical scandals of the country. Through every reign in Russian history there ran stories of terrible crime, cruelties, infamies, immoralities and degradation. Following the death of Ivan the Terrible came Fedor, one of his sons, who was a weakling in the hands of the Duma of five, one of whom was Boris Godounoff. Fedor reigned but a few years, and Godounoff was elected Czar. He was ambitious, and was founder of the system of serfdom, and also of the Russian State Church, and like many of the other rulers of Russia, met death through infamy, supposedly having been poisoned. [Illustration: OUTLINE MAP OF THE BALKAN STATES. This drawing shows the boundary lines as they were at the beginning of the war. It also shows the location of the principal city of each country. This part of the world has always been of great importance since the earliest history of man and nations--a continuous struggle between nations to control this gateway into southwestern Asia.] BASE IMPOSTER SLAIN. Boris Godounoff was succeeded by his son Feodor, but he was seized by a pretender, and with his mother, thrown into prison, where they were murdered. The discovery of the plot, which was laid at the door of the King of Poland, produced an uprising and Czar Dimitry the Impostor was slain. Vasili Shouyskie, leader of the mob that slew Dimitry, was proclaimed Czar, but pretenders sprang up, and one of these, who posed as a false Dimitry, invaded Russia from Poland, and established a rival imperial court at Toushin, and some of the Russian cities swore allegiance to him. Vasili Shouyskie held out at Moscow, and after a time Dimitry's cause failed, whereupon Sigsmund, of Poland, invaded Russia, and put forward his son Vladislav. Vasili, roused to anger, committed acts which provoked Moscow, and in 1610 he was compelled to abdicate, and a council of nobles was formed to run the government until a Czar could be chosen. Vladislav was finally selected, but Feodor Romanoff sought to prevent his being crowned. There was a period of anarchy, cities were burned, and chaos was complete.