Georges II., son of Vsevelod, now ascended the throne.  He signalized the commencement of his reign by a military excursion to oriental Bulgaria.  Descending the Volga in barges to the mouth of the Kama, he invaded, with a well-disciplined army, the realm he wished to subjugate.  The Russians approached the city of Ochel.  It was strongly fortified with palisades and a double wall of wood.  The assailants approached, led by a strong party with hatchets and torches.  They were closely followed by archers and lancers to drive the defenders from the ramparts.  The palisades were promptly cut down and set on fire.  The flames spread to the wooden walls; and over the burning ruins the assailants rushed into the city.  A high wind arose, and the whole city, whose buildings were constructed of wood only, soon blazed like a volcano.  The wretched citizens had but to choose between the swords of the Russians and the fire.  Many, in their despair, plunged their poignards into the bosoms of their wives and children, and then buried the dripping blade in their own hearts.  Multitudes of the Russians, even, encircled by the flames in the narrow streets, miserably perished.  In a few hours the city and nearly all of its male inhabitants were destroyed.  Extensive regions of the country were then ravaged, and Bulgaria, as a conquered province, was considered as annexed to the Russian empire.  Georges enriched with plunder and having extorted oaths of allegiance from most of the Bulgarian princes, reascended the Volga to Vladimir.  As he was on his return he laid the foundations of a new city, Nijni Novgorod, at the confluence of two important streams about two hundred miles west of Moscow.  The city remains to the present day.

It will be perceived through what slow and vacillating steps the Russian monarchy was established.  In the earliest dawn of the kingdom, Yaroslaf divided Russia into five principalities.  To his eldest son he gave the title of Grand Prince, constituting him, by his will, chief or monarch of the whole kingdom.  His younger brothers were placed over the principalities, holding them as vassals of the grand prince at Kief, and transmitting the right of succession to their children.  Ysiaslaf, and some of his descendants, men of great energy, succeeded in holding under more or less of restraint the turbulent princes, who were simply entitled princes, to distinguish them from the Grand Prince or monarch.  These princes had under them innumerable vassal lords, who, differing in wealth and extent of dominions, governed, with despotic sway, the serfs or peasants subject to their power.  No government could be more simple than this; and it was the necessary resultant of those stormy times.