largest of all empires, ancient or modern, in the world, forms a connected territory extending west to east from 17° 40' to 232° 30' E. Long. from Greenwich; or in words, from the frontier post-station Pyzdry in Poland, on the Prussian border, at the confluence of the Wartha and Prossna, to Observatory Inlet, opposite the N.E. point of Queen Charlotte's Island in North America; and south to north from 38° 25' to 78° 26' of N. Lat., or from the most southerly inhabited point of the Russian empire, the mouth of the Astara River in the Caspian, to Cape Severo-Vostochnoi in Siberia. Russia thus embraces nearly 215 degrees of longitude, or two-thirds of the circumference of the earth, and more than 40 degrees of latitude; one-sixth of the habitable globe, and one twenty-third of its whole superficies. Between its two farthest points, west by east, the length in a straight line is about 9681, and the greatest breadth about 2628 miles. The sea-board, which is little available, stretches over 25,100, and the land frontier over 9200 miles. The superficial area is difficult of computation; but, as nearly as possible, it may be estimated as follows:
| The forty-nine European governments | 1,848,564 sq. miles | | Poland | 49,167 | | Finland | 145,668 | | The Caucasus | 167,832 | | Siberia | 4,940,875 | | North American Possessions | 370,905 | | Recent acquisitions in Dacoria and the Amoor region | 7,523,011 | | Total | 8,582,741 |
Where, however, extreme limits are not only far from precisely defined, but are even, through their vastness, partly unknown to the Russian government itself, where extension of frontier is almost yearly going on, and where the learned themselves disagree, entire accuracy is of course unattainable.
The Russian government admits of no distinction between European and Asiatic Russia, but views these divisions as forming a compact whole; some governments lying partly in Europe and partly in Asia. The natural boundary, however, between European and Asiatic Russia is formed by the River Kara, the Oural chain of mountains, the River Oural to its mouth in the Caspian, and thence by the shores of this sea to the eastern extremity of the Caucasus. The natural division between Asiatic and North American Russia is formed by Behring's Straits. To the north Russia is bounded by Norwegian Lapland and the Arctic Ocean; to the east by British North America; to the south by the Sea of Okhotsk, the Gulf of Tartary, China, Free Tartary, the Caspian Sea (which it now mostly includes), Persia, Turkish Armenia, the Black Sea, and European Turkey; to the west by Moldavia, Galicia (including Cracow), Prussia, the Baltic Sea, Sweden and Norway. By the treaty of 1858 with China, the whole left bank of the Amoor, from its source down to the Oossori, one of its chief affluents, belongs to Russia, and the right to China; from the Oossori, downwards to the Gulf of Tartary, both banks now belong to Russia. The new measurement of the boundary with China will be laid down from an angle taken 60 versts (40 miles) up the Oossori, and extending, as said, down to the Gulf of Tartary. Turning to another part of the territory, the impending absorption into Russia of the Caucasus will lend interest to a more circumstantial account of this region. The line drawn from the mouth of the Kooban,
1 Russia, like Germany and many other powers, draws her first meridian from the island of Ferro, 20° W. from Paris, 17° 30' 50" W. of Greenwich, and 47° 50' 30" W. of Poelkova. Russia adopts this method for the sake of not having two longitudes, E. and W. She has now her own observatory at Poelkova, but calculations are made from that spot only for astronomical and chronometrical purposes. Russian navigation charts are generally constructed from Greenwich. Cape Severo-Vostochnoi means North-East Cape.
2 Those parts of the governments of Perm and Orenburg which are situated beyond the Oural in Asia are included here. Statistics, which falls into the Black Sea, to the mouth of the Terek in the Caspian, is called the northern boundary, or line of the Caucasus. The southern boundary extends from the mouth of the Reon to that of the Koor. The whole length of the Caucasian mountain range, from Fort Anapa on the Black Sea, to Cape Apsherón on the Caspian, is calculated at 691 miles. The whole superficial extent of the Caucasian isthmus, reckoning from within the limits indicated, is 167,733 English square miles; of which are subjected to Russia 123,245, and are yet free 44,488. The whole population amounts to 4,058,064 souls; and of this number are already subjugated 3,391,064,—viz., Christians, 1,762,741; Mohammedans, or of other religions, 2,295,323.
The languages of all the mountain tribes are totally distinct, and show that these races were not originally a homogeneous people, but a residue of the different nations from various quarters, which were either driven to this spot of earth by other nations pressing on them, or were the subsidence both of them and of the aborigines. It is also worthy of note, that war is more seriously carried on in that region of the Caucasus which lies towards the Caspian, and in particular with the Lezghine and Tchetchentchi tribes; less so on the Black Sea region, with the Adegehi, Oobekhi, and Abkhazki tribes. It is further remarkable, that in the subjugated Caucasus only twenty-four souls go to the English square mile, whereas there are forty-nine to the English square mile in the unsubjugated portion; thus showing how these races are being fast hemmed in prior to their ultimate absorption into the Russian empire.
Generally, as regards the boundaries of Russia, the following remarks may be noted as of vital importance to England. The Asiatic border of Russia on China, and towards India, passes in the Keergheez region beyond the Caspian, down from Fort Perofski on the Sir Daria, in an easterly direction, to Lake Teletski, and farther along the River Tchoo round Lake Esseek-kool, thence from Esseek-kool to the north-east, where the regular Chinese boundary commences. The Rock-Keergheez dwell about this last-mentioned lake, in a cauldron-shaped hollow environed by snow-capped mountains of immense height. A little to the north of Lake Esseek-kool, between it and the River Eelee, is situated Fort Vernoeyeh, which commands the whole of this Keergheez region. Higher up, again, we come to the south-eastern boundary of Russia towards India, and would beg to call special attention to the following facts, as important to English policy. By the embankment of the Volga mouths at the Caspian, and the large establishments forming in that quarter, Russia is brought 2000 English miles nearer to India; and were once the Amoo Daria or Oxus reverted into its former course of disemboguement in the Caspian, a navigable road is ready made to within 500 miles of Herat. The skill of the natives in this sort of work is quite astonishing. The consequences may be appreciated when we reflect that all past history shows how uniformly Central Asia has been the arena of events controlling the ultimate destiny of the human race. Any future struggle for mastery between Russia and England must eventually be fought out on this field. Let us look to it!
European Russia, together with Poland, belongs to that immense plain which begins in Holland, and extends over the north of Germany and the whole east of Europe. From the Carpathian to the Ooral range, a distance of 500 leagues, all is one undulating level, without a mountain to break the monotonous lowness of the horizon, or oppose a barrier to the winds. A great proportion of it, in the south especially, consists of those immense tracts called steppes, which, like the pampas of South America, present to the eye only a dead flat for many hundreds of miles. Occasionally, indeed, the surface is diversified by ancient tumuli, supposed to be the burial-places of the Scythians, and here and there small table-lands occur; but the latter rise so gently as to be scarcely perceptible. Of these, the most worthy of notice are the Valdaï Hills, situated in the governments of Moscow, Tver, and Toola, the loftiest summit of which, lying between the villages of Tolosha and Monti, and the towns of Ostashkoff and Valdaï, is only 1000 feet in height. No part of the Valdaï Hills is very rugged; on the contrary, they form a gently-sloping plain; but the rivers and lakes are usually inclosed by steep banks. They form the watershed between rivers flowing into the Baltic and those flowing into the Black and Caspian seas; and here, within a short distance of each other, are the sources of the rivers Volga, Dvina, Dnieper, Lovat, Pola, and other smaller ones. To the north-east the land gradually slopes to the shores of the Baltic Sea, themselves mostly flat, and is for the greater part covered with immense forests, marshes, and turf-moors. Between this ocean inlet and the White Sea, on the N.N.W., lies an expanse of country richer in water than any other in Europe. Here a multitude of lakes, large and small, are united together like a net-work of water, and between them extend those rocky ridges which, on the north-west, rise into the inferior Finnish chain of hills. These, however, sink again towards the Lake Enare and the River Tana, without joining the Scandinavian system of mountains. Proceeding south-west from the interior hills of Valdaï, the land also gradually sinks and changes into the immense marshes lying between Mistsk and Volhynia, called Poléssich. Through these the River Priepetz, the great feeder of the Dnieper, pursues its course, constituting their drain or outlet. The northern declivities of the Carpathian Mountains only in a few places cross the borders of the Austrian territory and enter Russia, but not as hills of any height. Near the sources of the Oder they stretch on towards the Vistula, and along this stream, in the form of a plateau 800 feet in height, rising eastwards between Pilica and the above river into groups of mountains, which extend in five parallel chains, having for a distance of 90 a breadth of about 50 miles. In two or three places they rise to the height of more than 1000 feet, and these are the loftiest points in Poland. Upon the other side, in the east, the declivities of the Carpathian range form a broad table-land, extending across the whole of Southern Russia. It thus separates the low land of the interior from the maritime country of the Black Sea. Unlike the table-land of Valdaï, which bears on its broad surface lakes and fens, this southern plateau consists of large steppes, watered by the rivers Dniester, Dnieper, and Don, which here form cataracts. Between the last-named stream and the Volga it rises as a continuation of the lower Volga range, which, under the name of the Irghene Hills, extends southwards to the Caucasus. On the peninsula of the Crimea a wholly insulated chain of mountains rises to a considerable height, and runs from east to west nearly 120 miles, close to the coast of the Black Sea. In one part it attains an elevation of 5185 feet. Along the eastern boundary of European Russia the Ooral mountain chain extends from the shores of the Frozen Ocean southwards towards the Caspian Sea for a distance of nearly 1500 miles, unconnected with any other mountain system of Europe. The northern portion of the Ooral chain, from the Straits of Waygats to the sources of the Petchora, consists of rough naked limestone rocks, and rises to a considerable height; but this part of the country is comparatively little known. The middle portion of the chain, as far as the sources of the Oofa, called the Verkhotoorie Oorals, forms a broad table-land of moderate elevation, overspread with moorasses. Farther to the south the Oorals rise again in height, and become thickly wooded; whilst in the government of Orenburg they expand into broad ramifications on both sides of the River Ooral. The chain, with all its branches, sinks towards the Caspian, without coming into contact on the Statistics, east with the mountain systems of Asia. It is called, at different points, the Orenburg, Bashkir, and Keergheez Oural, and sends out an offshoot on the south-west between the rivers Ooral and Samara,—the Obshitchi-Syrt, which stretches to the banks of the Volga. The Sok Mountains form a part of this spur of the Ourals. There are seven defiles or passes through this great range, the most practicable of which are the roads from Perm and Orenburg into Asia. Between the southern declivities of the Ourals and the Caspian Sea and Lake Aral there is an opening of about 280 miles in breadth, through which more than once the hordes of Asia have poured like a flood over Europe.
Steppes and tundras are an important feature of the geography of Russia. These steppes are treeless tracts of country, mostly level, although not uniformly so; and often bear heather or feather-grass, called Koevett (Stepa pennata), on a soil sometimes fertile, and sometimes arid, marshy, or sandy. They are in their nature to the south and east what the tundras are to the north of Russia, in the governments of Olonetz and Arkhangelsk, mostly toward the shores of the Arctic Ocean. The tundras are also treeless wastes, bearing a poor vegetation of low shrubs on a moss or turf surface. The steppe region extends from the River Pruth, across the lower water-courses of the Dniester, Boog, Dnieper, and Don, as far as the Volga and Caspian Sea. There is but one acclivity in the western part of this region, Bessarabia, where the Carpathians branch off; and in the southern, where the Taurian mountains rise. It is only in the western and middle parts that rich meadow-land is met with; the rest is poorly watered, thinly-populated, and notwithstanding the occasional fertility of the soil, but little favourable to agriculture. The Taurian peninsula, although belonging by its position to the middle part of this flat region, has quite another character, and totally differs from it in the variety of its vegetable kingdom; the mountains and their declivities being covered with building and ship-timber, and the slopes with fruitful vineyards. In the valleys, particularly of the southern coast, the most delicate fruits attain to maturity. The eastern part of this plain, mostly sandy, is covered with bogs and salt-mashes; agriculture is almost unknown, and there is little arable land, excepting at the foot of the Caucasus. The land of the Don Kozzacks, an oasis in this part of the huge level, has a better soil, favourable to the pursuits of the husbandman. According to Pallas, part of this immense level must, at some remote period, have lain beneath the tide of the ocean.
The soil of Russia is so slightly undulated that to consider the spaces traversed by its rivers as true basins would be an abuse of terms, notwithstanding that it contains the most important water-courses in Europe. Some eminent geographers have adopted the plan of classifying the rivers according to the seas into which they discharge themselves; and as it has several advantages over the usual method of describing the streams of a country in the order of their size and importance, we shall follow it. In the declivity which slopes to the Black Sea and the Sea of Azoff there is (1.) the Pruth, an affluent of the Danube. It descends from the mountains of Galicia or Austrian Poland, and in the northern part separates Bessarabia in Russia from Moldavia in Turkey. (2.) The Dniester, which rises also in Galicia, and flows, winding serpent-like, towards Russia. Below Chortzin it is broken by rapids, so that near Bender boat navigation is interrupted; and without receiving any tributaries of importance, it falls into the Black Sea at the broad but shallow estuary or lake of Ovidoro. (3.) The Dnieper, which has its source in the government of Smolensk, on the southern slope of the Valdai Hills, and empties itself into the Black Sea below Kherson. This noble stream receives many tributaries; amongst which, on the right, flow into it the Berezina, the Priepetz, and the Ingoolets; and on the left, the Soj, the Deuna, Soola, Psiol, Vorskla, and others. This river is the ancient Borysthenes. Statistics. (4.) The Don, which originates in the small lake of Ivanovsko, in the government of Riazan. After intersecting the Kozzack territory, to which it gives name, it discharges itself below Tcherkasch into the Sea of Azoff by several mouths. In summer it is shallow; in spring it overflows its low banks to a great extent, and forms unhealthy marshes. Its principal affluents on the right are the Metcha, Nepriavda, and Donetz; and on the left the Voronej (on which stream Peter the Great built his ships for the Black Sea), the Khoper, Medveditsa, Ilovila, and Manitich. (5.) The Koobin, which descends from the northern side of Elburz in the Caucasus, flows first north and then west, upon the boundary between Asia and Europe. It separates into two main branches, the northern of which falls into the Sea of Azoff, and the southern into the Black Sea.
On the Caspian declivity we have (1.) the Volga, the largest river in Europe. It originates in a small lake in the government of Tyver, near the village of Volgo-Verkhovie, in the forest of Volkonski, in N. Lat. 57°. It traverses lakes Oselok, Piana, and Volga; and on receiving the waters of the River Selizarovka from Lake Seligher, it becomes navigable, and falls into the Caspian Sea at Astrakhan by eight principal arms, which have in all sixty-five mouths, forming about seventy islands. It has thirty-eight navigable and one hundred and fifty-seven unnavigable tributaries, the principal of which on the left is the Kama or Little Volga, which has a course of about 1000 miles in length. Before the Volga receives the Kama, the rivers Tyvertsa, Molonga, Ooonja, Vetlooga, and others, join it on the left; and on the right the Okà, which descends from the water-shed where the Don and Dnieper originate, and the Sourà, which flows from the Volga hills. The Volga is upwards of 2000 miles in length. Its breadth at Astrakhan, where it embraces many islands, is 5 leagues. The depth varies from 7 to 18 feet. In the winter it is covered with ice throughout its whole extent, but there are always many apertures in the south from which currents of air escape, and hence they are termed the lungs of the Volga. During summer the Volga is crowded with thousands of boats, constructed in the well wooded districts of Russia, and conveying from the interior all sorts of commodities to St Petersburg, where, being destined only for a single journey, they are usually broken up and sold. This noble river is the chief commercial road of the whole interior of the Russian empire. It encircles the central table-land, receiving, as we have seen, the Oka, the principal river of this fertile region. It communicates in the upper part of its course, by the canal of Vishni-Volotcheck, with the Lakes Ladoga and Onega; and lastly, the Kama conveys to it all the waters of Eastern Russia. (2.) The Oural, formerly the Yaik, but so called in conformity to a decree of Catherine II., in order to obliterate the remembrance of Poogatchoff's rebellion. It descends from the eastern declivities of the mountains that bear the same name, and, flowing in a smooth channel sufficiently deep for small vessels, traces out for a considerable distance the eastern and southern frontiers of the government of Orenburg, and the eastern limits of Europe. On the right it receives the Sakmara; on the left the Ilek; and after a course of above 1000 miles, falls into the Caspian near Gourieff. (3.) The Terek rises at the base of the Kazbek; receives on the right the rivers Songa and Aktsi; on the left the Oorong, Tscherk, Bekhar, and Malka; and enters the Caspian by three principal mouths.
On the declivity of the Frozen Ocean we have (1.) the Petchora, which rises in the Oural mountain range, and traverses the most solitary deserts of Russia, the governments of Arkhangelsk and Vologda. Its steep calcareous banks are broken by caverns and ravines; and hence its name Petchora, which in the Russian language signifies caverns. After receiving, amongst other tributaries, the Ossia on the right, and the Tzma and Tsilma on the left, it falls into the Arctic Ocean in N. Lat. 67° 10', its mouth forming an immense estuary. The length of its course is about 670 miles. (2) The Mezen, which originates in some bogs in the government of Vologda, and after a course of 500 or 600 miles discharges itself into a bay of the same name on the shores of the White Sea, almost under the Polar Circle. (3) The Dvina is the name which the rivers Sookhona and Yoog receive after their junction near Veliki-Oost-Yoog. The Sookhona flows from Lake Koobinskoi, in the government of Vologda; and the Yoog rises in the same government, but is a much smaller stream. The Dvina does not assume the dimensions of a large river till after the junction of the Vytegda, which falls into it on the right. Near Khalmogory the Dvina divides into several arms, and after a course of above 650 miles falls into a gulf of the same name. Its mouth is greatly obstructed by a bar of mud. (4) The Onega, which is the outlet of several lakes, but not that of Onega, although it is situated in the neighbourhood.
The declivity of the Baltic Sea is furrowed by several rivers: (1.) The Torneö, which originates in Swedish Lapland and after the confluence of its great tributary the Muonio, forms its mouth into the Baltic the boundary between Russia and Sweden. The Muonio likewise traces for some distance the limit of the empire on this side. The Torneö has a course of about 280 miles. (2.) The Neva. Its length from Schlusselburg, at the south-west angle of the Ladoga Lake, to its mouth is 44 miles; its direction that of a straight line from east to west; its medium breadth about 1500 feet, and its depth, in many places 70 or 80 feet, is generally in the channel about 50 feet. The water of this river is remarkably pure. This noble stream is the only outlet for the waters of four great basins, each of which has an extensive natural reservoir of its own. These reservoirs are the lakes Onega, Ilmen, Saïma, and Ladoga, the last receiving the drains of the other three. Ten different streams flow into the Onega, whose length from north to south is 120 miles, and its breadth from east to west 46 miles. It discharges itself into the Lake Ladoga by the Sveer, a river 133 miles long, and of very unequal breadth. The Ilmen is 36 miles long from north-east to south-west, and about 20 wide from north-west to south-east. It receives eleven streams, and has its outlet into the Ladoga by the Volkhoff, 135 miles long, with a medium breadth of 400 feet. The Saïma is a collection of lakes, gulfs, and bays, of all shapes and sizes, communicating with each other, rather than a single sheet of water, and is about 145 miles in length by about 50 in extreme breadth. It communicates with the Ladoga by means of the Voxa, a river about 119 miles in length, but not navigable in consequence of its several rapids, of which the most considerable, that of Inatra, has an inclination of upwards of 32 feet, forming a grander fall than that of Schaffhausen, and second only in Europe to the Trollhättan in Sweden. Besides the Sveer, Volkoff, and Voxa, the Ladoga receives the water of thirteen other streams. This, the largest lake of Europe, is about 130 miles long, 75 broad, of an oval form, and having an area of 6360 square miles. The Onega has an estimated area of 5300, the Saïma of 2650, and the Ilmen of 300 square miles. (See Petersburg, St.) (3.) The Düna, or Southern Dvina, originates in a fen on the western declivities of the forest of Volokoski, in the government of Tver, not far from the sources of the Volga. It soon becomes deep enough to be navigable, but its course is broken by rapids and sandbanks; it falls into the Bay of Riga without having received in its course any affluents of importance. (4.) The Niemen, which rises in the forests of Kopisloff, in the government of Minsk, flows first in a northerly direction, and then, bending to the west, enters Prussia under the name of the Memel. On the right it receives the Villa, a navigable stream; and on the left one or two others, not important enough for notice.
(5.) The Vistula rises in the principality of Teschen in Austrian Silesia, at the foot of the western Carpathian range of mountains. It flows in an easterly direction to Cracow, where it becomes navigable, and as far as Sandomir forms a boundary-line between Galicia and Poland. Amongst its affluents the most important is the Boog, which originates on the northern side of a chain or lofty ridge of hills separating the chalky lands of Volhynia from the rich plains of Podolia, and receiving at Sierock the Nareff, a river which flows from the plains of Lithuania. Its other tributaries are the Wieprz, the Pilica, the San, and the Bzura. (6.) The Wartha, a river which rises in a plateau near Kromoloff in Cracow, flows in a broad channel like the Vistula, and inundates the neighbouring fields. After receiving the Ner it becomes navigable; and though not so deep as the Vistula, may be considered a large river. After receiving the Prusa, which for a great distance forms the boundary between Poland and Prussia, the Wartha flows into the Prussian territory, and joins the Oder.
The Baltic, the Black Sea, and the Caspian, will be found Lakes, described under their respective heads in this work. In seas, and the foregoing account of the rivers of Russia we have noticed four of the most considerable sheets of water in this country. Deep in the interior are a few pretty large collections of water; but lakes are not a characteristic of Russia, except in the north-west part, where Finland is situated. Here, indeed, immense numbers of winding lakes, of varied form and dimensions, intersect the country in all directions, giving rise to numerous rivers, but none of them irrigates a great extent of country. All these, surrounded by rocky shores, a sterile soil, and pine-clad hills, present the most striking scenery in European Russia, but afford few facilities for internal intercourse. The coasts of Russia are deeply penetrated by large arms of the sea, forming gulfs, bays, and creeks. Besides the Black and Baltic seas we have the Kara Sea, signifying "brown" or "hazel," which is the most easterly, and washes at once Europe and Asia. It is 450 miles in length; but navigation is almost constantly obstructed by the ice at its northern entrance. On the north-west is the Bielou Morisë, or White Sea, which itself embosses a number of bays and gulfs of considerable size. The largest of these are the Gulfs of Mezen, Dvina, and Onega, so called from the rivers which flow into them; and Kandalaksh, which communicates with Lake Kovdozero. The White Sea is about the same length as that of Kara, with a breadth of from 60 to 70 miles. Between these two great inlets of the Arctic Ocean occur other gulfs; the most considerable being Tchëskaiia, which is separated from the White Sea by the peninsula of Kaniskala Zemliik; and that formed to the east of this by the estuary of the Petchora.
The extensive inlets of the sea above mentioned of course Capes, &c., form numerous promontories. In looking over a good map the most striking to the eye is Cape Kanin, the north-western extremity of the peninsula of Kaniskala Zemliik. This neck of land, which separates the Gulf of Tchësk from the White Sea, stretches directly north into the Arctic Ocean, a distance of about 150 miles. Its breadth is between 40 and 50 miles. Cape Onega projects into the White Sea near the bottom of that gulf, and forms the Bay of Arkhangelsk on the N.E. and the Bay of Onega on the S.W.
The geological structure of Russia in Europe corresponds Geology, in its vastness and simplicity to the other characters of that huge empire. Single formations extend over spaces equaling whole kingdoms, and have never been broken up or subjected to those igneous convulsions which have complicated the structure of other parts of Europe. From Finland and the shores of the Baltic, till we reach the low ridges of the Oural, and from the Arctic Sea almost to the Black Sea and the Caspian, no trace of igneous or intrusive Statistics. rock breaks the wide expanse of the regularly-stratified deposits.
The oldest and deepest-seated strata are the great masses of granitic and hornblende gneiss, generally dipping S.E., which compose nearly the whole province of Finland. They form a low, undulating country, full of irregular lakes and morasses, and rarely varied even by intrusive igneous rocks except near Lake Onega. But immediately south-east of the depression from the White Sea to the Gulf of Finland, the series of fossiliferous deposits begins. The first of these is the Silurian formation, stretching from the southern extremity of Lake Ladoga, by St Petersburg and Esthonia, to the islands Dago and Oesel in the Baltic. The Lower Silurian is well seen in the cliffs of the Esthonian coast, and forms all the flat country round the capital. It begins below with beds of blue or greenish clays, marked with fusoidal impressions, and still so soft and plastic as to be readily moulded with the hand, though the equivalent in age of the hard, compact slaty rocks of Wales. Above are beds of white or yellow sand, occasionally hardened into a calcareous sandstone, named the ungulite grit by native geologists, from the abundant remains of the horny shell of the obolus or ungulite. Dark-coloured grapholite slates, often bituminous, and a thin band of greensand, containing the curious bodies named conodonts by Pander, and supposed by him to be teeth of fishes, but which are rather remains of molluscs or annelids, follow. These are covered by the Plata or orthoceratite limestone, rich in remains of trilobites, orthidae, orthoceratites, and other characteristic fossils, identifying it with the strata of our own country. Above these deposits, especially in the island of Oesel, bands of marly or dolomitic limestone, often grey-coloured and full of the pentamerus and other fossils, represents the Wenlock or upper Silurian of England. In this region all these beds are soft, incoherent, and slightly consolidated; and it is only where they again appear in a narrow zone skirting the western declivities of the Ooral, and pierced by the granites, syenites, porphyries, and trap rocks of that chain, that they assume a harder and denser structure, and even graduate into metamorphic and crystalline strata.
Next in order is the Devonian, or old red sandstone formation, extending over a much wider surface of 150,000 square miles, and thus considerably more than the whole British Islands. Beginning in Courland and Livonia, and resting on the Silurian beds, one branch runs north to the shores of the White Sea, beyond Arkhangelsk, and skirts even the west coast of the Kola peninsula. Another branch extends south and east from the Valdai Hills, by Smolensk and Orel, to the valley of the Don, north of Voroneje. In the northern band sands and marls prevail south of St Petersburg, and in the great region from the Baltic provinces to Orel red and green marls, shales, and sands are covered by, or alternate with, laminated limestones. In these beds fossil fish,—as the gigantic Astroplepis, the Osteolepis, Diplopterus, Dipterus, Pterichthys, and lately the Coccosteus,—characteristic of Caithness and the north of Scotland,—are associated with the typical molluscs of Devonshire and the Eifel. This important fact, first recorded by Sir R. I. Murchison and his colleagues, thus casts a most valuable light on the structure of our own country, where these dissimilar types of life have never been found conjoined.
To the east and north, as is well seen in the Valdai Hills, the Devonian strata are overlaid by a scarcely less extensive deposit of Carboniferous beds. From Cape Voronin, on the White Sea, they run down through Novgorod, Tver, and Moscow, to Riazan, forming the upper basin of the Volga, and the low plateau from which this river, the Don, Dnieper, and Dvina diverge to the far-separated Caspian, Euxine, and Baltic seas. Sinking down below the newer formations in the centre of the kingdom, they re-appear in a long, narrow zone along the flanks of the Ooral, and in other detached portions, showing an enormous underground extension. In all this region it is, however, chiefly the lower parts of the formation, or the mountain limestone, with its characteristic crinoids, producti, and spirifers that are seen, and the few seams of coal are thin and poor in quality. Like the associated strata of sand and clay, the coal is only half-mineralized, and more resembles the tertiary lignites than the true coal of Western Europe. Recent attempts, too, to find workable coal by boring through the overlying Jurassic beds at Moscow have failed; a small detached field between the Donetz and the Sea of Azoff alone affords a better promise. There several seams of good coal, interstratified with sandstone, shale, and limestone, have been wrought; and though the beds are often broken and highly inclined, Sir R. I. Murchison thinks that valuable and extensive deposits of this mineral may yet be discovered in that vicinity.
The Permian, which succeeds, is the most extensive formation in Russia. It was so named by Sir R. I. Murchison from its full development in the ancient kingdom of Perm. Touching on the shores of the White Sea and Arctic Ocean in the north, and skirting the base of the Ooral in the east, it occupies the whole basin of the Dvina, the Kama, and the northern tributaries of the Volga, and runs south into Orenburg and the Keerghees steppes. Everywhere the beds are nearly horizontal, but of very varied mineral character—grits, sandstones, marls, conglomerates, and limestones including great masses of gypsum and rock-salt, and often impregnated with copper ores. According to Von Quaten, it consists, in the province of Orenburg, of three divisions: the lower division, very rich in copper ore, is composed of large masses of gypsum, thick beds of red, brown, and grey sandstones and conglomerates, and of various marls, with limestones and thin layers of coal. The middle division consists of clays and marls, with many beds of limestone and slaty coal, but less abundance of copper ore. Fusoids and ferms, producti, and other molluscs, with remains of fishes and Saurian reptiles, occur in this and the lower division, and in the latter, also, innumerable fragments of fossil wood. The third or upper division, of thin layers of marly or tufaceous limestone, with no fossils, is seen only on the top of some hills and plateaux. The most remarkable feature of the Permian formation in Russia is the abundance of copper ore and gypsum. The ores of copper are chiefly malachite and azurite; but cuprite, native copper, and copper pyrites also occur. These ores are mostly mixed in the sandstones and marls, rarely in small nests, and are peculiarly rich on the broken stems and branches of trees that abound in the sandstones of the lower division. Generally there is only one metalliferous bed, from a few inches to less than six feet thick, but occasionally more than one is seen. These copper ores are found all along the foot of the Ooral in Orenburg and Perm, but decrease as the distance from the mountains is greater, and disappear beyond 300 to 350 miles from their foot. The gypsum also follows this mountain chain in an unbroken band from Orenburg to beyond 60° N. Lat., with a breadth of about 80 miles near Perm, but extends farther west into the basin of the Dvina. Numerous salt springs and beds of salt, in some places 50 feet thick, accompany this gypsum. The most remarkable salt deposit is found at Illetzkaya-Zastchita, in the barren wilderness south of Orenburg. At that place a mass of pure salt, more than a mile in diameter, is wrought at an open quarry 70 feet deep, and, according to Rose, yields about 700,000 poods of salt annually.
Resting on the Permian, though separated from it by a long geological interval, during which the Trias and Lias of other parts of Europe were deposited, come the Jurassic strata. These consist chiefly of incoherent, dark-coloured clays and sands, containing many characteristic fossils of the middle oolite,—ammonites, belemnites, gryphaea, and ter- In the centre of the country it extends from Moscow, where it rests on the carboniferous beds, by Vladimir to Simbirsk on the Volga. Farther north it forms the great marshes along the watershed of the Dvina and Volga, and also fills the trackless valley of the Petchora, between the Timan Mountains and the Oural, covered by marshy forests and bleak tundras. All this region is a low, scarce hilly land; but on the south shore of the Crimea and the flanks of the Caucasus it rises into a more varied mountain country, and contains a richer store of corals and crinoids than in its northern extension.
These Palaeozoic and Jurassic strata compose the northern and larger half of European Russia. The newer cretaceous and tertiary beds occur only in the southern portion, drained by the rivers flowing to the Caspian and Black seas. Their northern boundary is marked generally by a line drawn from Memel, south-east to Voroneje on the Don, thence north to Jelatma on the Oka, and again south-east to the southern end of the Oural and Lake Aral. The chalk is chiefly seen in the central region between the Dnieper and Volga, but probably is concealed below the tertiary beds in other parts of the great plain, as it rises through them in irregular patches in many localities. According to Von Buch, the chalk in the north belongs chiefly to the upper beds, whilst the lower Neocomian, or greensand, is seen only in the south near the Caucasus, where Abich estimates the formation as 5000 feet thick. The rocks in the north resemble those of Western Europe, or are pure white chalk, forming highly picturesque rocks on the Donetz, chalk-marls, and ferruginous sands. Near Voroneje, sandstones containing 31 per cent. of phosphate of lime have been described by Khodnieff. On both flanks of the Caucasus this formation is partly represented by a formation, several thousand feet thick, of clay slates, in which fossils characteristic of the chalk occur, though not in abundance.
The older tertiary, in many places composed of clay, and not distinguishable in aspect from the similar deposits in the London basin, extends from the Baltic to Poltava, north of the Dnieper. Large masses of it also cover the chalk strata to the west of the Volga; and in the south of the Crimea the nummulite formation is well seen resting on the chalk and oolite rocks. The upper tertiary, widely extended from the Dniester to the Caspian, and over the wide steppes from the Volga to the Oural, is more interesting. This formation begins with blue marls and clays, alternating with a yellow calcareous tufa. In the higher part the tufa alone prevails, and is almost entirely made up of broken shells, partly freshwater, partly brackish-water species, either identical or closely analogous to those now living in the Caspian. This formation, spread far and wide over the vast steppes round the Caspian and Aral seas, and used as the common building-stone even in Odessa, proves the former enormous extension of an inland sea of brackish water. According to Murchison, this sea, larger than the Mediterranean, was reduced by two elevations, the latter leaving only the present Caspian behind.
Connected with the same recent period must be placed the formation of the gold sands of the Oural, and the extinction of the mammoth, rhinoceros, and urus, whose bones are so often imbedded in them. The dispersion of erratic blocks over Russia and Northern Europe is a kindred phenomenon. More important for the agriculture of Russia is the techronozem, or black earth, found only in the southern provinces, and unquestionably the finest soil in the empire for the production of wheat and grass. "It is so fertile," say Sir R. I. Murchison, "as arable land, that the farmers never apply manure; and after taking many crops in succession, leave it fallow for a year or two, and then resume their scourging treatment." It has been supposed of vegetable origin, but is more probably derived from the waste of the Jurassic beds.
(For further details on the geology, &c., of this vast empire, see especially Russia and the Ural Mountains, by Sir R. I. Murchison, E. de Verneuil, and Count Keyserling, 2 vols. 4to; Silurien, by Sir R. I. Murchison, 2nd edition; Reise nach dem Ural, von G. Rose; the Petchora-Land, by Count Keyserling; with many memoirs in the Russian and German scientific journals; and for the distribution of the rocks, the Geological Map of Europe, by Sir R. I. Murchison and Professor Nicol.)
In a country of such vast dimensions, the soil must of course vary considerably in different situations. There is a vast tract of territory, 65,000 geographical square leagues in extent, which possesses a peculiar and rather remarkable soil. Indeed, Ritter, in his Erdkunde, informs us that there is only one other place on the surface of the earth where anything similar in soil has been discovered, and that is the north of Hindustan. It consists entirely of decomposed vegetable matter, and is deposited in a thick layer. It is situated in the S. of Russia, stretching in a broad belt from Volhynia, in a north-easterly direction, to the foot of the Oural chain near Perm. It is prolonged on one side from this to the shores of the Black Sea; and on the other it stretches from Perm to Orenburg, and thence to the Caspian Sea. All this vast tract, exceeding in extent France, Spain, and Prussia united, is covered throughout with a stratum of vegetable mould, which varies in thickness from 3 to 5 feet. It is so extremely productive as to stand in no need of manure. Its fertility is shown in the large returns of grain, especially rye, which it yields; and in the excellent breeds of cattle which are reared upon it. From the thinness of the population, vast tracts of this country still remain unoccupied. The soils of the steppes, which cover so large a portion of Russia, we have already adverted to when describing these plains. The country between the Dniester and the Dnieper has a soil impregnated with nitre, a substance deleterious to vegetation; yet, as soon as it is removed or diminished, wheat, millet, and the arbute melon, may be cultivated with great success. The mildest and most fruitful region in all the Russian empire is that continuation of valleys arranged in natural amphitheatres at the southern base of the Taurida, along the coasts of the Black Sea. Proceeding eastward, we come to the government of Astrakhan. Only part of its soil is fertile. This portion includes the low districts on the banks of the Volga, the Oural, and the Terek, and is by no means large; but here vegetables attain an enormous size. The soil is impregnated with saline and bituminous substances. Higher up, the land on the Volga becomes sandy and unproductive. The soil of Little Russia and the Polish Ukraine is partly sandy and not very fruitful, partly very rich and fertile. A great part of Western Russia is sandy, and intersected by vast marshes and bogs. Large tracts are covered with immense forests, the retreat of the bear, wolf, and wild boar; whilst not an insconsiderable portion of this westerly territory ranks amongst the most fertile in the empire.
It thus appears, with regard to the soil of Russia, taking Climate a summary view of it along with the climate, that from the 44th to the 50th parallel of N.Lat., comprising Bessarabia, Podiilla, Kherson, Yekaterinoslaff, and Taurida, it is for the most part low and level, little wooded, partly very fruitful, partly arid and unfruitful, besides being here and there impregnated with salt. The winters are short, with little snow; but in some parts the cold is severe. The spring is early and mild; the summer is of long duration, with oppressive heat and little rain; autumn follows late in the year. Violent whirlwinds are frequent, and the S. of Russia is subject to tremendous snow storms, called meltd. The middle or temperate district, extending from 50° to 57°, has a rough and lasting winter, especially in the eastern territory. This district is the largest and wealthiest portion of the empire, forming broad, open, undulating Statistics, plains, over which, up to the declivities of the Ooral chain upon the E., only slight elevations break the monotonous level. The northern district, from 57° to 67° in European Russia, has a much milder climate than the same parallels in Asia. With the exception of the wooded mountains of Finland on the W., it is, as far as the Oorals, a continuation of the former flat land, upon which forests, meadows, marshes, and moor ground alternate with one another. The poor, meagre soil only insures the husbandman a return as far as the 60th parallel. The winter here is long and severe, there being six or seven months in which sledges are the only mode of travelling. Mercury freezes in winter, and the autumn is foggy. Here only slow-growing timber succeeds, and beyond 67° is confined to dry, stunted shrubs. From 64° the rearing of cattle is always difficult, and agriculture is limited to roots. Under the parallel of 66° the sun does not set on the 21st of June, nor rise above the horizon on the 21st of December. Snow and ice often set in at St Petersburg about the middle of October, and sometimes continue till the middle of April. For 160 days—that is, from the end of November till the middle of April, the Neva is generally bound fast with ice. In summer the W., S.W., and N.E., in winter the S.W., S., and S.E., winds prevail. The climate in this part has become much milder, through the cultivation of the soil and the hewing down of the forests. The quantity of rain which falls is about 18 English inches at St Petersburg, and the number of rainy and snowy days is reckoned at about 150 at St Petersburg. The following table has been supplied us by Academician Vesseloffski, and is extracted from his recent learned work on the Climatology of Russia:
| Region | Number of Snowy and Rainy Days | Quantity of Water in English Inches | |-------------------------|--------------------------------|------------------------------------| | Western region | 146 | 22 | | Baltic | 140 | 21 | | Northern and central | 114 | 20 | | Eastern region | 113 | 16 | | Southern steppe | 83 | 11 |
"Taking for St Petersburg," Academician Kupffer informs us, "the mean temperatures of every month, they are, during five months, below 32° Fahr. The mean annual temperature is 38°-9 Fahr. The difference between the mean temperatures of winter and summer, calling by the name of winter the months of December, January, and February, and by that of summer the months of June, July, and August, is 42°-5 Fahr. At Yakoetsk in Siberia, Lat. 62° 2', Long. 129° 73' E. from Greenwich, the mean temperature of the year is +12°-2 Fahr.; that of winter, December, January, and February, -36°-6 Fahr.; and that of summer +58°-3 Fahr.; the difference, therefore, between the mean temperatures of the summer and of the winter is 95°. Notwithstanding the rigour of the climate, the culture of rye has been attempted with success." In the Arctic or hyperborean region, extending from 67° to 74°, the rigour of the climate tells both upon men and domesticated animals, as well as upon vegetation; for neither attain their full size. In Arkhangelsk the sun rises on the 23rd of December at 2 minutes past 10, and sets 57 minutes past 1; whilst on the 23rd of June it rises 14 minutes past 1 in the morning, and does not disappear below the horizon until 49 minutes past 10 in the evening. Beyond 67°, however, the climate is one long summer day and one long winter night. The summer is still much overcast with vapours, which obscure the sun. The dreary region of winter is somewhat cheered by splendid moonlight; and the brilliant phenomenon of the aurora borealis. Trees entirely cease about 67°, only hardy shrubs being able to endure the intense cold of the climate. In St Petersburg in 1759 the cold was 41° Fahr. below zero, and in the winter of 1809-10 quicksilver froze into a solid mass in Moscow, and was extended with a hammer like lead. As Statistics, this metal becomes solid about 32° Reaumur; we may reckon the degree of cold in this case as exceeding 40° Fahr.
From the vast extent of this empire, and the great range Vegetable of its temperature, it is not surprising that the productions produce of every clime are found, or may be successfully cultivated, in some parts of its wide-spread surface. On the E., the great chain of the Ooral separates by a bold line the northern European from the northern Asiatic botany; and over this vast expanse winter reigns with excessive severity, while the almost tropical temperature of the brief summer ripens the productions of the vegetable kingdom to sudden maturity. This rapid growth is followed by as rapid a decay in autumn.
The forests of Russia are in several respects an important feature of the country; firstly, as a physical characteristic, from their overspreading such enormous tracts of country; secondly, in a commercial point of view, from the timber, tar, pitch, potash, and turpentine which they afford forming important articles of trade; and thirdly, from their supplying fuel in a country only recently found to possess coal. "Estimating the surface of European Russia," says Mr Schmitzler, "at 402,100,552 dessiateens, 150,000,000 of this number are occupied by forests; 178,000,000 by uncultivated land, water, houses, and roads; 61,500,000 by arable, and a little more than 6,000,000 by meadow land." On this general view of the surface, we may compute that one dessiateen of wood occurs to every two, and five-ninths of a dessiateen without it. The forests, indeed, constitute a source of riches which may long continue inexhaustible, and which might be indefinitely increased by strict regulations for their economy and management. Seventy-six millions of dessiateens are still completely covered with pines, firs, and other cone-bearing trees, without counting the oaks, maples, beeches, poplars, and elms, which are by no means rare in the latitudes within the 52nd degree, and the birch, which grows in still more northern regions. . . . The governments of Novgorod and Tver, in particular, are studded with forests, and that of Volkonski, which extends to the Valdai Hills, is one of the largest known. In the government of Perm, out of 18,000,000 of dessiateens, 17,000,000 are forest. These immense tracts covered with wood are a great blessing in so inclement a climate, as they form a shelter against the winds from the icy seas. The provinces to the S. have not the same necessity for them, and are so destitute of wood as to occasion the burning of grass and dung for fuel." Forest economy is now being more attended to. The trees furnish the inhabitants with fir-timber of the finest quality for building, household furniture, and utensils. The same trees supply the peasantry in some parts with torches, which they use instead of candles. The brushwood, covering a vast extent of forest land, consists almost entirely of the hazel, dwarf birch, alder, willow, and juniper. In other places the surface of the earth is covered with bilberry, and the cranberry, which latter is extensively exported.
Russia is as yet chiefly an agricultural country. It is grain, so extensive, and in many parts yields such abundant crops hemp, and of grain, that enough is produced not only for home consumption, but for exportation in considerable quantities. The price of grain varies exceedingly in different governments. St Petersburg, Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Vologda, and Perm are the only governments that consume more than they raise; all the others produce more than they require. The grains most commonly cultivated are rye and oats. The best wheat is produced in Southern Russia, and in the eastern governments of Kazan, Seembeersk, and Orenburg; where also, along with millet, a little rice is raised. Hemp and flax are very largely cultivated, and yield not only material for the manufactories of the country, but a large surplus for exportation. (For statistics of agricultural productions, &c., see after—"Productive Industry.") Whilst Vine, mulberry, sugar-cane, and indigo, both by climate and soil, to all the productions of Italy and Greece; and here, indeed, many of them are indigenous. Government has taken a most lively interest in developing the resources of each portion of the empire; and in consequence of this, the cultivation of the vine, an indigenous plant, the mulberry tree, and the sugar-cane, have been fostered to a considerable extent. The vine cultivation is extending with great success in the south, in the governments of Astrakhan, Kherson, Podolia, the country of the Don Kozzacks, and especially in the Taurida. The mulberry tree has been as carefully attended to as the vine, and the result has been upon the whole favourable. Vast plantations of mulberries have been formed near all the principal towns of the southern districts. Every encouragement is held out to planters by the government. In the Crimea and countries of the Caucasus the rearing of the silk-worm is likewise rapidly advancing. Experiments have also been made to cultivate the sugar-cane and indigo, but they have not succeeded. In Southern Russia, a region whose climate differs little from that of Asia Minor, we find a similar variety of fruits and vegetables. The flora of Russia is very abundant in the south. As Pallas informs us, the country presents the most enchanting aspect. On the mountain-side, in the valley, in the forest, everywhere, the earth is clothed with a profusion of the loveliest flowers and most aromatic herbs, whose delicate odours embalm the atmosphere. Russia further produces hops (not sufficient for home consumption), and tobacco, the Nicotiana paniculata, of which the young leaves are generally removed, dried in the shade, and buried beneath hayricks, where they become of a brownish-yellow colour. Of garden vegetables there are the usual varieties found in Europe. Spanish pepper and the mustard-tree are raised on the Samara and Lower Volga; poppy in Kharkoff, where it yields a return of 160-fold; rhubarb, which grows wild in Taurida; rhapontick, which grows wild in the Oorals; and Polygonum minus, which in the Ookraine engenders worms that yield a beautiful crimson dye, used as paint by the Kozzack women. Genuine turpentine might be collected to a great extent. Many plants useful for dyeing are produced in a wild state; and for tanning there are several valuable plants. In short, the Crimea presents great facilities for rendering this a lucrative branch of manufacture.
The quadrupeds of Russia are numerous. Some appear to be peculiar to the country; but our business is chiefly with the domesticated animals. Cattle of every description are bred in vast numbers in the steppes, and they have increased with the improvement of agriculture. Black cattle and oxen are raised as far N. as the 64th parallel, but especially in Podolia and the Ookraine. Some of the calves of the latter country weight from 480 to 600 lb. Sheep are reared to a great extent. In the Taurida a poor Tartar may have in his possession 1000, and a rich Tartar 50,000. The Merino breed of sheep has been naturalized in Little Russia, in the governments comprised under the name of New Russia, on the S. and E., and in those of the shores of the Baltic Sea. (For statistics, see after—"Productive Industry.") These different regions, so remote from one another, are too dissimilar to enjoy precisely the same advantages; nevertheless, the perseverance and judicious management of the cultivators have been crowned with success. Even in those districts least favoured by nature rapid improvement has been made. At Taganrog the exports have greatly increased; and in Little Russia this branch of commerce is acquiring fresh activity. The wool trade is now also cultivated in Siberia, where a wool company was established in 1832. In fine, Russia, Statistics lately so poor in this species of produce, that even in 1824 her exports did not exceed annually 11,270 cwt., valued at only L.93,500; in 1837 sold 357,977 cwt., the value of which amounted to L.2,069,456. This is of course independently of the demand for home consumption, which has increased to a very large extent. The breed of horses has been considerably improved, by crossing the best native with Arab, English, and Flemish races. Count Orloff was a great benefactor of his country in this respect. So much as L.1560 have been paid for horses from the Orloff breeding-stables. The camel inhabits the warm, saline steppes of the Taurida and Kherson; asses are especially domesticated in the Taurida; and the goat, sheep, swine, and other tame animals exist in the usual proportions and qualities. Amongst useful insects, there are bees, which yield an abundance of honey and wax for exportation. In the north the reindeer and the elk roam in countless herds; and there are many wild animals, such as the untamed steppe-horse, wild ox, the fox, bear, lynx, and wolf, besides others, the skins or furs of which constitute important items of trade in the northern parts of Russia. Birds of the usual European descriptions are very numerous, including field and water game of various kinds. The falcon is taught to chase even the wolf in the Keergbeez-Lands; and in the government of Koorsk the magnificent greyhound of the country is loosed upon the flocks of bustards that are met with there. The seal and walrus haunt the waters of the north; and fish abound in the seas, lakes, and rivers. The fisheries constitute an important branch of productive industry.
Russia consists of the following countries:—Russia pro- Divisions per (originally Novgorod and Moscow); the country of the em- Kozzacks of the Don, and of the Black Sea; Bessarabia; pire, the khanate of the Crimea; the Caucasus; the kingdoms of Kazan and Astrakhan; Siberia; Daororia and the Amoor region; the kingdom of Poland; the greater part of Lap- land; the grand principality of Finland; the archipelagoes of Abo and Aland, with the islands of Dago and Oesel; the Baltic provinces of Courland, Esthonia, and Livonia; and possessions in North America. In administrative re- spects, Russia is divided into governments and provinces, of which in 1856 there were 65.
| Governments | Provinces | Kozzack-Lands | |-------------|-----------|---------------| | European | 47 | 1 | | Caucasian | 6 | 0 | | Siberian | 4 | 5 | | Total | 57 | 6 |
The land of the Black Sea Kozzacks belongs to the Ca- casus. The population of this empire, as diverse as its com- ponent parts, was estimated in 1856 at nearly 71,500,000 souls, including Poland and Finland, thus distributed:
In Europe.
| The European governments and provinces | 57,602,185 | | The kingdom of Poland | 4,666,919 | | The Grand Principality of Finland | 1,632,977 | | | 63,932,061 |
In Asia.
| The lieutenantcy of the Caucasus, with the dependent lands | 3,179,997 | | The Siberian governments and provinces, with the Keergbeez-Lands | 4,120,815 | | | 7,300,812 |
In America.
| Possessions of the North American Company | 10,723 | | Total population | 71,243,616 |
The increase may be computed at 0·88 per cent.; and the po- pulation must therefore now, in 1859, amount to 73,387,500 souls. It doubles itself in 114½ years. ### Table of the Population and Superficies of the Russian Empire
Each Government is taken separately, and the Statistics Number of Inhabitants is that returned for 1856, in the Tables drawn up by the Central Statistical Committee.
The Area is based on the calculations of Academician Köppen, founded on the returns of the Ninth Census.
| Governments | Population | Area | |-------------|------------|------| | Arkhangelsk | 253,630 | 329,778 | | Astrakhan | 414,224 | 84,893 | | Bessarabia | 992,841 | 18,232 | | Country of the Don Cossacks | 871,130 | 62,538 | | Country of the Black Sea Cossacks | 194,519 | 14,726 | | Courland | 537,855 | 10,582 | | Derbent | 427,913 | 8,755 | | Erivan | 254,077 | ... | | Eskiou | 296,090 | 7,862 | | Grodno | 827,099 | 13,363 | | Irkutsk | 343,167 | 12,153 | | Kaluga | 1,005,671 | 12,173 | | Kamenskof-Podolik, with the military colonies | 1,177,314 | 16,447 | | Kazan | 7,331 | 635,587 | | Kazan, with the military colonies | 1,492,130 | 23,715 | | Kharkoff | 1,804,961 | 19,507 | | Kherson | 1,272,997 | 20,973 | | Kiersdon | 1,083,832 | 28,666 | | Korsh | 1,839,940 | 17,382 | | Koostas | 324,926 | ... | | Konotop | 1,065,604 | 30,833 | | Kowar | 963,925 | 16,167 | | Livonia | 963,925 | 17,690 | | Minsk | 983,338 | 34,467 | | Mohilev | 873,888 | 18,805 | | Moscow | 1,580,405 | 12,516 | | Nekagorod | 1,216,081 | 19,613 | | Novgorod | 804,410 | 46,070 | | Olonets | 285,945 | 51,318 | | Oral, or Orloff | 1,445,900 | 18,233 | | Orenburg, with the Cossacks of the Oral | 1,883,254 | 146,986 | | Penza | 1,135,979 | 14,042 | | Perm | 2,011,453 | 128,562 | | Poltava | 1,753,144 | 19,061 |
The central governments are the most populous; and the North American possessions the most thinly inhabited.
9-80 souls go to the English square mile in the whole Russian empire, exclusive of Poland and Finland:
| Population | Area | |------------|------| | In European Russia | 31,098 | | In the Caucasus | 22,49 | | In Siberia | 0-74 square miles |
And in the whole empire, without the dependent lands:
| Population | Area | |------------|------| | Total | 9-80 |
The whole population of the empire was further distributed in 1856 in the following manner:
| Number of Inhabitants of both Sexes | Towns | Districts | Total | |------------------------------------|-------|-----------|-------| | In the European governments and provinces | 5,203,187 | 52,289,998 | 57,502,185 | | In the Lieutenantcy of the Caucasus | 288,102 | 2,018,895 | 2,306,978 | | In the Siberian governments and provinces | 192,710 | 3,160,105 | 3,352,815 | | Total | 5,683,999 | 58,177,998 | 63,861,997 |
The proportion betwixt the town and district populations was consequently as follows:
| To every 100 Inhabitants of the Governments there lived— | To 1 Inhabitant of Towns there lived in the Districts | |----------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------| | In Towns | In Districts | Total | | In the European governments and provinces | 9-03 | 90-97 | 10-07 | | In the Lieutenantcy of the Caucasus | 9-91 | 90-09 | 9-40 | | In the Siberian governments and provinces | 5-75 | 94-25 | 10-39 | | In the whole empire | 8-91 | 91-09 | 10-23 |
### Numerical Proportion of the Sexes
| Male | Female | Total | |------|--------|-------| | In the 49 European governments and provinces | 29,331,909 | 29,270,216 | 57,602,125 | | In the 7 Caucasian do. | 1,519,230 | 1,387,777 | 2,906,997 | | In the 9 Siberian do. | 1,738,314 | 1,614,501 | 3,352,815 | | Total | 31,589,503 | 32,272,494 | 63,861,997 |
Hereunto add the population of the dependent possessions:
| Total population | 64,913,729 | |------------------|------------| | In the Caucasus, about | 291,000 | | In the Keerghez hordes of Siberia, about | 750,000 | | In the North American possessions | 10,723 | | Entire population of Russia, with incorporated and dependent lands in 1856 | 71,213,616 |
### Movement of the Population in 1856—Number of Births and Deaths; also increase of Population
| In the European governments and provinces | Born | Died | Increase of the Population | |--------------------------------------------|-----|-----|---------------------------| | In the Caucasus | 2,496,595 | 2,007,557 | 489,438 | | In Siberia | 88,515 | 64,024 | 24,491 | | Total | 2,706,869 | 2,146,572 | 559,997 |
VOL. XIX. From these figures, proportionally to the whole population of the empire, are deduced the following results:
| Provinces | Births | Deaths | Births occur to | Deaths occur to | Percental Increase of the Population | |-----------|--------|--------|-----------------|-----------------|-------------------------------------| | In the European governments and provinces | 434 | 349 | 23.04 | 28.65 | 0.85 | | In the Caucasian governments and provinces | 374 | 271 | 26.74 | 35.90 | 1.04 | | In the Siberian governments and provinces | 362 | 225 | 27.62 | 40.00 | 1.37 | | In the whole empire | 427 | 339 | 23.42 | 29.50 | 0.88 |
The result of several decennial deductions made in the present century gives the following average proportion of births—1 born to 21–23 souls; and of deaths, 1 dead to 30–33 souls. The average annual increase would therefore be about 1 per cent., which is the utmost. This is the result returned by the statistical tables of 1856. Von Stein returns 0.88 per cent., which is nearly 1/12th. We ourselves have many reasons, too manifold for recapitulation here, to give this return as rather nearer to 1/12th than to 1/13th.
The returns of marriages in European Russia were 557,123. The average proportion to 100 souls of both sexes is 0.97 marriages, or 1 marriage to 103.09 souls of the whole population. In the above returns, the numbers given are only those of the tax-paying community, because most easily obtainable; the non-tax-paying portion are not included, neither is the army nor fleet. The great uncertainty of the computation lies in the circumstance of the census not being taken at one and the same time, and in certain classes not being registered. It is the consistory of every government that has the charge of registering the movement of births, deaths, and marriages. Improved measures are now adopted for insuring reliable returns. It must not be thought that the learned of Russia are by any means indifferent to such a vital point. Academician Köppen's tables of measurement and population, and Mr Schweitzer's computation of areas, will most likely appear in the course of this autumn. Councillor Trointski hopes likewise to be ready within the same period with his population returns, based on the tenth revision or census, which is now in progress on a surer basis than any of the foregoing. It is expected to show a lower amount of population. The census is taken at unequal intervals of time; the present was ordered in consequence of the late war, and of the proposed emancipation of the peasants. The number of nobles is estimated at about 400,000.
View of the Foreign Races inhabiting European Russia, taken from Academician Köppen's Returns of 1853, the latest existing.
1. Samoyeds, in the government of Arkhangelsk ........................................... 4,495 2. Lopareses, .......................................................... Do .................................................. 2,289 3. Vogools .............................................................. Perim .................................................. 872
A. The Tchobod race, in its widest acceptation,— (a.) Tchobods, strictly taken (Tchokarees), in the governments of Novgorod and Olonetz .................................................. 15,617 (b.) Vods (Tchoods), in the government of St Petersburg .................................................. 5,143 (c.) Esta (Tchokhnes), in the governments of Vitsebsk, Livonia, Pskoff, St Petersburg, and Esthonia .................................................. 633,496 (d.) Leers, in the governments of Courland and Livonia .................................................. 2,074
II. Karels, in the widest acceptation,— (a.) Erveneists, in the governments of Novgorod and St Petersburg .................................................. 29,375 (b.) Savakos, in the government of St Petersburg .................................................. 42,979 (c.) Izors .............................................................. Do .................................................. 17,800 (d.) Karels, in the governments of Arkhangelsk, Novgorod, Olonetz, St Petersburg, Tamboff, Tver, and Yaroslaff .................................................. 171,593
5. Perm races,— (a.) Ziriahs, in the governments of Arkhangelsk and Vologda .................................................. 70,965 (b.) Perms, in the governments of Perm and Viatka .................................................. 52,204 (c.) Votiahs, in the governments of Viatka, Kazan, Orenburg and Samara .................................................. 186,770 (d.) Besermiane, in the government of Viatka .................................................. 4,545
6. Volga races,— (a.) Tchermessens, in the governments of Viatka, Kazan, Kostrona, Negezgorod, Orenburg, and Perm .................................................. 165,076 (b.) Mordva (Moksha, Erza, and Karatins) in the governments of Astrakhan, Kazan, Negezgorod, Orenburg, Penza, Samara, Saratoff, Simbeereck, Taurida, Tamboff .................................................. 480,241 (c.) Tchovavishes, in the governments of Viatka, Kazan, Orenburg, Samara, Saratoff, Simbeereck .................................................. 429,952
7. Tartars, in the widest acceptation,— (a.) Tartars, in the strict acceptation (with the Nogais), in the governments of Astrakhan, Viatka, Grodno, Don-Korazack country, Kazan, Kostrona, Minak, Negezgorod, Orenburg, Penza, Perma, Podolia, Riazan, Samara, Saratoff, Simbeereck, Stavropol, Taurida, Tamboff, Esthonia .................................................. 1,284,234 (b.) Bashkiers, in the governments of Viatka, Orenburg, Perm, and Samara .................................................. 392,072 (c.) Mestcheriaks, in the governments of Orenburg, Penza, Perm, and Saratoff .................................................. 79,941 (d.) Keergheezli (Kalakhi), in the governments of Astrakhan .................................................. 82,000
8. Mongols,— (a.) Kalmuckes, in the government of Astrakhan, the Don-Korazack country, Orenburg, Samara, Saratoff, Stavropol .................................................. 119,162
9. Lithuanians, in the widest acceptation,— (a.) The Letts, in the strict acceptation (Zemod), in the governments of Vilna, Grodno, Kovno, and Courland .................................................. 716,885 (b.) The Letts, in the governments of Vitsebsk, Kovno, Courland, Livonia, Pskoff, and St Petersburg .................................................. 372,107
10. Volokhs (Moldavians) in Bessarabia, and in the governments of Yekaterinoslaff, Podolia, and Kherson .................................................. 496,464
11. Slavonic races,— (a.) Bulgars, in Bessarabia and the governments of Taurida and Kherson .................................................. 77,102 (b.) Serbs, in Bessarabia and the governments of Yekaterinoslaff and Kherson .................................................. 1,383 (c.) Poles, in the government of Astrakhan, Bessarabia, Volhynia, Grodno, Yekaterinoslaff, Kezyeff, Kovno, Courland, Livonia, Minak, Mohileff, Orenburg, Podolia, St Petersburg, Saratoff, Stavropol, Kherson, Esthonia .................................................. 477,635
12. Gypsies, scattered throughout the empire .................................................. 48,247
Throughout this article, in all Russian words the ь has the power of the s in azure. The Poles, who are also Slavenians, but who use the Latin character, adopt this mode of rendering that sound. It is a far more simple way than zh, z, or -iz. It is a law in philology that languages proceeding from the same stock, and abiding with totally dissimilar characters, should have their sounds represented phonetically when bodily transported into a totally dissimilar language. The learned of the Continent all obey this law. It is the English alone who, from ignorance of the Russ, still keep up the old absurd way of writing Russian names, which thus become unintelligible to the Russians themselves! It is time this was remedied.
The greater number of these gypsies live in Bessarabia and Kherson. They are enrolled in the towns and villages as peasants. This measure—a wise one—is taken in order to absorb them into the Russian population. In all European Russia the total amount of the male population in 1857 was 28,613,389 souls, and in this number are included 10,844,902 male serfs. The number of female serfs is supposed to be greater, in consequence of the constant draft entailed by the conscription. They are not taken into count for financial reasons, as they pay no taxes. The serf percentage of the whole population in European Russia is thus 37.9%; i.e., out of one hundred souls of the entire population, more than one-third, or about thirty-eight souls, are in a state of serfage. All these serfs belong to 114,967 proprietors, which number amounts to no more than 0.40 per cent., or two-fifths of the whole male population of European Russia. In the year 1856 so many as 6,596,620 souls,—i.e., 60.82 per cent., or three-fifths of the total number of serfs,—were hypothecated to the crown banks for debts of their holders, amounting to L62,186,665.
In Asiatic Russia, out of a population of 2,818,948 souls, there were 1844 serfs belonging to 153 proprietors, which gives a serf percentage of 0.06 on the whole population. A serf at present pays to his master a poll-tax (obrok) of from L1. 5s. to L4 yearly, subject to family considerations too long to enumerate; and to the government a capitulation-tax of about 6s. yearly; of which part goes to the national treasury, and part to the communal fund, toward salaries for judges, road-repairing, &c. The government peasants, who are considered as free, pay only from L1. 2s. to L1. 8s., or L1. 11s. yearly, including the capitulation-tax. There are no poor-rates, but every proprietor is bound to provide for his destitute serfs. The government does the same. The schools for the crown peasants are as follows:—Under the first and second departments of the crown domains, in the settlements of the crown peasants, there are 2511 schools, with 2803 teachers, and attended by 90,178 boys, and 19,486 girls; of which number 488 were Mohammedan schools, with 511 teachers, and attended by 13,588 boys and 6016 girls.
In the number of crown peasants, it is noteworthy that there are 268,473 who live on crown lands, and possess, besides, land of their own in freehold; and that of the above number only 29,101 live on their own freeholds, without taking the benefit of the crown lands.
The serfs in Russia were not originally attached to the soil, or to the persons of their masters. It was when the Ruricks died out, and a boyar, Boris Godoonoff, ascended the throne, that the nobility got the ascendant, and that the peasants were deprived of the right to remove at will from master to master. By this edict, dated 21st November 1601, every peasant was thenceforth attached to the soil of that commune in which he might happen to be on St George's Festival; and "Yoorieff Den" has ever since been a day of wail and woe throughout the land. It should therefore be well understood that the people were first enslaved, not by their tsars, but by the nobility, whom they therefore look upon as their despilers. The tsar is rather looked up to as a father. This circumstance explains many matters in Russia. By edict of the emperor, promulgated on the 5th December 1857, the serfs are to be finally liberated within twelve years after settling the terms to be resolved on between them and the proprietors. The intervening period is considered needful to prepare the serfs for the coming change in their position. In every government a committee has been appointed, consisting of two deputies from the nobility of every district, and to this number are adjoined two deputies as members for the crown. Their labours, with the opinions thereon of the provincial governors, and of the minister of the interior, are subsequently revised by the Central Committee of Serf Emancipation sitting at St Petersburg. It was originally the emperor's intention to convolve in the capital an assembly of proprietors; but whether from the probability of stormy discussions or dislike of anything resembling a representative system, a commission has been appointed, and now sits at St Petersburg, to collect opinions and to decide on the final plan. The chief difficulty lies in conciliating the conflicting interests of the proprietors and peasants. The former would willingly enough part with their serfs, but they wish to retain the whole of their lands, or to receive for them full compensation, according to their own estimate. The emperor, again, has decreed that the peasants shall be allowed 4 dessiateens (about 11 English acres) of land and a cottage in freehold, and this they are allowed to pay for during the twelve years intervening betwixt the settling of the rules and their final emancipation. The sum proposed is moderate enough (L16); but this is the real point at issue: The rich landholders, 3917 in number, are on the whole not so much against the measure, because aware that, although they lose the last remnant of their feudal rights, the ultimate gain to their descendants, through rent-income and tillage of their estates by free labourers, is certain. The Russian noble, however, looks more to the present than to the future, and has little public spirit, as in England. It is the minor landholders, 111,050 in number, who are most dissatisfied, and for the following reasons:—In some trading and manufacturing governments, the central in particular, land is very dear, and the proprietors have positively not enough disposable soil for portioning off to their peasants the number of dessiateens required, which it has been proposed shall be reduced to 3. Land in those parts, and about St. Petersburg, Taganrog, &c., is fully worth L.16 the dessiateen; in other parts only from L4 to L8. Some proprietors, besides, who possess forty peasants, have but 60 dessiateens of land in all; so that to allow them only 3 dessiateens, the proprietors must purchase 60 dessiateens additional to make up the 120 dessiateens at least required. Other proprietors possess 1000 dessiateens, with 400 peasants, and they would be deprived of the whole of their lands, besides having to purchase 200 or 600 dessiateens more were they to give the 3 or 4 dessiateens demanded. Some, again, who are perfectly landless, possess as many as fifty house-serfs. What are they to do? In Little Russia, and some other parts, land is very cheap, and there the proprietors would be at an advantage; for they could easily afford to pay the peasants as free labourers. As Russia comprises different climates, soils, and peoples, the difficulty of settling rules in all their details becomes manifest; it is therefore believed that the country will be divided into zones. It is also noteworthy that in Siberia there are very few serfs, and they are mostly attached to the government foundries; so that this portion of the empire can be first freed. In order to develop national industry, Peter I. bestowed serfs both on nobles and merchants, in various manufacturing governments, on condition that these men should revert to the crown, in case the manufactories were closed. These people, who were called possession-serfs, are landless, and now amount to about 40,000. The Emperor Nicholas did all he could to diminish their number, which was 100,000. The position of this class was dreadful, and they were positively slaves. Fears are entertained that the peasants will desert their villages, and when no longer attached to the glebe, will turn more to trade than follow agricultural pursuits. When roused, these peasants are an intractable class. The great point is, that the matter is too far advanced to be withdrawn; and come of it what may, the reign of Alexander II., who is pledged to the measure, will be immortalized by a glorious act, that can best be contrasted with the barbarity of the one that reduced the peasants, 258 years ago, to their present condition.
The government of Russia is an absolute hereditary monarchy. The emperor, or White Tsar of his people, rules of divine right, and acknowledges no fixed law but his own will. Round his diadem is wound the pontifical tiara, and he bears the following titles:—By the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of all the Russias, of Moscow, Kreyceff, Vladecmir, Novgorod; Tsar of Kazan, Tsar of Astrakhan, Tsar of Poland, Tsar of Siberia, Tsar of the Tauric Chersoneseus; Lord of Pleskoff, and Grand Duke of Smolensk, Lithuania, Volhynia, Podolia, and Finland; Duke of Esthonia, Livonia, Courland, and Semigallia; of Samogitia, Biełostok, Karelia, Tver, Yugoria, Perm, Viatka, Bulgaria, and other lands; Lord and Grand Duke of Lower Novgorod, Tchernegoff, Riazan, Poltak, Rostoff, Yaroslaff, Bielosérsak, Oodor, Obidor, Condia, Veetebsk, Mitislaff; Dominator of all the Land of the North; Lord of Iberia, Cartalinia, Georgia, Cabardia, and of the province of Armenia; Hereditary Prince and Sovereign of the Princes of Circassia and other mountain princes; Successor of Norway; Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, Dithmarsen, and Oldenburg, &c. The dynasty of his house is that of Romanoff the senior, and of Holstein-Gottorp the junior branch. The title of Tsar was first taken 1462-1505 by John III., the breaker of the Tartar yoke, the putter-down of the independent princes, and the conqueror of Novgorod, who married Sophia, niece of the last Greek emperor, Constantine Palaeologus. It was he who in consequence quartered the Byzantine arms, the two-headed eagle, with his own of St George the Conqueror, although the tutelar patron of the country is St Nicholas. The Ilomans and Greek emperors being Caesars, and Cesar having been pronounced by the old Romans Tausor, by the Greeks Kaiser (Kanep), it is evident how from Kanep, by the elision of a syllable, came Tsar, written by the ignorant Czar, which gives no idea of the sound, as it is Polish for Char. Previously to John III. the title of Tsar was unknown, and the Russian sovereigns were always called Grand Princes, which is the title of the emperor's own children; the other members of the imperial house are styled Imperial Highnesses. Princes, Counts, and Barons are the only titles of nobility; the latter being but seldom bestowed. Formerly the sole title was bogar, equivalent to feudal lord. These titles descend to all the children equally, and there is no right of primogeniture; although majorats, or entailed estates, have been created in favour of some families. The orders of knighthood are 7 in number. The highest is the purely military order of St George, with four degrees. The others are both military and civil: St Andrew the First-Called, 1 degree; Vladecmir, 4 degrees; St Alexander Neffski, 1 degree; the White Eagle, 1 degree; St Anne, 4 degrees; St Stanislaus, 3 degrees. There are military decorations, such as occasional medals of honour, and gold swords for courage. When any of the above orders are given to military men, swords are added to the insignia. For soldiers there is a particular cross of St George, also with 4 degrees, corresponding to the Victoria medal; and further a medal of St Anne, 1 degree. The officials, including teachers in the government service, are all classed as of certain tains or ranks, of which there are nominally 14, but really only 12; two having fallen into desuetude. These ranks rise in degree as follows:—14th, or lowest class, college registrar; 13th, does not exist; 12th, government secretary; 11th, does not exist; 10th, college secretary; 9th, titular councillor; 8th, college assessor; 7th, court councillor; 6th, college councillor; 5th, state councillor; 4th, actual state councillor; 3d, privy councillor; 2d, actual privy councillor; 1st, the chancellor of the empire. The rank of personal nobility is part of the privilege conferred by the lowest degree, upwards to that of actual state councillor, which confers the privilege of hereditary nobility. The highest department of the government is the council of the empire, established in 1810 to render the laws less changeable, and their application more correct. The other main objects are the revision and sanction of the budget. The number of members is not limited, but it generally amounts to 35 or 36. The council is divided into 5 departments:—1. Legislation; 2. War. 3. Church and civil affairs. 4. Internal political economy, or the administration of the public revenue. 5. The affairs of Poland. The emperor himself is the real president; but the council has further a permanent presiding member, selected by the emperor for life. Each department has its own president and state secretary; and the whole together have a common grand secretary of state, who is the principal director of the chancery, and the organ through whom the council makes known its decisions to the monarch. On receiving the emperor's confirmation of the council's decisions, this grand secretary communicates them Statistics, to the respective authorities upon whom their execution devolves. Neither this secretary of the council, nor the council itself, receives from private persons any petitions, which must be presented to the Emperor's special state secretary for the receipt of petitions, who, after perusal, forwards them to the respective ministers. Without the monarch's sanction the decisions of the council are valueless. The directing senate is divided into 10 departments; 5 in Petersburg, 3 in Moscow, and 2 in Warsaw. It is the supreme civil and criminal tribunal of the empire, a guardian of the law, and a watcher over the inferior tribunals. The minister of justice is the chief ober-procuror, procurator or attorney-general of the whole senate; but every department of the senate has its own crown-attorney, dependent on the ober-procuror, or minister of justice. No laws can be promulgated without the senate, which prescribes their execution to all ministers and tribunals by separate edicts, or otkazes, printed in the Senate gazette. The holy directing synod has for its object the management of ecclesiastical affairs. The ministries of state, whose members officiate in their several departments independently of each other, form the first instance of administration. Important affairs, purely administrative, are presented by every minister to the committee of ministers, and their collective opinion is then confirmed by the emperor. Each committee has its own state secretary, who bears to it the commands of the sovereign, and communicates them to the individual chiefs of the administration throughout the empire. The presiding member of the council of the empire is also the president of the committee of ministers. The ministries are as follows:—1. Foreign affairs and state archives; 2. War (artillery, engineering, inspection, audit, commissariat, victualling, and the medical department); 3. Marine and the colonies; 4. The Interior (police, municipal revenue and expenditure, interior administration, foreign religions, and medicine); 5. Public instruction; 6. Finances and trade (revenues and expenditure, trade, manufactures, treasury of the empire, customs, and mines); 7. The crown domains (crown-lands, peasants, and their management); 8. Justice; 9. The general direction of land and water communications; 10. Financial control; 11. Ecclesiastical affairs (Russian church); 12. The imperial household and appanages; 13. The post-office. The emperor's chancery, divided into four sections, one of which, the third, comprising the secret police, is another high organ of government; and there is, further, a special minister or state secretary for Poland, and a secretary of state for Finland. The governors and other authorities in the provinces receive their commands through the ministers and their departments. Every government has a civil governor, who is often also military governor.
The senate is the third instance, or supreme court of judicature. The nomination to places resting solely with the crown, and all presidents being removable at will, it follows that the courts are nothing but an organ of judicature, entirely at the command of the government; the nobility-assessors not being eligible of right, but nominated at the sovereign's will. In the middle courts of second instance, however, the nobility have a privilege of admission, being elected by their own order, and in some cases with merchants as assessors. These courts of second instance, which revise the law proceedings of the first instance courts, are the palata grazdansko-go sooda or civil court, the criminal court, the executive police, the court of conscience, and the commercial court; the last with no deputies from the nobility, but with merchant-assessors only. To the lowest or first instance belong the district court, which investigates, in legal form, all law matters appertaining to it; the zemskoy-sood, or county police court, which is its executive; the nobility tutelage court, all with representatives from the nobility, merchants, burghers, and peasants; the nadzornoy-sood, or police court; the orphan's court; the town magistracies and town-halls, with no representatives from the nobility, but solely from the merchants, burghers, and peasants. There are judges only in the conscience and district courts. Finland and Poland have their independent codes and judicature. The torture is abolished, as are also the knout and slitting of the nostrils. Some criminals are stamped, but not branded. The corporal punishment inflicted is the plet, or cat-o'-nine-tails; and sometimes, when a criminal is exceptionally punished by military law, running the gauntlet. The nobility, clergy, and merchants are exempted from this punishment. Criminals are further sent to work in the mines of Siberia. The secondary degree is simple banishment to the settlements in Siberia; and the third, infliction of the rod, imprisonment, confinement in penitentiaries and reformatories, public reprimands in court, sometimes entered on the official's commission, and fines.
All proceedings are carried on in writing, which is the great evil of the system, leading to venality, delay, gorging of the prisons, and vexations innumerable. The administration of justice is indeed the department most requiring reform; for of no country can it be more truly said that there is one law for the poor and another for the rich. But this may be looked upon as a remnant of the old bad order of things which is now being rapidly amended.
The first book of laws was the Rosskaia Priroda, or Russian jurisprudence, issued by Yaroslaf in 1020, and continued in the thirteenth century. John III. next commenced a book of laws in 1497; and this was again revised by John IV. in 1550. In 1664 the Tsar Alexay Mikhailovitch issued his Opolozhenie, or general book of laws; and this code formed the foundation of the later jurisprudence, supplemented by otkazes, or edicts, of the successive sovereigns; the number of statutes, up to the time of Alexander I., amounting to 30,920. Many attempts were made regularly to codify the whole; and Peter I., in particular, appointed in 1700 a commission for this purpose. Elizabeth, Catherine, and Alexander I. followed up his plan; but it was Nicholas I. who, after a previous outlay of about L900,000, partially succeeded in the purpose. Up to 1859, 15 tomes, containing 21 sections, have been published; but the work, although still continued in the second section of the emperor's chancery, is far from concluded, contains numerous errors, and by no means does away with the special edicts of the sovereign, which can at any time upset the written law. The school of jurisprudence was instituted by Nicholas, with a view of bettering matters, by forming legists, and appointing from among them and the law-students of the universities, crown-officials for the senate and law-courts, incorruptible, well-mannered,
---
1 No atrocities equalling those of Norfolk or Cayenne are enacted in Siberia, where all the condemned are under the special supervision of the secret police. The town prisons, however, and even the police-stations, are sinks of horror; the condition of prisoners on trial being scarcely better than that of the condemned themselves.
2 In 1856 there were (exclusive of Finland and Poland) 283,229 criminal, civil, and police cases; of these, 57,190 were convicted, 53,000 pardoned by manifesta, 99,656 acquitted, 1574 sentenced to labour in the mines, 167 sentenced to the settlements in Transcaucasus, 3839 to Siberia. Among the above were 1124 cases of murder, 280 arson, 73 highway robbery, 6049 theft and robbery, 743 burglary, 101 false coining, 126 offences against religion. In Poland many crimes are committed, in Finland few, in Courland, but one case occurred. In 1856 acts and obligations to the amount of L31,353,758 for the sale and transfer of property were registered in the government courts, excepting those of Poland and Finland. In 1849, in 46 governments and 1 province of European Russia there were 1089 cases of murder, 1512 of suicide, 30 infanticide, 3114 child exposure, 894 personal insult, 194 unlawful gratification of the passions, and 600 horse stealing. There were, further, 27,694 vagrants, and 1183 vagrant and thief harbourers. Statistics, and likely to exercise a beneficial influence on their confraternity. But "a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump;" and no radical good can result until a total sweep is made of the whole corruption, and trial by jury, with public pleading and a free press, introduced—not a licentious, but a public press, for exposing evil, and for giving a voice to the public wants. Trial by jury did once exist in the remoter ages of Russian history. The present monarch, Alexander II., who has begun so well, might do still better, would he but extend his admirable reforms to this vital object. When so many princes of the imperial house are appointed to public functions, it is to be hoped that the energies of some will be directed to the sword of justice as well as to the sword of war.
Schools under the Ministry of Justice.
| School of jurisprudence | Teachers | Scholars | |-------------------------|----------|----------| | 1 Preparatory class to this school | 20 | 67 | | 1 Constantine surveyors' school | 35 | 250 | | 1 Writers' school, to form scribes for the government offices | 7 | 60 | | 1 Surveying topographers' school | 23 | 200 | | **Total** | **129** | **868** |
The established religion of Russia is the Greco-Russian, nationally called the Orthodox Catholic Faith, and is professed by 49,099,717 souls. This church separated from the Roman in 1054, and from the Byzantine patriarchate in 1587. It has now its own independent synod, but it maintains, with the four patriarchates of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria, the intimate relations of a sister-church, possessing over them, as well as over the whole Slavonic race, a moral supremacy, which, though not despotic like that of the Roman Church, appears likely one day to rival that of the Pope over the Latins. It further maintains at Jerusalem a mission, with a bishop at its head. This religion was introduced into Russia by the Grand Princess Olga and the Grand Prince Vladimier in A.D. 955 and 988. Previously to the year 955, Christianity counted in Russia only a few followers at Kieyef; but the general introduction into Russia of Christianity is reckoned from the year 988. Under Yaroslaff (1019-1054) Russia had her own metropolitan, but until that time the upper hierarchy came from Greece. In 1589 a patriarch was nominated head of the national religious establishment; but under Peter the Great the emperor was declared its spiritual head, the synod taking the place of the patriarchate. With it was vested the management of ecclesiastical affairs. An ober-procurer is its secular chief. The synod consists of permanent and temporal assessors, all selected from among the highest ecclesiastical dignitaries. It is generally composed of three metropolitans, several archbishops of the black, and, further, two assessors of the white clergy, the senior priests of the guards, and of the army and fleet. It never consists of less than three bishops. The ecclesiastical hierarchy, recruited mostly from its own ranks and the lower classes, although the upper also occasionally supply members, is divided into two orders,—the black or monastic, and the white or secular clergy. The following is a return of numbers of the black clergy:—4 metropolitans, of St Petersburg, Moscow, Kieyef, and Lithuania; and 1 exarch of Grusia; 26 archbishops or archiereis; 39 bishops, also styled archihiereis; 176 archimandrites or abbots, and 84 hegoumens or priors; 5612 monks; 2339 nuns; 5349 lay brothers and novices; 7091 lay sisters and novices. The black clergy has Basilus the Great for its tutelar saint, and it is entirely provided for by the state. White clergy: 1400 protohiereis or archpriests; 35,593 popes or priests; 12,804 deacons; and 63,358 sub-deacons, readers, sacristans, and low ecclesiastical servants. The secular clergy receive from L.16 to L.40 yearly salary from the state, with some income in fees and in kind, which altogether places them, as a body, above positive want, but no more. When a clergymen gets too old for service, his successor, should he be his son-in-law, is bound to maintain him. When he dies, a place is first found for his son, and his daughter is married off if possible to the successor. A retiring-fund has been instituted, to afford pensions, but it is as yet too trifling for mention. The fees are prescribed by usage, but the priest can be compelled to perform his functions without remuneration. There are 4 first, 19 second, and 27 third class eparchies or bishoprics; in Grusia 10. Further, 463 monasteries, of which 44 of the first, 85 of the second, and 160 of the third class; the chief or laurel monasteries are the Kieyef, Grotto, the Trinity-Sergius, the Alexander-Neffiski, and the Potchailiski. There are 129 numeraries and 36,697 churches, of which 145 are for the Starover, or Assimilated faith. Spiritual education is provided for by 4 ecclesiastical academies, at St Petersburg, Moscow, Kieyef, and Kazan, with 73 professors and 336 students; each with but 1 faculty for theology, although the Hebrew, the ancient and modern Greek, the Latin, and now even the English, German, and French languages are taught, besides mathematics in extenso, and the natural sciences in part. Further, 48 seminaries, with 708 teachers and 13,864 scholars; 183 clerical district schools, with 1054 teachers and 36,349 scholars; and 18 clerical parish schools, with 32 teachers and 1401 scholars: total, 253 schools, with 1867 teachers and 51,960 scholars. These church-schools were once the light of the land. Several schools have been founded for clergymen's daughters, but their number is not returned. The national church property cannot be valued, but its capital is stated at L.1,700,000 sterling, and its annual income suffices to defray all the church expenditure, besides leaving a large surplus, which is credited to the church account. It is chiefly derived from the candle-money collected for the wax tapers burned. The amount of free gifts derived from the church-boxes amply suffices to defray the building and repairing of churches. Each government has its archbishop or bishop, excepting the governments of Petersburg, Moscow, Kieyef, and Vilna, in each of which there is a metropolitan in lieu of an archbishop; and under these metropolitans, archbishops, and bishops are placed all ecclesiastics and schools, excepting those of the war ministry, which has its own senior priests, standing under the synod and the war minister. The archbishop of every government is the president of the government consistory,—a spiritual college, consisting of five to seven members, according to the extent of the bishopric. It is composed of several archimandrites, protohiereis, and some of the worthiest clergymen. For punishment, monks are removed from a higher to a lower class monastery; the secular clergy are sent for a time to monasteries; and for more serious offences are either degraded by one degree, or are deprived of the riasa, their every-day upper vestment, their hair being cut off before final dismissal from the clerical function. Grave crimes come under the cognisance of the criminal law of the country; but the clergy possess a right of having deputies to see that they are treated fairly, and they are not sent to prison without the knowledge of the consistory or synod, where the sentence meets with approval or disapproval. The following distinctions exist for protopopes and popes:—Epigonations, palitza, skullcaps, calottes, the synodal and cabinet napérstnoy krest, or
---
1 Epigonation, a sacerdotal decoration of embroidered stuff, in the shape of a parallelogram, worn on the right hip, below the upper and above the under rocs or sacerdotal vestments. It denotes the spiritual sword. 2 Palitza, a similar distinction, but now ranking higher than the epigonation. It is shorter, square, and richly embroidered. Statistics, breast-slung cross, and the orders of St Anne, 2d and 3d, and of St Vladimir, 3d and 4th classes. The same distinctions, excepting the skull-caps and calottes, are given also to the black clergy, from the hieromonach to the archimandrite inclusively; archihierarches or pro-presbyters receive the orders of St Anne, 1st; St Vladimir, 1st and 2d classes; of St Alexander Nevski; and of St Andrew the First-Called. All the black clergy indiscriminately wear beads.
The Greco-Russian Church guards vigilantly against the introduction of any doctrine open to the slightest suspicion of heresy, and has its own censorship and journals. It is also very observant of hierarchical subordination. Generally, however, the Russian clergy, although jealous of their dignity, have not the spiritual pride or priestcraft of the Roman Catholic order, attributable no doubt in part to the kindly national character, and in part to the humanizing influence of marriage, which prevents the overwhelming concentration of all the human passions into one single channel. The Greco-Russian Church is mostly antagonistic to the Roman Catholic, and differs from it in the following essential particulars:—1. In not recognizing the primacy of the Pope. 2. In denying that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son (filioque). 3. In rejecting a purgatory, predestination (except in the omnipotence of the Deity), indulgences, dispensations, and works of supererogation, although admitting the intercession of saints by prayer. 4. It holds the necessity of complete submersion of the whole body at baptism, unless in urgent cases, when even lay-men and women may perform it; but they must immerse the infant with the baptismal words, "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost," if the infant can bear the immersion; if not, then sprinkling or ablution is used. Should the priest arrive in time, he reads the supplementary prayers, and performs the mystery of anointing with chrism. 5. Whilst admitting the doctrine of transubstantiation in regard to the eucharist, it affirms that the holy bread (epoche) must be leavened; the wine and water being placed in the chalice; and it is only at the prayer of transubstantiation that part of the agnus is placed in the chalice. The element of wine with water, is alone administered to children up to the age of seven, for fear of the elements being ejected or falling to the ground. 6. Another important distinction, is that marriage is obligatory on the secular clergy, although monogamy is a strict tenet of the church. A priest may continue to serve after his wife dies. 7. No instrumental music is allowed, but vocal music forms a most attractive portion of the service. This church rejects all massive images of the Saviour or saints as idolatrous; but pictures, mosaics, bas-reliefs, and, in short, all that is represented on a flat surface, is not held a violation of the law which says, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image!" Broadly stated, and besides some of the preceding tenets, the Greco-Russian religion differs from the Anglican in so far as the latter church approaches to the Lutheran. The general harmony, however, with the Anglican is greater than with any other church; and several attempts have been made, but not successfully, to unite them, particularly in 1723. Addresses still pass at intervals between the two churches; and independently of the Irvingites, the ritual of Hatherly's new community at Liverpool so strongly resembles the Greek service that it has attracted the notice of the Russian synod. There are four great fasts:—1. Lent, or the great fast, between the carnival and Easter, of seven weeks' duration, and of which the first and last are the most rigidly observed, being more specially devoted to repentance, confession, and preparing for the sacrament; 2. The Petroff, or Peter's fast, before St Peter's day in June of two to five weeks' duration, accordingly as Easter Sunday falls; 3. The Oospenski, or Conception fast, called by the people the Gospozhnik, from the 1st to 15th August. 4. The Philisoff, or St Philip's fast, of six weeks before Christmas. The first fast or Lent is the most rigidly observed. Besides the above, the Wednesday and Friday of every week are fast days, and the common people scrupulously keep them all. Catechising and preaching are practised,—the latter frequently, the former at set intervals. Confirmation is not practised, the chrism used at baptism being held to comprise a mystery, rendering that ceremony supererogatory. The church festivals and saints' days, kept with eastern splendour, are numerous, and consequently form drawbacks to the business of life, although they greatly relieve the labouring classes. The venerative feeling of the people is profound, and they are zealous church-goers, early and late, being due observers besides of all the outward forms of religion, in which the essence is sometimes absorbed. There is, however, much genuine piety to be met with; pilgrimages to monasteries are frequent among all classes; donations, free gifts, offerings, and alms, being liberally bestowed by both rich and poor. There are no entrance-fees, no distinctions for great and little, no pews, no reserved places in Russian churches: the congregation stand: all are equal before God. The Sabbath is not much observed, except as a churchgoing day. The shops are shut during the hours of worship, but all public places of amusement are afterwards thrown open; visits are made, and business is but little affected by obedience to this salutary ordinance of the Supreme Lawgiver. The church service is performed in the ancient church Slavonic, and the lower classes cannot therefore completely follow it, except as a thing they take for granted, although they comprehend its general signification. The Bible, however, is now being translated into the vernacular Russ. The congregation fervently join in the choral parts, the responses, and the ejaculations. This portion of the service, and the great pomp investing the whole system of worship, together with the procession of banners, pictured saints, and relics, have no doubt been the great means of originally impressing on a rude people the holy awe they entertain for tsar and church; which two, with them, are identical. Church service usually consists of the evolokas, or call to worship; singing of psalms or hymns; the Ekteneia, a series of prayers, mostly intoned, for the welfare of the church and her chiefs, for the peace and union of the Christian churches, and for every separate member of the imperial family; the reading of the epistles and evangel; choral and part singing of unexampled harmony; a sermon, always in the common language, explaining the evangel read; prayers, preparing for the communion, and during which the priest prepares himself; the consecration of the elements, and the administration of the sacrament, which the clergyman takes every time, and the congregation at will; then, thanksgiving for the sacrament, and parting benediction; the chanting and incense-burning throughout being frequent. Asperging with holy water is also used. The Old Testament is read only during evening
---
1 Nepotnoy krest, a gold cross slung over the breast, a mark of distinction common to all the black clergy. The imperial family often give, besides, for distinguished services, so-called brilliant crosses (diamond). The other crosses for professedly in the learned degrees are 2 in number: one, a small square gold cross for the degree of Magister Scientiarum; and the other a more elongated, light-blue, enamelled one, for the degree of Doctor of Divinity. The last reward for a member of the white clergy is a mitre.
2 The Ekteneia: there are several forms of prayer so called. Some portions of this service resemble that of the Irvingites.
3 A foreigner is mostly struck by the constant signing of the cross, the repetition of the Gospodi Rasskooi, or "Lord be merciful," the genuflexions, and the semi or entire prostrations. Statistics service, which is intended to prepare for the morning or principal service, and it therefore has a prophetic tendency, the psalms and hymns being all appropriate. The morning service represents the fulfillment of these prophecies. Service much of the same kind is often performed—sometimes exorcisms too—at private houses, on special occasions; and the remembrance-service, or Pomézki, forty days after a person's death, is a pious custom; as is that of the yearly visitation of family graves, although this often degenerates into revelling. It is another laudable custom of the Russians to remove their hats, in the streets, before all funerals that pass. Every Russian is obliged to take the sacrament at least once a year. The calendar in use is the Julian or Greek, which is twelve days behind the Gregorian or Latin. The antagonism of the two churches is perhaps the chief objection to a reform in this respect. The superstitious belief of the common people in good and bad spirits, in house-spectres, forest and water demons, is fast dying out, although too much credence is still given to omens and witchcraft. All decent creeds are liberally tolerated—a beautiful contrast to Roman Catholic usage; and no civil disabilities attach to those who profess another faith, except to the most hateful of the sectarians. The chief attributes of pre-eminence assigned to itself by the Russian Church are the ringing of the larger church-bells—the smaller ones being allowed to the foreign denominations,—and, further, the public processions. The Roman Catholics are permitted to walk in state round the outside of their churches when walled in, or within them when not. The host must be carried in coaches. Funerals may be publicly followed by the clergy of all persuasions. Collisions with the populace are thus prudently avoided, whilst perfect toleration is granted. In towns and places where the Roman Catholic faith is predominant, greater public display is permitted. There exists, too, a species of church police, in the form of visitation, at times, of foreign churches by a deputed person. The clause where toleration touches on persecution is in the ordinance, that the children of a foreigner, man or woman, married to a Russian, must, unless specially exempted, be brought up in the national religion. Apostacy to any other faith is strictly prohibited; but Mussulmen and Jews, on the contrary, who go over to the Russian Church, are allowed many immunities,—the latter, a consideration in money! The empress, too, and foreign princesses marrying into the imperial family, must likewise embrace the national religion, but they are not re-baptized, being only anointed with the holy chrism. None but Jews, Mohammedans, and those baptized in one person of the Trinity are re-baptized.
Since the first introduction into Russia of Christianity, many schisms have taken place, such as the Adrianites and the Self-Mutilators; but the chief separations were:—(1.) In 1649, when a considerable number of Greco-Russians went over to the Unia, which was formed by orthodox believers abandoning the ritual of the national church, and accepting the dogmas of the Roman Catholic faith. The Unias, 2,000,000 in number, were again forcibly taken into the bosom of the mother church in 1839. (2.) Under the Tsar Alexay Mikhailovich (1645 to 1676), when the amendment of the church-books occasioned a new separation. Many who believed not in the right conception of the church books of worship, which had become full of errors, formed a community holding to the ancient order of things, and they were called Staro-Obrïadists or Starovëri (Old Ritualists or Old Believers), because opposed to all innovations, even in non-spiritual matters. Latterly, some of them have consented to accept priests from among the orthodox hierarchy, on condition of their performing church-service according to the ancient ritual. This section is called the Assimilated Church, and it counts 145 places of worship. Their church-service is very coarse and unimpressive. Those sectarians who accept no such clergy are called the Bezpopoffchina, or Popeless. There are at least 40 different sects, officially stated at about 2,000,000 in number; but the well-informed calculate them as amounting to nearly 8,000,000; and they all conceal their profession as much as possible. The most respectable are the Staro-Obrïadists. The Dookhoborts, or Soul-Strugglers, and the Molokhâne (so called from the locality they inhabit), are schismatics, living, as do the Mennonites, mostly in the south of Russia, and their tenets have much in common with those of the Protestant dissenters, particularly of the Anabaptists. The other sectarians dwell in the remoter governments and in Siberia. Many of their tenets are horrible; the Skoptse, or Self-Mutilators, in particular, who are met with even in St Petersburg, and include some Germans and Fins; but they are rigidly put down, and must eventually finish by becoming absorbed into the national church. Many converts are annually made both from them and other religions,—Mohammedans, Jews, Buddhists, Lamasites, and pagans; the Russian Church prudently confining its charity to its own home-circle of heathen; but there are no sufficient data for specifying the number christianized. This was partly the reason why the Foreign Bible Society-branch, together with free masonry in Russia, was put down by Alexander in 1824. Another reason was jealousy of Protestant interference with the Russian translation of the Bible, which is that of the Septuagint. The Evangelical Church counts many adherents, called Herrnhuters—United Moravian Brethren,—living mostly in the German colonies on the banks of the Volga, in the town of Sarepta, in Southern Russia, and about Tiflis. The Jews abound mostly in Poland and in the semi-Polish governments. The Karaim Jews, a peculiar sect, dwell in the Crimea.
The Armenio-Gregorian church in Russia has six eparchies, of which five are under archbishops, and one is ruled by a supreme patriarch.
| Eparchies | Churches | Burial Grounds | Total | |-----------|----------|---------------|-------| | | Cathedral | Parish | Chapels | Total | | 1. Nakhichevan and Bessarabia | 4 | 23 | 4 | 36 | | 2. Astrakhan | 3 | 14 | 5 | 22 | | 3. Erivan | 1 | 319 | 7 | 327 | | 4. Grusino-Imeritia | 4 | 18 | 277 | 299 | | 5. Karabagh | 1 | 163 | 4 | 168 | | 6. Shirvan | 35 | 3 | 38 | 32 |
The present patriarch, Mathcos, is the 141st supreme patriarch of the Haikan people since the time of St Gregory, the Enlightener. He has his throne at Etchmiadzin, in Armenia. Church affairs are administered, under him, Statistics by a synod consisting of four archbishops or bishops, and four archimandrites. These members are chosen by the patriarchs, and confirmed by the emperor, who likewise sanctions the nomination of the eparchial archbishops. The synod is further assisted by several consistories and spiritual directories. This church is wholly supported by voluntary contributions, the government adding only a sum of about L1150 yearly for some particular expenses. The Lazareff Institute of Oriental Languages, at Moscow, provides for the education of twenty youths, who are afterwards either ordained as priests, or appointed as teachers in the seminaries, or to situations in the synod, consistories, and spiritual directories. The Armenio-Gregorian Church considers itself the most ancient in Christendom. It differs from the Greek—with which, however, it has much similarity—in the doctrine of Jesus Christ's humanity; the Armenio-Gregorians maintaining that his two natures, of divinity and humanity, are blended into one; the Greeks, on the contrary, that they are distinct. The Armenio-Gregorian supreme patriarch, or Katholikos, styles himself in consequence Αυτοκράτορας, or independent head.
### Statement of the Roman Catholic Church
| Eparchies | Churches | Monasteries | Number of Clergy | |-----------|----------|-------------|-----------------| | | Parish | Villas | Chapels | Male | Female | White | Monastic generally | Parishioners of both sexes | | 1. Mohileff | 164 | 14 | 331 | 4 | 3 | 11 | 392 | 106 | 52 | 304,354 | | 2. Vilna | 259 | 97 | 381 | 17 | 9 | 11 | 538 | 339 | 213 | 853,608 | | 3. Telzky | 214 | 112 | 134 | 9 | 4 | 10 | 612 | 160 | 72 | 815,881 | | 4. Lutsk | 165 | 16 | 371 | 9 | 4 | 13 | 241 | 150 | 36 | 251,059 | | 5. Kamenetz| 99 | 2 | 66 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 148 | 24 | 9 | 209,550 | | 6. Minsk | 81 | 73 | 184 | 6 | 4 | 12 | 182 | 134 | 68 | 188,586 | | 7. Tiraspol| 28* | 20 | 17 | ... | ... | 11 | 112 | ... | ... | 129,749 | | Total | 1110 | 346 | 1464 | 47† | 25† | 79 | 2225 | 913 | 540 | 2,752,787 |
* In this number are included 40 parish churches of the Armenian Catholics, and 4 chapels; 54 white parish clergy, and 14,345 parishioners of both sexes.
† Of the total number of these monasteries (72), 49 are on the government civil list, and 23 on the supernumerary list, which implies that they are doomed ultimately to suppression, as has been already the case with many.
The Roman Catholic clergy are supported from the income of their immovable property and funded capital, which accrued to the government when they were deprived of them in 1841. The reason assigned was, that they were thus only placed on a footing similar to that of the Russian clergy, who are paid by the government, likewise out of the church income. All expenses relating to the church, and amounting to L110,000, are defrayed by the government out of the above income, the state treasury adding only, of its own, L6000. Every eparchy has its seminary, and there is one ecclesiastical academy at St Petersburg. There are three tribunals: the eparchial direction, the spiritual college, and the ministry of the interior. This college consists of assessors chosen by every eparchy, and is presided over by the metropolitan. A government procurer, or superior crown-attorney, always attends. This church has its chief seat in Poland and the neighbouring governments. It has two metropolitans: one of Warsaw, for Poland; and one of Mohileff, for the whole empire of Russia. He is the primate, and resides mostly at St Petersburg, which is the seat of the chief ecclesiastical academy.
The consistorial sessions, formed of deputies, take place twice a year, and a government procurer assists at them. As a means of learning the wants of the Lutheran Church, a general synod, consisting of members and deputies of the consistories, is sometimes convened at the pleasure of government. Many evangelical Lutheran churches have large funds, amply sufficient for defraying all their expenses; others, again, receive assistance from government, to the amount of L9000. All these churches have the undisturbed management of their property. Theological faculties for this confession exist at the universities of Dorpat and Helsingfors. The Bible Society at St Petersburg had distributed 13,000 copies of the Book among members only of the Reformed Church, and had 30,000 more remaining. Its fund amounted to nearly L2000.
### Statement of the Lutheran Church
| Consistorial Districts | Number of Churches | Number of Clergy | |------------------------|-------------------|-----------------| | | Parish | Villas | Chapels | Upper Prebisch- | Number of Parishioners | | 1. St Petersburg | 55 | 14 | 50 | 2 | 78 | 221,695 | | 2. Moscow | 38 | 50 | 6 | 1 | 34 | 145,937 | | 3. Livonia | 168 | 33 | 161 | 1 | 109 | 588,654 | | 4. Courland | 120 | 64 | 19 | 1 | 115 | 491,244 | | 5. Esthonia | 48 | 26 | 57 | 1 | 44 | 280,580 | | 6. Oesel | 14 | 0 | 59 | 1 | 14 | 35,406 | | 7. Riga | 10 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 15 | 47,315 | | 8. Revel | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 16,781 | | Total | 397 | 195 | 353 | 9 | 414 | 1,830,012 |
The Reformed denomination counts in all 31 churches and chapels, with 26 officiating clergy. All matters relating to this church, excepting those of the Reformed denomination in the governments of Vilna, Kovno, Grodno, Minsk, and Mohileff, are regulated in separate Reformed church-sessions, held at the Lutheran consistories. The Vilna Evangelico-Reformed synod takes cognisance of all church affairs relating to these last-mentioned governments. There is, also, a spiritual college for this church at Vilna. Of Hebrews, Mohammedans and Pagans, there are as follows:
- Hebrews: 1,322,935 - Synagogues: 945 - Rabbis, rabbis, and teachers: 4,935 - Mohammedans: 1,948,817 - Mosques, dalled mosques: 4,718 - Muslifs, mulhas, and teachers: 7,924 - Pagans: 374,574 - Places of worship: 490 - Priests: 4,778
The philanthropic institutions of Russia are mostly under charitable institutions.
---
1 We believe this number to be more correct than that given in Köppen's returns of the foreign races. It is a year later.
2 In this number of pagans are included,—Lamaites, 190,390; Places of worship, 386; Priests, 4,410. Statistics, the direction of the Philanthropic Society, composed of various classes, and particularly of merchants. Its chief curator is the metropolitan of St Petersburg. Under this society are many establishments for widows, orphans, the deaf and dumb, cripples, &c. There is also a committee of prison inspection. Besides these, and the almshouses maintained by the towns, there are numerous establishments supported by the government; such as the foundling hospitals, and the Widows' Home at the Smolna convent. Several more are supported by private charity; as the Demidoff Institution, for orphan girls, and Zookoff's Asylum, for minor orphans. There were also, in 1851, 75 infant asylums in the whole empire, attended by 7980 children of both sexes.
Public Instruction.—Education was introduced into Russia conjointly with Christianity in the tenth century. The first school for boys was founded by the Grand Prince Vladimir, Russia's Alfred, about 988; and the first school for girls, under Yaroslaff, 1019 to 1034, by his sister Anne. Public schools were afterwards founded in different parts of Russia during the eleventh century, yet little had been done when the great Peter first flung his mighty intellect into the work before him, and by his rough but useful lessons forced civilization upon his unwilling subjects. This sovereign was indisputably as much the primary teacher of his people as the founder of Russia's present greatness. He began by making education compulsory on the nobility and officials, and each succeeding sovereign after him did more or less in furtherance of his views. The sole honourable record, indeed, of Elizabeth Petrovna's reign is the founding, at Shovvaloff's suggestion, of the Moscow university in 1755, and two years later of the Academy of Fine Arts at St Petersburg, afterwards completed by Catherine II. It was Elizabeth who first showed the first leaning towards Gallic ideas. Catherine II. zealously continued Peter's labour, and was properly the founder of the national schools. Her action is mostly evidenced by the marked introduction, in moral culture, manners, and dress, of an exclusively French system, which continued down to the time of Nicholas. Russia still owes much to Catherine, both in point of learning and refinement of manners; but it is a question whether her system has not been in other respects hurtful by diminishing the national self-respect, and perhaps by corrupting the national morals. Alexander I. greatly contributed to the advancement of learning. He founded the universities of Dorpat, Kharkoff, Kazan, and St Petersburg, as also the Alexander Lyceum, ardently carrying out the work of reform, much on Catherine's plan, with steady perseverance and great success. His system was chiefly marked by the introduction of a soldier-like discipline in the training of youth. This system was yet more rigidly carried out by Nicholas, to whom still belongs the credit of having been the first to re-Russianize his empire. With this view, he gave a more national direction to the course of studies pursued, by making the Russian language, literature, history, geography, statistics, and knowledge of Russia the chief objects of study. He further prohibited the young gentry from being educated abroad, except by special permission, and even laid restraints on their stay in foreign countries, in order to counteract their inoculation of too liberal ideas. He also made it imperative to obtain his sanction for staying abroad, inflicted passport duties so heavy as to be equivalent to a prohibition from travelling, and sharpened the action of a severe censorship. He still vigorously carried out the work of improving the national education, and, like all his predecessors, considerably increased the number of the learned establishments. This sovereign was vastly superior to any of his predecessors after Peter. His personal gifts, mental and physical, were of the highest order; and few men in his position have possessed so much mastery of the mind over the body.
The accession of the present emperor Alexander II. has been marked by an abatement of his father's restrictions, by a comparative liberty of the press, and, strangely enough, by a happy revolution in favour of English principles, but without any exaggeration of the sentiment. Already the healthful impulse given in particular to literature surpasses expectation, and promises the happiest results, although in so vast an empire education has of course not yet had time to permeate the masses. The Russian system of education is on the whole too much intended for the eye; too hollow; too superficial; embraces too many objects at once; and does not sufficiently provide for the education of the body. The education of females is the one most requiring reform. Girls of all classes are superficially taught all that they least want to know; whilst the real objects for which woman was created are precisely those mostly left out of view. In the female government establishments an undue luxury prevails, that totally unfit the poor girls for the rude families into whose bosoms they return; and worst of all, their long stay in those semi-conventional establishments damps in them the faculty of love, by severing them from the bonds of family affection. As regards the general direction given to learning, it was mostly the scholastic-ecclesiastical spirit that prevailed up to the time of the minister Ovaroff, in Nicholas's reign. The system followed in the universities and gymnasia was bad to a degree, having besides the old seminarian tendency. Ovaroff abolished this, and gave to learning a more German or philologo-philosophical direction, in which it now continues, although Nicholas interrupted it awhile by stopping in 1848 the teaching of many branches of philosophy in the universities, retaining only the lectures on logic and psychology, and confiding them to priests, who still occupy these chairs.
The fine arts came into Russia with Sophia, the Greek spouse of John Vassilevitch III. The learned establishments of Russia, religious, military, naval, civil, and special, are severally placed under particular chiefs at the head of these different departments,—Poland and Finland being separately administered,—and are mostly divided into three classes, which take rank according to the degree of distinction that attaches to them, regard being had to the importance of the schools, and to the social position of the scholars. These classes confer on the pupils various advantages, which are held out as inducements for parents to send their children to them for education, it having been found both impossible and needless to carry out the system of compulsory education first enforced by Peter. The academies of sciences and of fine arts, the liberal, charitable, and many special institutions, are under the immediate protection of the imperial family, who further provide for the instruction of their servants' children, as do also several of the separate ministries. By this special superintendence for each branch of education, the object in view is no doubt best attained; but the fault lies in over-government, and in nothing being left to the generous action of public spirit, which is thus destitute of a high moral tone. Teachers in public schools are very properly subjected to examinations as to their competency, but when once this is certified, they partake of the advantages bestowed on the schools in the shape of pay,—which once was liberal, but is not so now,—a gradually rising rank, and subsequently a pension for their old age. Domestic tutors, private teachers, and governesses, are all alike subjected to tests, varying in proportion to the degree they may wish to take, and are thus all equally under the control of the government. Female teachers in the numerous government establishments for young ladies, have advantages corresponding to those of the men. Generally speaking, the social standing of a teacher is, as it ought to be, highly respectable. Not to detail the minor establishments existing under the different Statistics, ministries, a minute return of which would be of little interest; we shall hereafter give the most important tables when we touch the several heads to which they respectively relate. The following summary will meanwhile answer all needful purposes:—Athletics, and their affiliated branches, are fostered by an Academy of Fine Arts,—the noblest in Europe,—with its splendid sculpture and picture galleries, and its collection of engravings; the Hermitage, with its countless treasures of sculptures, paintings, and coins; the National and the Roomantsoff museums; the museum of sculpture in the Taurida Palace; the permanent exhibition of works of art near the Exchange; four porcelain, glass, bronze, and tapestry manufactories; four theatres, including a national and an Italian opera, with a ballet, and where French and German pieces are also performed; one summer theatre, and one court-singers' school,—all at St Petersburg, or near it. A marked feature of the time is the introduction of parks and public squares; some of the bridges, too, in the empire, are of unparalleled magnificence; and generally the improvement in architecture is striking to the dullest eye. In architecture, it is the Indian, the ancient Russian, the Russo-Byzantine, the renaissance, and mixed styles that mostly prevail. Moscow has but little to boast of in point of art, unless in the quaint architecture of its Kremlin and its countless churches. It possesses a branch-school of the Academy of Fine Arts, and, further, Yablonoff's cabinet of art-curiosities, two theatres, and one theatre-school. Near that city are the picture-galleries of Mr Nariskin, Count Strogonoff, Count Bezborodko, and Prince Yoosopooff. Science is provided for by more numerous establishments: the Academy of Sciences, with its cabinets of natural curiosities and oriental coins, and its costly library; the public library, with 802,717 volumes, 28,536 manuscripts, and 63,503 engravings, independently of the libraries of the universities and ecclesiastical academies; the magnificent astronomical observatory at Pulkovo; numerous other observatories at Moscow, Kazan, Nicholasoff, Dorpat, Riga, Mitau, and other places; the physical observatory at St Petersburg; the cabinets of natural curiosities at Moscow, Vilna, Dorpat, Riga, and Mitau; the scientific collection and models of marine apparatus in the Naval School of St Petersburg; Loder's anatomical museum at Moscow; the museum of South Russian antiquities at Odessa and at Kertch; the Geographical and Imperial Mineralogical societies; the botanical garden; the Free Economical and Horticultural societies; the Society for Mutual Instruction; another for the encouragement of artists,—all at St Petersburg; the Society of Friends of Russian Literature, for Russian history and antiquities; the Medico-Physical Society, for the discussion of the natural sciences, and of pharmacetic knowledge; the Agricultural and Antiquarian societies; the Literary and Lettish societies; one for rural economy; the Livonian societies of Public Instruction and of Agriculture at Riga; the Courland Society for Literature and the Fine Arts at Mitau; the Literary societies of Kalooga and Zitomir; the Philotechnic and Scientific associations of Kharkoff; the societies of Friends of the Russian Language at Yaroslaff; of Friends of the National Literature and of the Sciences at Kazan; and the Physiological Society at Abo; one of which might have been advantageously replaced by a society for the prevention of cruelty to animals. A society for the acclimation of animals has been recently formed at Moscow, and Mr Lamanski has projected one for the diffusion of useful knowledge.
Among the special institutes, the most noteworthy are the learned section for the oriental languages, under the minister of foreign affairs, instituted to qualify young diplomats for their vocations; and the Lazareff Institute for the oriental languages at Moscow.
First-class Establishments for the Daughters of the Nobility, Officers, and Officials, under the immediate protection of their Imperial Majesties.
| Establishment | Teachers | Scholars | |---------------|---------|----------| | Smolna rearing establishment | 83 | 392 | | School of the Order of St Catherine at St Petersburg | 56 | 357 | | School of the Order of St Catherine at Moscow | 50 | 298 | | Patriotic Institute | 36 | 244 | | Other Institutes for noble young ladies at different places | 356 | 1589 | | Second-class establishments at different places | 426 | 1533 | | Third-class establishments for girls of lower condition at different places | 207 | 953 |
Special Establishments
| Establishment | Teachers | Scholars | |---------------|---------|----------| | Nicholas Orphan Institute at St Petersburg | 166 | 793 | | Nicholas Orphan Institute at Moscow | 108 | 725 | | Deaf-and-dumb school at St Petersburg | 23 | 65 | | School of midwifery | 14 | 131 | | Section of the Moscow founding-hospital for infants | 16 | 82 | | Total | 1590 | 7277 |
Five female gymnasia, of which four are at St Petersburg and one at Veshny-Volotchock,—number of scholars not shown—have been recently instituted, much on the plan of the German daughter-schools.
Male Educational Establishments at St Petersburg.
| Establishment | Teachers | Scholars | |---------------|---------|----------| | Alexander Lyceum | 33 | 126 | | Deaf-and-dumb school | 13 | 101 | | Commercial school | 35 | 299 | | Hospital-assistants' schools | 11 | 85 | | Nicholas Orphans' Institute at Gatchina | 44 | 671 |
At Moscow.
| Establishment | Teachers | Scholars | |---------------|---------|----------| | Section of the founding hospital for infants | 21 | 96 | | Commercial school | 24 | 121 | | Hospital-assistants' school | 15 | 251 | | Mechanics' institute | 18 | 290 | | Masters for instructing in artizanship | 14 | | | Total | 228 | 2040 |
There are also 3 schools—the Maria, Midwives', and St Helen's—under the protection of H.I.H. the Grand Duchess Helen, with 30 teachers and 490 scholars; and 12 private and 3 sectional schools belonging to the Ladies' Patriotic Community, with 32 teachers and 507 scholars.
This ministry, established by Alexander I. in 1802, is Ministry of presided over by a special minister, assisted by a colleague, public in a superior director of schools, a high committee of censorship, a school consisting of three individuals of note, a committee of censorship, and a staff of 46 censors; of whom 8 are at St Petersburg, 6 at Moscow, 6 foreign, 3 at Riga, 3 at Vilna, 2 at Keeyeff, 3 at Odessa, 11 at Warsaw, 2 at Tiflis, 1 at Dorpat, 1 at Revel, and 1 at Kazan. Besides these censors, there are others for the ministry of foreign affairs, the synod, the post-office, the theatre-direction, and one for the ministry of war. The ministry of public instruction is at present divided into 11 learned circles,—of St Petersburg, Moscow, Keeyeff, Kazan, Kharkoff, Odessa, Dorpat, Siberia, the Caucasus, Vilna, and Warsaw,—each under the superintendence of a curator, and each district under a separate inspector of schools. The six universities of St Petersburg, Moscow, Keeyeff, Kazan, Kharkoff, and Dorpat, are under this ministry; that of Helsingfors is under the state-secretary for Finland. The following is a special return of their status:
---
1 This vexatious censorship is beginning to cause a most serious evil or blessing—the printing of Russian books abroad. By a decree of the emperor, promulgated in January 1859, the upper pedagogical institute, as it now exists, will be suppressed, and replaced by special courses of pedagogy. Similar pedagogical courses are to be established in all university-towns. The other educational establishments are—2 lyceae, the Richelieu at Odessa, and the Bezboroko at Nezin; further, 84 gymnasia, each government and every important town having at least 1; 458 district, 1090 parish, 19 primary, 654 private, 2 veterinary, and 107 Hebrew schools. Total under this ministry, exclusive of Poland, 2434 schools, with 7472 teachers, and 104,164 scholars, at an annual outlay to the state of L.475,000.
Educational matters in Poland are under a curator, who reports both to the lieutenant of the kingdom and to the minister of public instruction. The Warsaw learned circle is the only one in the country, and under it formerly stood a university at Vilna; but it was suppressed in 1833 on account of the political troubles, and removed in 1839 to Keeyeff; the Vilna professors being bodily translated thither, and the former university at Keeyeff re-established under the name of St Vladeemir. There exist at present in Poland 1 medico-chirurgical academy, 1 nobility institute, 1 government ladies' boarding-school, 1 school of arts, 6 philological gymnasia, 1 practical gymnasium, 2 practical high schools, 1 school of agriculture and forest economy, 181 private and 9 practical district schools; 17 district, 1 Sunday commercial, 1 primary teachers, 1119 primary, 93 Sunday artisans, 1 rabbinical, and 5 Hebrew schools. Total, 1441 places of education in Poland, with 74,343 scholars, the number of masters not being shown.
Education in Finland is under the secretary for that grand principality. It is provided for by 1 university at Helsingfors, 1 cadet corps at Friedrichshamn, 6 gymnasia, 14 upper elementary, 53 lower, and 25 Sunday-schools; further, 3 navigation, 3 technico-practical, and 3 commercial schools; 1 institute for rural economy, several people's schools, and 6 girls' schools; the total of masters being about 300, and of scholars 9000. Girls are mostly taught at home. No Fin is admitted to the sacrament unless he can read.
In 1849, only 917 books were printed in the whole empire, against 1626 printed in 1857, in the Russian, Polish, Finnish, Lettish, Esthonian, Gruzinian, Armenian, German, French, Italian, and English languages. The number of journals and periodicals issued in 1859 forms a total of 204. Piracy of literary property is punished by heavy fines, and copyright is inalienable for fifty years. Typography, as an art, although improving, is still in a backward state, and printing is dear. The greatest darkness prevails in the Caucasus and in Siberia; the greatest enlightenment, in the capitals and the Baltic provinces. It was through this German section of the empire, not to speak of the foreigners who cooperated in the work, that the country became permanently civilized. Russia is still the great barrier against Asiatic barbarism, and the great means of Asiatic civilization.
Summary from the Statistical Tables of 1856.
| In the European governments and provinces | Schools | Scholars | Percentage of Scholars of both Sexes | |-------------------------------------------|--------|----------|----------------------------------| | | 7841 | 432,889 | 0·75 | | In the Caucasian lieutenantcy | 74 | 5,505 | 0·19 | | In the Siberian governments and provinces | 312 | 11,608 | 0·35 | | In the whole empire | 8227 | 450,002 | 0·70 |
On an average there fell to every government and province of the empire from 126 to 127 schools, and 6029 scholars; to every school 55 scholars; and in the whole empire 0·70 scholars to every 100 inhabitants of both sexes,—otherwise expressed, 1 scholar to 143 inhabitants.
Army.—The general direction of this branch of the service rests of course with the emperor; but the detailed direction is under the management of the Staff-Office, corresponding to the English Horse-Guards. In its organization the staff adheres mostly to the French. The officers of the staff are well versed in foreign languages; still their education calls for some amendment. There are many abuses of management, as well as much peculation, existing in the army generally; although, to the credit of the government be it said, commissions are nominated in regiments and elsewhere to inquire into and uproot abuses. The hospital service, during the recent war, was open to indignant animadversion. Promotion goes by seniority, favour, and for distinguished services; there is no putting of demerit over the head of merit by purchase; and every officer must serve from the rank of under-officer upwards. Young men educated in the military colleges come out as
---
1 The discharged soldier in Russia is an important agent in the communication of that floating knowledge which goes so far to instruct a people. Statistics. officers. The whole army is under a minister of war, assisted by a colleague and a military council. The office of Master of the Ordnance is generally filled by a grand prince. The total amount of the regular forces, reduced as it has been since the war of 1853-55, may be taken at 500,000 men; and the total of the irregular troops, consisting of the Kozzack forces and different militia troops, at 150,000 men.
The following is a view of their composition:
Regular Troops.—The active army consists (1.) of the separate corps of the Guards, comprising the infantry and reserve cavalry corps of the Guards; (2.) of the separate grenadier corps; (3.) of the 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, and 6th corps, the three first forming the 1st army, and subordinate to its commander-in-chief; (4.) of the separate reserve cavalry corps; (5.) and of the following separate corps—the Caucasian, Orenburg, and Siberian; (6.) lastly, of the forces stationed in Eastern Siberia and in Finland.
Statement of Army.
Guard Corps.
| Divisions of heavy cavalry | 4,000 | |---------------------------|------| | " light | 2,000 | | " infantry | 30,000 | | Batteries of foot artillery | | | Horse | |
The grenadier corps, and the 6 army corps, are each composed of—
| Divisions of infantry | 252,000 | |---------------------------|---------| | Light cavalry | 14,000 | | Foot artillery | |
To each infantry corps is attached a division of foot artillery, and each division has 3 brigades, of which 1 brigade, composed of 4 batteries, is attached to each division of infantry.
| Brigade of horse artillery | 4,000 | |----------------------------|---------|
The separate corps of reserve cavalry consists of 2 divisions of cuirassiers, which form the cadres for wartime; to this reserve cavalry are attached—
| Horse batteries | 250 | |----------------------------|---------|
Separate Caucasian Corps.
| Divisions (strong ones) of infantry | 4 | |-------------------------------------|---------| | Battalions of the Caucasian line | 13 | | Grusian line | 18 | | Black Sea line | 6 |
Forming a total of 139 battalions, equal to...170,000
Grand total: 482,250
The regular troops included in the separate corps of Orenburg, Siberia, and Finland, with the artillerists, &c., will swell this amount to about 500,000 men. The irregular troops cannot be estimated with any degree of exactness on account of their peculiar organization, no permanent contingent being fixed, and the whole male population being in some parts liable to serve when summoned.
The recruiting is effected by alternate levies made in the different governments, and ordered by imperial command, designating the classes and the number of men to be taken from every thousand. Recruits are chosen by the communes or selected by lot, and are received by a commission in the presence of an imperial aide-de-camp. The nobility, officials, clergy, and merchants, are exempted from serving; the recruitment thus falls mostly upon the serfs between the ages of 18 and 35. The term of service is 20 years for the Guards, 22 for the line, and 25 for the train and military servants, although unlimited furloughs are given earlier. Every year after the manoeuvres, which take place at different times and places, the minister of war demands of the regimental chiefs what soldiers may be dismissed; but the principles on which furloughs, limited or unlimited, are granted, do not, from their compilation, admit of detail. The general rule is, in case of war being expected, to give leave of absence only to such soldiers as are natives of the nearer governments, in order that they may be promptly called in when needed; but if war should not be expected, then the soldiers are dismissed to the remoter governments, though always liable to be summoned to the ranks so long as physical capacity allows. The furloughed soldiers must, on arrival at their homes, report themselves at the depot of the nearest regiment, no matter that it is not their own, and every year appear at the nearest place appointed for manoeuvres and drill, which never last beyond a few weeks. Little or no pension is given, but the old soldiers are emancipated as serfs, and provided for by being preferentially appointed to situations as doorkeepers, watchmen, overseers, and so forth, in government establishments and public institutions. There are but few hospitals for invalided soldiers; the chief one is at Tchesma, near St Petersburg. The Russian soldier of the Guards is tall and well made; but the line-soldier is often narrow-chested, has not so much strength or stamina, and he is but very indifferently fed in war, which explains why he dies so fast on march and in hospitals. The Russian is hardy beyond compare, and most unquestionably brave; but his bravery is of a stoical kind, totally differing from the fury of the French, and more resembling the intrepidity of the English soldier, which has no equal. His favourite weapon is the bayonet, which, like the Englishman, he takes to naturally, because used from infancy to the hatchet and to chopping. The Russian soldier can be his own cook, tailor, and bootmaker; he is handy to a degree, and enduring to martyrdom; but he wants that high tone of spirit which is imparted only by moral superiority, and this is the reason why his education is now being more attended to; the officers themselves being made, throughout the Guards and army, the schoolmasters of their men, who learn, good-humouredly and successfully, reading, writing, and the rudiments of arithmetic. The men are now also taught gymnastic exercises, besides bayonet and sword-play. Every battalion has a proportionate number of special marksmen with rifles, who are taught musketry-practice. The men are much more liberally treated than before the war of 1853-55, and the drill and exercise system is greatly altered, the automaton system having been found of bad effect, serving only to stupify. The Kozzacks, the artillery, the cavalry, and infantry regiments of the Guards, are composed of fine men. The favourite mode of attack is in column; in Soovoroff's time it used to be in line, like the English. The immense spaces to be traversed, and the distance from depots, neutralizes one-third of the active force. Railways, however, are altering this state of things.
Scientific Establishments and Schools under the Ministry of War.
| Establishment | Number | |----------------------------------------------------|--------| | Medico-chirurgical academy, placed directly under the medical department of the war ministry | 35 | | Several surgeon-barbers' schools at the different military hospitals | 17 | | Topographers' school | 13 | | Military schools | Not shown, 10,000 | | Total | 65 |
Further, 3 lower artillery schools, distinct from the artillery college, viz., the technical, pyrotechnical, and farriers' schools, with 22 teachers and 166 scholars.
1 To every division of infantry is attached a battalion of sharpshooters. Each infantry corps has 3 divisions, each division 2 brigades or 4 regiments, and each regiment is composed of 3 battalions. Each battalion has 4 companies of 250 privates. 1 cavalry division has 4 regiments of 4 squadrons each, consisting of 120 privates. A distinction is made in Russia between the words division and division; a division may consist of only 250; but a divista corresponds to the continental division.
2 These military schools are a great improvement. They have been lately instituted in lieu of the cantonist schools, in which the Statistics.
Under the section of the Military Learned Establishments, whose chief is independent of the war minister, and reports to the emperor directly:
Three military academies, viz.—
1. The Nicholas academy of the staff... 22 259 2. The upper engineer school... 60 125 3. The Michael artillery school... 32 117
1 page corps, or college... 41 159 1 cadets' school of the Guards... 31 206 22 cadet corps, or military colleges, for the Guards and line... 723 7440
Total... 899 8298
The engineers are perhaps the most learned of all the army. The Guard officers are gentlemenly in tone, and well educated, the artillery and staff particularly. Krupp's steel cannon is used in the Caucasus, and has proved itself a good weapon of war, although a costly one. The percussion-lock has long been adapted throughout the army to a plain bore, with the Minie ball. The artillery is very fine, and the horses are strong; but the powder is bad. This arm manoeuvres well, is bold in advance, and fires quickly. The cavalry is admirable, the Kozzacks making excellent light troops, through the hardiness of their horses and their equipment being suited to its purpose. It is the Kozzacks of the Caucasian line and of the Black Sea who are the best and bravest; the other Kozzacks are but indifferent troops. The arsenals, powder-mills, and great military manufactories are at St Petersburg, Systerbäck, Toola, and Petrozavodsk. Dark-green is the prevailing colour, often with red facings, but blue and other colours are also affected.
One-half of the income of the empire was supposed to be applied to the former war budget, but retrenchments of great magnitude have been made since the last war. The numerical amount of the army is rigidly kept secret, as a supposed means of strength.
Statement of the Russian Fleet.
| Description of Vessels | Baltic Fleet | Black Sea Fleet | White Sea Fleet | Caspian Fleet | |------------------------|-------------|----------------|----------------|--------------| | Sailing ships of large dimensions | 24 | | | | | Screw steam line-of-battle ships | 8 | | | | | Screw steam frigates | 7 | | | | | Steam frigates and paddle-boats | 9 | | | | | Inferior vessels* | 66 | | | | | Screw gun-boats | 70 | | | | | Total of fleet | 184 | | | |
* Among the inferior vessels are classed the corvettes, clippers, yachts, brigs, and small steamers.
Names and Order of the Vessels.
Screw Steam Line-of-Battle Ships.
(Some new and all sound.)
Krakow... 54 Ne Trom Mennik... 84 Erienne... 74 Pamiat Arzovas... 74 Velezkoey Kniaz Mechkale... 74 Fare Champenoise... 74 Ezekiel... 74 Ingermanland... 74 Bordino... 56 Vilarocks... 56 Scozy Velbekoy... 56 Narva... 56 Amphitredos... 44 Tsarévitch Konstantin... 44 Castor... 44
Screw Steam Frigates.
(All new and sound.)
Kilas Varshaffsky... 36 Oliva... 36 Jila Mooromets... 36 Gromoboy... 50 Askold... 45 Palkin... 44
Corvettes.
(Nearly unserviceable.)
Kilas Varshaffsky... 36 Oliva... 36 Smolanka... 28
Steam Frigates—all paddle.
(Seaworthy and serviceable.)
Philoktet (new)... 20 Agamemnon... 20 Antezer (old)... 20 Pallasor... 20 Goldoss... 20 Parés... 20
Sailing Frigates and Large Vessels.
(Knearly unserviceable.)
Rossia... 120 Imperator Peter Pervy... 110 Imperatritza Alexandra... 84 Poltava... 84 Andry... 84 Vladimir... 84
* New. † Timbered afresh.
It is asserted that the light craft in the Black Sea are so built as to be easily convertible into vessels of war. There are, further, a few steamers, corvettes, and transports built in the United States for the Amour service.
As hereby appears, the Baltic fleet is at present the only important one in the empire, and forms the nucleus of the Russian navy. The life of a Russian-built ship is ten years, and no more. The American-built vessels ordered for Russia, though infinitely dearer, live at least three times that term. The number of men actually serving in the children of soldiers were forcibly brought up as scribes, and for service in the line, thus forming a positive caste, from which there was no escape. The military schools provide education for the same class without entailing any such bondage. The military colonies have also been done away with, as a mighty failure, candidly avowed, and the colonists are merged into the population. Statistics. Russian fleet may be computed at about 38,000; but in point of fact the number is next to illimitable, for it can be augmented at will by drafts from the land force. Regard is certainly, in some degree, had to the provinces from which ships' crews are taken, but little positive good, through different causes, is on the whole derived from this measure; the chief reason being, that Nature herself is against Russia's ever being a great naval power, although she may be, and is, a considerable one. So long as her ports freeze up for half the year, so long will Russia possess only a second-rate navy. The fleet itself is now divided into three divisions,—the blue, white, and red. Cronstadt is the permanent harbour. The national navy flag is a blue cross transversing a white field. The marine is presided over by a minister, assisted by a colleague and an admiralty council. This forms the highest administration of the navy. The other departments are,—the general auditoriat, which is the highest naval court; the auditoriat department is its executive branch; the minister's chancery serves to link the administration with the departments, and transmits orders to them; the inspector's department checks accounts, exercises a general supervision over the navy, and is the managing section. The other divisions are,—the medical, building, ship-building, hydrographic, and commissariat departments; a scientific committee; a committee for the steam-engine service; and besides these, at Nicholasleff, a hydrographic section, but on a small scale. The ship-timber department is under the minister of crown domains. The hospitals are numerous, well provided, and sufficient, were they only well conducted.
Statement of the Naval Schools under the Ministry of Marine.
| Naval cadets college | Teachers | Scholars | |----------------------|----------|----------| | Training naval school for seamen, forming a complete ship's crew | 92 | 631 | | Company of commercial navigation at Cronstadt | 15 | 553 | | Pilot's school at Cronstadt | 12 | 45 | | Lower engineer and artillery school at St Petersburg | 32 | 355 | | Black Sea pilots' school at Nicholasleff | 38 | 265 | | Black Sea midshipmen's company | 22 | 182 | | Nicholasleff girls' institute | 13 | 62 | | Training naval school for seamen at Nicholasleff | 7 | 100 | | Naval cadets college | 18 | 415 |
There are now no English officers in the Russian fleet; formerly, under Peter, Catherine, and Alexander, they contributed to make the Russian navy what it now is.
This ministry, answering to the English Home Office, is one of the most important branches of state-administration, embracing internal economy and police superintendence, besides the management of the medical department and of matters relating to the foreign religious denominations. It consists of the following departments:—(1.) General matters and the minister's chancery, in which are concentrated all affairs relating to the persons composing this extensive ministry,—i.e., the nomination of governors, town-chiefs, and so forth; to peasants applying for their emancipation, and to the sectarians. (2.) The executive police, charged with the correspondence relating to the repairing of roads, the prisons, almshouses, the arrangement of corn-magazines in towns and manors, excepting the lands of the crown peasants, the land-rates and their outlay, the recruitment, the town and land-police, the nobility elections, and generally to events occurring in all parts of the empire, excepting Poland and Finland. The economical department has the management of all matters relating to the financial economy of the towns throughout the empire, again excepting Poland and Finland; to the town-halls, the merchant guilds, artisans' companies, and burghers' corporations. This department has also the management of the committees of public supervision and of their funds. It is here necessary to explain that these committees manage the affairs of the charitable institutions, such as alms-houses, hospitals, &c., in every government; and at the same time form financial credit establishments, which receive sums of money on interest, and lend them out again, the profits on which transactions are made over to the charitable institutions. Under the department of foreign religious denominations are placed all their consistories, schools, and other establishments. This ministry has further a council for very important affairs, and a statistical committee. To the latter are entrusted all matters relating to statistical information, and the reports of governors concerning the state of affairs in all parts of the governments confided to their rule.
The highest instance in medical administration is the Medicine medical council in St Petersburg, under the minister of the interior. The medical service is divided into three parts: (1.) The civil medical service. For this there exist a medical department, and a separate department for supplying all the medical establishments with drugs and other means of treatment. To this department belong a manufactory of surgical instruments, and five warehouses for medicaments in different towns, and with botanical gardens. In every governmental town there is a medical administration, consisting of three members, an inspector, an operator, and an accoucheur; in every smaller town, a district physician; and in most of them a physician for the town hospital. In both capitals spacious hospitals are founded, either at the expense of the crown or of private individuals and societies. (2.) The army medical service has a medico-chirurgical academy, with a scientific committee. Each army—the northern, southern, and the army of the Caucasus—has a general staff-doctor; and each corps, division, brigade, regiment, and battalion, also each military educational establishment, has its physician. (3.) The naval medical service resembles that of the army. There is a department, and a medical inspector for the Black Sea navy; and each naval division, ship, and sea-port hospital has one or more physicians, as required. The crown and appanage peasants, the manufactories and foundries, are all provided with physicians depending on the respective ministries. At each of the universities, with the exception of St Petersburg, there are faculties for medical students, with professors, anatomical cabinets, and clinical institutions. In lieu of the medical faculty there is in St Petersburg a medico-chirurgical academy. Another such academy has recently been established at Warsaw. Both in the universities and academies there are students of pharmacy. The veterinary schools are three in number; and there are schools for hospital-dressers connected with all the larger hospitals. Every one desirous of obtaining a license to practice in medicine or the veterinary art must pass an examination in one of the universities or academies. The lowest degree is that of lekar (medical practitioner); then follows that of doctor of medicine; and the highest is that of doctor of medicine and surgery. As for pharmaceutics, young persons are engaged by private apothecaries as apprentices for a term of four or five years, and they afterwards pass an examination as pharmaceutic assistants, then as provisors. The highest degree is that of magister of pharmacy: the two latter degrees entitle them to keep an apothecary's shop of their own. There are two principal lunatic asylums; one Lunatic near St Petersburg, with 240, and the other at Moscow, asylum, with about the same number of beds. Besides these, in every governmental town there are hospitals under the inspection of the committee of public supervision, with separate rooms for the reception of the insane. The large asylums are well provided with all the means requisite for the successful treatment of patients. Not so the hospitals in the provincial towns, which are totally destitute of every needful appliance. Private asylums, under strict government control, have been established at different times in both capitals, but they never succeeded, and have seldom lasted long. The number of persons attacked with mental derangement having increased of late years to an awful extent, especially during and after the war, the attention of the government was directed to this point; and in the winter of 1857-58, a committee, consisting of medical men and some superior civil officers, under the presidency of Dr Marcus, was formed, in order to deliberate upon the measures to be taken for the future. The opinion returned was, that eight central lunatic asylums were indispensable in Russia, besides those already existing in the greater provincial towns; that these asylums should be provided in the best manner, and considered as practical schools for young medical men in order to prepare them for their future calling,—i.e., physicians-in-chief of lunatic asylums, to be subsequently founded in each governmental town. It is not yet known whether government will confirm the measures proposed. In 1856, no fewer than 3616 cases of mental derangement were medically treated throughout the empire, both in the lunatic asylums and other civil hospitals. Of these, 2078 either recovered, or were dismissed as such, 288 died, and 1150 remained. This most happy result must surprise every one who is conversant with such matters; but it may be partly explained by what is descriptively said in the report, that a sixth of the cases were such as are called in England brain-fever of drunkenness, or delirium tremens; a disease which in Russia is considered as insanity, and the treatment of which is generally successful. Still the veracity of the report is to be doubted.
Schools under the Ministry of the Interior:
| Teachers | Scholars | |----------|----------| | 19 Orphan-houses, with | Not shown. | | 6 Foundling-hospitals | 2410 | | 10 Schools for the children of chamber servants | 953 | | 3 Hospital-assistant's schools | 129 | | 1 School for servants' children | 7 | | **Total** | **7** |
Canals:
The navigable water-ways of communication, uniting the Baltic and White Seas with the Caspian, form the so-called eastern system. Of these water-ways, the most important is the one uniting the Baltic with the Caspian. It consists of three systems: the Veeshni-Volbiski, the Teekhvin, and the Maria. (1.) The Veeshni-Volbiski system is formed by the Neva, the Ladoga Canal, the Novgorod or Siever's Canal, the Alta, Lake Alstino, the Veeshni-Volbiski Canal, the Tversta, and the Volga. Its length from Petersburg to Ribinsk is 968 miles. (2.) The Teekhvin system is formed by the Neva, the Ladoga, and Siasski canals, the Siaa, the Teekhvinka, Lake Eglino, the Teekhvin Canal, the Volchina, Lake Somino, the Somino, Lake Vozensk, the Gorion, Tchagodostcha, Mologa, and Volga. Its length is 561 miles. (3.) The Maria system is formed by the Neva, the Ladoga, Siasski, and Sveer Canals, the Sveer, the Onega Canal, the Veetegra, the Maria Canal, the Kovza, the Bielozer Canal, the Sheksna, and the Volga. Its length is 699 miles. The water-way from the White Sea to the Baltic and Caspian is formed by the Northern Dveena, the Soukhona, Lake Koibensk, the Porgovetska, the Duke of Wurttenberg Canal, and the Sheksna; whence it branches off on the right to the Neva, and on the left to the Volga. The Moscow Canal has been dug between the upper courses of the Moskva and Volga.
The water-way from the Baltic to the Black Sea is formed by three systems: the Beresina, the Ogheen, and the Dniepro-Boog, and is called the western system. (1.) The Beresina system is formed by the Western Dveena, the Oolah, Lake Leppel, the Essa, and Bereshta, Lake Bereshta, the Beresina Canal, Lake Flavio, and the rivers Sergootech, Beresina, and Dniepr. (2.) The Oghinsk system is formed by the Niemen, the Shara, the Oghin Canal, the Yasselda, Prepetz, and Dniepr. (3.) The Dniepro-Boog system is formed by the Vistula, Nareff Boog, Mookharetz, the Dniepro-Boog Canal, the Peena, Prepetz, and Dniepr. The Vistula and Niemen are also united by the Augustovo Canal between the Netta, which falls into the Bohr, an affluent of the Nareff, and the River Glantcha, which runs into the Niemen. There are many smaller canals in Finland and the Baltic provinces.
Railways already Constructed.
| From St Petersburg to Pavlovsk | 16 | | From St Petersburg to Peterhoff | 18 | | From St Petersburg to Pakoff | 170 | | From Warsaw to Tentschkoff on the Prussian frontier, and for 25 versts beyond | 182 | | **Total** | **784** |
Railways in course of Construction, or Projected.
| From Pakoff to Warsaw | 402 | | From Dunsburg to Riga | 145 | | From Moscow to Thedodis | 590 | | From Dunsburg to Liebau (uncertain) | 198 | | **Total** | **1735** |
Telegraphic Lines already completed.
| From St Petersburg to Abo | 396 | | From St Petersburg over Kovno to the Prussian frontier | 594 | | From St Petersburg to Polangen over Narva, Revel, Perma, Riga, Liebau | 663 | | From St Petersburg over Dorvk and Kegeff to the Austrian frontier | 928 | | From Dorvk to Simpheropol | 530 | | From Riga to Dunsburg | 132 | | From Nicholasoff to Odessa | 132 | | **Total** | **3395** |
Many more lines are projected.
Schools under the Chief Direction of the Ways of Communication and Public Works.
| Teachers | Scholars | |----------|----------| | Institute of the Roads' Engineer Corps | 50 | | Master-builders' school | 32 | | **Total** | **82** |
The national debt of Russia amounted on the 1st January Finance, 1859 to a sum of L.140,000,000, viz.:
(a.) Debt loan at 5 per cent | L.375,275 | (b.) Foreign loans, at 5, 4, and 4 per cent, without a term | 53,119,622 | (c.) Interior loans, to credit institutions, at 4 per cent | 68,830,000 | (d.) Exchequer bills, at 44 per cent | 14,500,000 | | **Total** | **L.140,201,997** |
The 4 per cent consolidated bill issue, announced on the 23rd March 1859, is not a new loan, but only a consolidation of deposits, or substitution of one kind of value for another. A part object is to reform the vicious system which prevails at the banks. The amount, intended to reach 125 millions sterling, can be liquidated at the end of 56 years. Should the present measure succeed, the old order of things may be looked upon as superseded, and special mention of the banking returns is therefore superfluous, because the old system is now antiquated. The curious on this subject, as well as on the paper system of the country, would do best to consult at length Lamanski's very able works on Russian finance. The national income is presumed to be from 36 to 39 millions sterling. The expenditure amounts to the same sum, and for the last twenty years has generally exceeded it. This order of things gave birth to continual loans of the public banks, and to an unexampled emission of paper money, which amounted on the 1st January 1858 to a sum of more than 115 millions sterling, having been increased during the late war, and up to 1857, by more than 62 millions sterling. Since that year no fresh issues have been made. The amount of bullion formed, at the same period, a sum of 18 millions sterling, both in gold and silver. The exchange of the so-called credit bills, notwithstanding the large amount of bullion, takes place not, or only exceptionally, from a fear on the part of the government that a large portion of it were the bills payable at call, would be exported.
The chief sources of revenue are:—1. The monopol-right of selling brandy. This right is sold for a term of four years by auction, which takes place at St Petersburg, where the prices for every province are settled separately. This monopol-right has been sold for the next four years, 1859-63, for an annual revenue of 18 millions sterling. 2. The capitation-tax, paid by every person, of all ages, of the male population, and by all classes except the nobility, clergy, and merchants inscribed in guilds, or by special classes. This personal tax is laid on the male population found in life at the period of the census, and its amount is never changed until a new census is taken. Children born after the census pay no taxes. The survivors pay for the dead. The amount of this tax is L8,000,000. 3. The import duties give a sum of L4,000,000. 4. Miscellaneous unfixed taxes, L3,270,000,—viz., (a) Patents for trade, L590,000; passes and road passes, L310,000; (b) Stamp-duties, L1,070,090; (c) Court and chancery duties, L680,000; and (d) Post revenue, L620,000. 5. The salt taxes, and mineral taxes on gold and other mineral productions, 4½ millions sterling. The civil list, or court expenditure, is supposed to amount to L1,700,000, towards which the peasants of the appanages and crown domains contribute about L600,000.
The trading ports on the German coast of the Baltic are Foreign St Petersburg, with its port of Cronstadt; Narva, Revel, trade. Arensburg, Pernau, Riga, Windau, and Liebau. Of these ports, the first two are frozen up for six months; but the latter are much longer open to navigation, according to the season, generally for ten months, more or less. On the Finnish coast, Wyburg, Lovisa, Helsingfors, Abo, Nystad, New Carleby, and Tornio; on the Arctic Ocean, Kola; on the White Sea, Arkhangel and Onega; Petro Pavlovsk, on the Kamtschatkan Sea; and on the North Pacific, Sitkha, the capital of the possessions of the American Company; on the Sea of Azoff, Taganrog, Mariupol, Kerch, Berdiansk; on the Black Sea, Odessa, Theodosia; on the Caspian, Astrakhan, Bakou, Derbent. The port of Nicholasoff, at the mouth of the Amoor, on the Gulf of Tartary, has just commenced its prospectively splendid career. The chief articles of export are corn and grain, hemp and linseed; also hemp and linseed oils, tallow, hemp, flax, iron, copper, timber, potashes, bristles, furs, hides, and isinglass. There are no free ports at present in Russia except Nicholasoff, on the Amoor. Odessa was, but is so no more.
### A Statement of the Quantities and Value of Merchandise imported into Russia from Countries in Europe, and from America, in the year 1857.
| Description | By the Tariff of 1857. | |-------------|-----------------------| | Merchandise imported paying no duty... | L1,538,289 | | Merchandise on which one and the same duty is levied at 20 cop. (=7½d.) per pound (No. 16). | 38,374 | | Merchandise paying different duties:— | 156,172 | | Provisions and victuals (colonial merchandise):— | | | Coffee, raw sugar, pepper, &c. (cwt.) | 325,576 | | Wines, liquors, porter, beer, mead, &c. (cwt.) | 159,064 | | Kirschwasser | 9,675 | | Champagne and other wines imported in bottles | 881,658 | | Mead, porter, beer | 222,153 | | Vegetables and fruits (cwt.) | 149,061 | | Oranges, lemons, &c. (No. 15,629,660) | 415,500 | | Cherries, pears, apples, &c. (casks) | | | Fish and herrings (cwt.) | 7,744 | | Herring (casks) | 312,010 | | Cattle (heads) | | | Grain.—wheat, rye, barley, groats, &c. (cwt.) | 33,463 | | Do. do. (qrs.) | 62,764 | | Salt (cwt.) | 1,447,082 | | Olive oil | 176 | | Tobacco | 608,842 | | Various provisions and victuals, such as cheese, mustard, vinegar, oysters, mushrooms, treacle, sweetmeats, &c. | 93,819 | | Total | L5,170,231 |
| Description | By the Tariff of 1857. | |-------------|-----------------------| | Raw materials and other articles for manufacturing and agricultural produce:— | | | Dyestuffs and colours (cwt.) | 316,466 | | Metals (cwt.) | 136,654 | | Chemical materials and produce (cwt.) | 196,417 | | Cotton | 547,781 | | Cotton twist | 74,415 | | Raw and spun wool, and fine hair (cwt.) | 16,756 | | Raw and spun silk | 1,046 | | Olive, hempseed, linseed, &c. (cwt.) | 140,525 | | Turnip, cocoa, palm oils, &c. (cwt.) | | | Tallow, fat, blubber and grease (cwt.) | 8,079 | | Chalk | 15,243 | | Fuller's thistles, teasels | 2,651 | | Other different raw materials, such as gum-arable, gamboge, ink, soda, arsenic, incense, timber for joiners' and turners' work, &c. | 181,454 | | Total | L5,497,899 |
| Description | By the Tariff of 1857. | |-------------|-----------------------| | Manufactury and other produce:— | | | Gum-elastic and gutta percha (cwt.) | 1,307 | | Wooden articles, playthings, furniture, &c. (cwt.) | 4,727 | | Instruments.—musical, mathematical, astronomical, &c. (cwt.) | 407 | | Do. do. (No.) | 5,763 | | Leather produce (cwt.) | 487 | | Metal articles (No.) | 69,931 | | Glass and crystals | 4,231 | | Bottles (No.) | 4,607 | | Plate-glass and mirrors | 10,361 | | Woven produce of cotton, silk, wool, hemp, &c. (cwt.) | 29,458 | | Coarse linen bags (No.) | 10,552 | | Turkish tea caps | 5,978 | | Turkish cotton and silk stuffs (yds.) | 100,753 |
---
1 In translating Russian values into English, the L1 sterling has been calculated throughout at 6 roubles 40 copecks, its average equivalent; the pood, or standard of weight, at 38—113 lb. avoirdupois; and the arsheen, or unit of length, at 2 333 feet. The immense labour which attends the reduction of foreign values into corresponding English might be entirely spared to the compiler of statistics by the adoption of a universal system of decimal measures, weights, and coins. ### RUSSIA
#### Statistics
| Description | Quantities | Value | |--------------------------------------|------------|---------| | Crockery and porcelain articles | | | | (cwt.) | 8,152 | L47,172 | | Clocks and clockwork | 129 | 123,235 | | Do. | | | | Paper | 73,342 | | | (cwt.) | 3,406 | 41,637 | | Coir | 1,832 | 13,458 | | Marble, &c. | 2,105 | 10,570 | | Hats | 3 | 4,240 | | Do. | | | | Ready-made clothes and linen | 6,794 | 32,047 | | Equipages and their parts | 115 | 12,973 | | Do. | | |
#### Various merchandise
- Apothecary's goods, furs, horses, &c.
#### Grand total
- L13,649,079
---
**A Statement of the Quantities and Value of Merchandise Exported from Russia to Countries in Europe, and to America, in the year 1857.**
| Description | Quantities | Value | |--------------------------------------|------------|---------| | Provisions and victuals | | | | Grain, wheat, rye, barley, groats | 5,696 | L8,008,795 | | Do. do. | | | | Butter | 60,135 | 188,294 | | Meat | 16,846 | 21,905 | | Brandy, wine &c. | 21,932 | | | Do. do. | | | | Porter, beer, and mead | 321,325 | | | Do. do. | | | | Poultry | 22,653 | 1,911 | | Caviar | 26,675 | 73,134 | | Fish | | | | Cheese | 6,339 | 6,783 | | Cattle | 108,768 | 107,263 | | Tobacco, cigars, papieros, &c. | 6,277 | 8,103 | | Macaroni | | | | Anise | 4,203 | 9,938 | | Various provisions and victuals | | | | such as eggs, pepper, fruits, &c. | | 9,256 | | Total | | L8,757,270 |
#### Raw materials for manufacturing, agricultural, and other purposes
| Description | Quantities | Value | |--------------------------------------|------------|---------| | Leather and hides | 193,249 | 803,887 | | Wax | 2,169 | 11,733 | | Bones | 324,553 | 96,044 | | Flax | 1,789,792 | 2,591,447 | | Hemp | 1,037,945 | 1,281,250 | | Woven ware | | 902,986 | | Metals | 270,764 | 473,269 | | Potash | 198,552 | 285,522 | | Pitch | 115,945 | 57,959 | | Seeds | 1,102,966 | 2,300,581 | | Tallow, fat, madder, and grease | 1,151,425 | 2,231,008 |
#### Manufacturing produce
- Cotton, flax, and hemp produce - Silk produce - Woollen produce - Cloth - Leather produce - Metal articles - Ropes - Various merchandise - Apothecary's goods, furs, mats, feathers, charcoal, bricks, horses, straw, hay, &c.
#### Grand total
- L23,971,832
---
**Statement of the Quantities and Value of Merchandise Imported into Russia from Countries in Asia in the year 1857.**
| Description | Quantities | Value | |--------------------------------------|------------|---------| | Provisions and victuals | | | | Tea | 138,834 | L925,742 | | Sugar (raw) | 25,397 | 97,593 | | Coffee | 672 | 2,179 | | Wines, liquors, champagne, &c. | 75 | | | Do. do. | | | | Arrack, rum, and brandy | 878 | 7,350 | | Porter, beer, and mead | 14,900 | | | Fruits, oranges, lemons, cherries, grapes, dry and marinated fruits, &c. | | | | Raw meat | 101,791 | | | Treacle | 3,087 | | | Pepper | 1,795 | | | Olive oil | 1,796 | | | Butter | 3,653 | | | Grain, wheat, rye, barley, groats | 5,086 | | | Salt | 30,804 | | | Salted fish | 184,856 | 8,878 | | Salt | 11,705 | 12,144 |
#### Other different provisions and victuals
- Such as cheese, anchovies, pilchards, nuts, vegetables, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, sweetmeats, &c.
#### Total
- L1,640,234
#### Raw materials and other things for manufacturing, agricultural, and other purposes
- Cotton - Cotton twist - Raw and spun silk - Raw and spun wool - Madder - Cochineal - Indigo - Colours
#### Grand total
- L355,875 ### Russia
#### Statistics
| Description | Quantities | Value | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|-------| | Precious woods for joiners' and turners' work, &c. | L2,545 | | | Leather made up | 12,902 | | | Tallow | 14,773 | | | Other different raw materials, such as isinglass, oils, metals, tar, pitch, sal-ammoniac, maphtha, &c., &c. | 146,329 | | | Total | L461,405 | |
#### Manufactory and other produce:
- Cotton produce (cwt.) 3,707 401,358 - Woolen produce, playthings, furn. 1,977 - Instruments, mathematical, physical, musical, &c. (cwt.) 237 2,010 - Leather produce,—boots and shoes, gloves, harness, &c. 13,251 - Metal produce,—figures, bas-reliefs,
Total L564,145
#### Various merchandise,—apothecary goods, books, and pictures, stones, skins and hides, incense, horses, &c.
Grand total L3,022,998
---
### A Statement of the Quantities and Value of Merchandise Exported from Russia to Countries in Asia, in the year 1857.
#### Provision and victuals:
| Description | Quantities | Value | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|-------| | Grain,—wheat, rye, barley, groats, &c. (cwt.) | 2,447 | L51,982 | | Do. do. do. do. (qrs.) | 133,935 | | | Bread, wine, &c. (gallons) | 5,518 | | | Do. (bottles) | 8,777 | 2,794 | | Porter and beer | 332 | | | Tobacco, cigars, papieros, &c. (cwt.) | 3,373 | 2,766 | | Do. do. do. do. (No.) | 172,155 | | | Sugar | 2,941 | 14,804 | | Salt | 24,484 | 1,851 | | Caviar | 380 | | | Fruits and sweetmeats | 1,355 | | | Cattle (head) | 16,013 | 14,352 | | Meat (cwt.) | 5,079 | 869 | | Various provisions and victuals, such as fish, poultry, eggs, butter, cheese, mushrooms, &c. | 3,304 | | | Total | L95,509 | |
#### Raw materials for manufacturing, agricultural, and other purposes:
| Description | Quantities | Value | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|-------| | Cotton (cwt.) | 678 | 1,311 | | Cotton-twist | 3,340 | 25,681 | | Silk | 3,422 | 129,452| | Wool and fine hair | 5,370 | 5,806 | | Drugs | 27,084 | 9,400 | | Colours | 15,598 | | | Leather, hides, yoots, &c. (cwt.) | 6,162 | 161,961| | Do. do. do. do. (No.) | 172,518 | | | Total | L429,656 | |
#### Merchandise for manufacturing and handicraft purposes:
| Description | Quantities | Value | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|-------| | Metals (cwt.) | 6,951 | 7,830 | | Drugs | 1,767 | 2,762 | | Hemp | 2,068 | 3,207 | | Cotton | 661 | 1,908 | | Musical strings, wire, files, boxes, steel-pens, needles, knives and forks, &c. (cwt.) | 246 | L3,810 | | Clothes | | 1,498 | | Glass, plate-glass, and mirrors (cwt.) | 141 | 1,236 | | Do. do. do. (No.) | 15 | | | Silk produce | | 87,880 | | Woolen produce | | 38,109 | | Other different manufacturing produce,—such as haberdashery produce, artificial flowers, watches, cambrics, linens, paper, soap, machines, marble produce, &c. | | 12,976 | | Total | L564,145 | |
#### Various merchandise,—apothecary goods, books, and pictures, stones, skins and hides, incense, horses, &c.
Grand total L3,022,998
---
### A Statement of the Quantities and Value of Merchandise exported from Russia to Finland in the year 1857.
#### Provisions and victuals:
| Description | Quantities | Value | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|-------| | Grain,—wheat, rye, barley, groats, &c. (cwt.) | 107 | L495,046| | Do. do. do. do. (qrs.) | 372,951 | | | Tobacco, cigars, papieros, &c. (cwt.) | 12,558 | 21,123 | | Do. do. do. do. (No.) | 633,600 | | | Meat (cwt.) | 1,400 | 2,939 | | Mead and treacle | 656 | 1,767 | | Vegetables | 2,071 | | | Chicory (cwt.) | 1,516 | 1,538 | | Other different provisions, such as vinegar, fish, cheese, eggs, fruits, sweetmeats, &c. | 4,872 | | | Total | L429,656 | |
#### Merchandise made up:
| Description | Quantities | Value | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------|-------| | Ropes and cables (cwt.) | 13,648 | 20,206| | Wooden produce | | 4,190 | | Leather produce | | 2,445 | | Cotton, flax, hemp, and woollen produce | | 13,904 | | Glass, plate-glass, &c. (yards) | 27,692 | 6,236 | | Metal produce | 5,340 | 6,673 | | Candles | | 15,764 | | Soap (cwt.) | 2,988 | 4,507 | | Boots and shoes | | 5,522 | | Caps (No.) | 17,794 | 2,637 | | Total | L49,910 | | A Statement of the Quantities and Value of Merchandise imported into Russia from Finland in the year 1857.
| Description | Quantities | Value | |------------------------------|------------|-------| | Provisions and victuals: | | | | Grain, rye, &c. | | L1,221| | Potatoes | (qrs.) | 1,957 | | Butter | (cwt.) | 1,359 | | Fish | | 1,168 | | Smoked, dried, and salted meat| | 566 | | Different provisions | | 53 | | Total | | L7,853|
| Description | Quantities | Value | |------------------------------|------------|-------| | Different articles,—such as leather, bones, wooden ware, &c. | | L404 | | Total | | L44,998|
| Description | Quantities | Value | |------------------------------|------------|-------| | Cotton, flax, and woollen produce | | 23,273| | Glass | | 1,640 | | Paper | | 2,965 | | Metal produce | | 1,264 | | Machines | | 864 | | Different products | | 96 | | Total | | L30,047|
| Description | Quantities | Value | |------------------------------|------------|-------| | Various merchandise, such as furs, books, stones, &c. | | 5,223 |
| Description | Quantities | Value | |------------------------------|------------|-------| | Grand total | | L88,121|
A Statement of the Value of Merchandise imported into, and exported from, Russia, distinguishing the Trade with each Country, in the year 1857.
| Countries | Value of Imports | Value of Exports | |-------------------------------|------------------|-----------------| | European and American trade: | | | | Sweden | L40,037 | L392,422 | | Norway | 215,751 | 102,429 | | Prussia | 4,040,714 | 2,780,699 | | Denmark | 188,687 | 795,032 | | The Sound | | 106,231 | | The Hanse towns | 1,829,212 | 713,800 | | Holland | 1,505,008 | 1,546,597 | | Belgium | 6,075,648 | 11,292,977 | | Great Britain | 1,422,474 | 2,230,602 | | France | 69,622 | 97,271 | | Portugal | 311,627 | 51,735 | | Spain | 71,427 | 359,217 | | Sardinia | 22,779 | 244,508 | | Tuscany | | 58 | | The Papal dominions | | | | The kingdom of Naples | 607,944 | 12,250 | | Austria | 1,115,344 | 1,160,819 | | The Ionian Islands | 26,041 | 4,850 | | Greece | 39,609 | 23,757 |
| Countries | Value of Imports | Value of Exports | |-------------------------------|------------------|-----------------| | South America and the West Indies | | | | Turkey | L34,297 | L33,690 | | The North American United States | 1,268,847 | 353,638 | | Other countries | 137,367 | 39,233 | | Total | L20,589,926 | L23,971,859 |
| Countries | Value of Imports | Value of Exports | |-------------------------------|------------------|-----------------| | Asiatic trade: | | | | Asiatic Turkey | 75,804 | 191,355 | | Persia | 621,540 | 138,887 | | The Kergchee steppes | 562,299 | 401,057 | | Khiva | 44,778 | 3,155 | | Bookhara | 213,720 | 82,283 | | Tashkent | 118,967 | 94,401 | | China | 1,178,511 | 954,947 | | Other countries | 208,729 | | | Total | L3,022,998 | L1,866,496 |
| Countries | Value of Imports | Value of Exports | |-------------------------------|------------------|-----------------| | Grand total | L23,612,924 | L25,838,855 |
A Statement of the Import and Export of Gold and Silver from and into Russia in the years 1847 and 1857, in Russian and Foreign Coin and Bars, converted into British sterling.
| Year | Gold | Silver | |------|------|--------| | | Bars | Coins | Bars | Coins | | 1847 | | | | | | IMPORT: | | | | | | Foreign | 159,032 | 387,226 | 1,465,645 | 166,169 | | Russian | | | | | | EXPORT: | | | | | | Foreign | 222,414 | | 234,902 | 1,326 | | Russian | 3,229,805 | | | |
| Year | Gold | Silver | |------|------|--------| | | Bars | Coins | Bars | Coins | | 1857 | | | | | | IMPORT: | | | | | | Foreign | 222,000 | 78,372 | 6,426,976 | 413,135 | | Russian | | | | | | EXPORT: | | | | | | Foreign | 1,396 | 47,437 | 2,993 | 298,995 | | Russian | | | | |
Imported through the Custom-house at St Petersburg, 1858: L847,743
Exported: 3,665,136
The tables of foreign trade show that from 1843 to 1857 the value of importations, as well as of exportations, has constantly augmented, both for Europe and Asia; and that in the European trade, excepting the years 1851, 1854, and 1855, the Russian exports have constantly surpassed the imports. In 1857 the amount of confiscated merchandise sold was £118,183; and as contraband trade could not subsist if more than 20 per cent. of fraudulently-imported merchandise were to be confiscated, it must be supposed that at least £600,000 worth was introduced into the country. The sole means of preventing contraband trade is to lower the tariff.
Trade with Asia.
| Year | Imports | Exports | |------|---------|---------| | 1843 | £1,819,637 | £1,289,459 | | 1844 | 1,888,175 | 1,518,072 | | 1845 | 1,603,928 | 1,585,615 | | 1846 | 2,073,678 | 1,638,499 | | 1847 | 2,280,221 | 1,646,517 | | 1848 | 2,108,979 | 1,250,682 | | 1849 | 2,157,317 | 1,409,249 | | 1850 | 2,400,067 | 1,753,586 | | 1851 | 2,458,558 | 1,740,670 | | 1852 | 2,601,476 | 1,941,232 | | 1853 | 1,874,791 | 1,245,086 | | 1854 | 2,437,785 | 1,548,127 | | 1855 | 2,639,745 | 1,616,820 | | 1856 | 2,658,592 | 1,655,294 | | 1857 | 3,022,959 | 1,866,499 |
Total: £34,756,268
This table shows that, as regards the trade with Asia, the value of the exports has constantly been inferior to that of the imports, and that for these fifteen years the difference amounts to a total of £10,956,961. This, however, is more than compensated by the larger amount of exports over imports in the European trade, the former exceeding the latter by £47,290,240; so that the total difference in favour of Russia is £36,333,243, an amount of capital turned over of £452,799,853, of which sum £205,213,305 go to the account of importations, and £244,526,548 of exports.
Peter would perhaps have done better had he founded his capital at Windau or Liebau, for the sake of more open water; but political considerations no doubt prevented him, as all his designs show foresight enough. Nearly the same result will now be attained by the railroads in course of construction.
The first company in Russia was established in 1790. The number of existing companies now amounts to 90. The original capital of all these companies amounts to about £69,669,016, in which sum the chief company of Russian railroads figures for £48,437,500.
The number of Russian merchant-vessels is supposed to be about 2000, including coasters, small craft, and steamers; but there are as yet no reliable returns; and until these be issued by the proper authorities, it would be entirely vain to aim at anything like a correct estimate of the Russian shipping.
Number of Russian and Foreign Vessels entered and cleared Statistics, at the Northern and Southern Ports of Russia in 1857.
| Ports | Entered | Cleared | |-------|---------|---------| | Total | 8838 | 789 | | Total | 1989 | 9086 | | Total | 796 | 2099 |
It is now only in consequence of Count Renaud de Chavanne's recent invention of an international marine telegraph, indicated by numbers, that Russian vessels are at last being counted, measured, and formally tabulated. The following returns are authentic:
Grand Total of the Russian Commercial Fleet at 1st January 1858.
| Sea-Going | Coasters | Total | |-----------|----------|-------| | Vessels | Last | Vessels | Last | | In the Black Sea | 25 | 5,070 | 160 | 9,580 | 185 | 14,650 | | Sea of Azoff | 13 | 1,330 | 291 | 10,670 | 304 | 12,000 | | White Sea | 128 | 4,781 | 212 | 4,922 | 340 | 9,704 | | The colonial fleet (vessels of the Russo-American Company) | 13 | 2,368 | ... | ... | 13 | 2,368 | | On the German side of the Baltic | 107 | 9,451 | 150 | 4,197 | 257 | 13,658 | | Total | 286 | 23,000 | 313 | 29,279 | 1,099 | 52,280 |
Or, 104,560 tons.
In this total, for want of data, are not included the vessels belonging to the port of St Petersburg, to Finland, and to the Caspian Sea. The total number of registered sailors was only 5000, viz.:—In the Black and Azoff seas, 2300; in the White, 1620; in the employ of the Russo-American Company, about 300; in the Baltic, 1000. This number of sailors is most likely much below the mark. In the Baltic there were 30 foreign masters, mates, and pilots, besides 112 foreign sailors registered; but the legal proportion of foreign to native sailors (1 to 3) is never observed, the law obeyed being solely that of necessity. The causes of the little progress made in ship-holding affairs are insufficient education, vexatious over-government, the stupid passport system, the want of sea-insurance companies, and generally the manifold reasons which impede the development of the foreign trade. Compared with every other branch of national economy, the shipping interest may be said to have progressed in a ratio inverse to them. It will be observed from the above table, that the number of sea-going vessels is exceeded by the number of coasters in the proportion of nearly three to one; while the tonnage or lastage of the two are pretty nearly equal. But one can scarcely venture with safety upon any remarks regarding the state of the Russian shipping, while the exact returns remain undeclared for St Petersburg, Finland, and the Caspian Sea.
The following return of figures will best show the state of the manufactures, internal trade, and productivity of the empire.
Amount of Produce for 1856, in the Manufactories and Foundries of the Russian Empire.
| Region | Amount | |-------------------------------|--------| | In the European government and lands | £34,715,716 | | In the Lieutenantcy of the Caucasus | 89,059 | | In the governments and provinces of Siberia | 259,249 | | Total | £35,052,024 | Statistics.
Statement of the Quantity of Metals, Coals, Vitriol, Saltpetre, and Salt, obtained from the Government and Private Foundries in Russia during the year 1857:
| Foundries and Mines | Gold | Platina | Silver | |---------------------|------|---------|--------| | Government foundries | 5,679 | 6 | 14 | 344 | 2 | 13 | 428 | 10 | 18 | | Private foundries | 65,450 | 9 | 12 | 328 | 10 | 2 | 412 | ... | ... | | Total | 71,229 | 6 | 14 | 344 | 2 | 13 | 428 | 10 | 18 |
The government mines produced coals ........................................... 131,057 cwt. The private mines produced vitriol and saltpetre ......................... 12,302 ".
Common Salt.
Government salt-mines .................................................................. 6,986,217 cwt. Private salt-mines ........................................................................... 2,377,439 "
Total .................................................................................................. 9,363,656 "
The trading community consisted in 1857 of: - Merchants of the 1st guild .............................................................. 963 - 2d .................................................................................................... 2,667 - 3d .................................................................................................... 45,372 - Foreign guests ................................................................................ 34
Number of peasants with trading certificates: - 1st class ......................................................................................... 4 - 2d .................................................................................................... 34 - 3d .................................................................................................... 2,409 - 4th ................................................................................................... 4,203
The amount of capital declared was, in 1856: - Of the 1st guild ............................................................................. L18,500,000 - 2d .................................................................................................... 18,180,000 - 3d .................................................................................................... 47,820,000
Total .................................................................................................. L84,000,000
Russian American Company.—In 1857 its trading operations stood as follows: - Income from the sale of furs and teas ........................................... L50,912 - Colonial produce and other articles .............................................. 55,676
Total .................................................................................................. L116,588
Expenses of management ................................................................. L28,189 For insurance of goods, carriage of furs and teas, duties, &c. .......... 65,140
Total .................................................................................................. L93,329
A dividend was paid of 18 roubles per share. - Paid into the reserve capital .......................................................... L2,105 - Paid into the poor fund .................................................................. 105
A Statement of the Total Quantities of Gold, Platina, and Silver extracted from the Government and Private Mines in Russia during the year 1855:
| Foundries and Mines | Gold | Platina | Silver | |---------------------|------|---------|--------| | Government Mines — | | 1. Yekaterinburg | 1,493 | 9 | 16 | | 2. Bogodolsk | 1,554 | 9 | 15 | | 3. Goroblagodatsk | 272 | 3 | 2 | | 4. Zlatoustovsk | 2,087 | 1 | 6 | | 5. Alagheisk | 1,505 | 1 | 12 | | 6. Altai | 2,878 | 6 | 4 | | Total | 5,807 | 8 | 13 | | Private Mines — | | 1. Yekaterinburg | 1,493 | 9 | 16 | | 2. Bogodolsk | 1,554 | 9 | 15 | | 3. Goroblagodatsk | 272 | 3 | 2 | | 4. Zlatoustovsk | 2,087 | 1 | 6 | | 5. Alagheisk | 1,505 | 1 | 12 | | 6. Altai | 2,878 | 6 | 4 | | Total | 5,807 | 8 | 13 |
The value of cotton-twist produced in 1858 was at least L10,937,500, and it continues to increase rapidly. At present there are 480 mills, with 1,500,000 spindles. The linen manufactures, however, are rather declining. The woollen productions are estimated at L7,631,250, and there are 640 cloth manufactories. The flax and hemp produce amounts to L9,375,000, with 290 manufactories. Silk produce, L937,500 (this return is obviously exaggerated); manufactories, 250. Tanneries and leather manufactories, 2060; produce, L1,562,500. Paper manufactories, 180; produce, L781,255. Distilleries, 800; brandy produce, 46,800,000 gallons; value, L2,560,000. Licensed public-houses, 1899. At present, in consequence of the temperance movement, mostly beer and mead are drank there.
It should be observed that, not as in France, where from vanity the manufacturers exaggerate the amount of their produce, the Russians generally return figures below the actual amount, perhaps from a fear of additional imposts.
Trade returns at Neezne-Novgorod fair:—In 1857, of L13,435,050 value brought, there was sold L12,247,100; in 1858, of L44,838,180 brought, was sold L13,719,190.
Fair of Irbit (in Western Siberia):—Value of merchandise sold in 1859:— In the government of Keeyeff a common plant, called the *Asclepias syriaca*, is being cultivated for the cotton-like tissue it produces.
Tchelchkin's work (written in 1851) gives the following statistics of the mining produce:—The whole quantity of pure gold won from sands and mines since the middle of the last century up to 1850, was 869,630 lb. troy. It is in the Asiatic governments of Perm, Orenburg, Tomsk, Yeniseysk, Irkotsk, and the Keergheez lands, that the gold is mostly found. In the government of Orenburg at present, in 1859, so many as 10,000 workmen are employed in this branch of industry, and the yearly produce for private account is 4370 lb. troy of the metal.
**Lead and Silver Ore.**—The lead produced barely suffices for the extraction of the silver required; in aid of which purpose 402 tons of foreign lead was not long ago sent up on trial to the Altai foundries, at a cost-price of L18, 10s., and a further charge for carriage of L10, 8s. per ton. Improvements are taking place in the working of these mines, and the veins of silver-lead ore lately discovered promise well for the future. The ore at Nertchinsk contained 9·7 oz. of silver, and about 168 lb. of lead in the ton.
Up to 1850 the whole quantity of pure silver won from the mines in Russia, chiefly in the Altai and Nertchinsk foundries, was 4,704,418 lb. troy.
Between 1826 and 1850, in the course of 24 years, the value of the gold and silver won was L1,478,759
Imported from abroad in bars and foreign coinage...........L7,672,800
Exported..................................................................................L7,229,690
Deducing this export there remained, won and imported.................................................................L61,635,640
Of which were delivered to the Mint......................................................L59,104,400
Colled.....................................................................................L48,258,400
Cast into medals..............................................................................240,300
Re-delivered in bars...........................................................................L6,997,200
Total.........................................................................................L54,598,000
The difference between the in-and-out-going amounts is accounted for by the circumstance of the Mint retaining a considerable portion of the metal which it receives, either for re-coining or for delivery in the next year.
The whole amount of Russian bullion up to 1850 may be taken at—
In gold.......................................................................................L23,625,000
In silver......................................................................................L20,781,000
Total.........................................................................................L44,406,000
And adding thereto the amount coined in 1850, at the average rate of the five years preceding, say L3,281,000, the sum total of Russian gold and silver bullion may be taken, up to the beginning of 1851, at L50,687,000.
Of this amount more than fifteen millions are deposited in the expedition of credit-bills (bank-notes or assignats), the current paper-money, and more than L34,375,000 must be in circulation. Considering the national custom of hoarding and burying money, particularly bullion, this amount, although large, is not perhaps sufficient.
Between 1826 and 1850 the amount of foreign bullion imported was................................................................................L16,196,250
Exported......................................................................................L3,969,060
Balance.......................................................................................L12,107,190
This remarkably larger import of foreign bullion, compared to the export, is the more noteworthy that it did not decrease during 1843 and 1848, when the demand abroad for Russian gold and silver was so unusual as to cause the government partially to prohibit the export, which was again permitted only in November 1849. A large portion of the foreign bullion, however, is converted into bars for purposes of trade, re-coined into Russian money, or used in articles of jewellery; so that the amount remaining in circulation can hardly be taken at more than one-fourth of the above quantity,—i.e., L3,000,000. Including this latter sum, the whole mass of gold and silver coin at present circulating in Russia may be estimated at L53,687,000.
**Platina.**—Since the time of its discovery in 1824 up to 1858,—89,563 lb. troy had been won, at the rate of 3·7 lb. avoid. from every ton of sand. The disuse of this metal as money has induced the owners of platina-yielding deposits to abandon the search, although much more might yet be obtained.
**Copper.**—The average of the ten years between 1841 and 1851 showed that about 14,872 cwt. of copper are yearly smelted in all Russia.
**Lake-Salt.**—The same decennial period showed a yearly return of 6,601,000 cwt. of lake-salt.
**Coal.**—The quantity yearly won was only 1,017,520 cwt., chiefly in the south of Russia, and in the land of the Don Kozzacks. Numerous veins have been discovered in Central Russia, the Caucasus, and Siberia. The import of English coal was 4,830,000 cwt. This mineral will soon be produced in larger quantities.
It is conjointly with coal that the production of other metals, excepting gold, takes place; and as the coal branch of industry has not yet attained to so much as the first stage of its proper development, the other metals are in a similar backward state. Russia produces gold, silver, copper, iron, lake-salt, and, in a small quantity, platina, lead, coal, and anthracite. In the Nertchinsk district there are indeed mines of tin, cinabar, and zinc; but they are not worked on account of their distance and poorness. To speak now of iron, as of that metal on which the successful cultivation of the chief branches of industry is to such an extent founded, that the quantity of iron won and consumed might be taken as the best gauge of a country's industrious development:
| By the decennial average of 1840-50, the government foundries produce annually of | Cwt. | |-----------------------------------------------|------| | cast-iron about........................................| 644,000 | | And the private foundries............................| 3,079,335 |
Total.........................................................................................4,214,336
Of which latter quantity, 2,973,140 cwt. were forged into iron. Of late years this branch of industry is increasing; the difference between 1832 and 1849 being 30 per cent. The demand for iron in the interior is so great that, notwithstanding the increased import from Poland and Finland, as well as the sensible falling off in the exportation abroad of Russian iron, prices have still risen.
In 1828 the average wholesale price of bar-iron throughout the empire was..................................................15s. 2d.
Retail.........................................................................................16s. 0d.
And in 1843 wholesale...............................................................15s. 6d.
" " retail.....................................................................................16s. 4d.
Consequently in five years the average price had increased by 4d. The price for sorted iron was yet higher; and subsequently to 1843 prices had gone on rising; as, for instance, in Moscow, for 1846 and 1847, iron cost 14s. 2d. per cwt., but in 1848 and 1849 it cost 17s. 8d.; at Taganrog the proportion was 11s. 6d. to 13s.; and in Odessa 15s. to 15s. 6d. The average price of bar-iron in 1851 was in Prussia 12s. 4d., in France 10s. 6d., in Belgium 9s. 6d., and in England 5s. 2d. per cwt.; Welsh iron costing there only 4s. 4d. per cwt. Experience shows, as well in Russia as abroad, that no marked increase in the production of cheap iron can take place until coal is called in to aid this branch of industry. The difference in cheapness between the cost of iron produced by the agency of pit and charcoal Statistics was in France alone 30 per cent. In Russia this want of charcoal fuel is becoming more and more sensibly felt; and the foundries in the governments of Toola and Tamboff have already been closed on account of the thinning of the woods; but Providence seems likely to help the country in this respect, as coal veins will soon be largely worked in the government of Yekaterinoslaff, on the Sea of Azoff.
The Oural foundries possess the finest ore, particularly magnetic; yet notwithstanding its adaptation to steel and wire, the importation from abroad increases; as does also that of machinery, which in 1841 was for L35,780, in 1846 for L201,720, and in 1849 for L293,590.
List of Manufactories in Russia, with Value of Annual Produce, according to latest returns:
| No. | Amount | |-----|--------| | Sugar and treacle refineries | 443 L4,010,263 | | Beer and mead breweries, also honey-making establishments | 153 223,807 | | Glue and starch manufactories | 118 72,466 | | Varnish | 9 9,384 | | Sealing-wax | 10 12,682 | | Tar, pitch, and turpentine | 225 82,597 | | Oil-crushing | 290 47,733 | | Chemical | 113 537,786 | | White-lead and dye | 385 2,982,875 | | Salt-making | 15 45,923 | | Potash | 14 7,339 | | Salt-petre | 182 124,017 | | Soap-boiling | 316 293,197 | | Tallow-crushing and candle | 1,147 2,486,106 | | Stearine | 19 491,386 | | Wax-crushing and wax-candle | 170 228,457 | | Potteries, brick and lime | 1,335 243,527 | | China and delft-ware | 32 97,305 | | Glass and crystal | 170 538,152 | | Whitesmith's workshops, needle and pin manufactories | 93 178,725 | | Musical instrument | 15 35,894 | | Equipage | 58 108,352 | | Wood-sawing | 80 153,897 | | Furniture and wooden utensils | 95 72,728 | | Furreries | 84 66,929 | | Hair, bristle, and tortoiseshell | 35 145,929 | | Animal and vegetable preparations for food; such as meat, fish, macaroni, chocolate, mustard, &c. | 452 69,598 |
Many other trading establishments relating to crafts and artizanship, not being manufactories, are under the minister of the interior.
Statement of Schools under the Ministry of Finance.
| Teachers | Scholars | |----------|----------| | Mining Institute | 37 242 | | Technical school | 38 21 | | Asaying school at St Petersburg | 8 14 | | District foundry schools for the Mint and Mining Institute | 41 361 | | Lower foundry schools for the Mint and Mining Institute | 131 3957 | | Technological Institute | 36 257 | | With a Sunday drawing-school | 3 72 | | Drawing-school at St Petersburg, for visitors, with a Sunday do. | 11 646 | | Female division of the same | 7 215 | | Drawing-schools at Moscow | 24 667 | | Sunday primary schools for manufactory children | 4 143 | | Sundry private manufactory schools | 8 335 | | Practical commercial academy at Moscow | 90 174 | | School of commercial navigation at Kherson | 9 48 | | School of commercial navigation at Riga | 1 10 | | Public courses for the masters of merchant vessels: | | | At Arkhangelsk | 1 12 | | At Reval, in Finland | 1 9 | | Total | 388 7183 |
Husbandry is still in a very backward state. Rotation of crops is the system mostly followed, but ignorantly, and not by any means so profitably as might be the case. As many crops are taken out of the soil as it will yield, and then it lies fallow for a year or two. The Russians say Agriculture that this state of things is best suited to the ignorance of the peasants, who have no instructors, and to the great quantity of land allowed them to till. The model farms established in most of the governments are slowly doing a small amount of good. In a few of these agricultural schools, steam apparatus have been tried; but the application of steam to husbandry is known only by hearsay. That agriculture might be rendered a very profitable branch of industry, is evident from the results obtained by the German colonists, who thrive prodigiously; and by the Quakers who have cultivated land in the neighbourhood of St Petersburg. All have succeeded eminently in their undertakings.
According to calculations carefully collated in 1849 by the agricultural department, the quantity of winter and spring corn produced in Russia amounted to 168,000,000 qrs. There were 189,000,000 acres of arable land; 63,750,000 acres were used for winter and 63,750,000 acres for spring corn. The medium return of corn throughout the empire was four-fold, or about 10 bushels to the acre. The return of crop-produce may be calculated as follows:—Rye, 83,000,000 qrs.; wheat, 23,000,000 qrs.; oats, 42,000,000 qrs.; barley, peas, chives, buckwheat, and maize, 31,000,000 qrs.; potatoes, 14,000,000 qrs.; linseed, 1,500,000 qrs.; flax, 432,000,000 lbs. avoirdupois; hemp, 288,000,000 lbs.; sugar beet-root, 11,000,000 cwt.; tobacco, 354,200 cwt.; silk, 9650 cwt.
Table showing the Quantities of Horses, Horned Cattle, Sheep, and other Animals in Russia in the year 1836.
| Horses and Horned Cattle | In the European Governments and Lands. | In the Caucasian Lieutenant. | In the Siberian Provinces. | Total. | |--------------------------|---------------------------------|-------------------------------|-----------------------------|-------| | Horses | 15,065,759 | 469,522 | 8,636,011 | 18,571,282 | | Horned cattle | 21,737,787 | 2,024,022 | 2,463,013 | 26,219,822 | | Stags | 139,700 | 292,582 | 432,342 | | Camels | 31,023 | 24,885 | 3,929 | 59,837 | | Asses, mules, &c. | 2,025 | 24,322 | 28,348 | | Sheep | 41,484,938 | 4,425,443 | 6,250,651 | 52,161,032 | | Swine | 8,808,435 | 428,375 | 516,900 | 9,753,800 | | Goats | 1,384,962 | 108,662 | 220,505 | 1,694,129 | | Grand total | 88,629,681 | 7,505,231 | 12,783,681 | 108,918,593 |
*Of this number about 8,000,000 were of the so-called fine-fleeced sort.*
The Russian is charitable, kindly of nature, and hospitable. Respectful, obliging, and content with little, he is character honest enough in the country, but in town he sadly alters, losing most of his good, and acquiring none but bad qualities. He possesses the imitative faculty in an extreme degree, but not the inventive. An early riser, he can work well when put to it, and has but few wants. He is better than his master the noble. The dark side of the picture is, that he will lie remorselessly; is sly, false, and insincere; lazy when possible; fond of drink; and he rather enjoys uncleanness, although his hot bath once a week is an example well worthy of being followed, because greatly contributing to his extreme longevity. Civilized, the Russian becomes a great thief. The temperance movement that has lately taken place in the semi-Polish and central governments is very remarkable, and is spreading widely. It originated with the Polish clergy (to their honour be it spoken), and was favoured by the badness of the brandy. Tall of stature and straight-limbed, the Russian is tolerably strong, robust, hardy, and not much subject to disease, through his out-of-door life during the greatest part of the year, and the continual exercise which Statistics, the vastness of all things Russian,—embracing as well every object as every degree of distance,—forces him, against his will, to take. He is mostly fair of complexion, hairy, and bearded, pug-nosed, and rather small-eyed; but his good-humoured bearing and healthy look lend him a degree of handsomeness. The women are, alas, inferior to the men, being far from pretty; and even the beauty of youth fades with them much earlier than they could wish. The female population is likewise weakly, and much earlier broken down, through excessive labour in the fields, which, though a shame to the men, is a forced consequence of the impressment called conscription. Some few governments, however, are noted for their healthy, pretty-faced girls. Many men and women of huge proportions are to be met with; but there is more fat than muscle about them. Several of the strongest men of modern times were, however, Russians,—Orloffsky and Lookeén. The Russian man is the best specimen of the Slavonian race; the woman, not. The Russian has more real patriotism, too, than the vapouring Pole, who will sacrifice his country to his personal loves and hatreds; the Polish women, however, are superior to the Russian.
A red or blue linen shirt, linen drawers, boots worn over very wide trousers, often mat or bast sandals, a cloth kaftan bound by a sash, the national sheep-skin tooloop or body-coat, with various descriptions of head-coverings, form the simple dress of the men. The hair is cut round. The women wear bodices, coloured jackets called sarafans or katsarenykas, and kokoshniks for the head. This national dress is exceedingly becoming, and is very properly used at court. The kokoshnik, set with brilliants, is a magnificent head-dress, and the other parts of the costume admit of much elegance of display. Girls wear kokos or plaited tails to their heads. Married women tie up their hair, which is mostly coarse, in gaudy-coloured handkerchiefs. In one word, the national garb is pretty, useful, and has a peculiar type. The food is simple. It chiefly consists of rye bread called bleek, always soup, curds, much milk, seldom meat, many vegetables, different tarinaceous dishes, sundry peorogs or pasties, jams, preserves, and marmalades. The kevas, a sour small beer, unhopped, is a horrible drink; but the broda and the smot (cranberry juice sweetened—the mead of the country), the doushok, and various home-made wines, are delicious beverages. Tea and coffee are becoming more and more used. The former is said to be better than in England, though its being transported over land; but it is more likely that it is a different sort. The white-flour bread is excellent; the meat and mutton small, but sweet. The cabbage-soup, called stchee, the little Russian borstch, the porosionok, or pickled sucking-pig,—all used with sour or clotted cream; the koolibik, an egg and fish or meat pie; the rastoghi, a little meat paste; the pelmeni, a small chopped-meat pudding-tart, eaten warm; and the coriar, are well worthy of adoption into the English kitchen.
The Russian is fond of dancing and music; and sings at his work the plaintive ditties of his country, in a high, falsetto key, accompanied by indescribable quavers. The women's shrill skirl is extremely unpleasant; but both sexes are mirthful, and much given to amusements, which are innocent enough, consisting of eating nuts and gingerbread of holidays, and at their carnival shows, the Verbi, or Feast of Palms, and the Easter festival; of gliding down ice-bills in sledges; and swinging. The khorovodis are women's dances, accompanied by singing. A characteristic dance is the kazatchok. Strangely enough, skating is next to unknown. The indigenous musical instruments are the balalaika, a sort of guitar, and the goosli, a sort of spinnet, now falling into disuse. Public amusements in the capitals are too dear and rare. The upper classes follow the usual European fashion. They love display; are graceful, polished, and urbane; but supple and false, not scrupulous in keeping his word, and with no manly love of exercise, the Russian nobleman is frequently one thing in public and another in private life. When the Russian noble is at the same time a gentleman, he is unsurpassed. Card-playing is the great social vice; but excessive drinking is now next to unknown. Higgling and dishonesty in trade are common in buying and selling. All classes take pride in rich furs and fine horses. Sledge-racing supplies the place of our English horse-racing, which, however, has lately been encouraged. High and low have a singular love of proverbial sayings, and all take a personal pride in the outward magnificence of the court.
The Russian language, one of the most beautiful existing, is a dialect of the Slavonian, the common tongue of a large family of nations descended from the Scythians, but whose earlier origin is unascertained. If the language of a people were to be taken as an index of its destiny, a still brighter career than that already run might be augured of the country under review. In point of copiousness, flexibility, harmony, and grace, the Russian language has but few superiors, and not many equals. From the separate-ness of its roots, it is, however, but little assimilative; which must prevent its ever becoming so universal as English. Many of the modern roots are Sanscrit, Greek, Latin, and German. When the church-books of worship were translated, in the tenth century, into Slavonian-Russ, Greek forms, both alphabetical and of construction, were introduced, and thus was created a written church-dialect existing up to the present time, side by side with the vernacular, which it has greatly affected. The spoken language meanwhile incorporated many words from the Polish and other Slavonian dialects, the Tartar, and Mongolian; but Peter's reform of the alphabet, adoption of technical terms, and introduction into printed use of the vernacular, in lieu of the church-language, contributed the most to give the Russ that form which later culture has refined, and which it at present wears. The want of an article renders extreme precision less attainable than in those languages which possess one, otherwise than through the general sense of a phrase; but this is tolerably balanced by an avoidance of constantly-recurring particles, the great defect of the English and other languages. Adjectives, nouns, and pronouns are richly declinable in their various genders, persons, and numbers; and verbs, besides denoting in their inflections the numbers, persons, and genders, have farther so-called modes, which clearly determine the frequent and unfrequent, the precise and unprecise modes of every action. A flexibility of construction, perhaps unsurpassed, is thus obtained; for, transpose the words as one may, sense can always be made of them. The prepositional verbs, mostly with prefixes, are a mine of wealth for the determination of action; but an insufficiency of this part of speech consists in its having but one compound tense, with shall, and, strictly speaking, only one past tense; through which defect a past action cannot be defined with such precision as in French. In consequence of the verb showing the gender, the personal pronouns may be dispensed with or used, at will. The great richness of the language consists, besides its inflectiveness and the copiousness of its roots, in the number of the derivatives; nouns, adjectives, and verbs, mutually giving and receiving, and all possessing this attribute to an inconceivable degree. The written character is a very neat one; and the printed has much resemblance to the Greek, some also to the Latin.
---
1 It was a just retribution of Providence that visited the iniquitous tyranny in old times of Poland over Russia with eventual subjugation to the latter, not that the punishment should be eternal. It testifies, besides, historically and undeniably, to the existence of a moral principle as positively pervading the unseen as the seen world of the senses. The alphabet is as nearly phonetic as can be desired, and has the advantage of expressing complex consonantal sounds, such as ts in tear, tch in child, sh in shall, stch in question, kh in ladakh; each in one character. The Celtic guttural kh, the Greek χ, is the only consonantal sound in which the Russian language has the advantage, of the English; but it has not the English nasal ng, the th, the j as in join, nor the w as in will. All the vowels are neither long nor short, but properly between the two; neither have the Russians the long diphthongal or triphthongal sounds of the English, as in meed, mound, and queen. The a sound in fat and fall, and the short i and u, as in bit and but, are totally wanting; whence follows that the English has several more sounds than the Russian. A set-off against this is the more frequent occurrence of liquids and of united vowel-syllables; the a-yah, e-yah, e-ay-yah, e-a-u, lending extreme harmony to the music of the rhythm. A harsh semi-vowel, which the English have not, is the quick contraction of the oo-ee into one sound. The most favoured letters are p and r; the ugly s is not so much used as in German or English; the vowels most affected are a, as in far; yah, and e. The diminutive, augmentative, and deprecative terminations are next in expression, strength, and grace only to the Italian. Another distinctive feature of the language is, that through the peculiar ineffectiveness of its nature, the purely Russian race, from the White Sea to the Black, from Poland to the farthest confines of Siberia, speak with a grammatical correctness perfectly delightful to ears that care for such niceties. There are of course vulgarisms, and here and there some slight shades of difference in the pronunciation; but they are inconsiderable indeed, when contrasted with the barbarous idioms met with in all the countries of Europe. The Little Russian is certainly a marked deviation from the rule, but this is not the pure Russian race. Russ is spoken most elegantly in Moscow and Petersburg. The points of beauty in this language are so striking that much might be taken from it as first principles for a universal language, were any such possible; and an unbeliever in the great advantages derivable from these varied inflections would best be convinced by contrasting the cumbrous phraseology of an English law document with that of a Russian one. There is little intonation of whole phrases—raising or sinking of the voice—compared to English, the most intoned of living languages, and which is a remedy for its large number of monosyllabic words. Russian words, on the contrary, are egregiously long, in proportion to the graduated short words; a result of which is, that one page of Russian print, despite the saving of particles and repetitions incident to the varied inflections of the Russ, would make on an average no more than three-fourths of an English page. There are, however, much fewer ellipses in Russ than in English, the most elliptical language spoken; and this is partly another cause of English concision. For poetry, the language is beauty itself, being hard and soft in due proportion; and it admits of all rhythmical measures, besides affording every imaginable facility for rhyme. And it was for nasal French that the upper class of Russians could abandon their own far more beautiful tongue! What can not fashion in its folly do?
Mythology. The Russian mythology is common to that of the whole Slavonian race. Their thunder god Peroon answers to the Greek Zeus, or the German Wodan. His statue stood, in times of old, in the yard of Vladimir's court at Kieyeff, and was of wood, with a silver head and gold moustache. The annalist Nestor (1060) makes mention of the gods Kors, Dashbog, the god of fruitfulness (boy signifies god), Shreebog, called also Samergl, and Mokosh. The name of Volos, denoting hairiness, occurs in the Grand-Prince Oleg's conversations with the Greeks, as the protector of herds, and it was by his and Peroon's name that the Russians confirmed their sayings by oath. The goddess of love, friendship, and unity, was Tada; lovers and the newly-married sacrificed to her, praising her name in songs. Her sons Lelia and Palelia were also honoured as the gods of love and marriage. Kupalo was the name of the god of harvests, and sacrifices were made to him before harvest, on the 23rd of June; this festival was called the Kupalatza. Young people decked themselves with flowers, lit fires in the evening, danced round them, and sang in honour of the god. The memory of this feast may still be traced in the fires lit to this day on St John's Eve. In the government of Arkhangelsk, many of the peasants still heat their baths on the 23rd of June, strew their floors with kupatinka (Ramunculus acris), and then bathe. The root of the word implies bathing. Debov was the name of the Evil One. The 24th of December was holy to the god of peace, Kolbda; the rejoicings of Christmas Eve, consulting the future, and the custom called Kolodovalnic, now existing in Little Russia, are living remnants of this festival. Forest-demons, house-spectres, and good spirits were also supposed to exist. The Roossalka, a naiad, though no more seen, is still believed in; and the ancient Russians further venerated trees, particularly hollow ones, and bound linen cloths round their branches. They had temples and priests; they burned their dead, and held feasts in their honour.
Briefly outlined, Russian literature has undergone three marked changes: 1. The literature developed under Greek influence by the introduction of Christianity, 988–1689; 2. That first improved by Peter the Great on the general European model, from 1689–1801; 3. And the more polished, lasting from Alexander I. till the present time. The first period is long as regards duration, but poor as regards matter. Tales and songs, mostly oral; chronicles, and spiritual books describing the miraculous doings of the saints, reviling the Latins, or disputing about the sectarian heresies, were its chief products. The subsequent invasion of the Tartars, 1238–1480, not only checked the advance of civilization, but threw it back by many centuries; and during this period the learned sought refuge in the cloisters. The incorporation with Russia, in the sixteenth century, of the grand principality of Lithuania, naturally operated on the letters, such as they were, of the country, by introducing the more advanced literature of Poland. John IV. established the first printing-office at Moscow in 1564. Dramatic art dawned late. It was in the seventeenth century that the students of the Kieyeff academy began to perform religious mysteries in Polish and Slavoian; and under the tsar Alexay Mikhailovich, 1615–1676, the boyar Matveyev invited German actors to Moscow, where they performed pieces, with music and singing. Throughout this period, but no later, the whole literature of the country was in the hands of the clergy, who were thus the centre of the refinement that existed. The second period is marked by Russia arousing from her intellectual stupor. Peter had appeared; and from this time the country enters within the pale of European civilization. He invited learned foreigners to his dominions; sent young Russians to Germany and Holland for the acquirement of useful learning; and such was the impulse he gave, that in a few years Russia made more progress in civilization than in many preceding centuries. Relations had indeed been maintained with Europe under John III., but their influence had been unfelt. It was under Peter, too, that the first newspaper—The St Petersburg Gazette—was issued, in 1703. It contains matter very interesting for the present age. Peter's own time was not marked by any distinguished writers; but most of the successive sovereigns only executed what he had originally conceived and planned. Lomonossoff, the son of an Arkhangelsk fisherman, a learned prosaist, although an indifferent poet, under Elizabeth Petrovna, was the earliest... Statistics, classical writer of his country, and the great practical reformer of her letters. He first introduced measure, in lieu of the pre-existing Polish quantity. Kantemir, Soomaro-koff, Kniazevich, and Kheraskoff are names of secondary note, intervening between this time and Catherine's more glorious epoch. Derzavin, the first great poet of his country, and who flourished in her reign, stands higher than all before and after him until the appearance of Pooshkin and Lermontoff. His Ode to God has been translated into English by Bowring, whose Anthology, containing specimens of the Russian poets, is deserving of commendatory notice. Von Wisin, the successor of Kantemir as a satirist, still retains possession of the stage. His comedy of the Spoiled Minor would alone throw more light on the manners and customs of his country than many books of history. This second period, although unmarked by many gifted writers, was still rich in translations from the ancients, French literature, and works of science, which circumstance had a vast influence upon the mental refinement of the people. There even existed under Catherine II., a department for translations. In this respect the country owes much to Novikoff, who, under Catherine II., founded the Literary Society of Moscow, the precursor of the Academy of Sciences, and devoted his whole life and fortune to this object. The earliest illustration of the third period is Karamzin, who, as a proseist, first broke through the rules of ancient classicism, and introduced the romantic school. He is best known as the historian of his country, although his fame as such now suffers diminution; but his style is still deservedly celebrated for its purity, and he has been followed by Oosterhoff and Solovioff. In universal history, Granofski and Koordravitscheff are the best representatives of Ranke's school. Dmecieff is a fable-writer of merit; but Kreeloff's fables, for point, satire, raciness of style, and adaptation to life in his country, are equal to those of any age or land. The best tragic dramatist is Ozoroff, but his is pompous, and writes too much in the French style. Greeboydoff's comedy of Sorrow Comes of Sense, a social satire on Moscow society, may be classed with Beaumarchais' Marriage of Figaro, or Sheridan's School for Scandal. Gogol's Revivor is a satire of like eminence, on the corruption of his time. The only other dramatists of distinction are Pooshkin, and Ostrovski, a contemporary author. The Russian drama was originally formed on the declamatory French model; but Shakspeare has long beaten French tragedy off the stage. For vaudevilles the French style still prevails, because the best. Independently of the earliest national poetry, of which numerous collections have been made, and not to dwell here on the claims, as poets, of Bogdanovitch, Khlemmitzer, Batishkoff, Kozloff, Countess Rostoptchin, and others, all of more or less distinction, the names of Pooshkin and Lermontoff speak for themselves as the greatest. Pooshkin, in particular, is the poet of his country, from his identification with the national mode of feeling. His prose is a model of polite style. The living poets of mark are Maikoff, Tuchcheff, Nekrassoff, and Stecherbina. It is remarked of Russian poetry, two-thirds of which is imitative, that, with much melody of versification, it has but little substance. More tender than impassioned, more graceful than energetic, the unseen spirit of song rather glides over the surface of feeling than issues from poetry's true home, the well of passion, lying deep within the heart. Russia is a land of song, and numerous collections therefore exist of national, Little Russian, Finnish, Lettish, and other songs, well meriting attention. The first novel was written by Kheraskoff, under Catherine II., not that it was a good one; but of the later novelists and belletristics, the oldest are Lazetchnikoff and Zagosskin; then follows the inimitable Gogol; and afterwards come Poleschinski and Goncharoff. Pooshkin, Kookolnik, Count Solohub, Gregorovich, Count Tolstoi, and Toorgheinoff, the last and best, are delightful story-tellers. Translation, which now supplies the place of civilizers from abroad, is cultivated in every branch to an immense extent. A remarkable production in this art was Gnéditch's translation of the Iliad, which, though heavy, is still correct. It was from 1820 to 1840 that translations began chiefly to be made from the German. Zookoffski, in particular, gave the impulse to translations from that language and from English. The most distinguished in this department, not to speak of purely scientific works, are Batishkoff and Zookoffski. The other names are Kozloff, Huber, Vrontchenko, Kronberg, and Min. Ketcher is a very accurate translator. Most of Shakspeare's plays, and indeed many of the best English productions in verse, including several of Byron's poems, have been beautifully done into Russ; besides numerous translations from the ancient and living languages. In philology, the chief names are Boosläff, Sjögren, Castrén, Schiffler, Wiedemann, Böthlingk, Dorn, Paski, Vostokoff, Gretsch, Kasembeg, and Davidoff. Statistics, including finance and political economy, have lately made immense progress. We need only allude to Arsenief, Küppen, Tenguborski, Nebolsin, and Lamanski. In medical surgery, Peetrugoff is known to all Europe. Philosophy is yet a barren field, and many departments of letters are still unrepresented; but in the higher walks of science it is sufficient to cite Pallas, Frehn, W. Struve, Bar, Ostrogradski, Kupffer, Jacobi, Pander, Abich, and Veseloffski. The fine arts have had, and still have, distinguished disciples in Kokorin, Marthus, Count Theodore Tolstoi, Baron Klodt, Bruloff, Bruni, Basen, and Evánoff. Bortnianski's church music is abstract beauty tangibly revealed to the senses. As travellers and navigators, we have Golovnin, Kotzebue, Kruzenstern, Bellingshausen, Lütke, Wrangel, Tchilatschef, Yermoloff, Demidoff, Middendorf, and Kovaloffski. The church literature is perhaps the most popular and widely diffused. Platón, Innocent, and Philaret are the most eminent sermonists. Prokopovitch, Yavorski, Philaret of Moscow, Philaret of Kharkoff, and Macarius, are eminent as theologians. Periodical literature has made immense strides, and at present absorbs nearly all the intellect of the country. Belinski, as a critic, exercised over it a lasting influence. Herzen's Kolokol, or Bell, and his Northern Star, both published in London, form a remarkable feature in the journalism of the day. An encyclopaedical lexicon is being published by Kraifaffki; and a movement has been made towards furthering the introduction of the decimal system. Generally, it may be truly said that purely intellectual civilization has lately advanced with the step of a giant. That Russian literature has not yet contributed its full quota to the great hive of human learning should be mainly ascribed to over-government, to its being yet in the youth of its existence, and still in a condition which compels it to borrow much. When civilization shall have taken firm root in all classes, then Russia will no doubt enlarge her pretensions; but the time is coming, and the minds to do the work are ripening.
Asiatic Russia.
Russia in Asia comprehends the whole northern portion Asiatic of that continent extending from Lat. 38° 25' to 78° 26', Russia. N., and from Long. 37° 14' to 190° 22' E. from Greenwich. It is bounded on the west by European Russia and the Black Sea, on the south by Asiatic Turkey, Persia, the Caspian and Aral Seas, the territories of the Turkomans and Keergheez, and by China; on the east by the Pacific Ocean and Behring's Straits. The Frozen Ocean extends along the whole of its northern limits. Its greatest extent from west to east is about 4142, and its greatest breadth from north to south 2622 English miles. This vast dominion is larger than the whole of Europe. Siberia, which occupies the whole north of Asia, from the Oural Mountains to the Great Ocean, has a general inclination towards the Northern Arctic Sea. It presents an immense plain, bounded on the south by ranges of mountains. In the northern part this plain gradually inclines into a low flat. Siberia is divided by the Yenisey into two regions, the western and eastern. Western Siberia is one entire level, unbroken by any hills whatever. The north-western region is covered by forests; the other part consists of steppes. 1. The Barabinskaya steppe, between the rivers Irtish and Ob, has large birch groves, and is suited to agricultural pursuits. 2. The Ishim, to the south of Omsk, along the rivers Irtish and Ishim, consists of sands and salt-marshes. 3. The Kheergaich steppe, extending from the left of the River Ooral to the Caspian and Aral seas, form a wilderness whose eastern and north-eastern parts alone are intersected by hills, forming a continuation of the centre chain of the southern Oural. The soil consists of clay and sand, but in the southwest it is overspread with salt-marshes and bogs. 4. The Abakan steppes lie along the River Abakan, which falls into the Yenisey. Their soil is so fertile that it requires no manure. 5. The Sagai, lying between the left bank of the Abakan and Lake Teletski, and extending in the north to the River Tchoolum, serve as excellent pasture-grounds for the countless herds possessed by the natives. Eastern Siberia affords a much more diversified aspect. The plains are here intersected by numerous offshoots of the high Altai and Sagan mountains, as well as by the Yablonnoy and Stanovoy ranges. The northern Siberian flat, from the Northern Arctic Circle to the Polar Ocean, and from the Oural Mountains to Behring's Straits, may be divided into three portions. The first, from the Ouras to the Yenisey, does not rise above the level of the sea; the second, from the Yenisey to the Lena, is a little above that level; and along it, from south to north, extends the Poos-tinnoy range of hills, which, terminating in Cape Severo-Vostochnoi, serves as the dividing water-shed of the Yenisey and Lena. The third portion, from the Lena to Behring's Straits, is considerably higher than the water-level; and more eastwards it is intersected by branches of the Stanovoy Mountains, which never reach above 3000 feet. The whole of this flat has a dreary character, and the magnificent forests which cover the whole south of Siberia become gradually thinner. At 70 N. Lat. all vegetation ceases, and nature seems as if deprived of life. The soil of this northern Siberian flat is one continued moss-grown tundra.
The Siberian mountains extend from the River Irtish at first eastwards to the upper sources of the Aldan, which falls into the Lena, and hence through Kamchatka towards the north-east. They terminate in two branches, of which one extremity is called Tchookotskoi Noss, and the other Cape Lopatka. That part of the Siberian mountains which passes from west to east consists of the Altai, Sayan, and Daorion chains. The Altai sweeps along the southern confines of the governments of Tobolsk and Tomsk, and, by means of the Yablonnoy and Stanovoy ridges, unites in the north-east with the Okhotsk Mountains. This Altai range is 450 miles long and 230 miles broad, having numerous offshoots. Its general height is 7000 feet; but the pinnacle of one, called the Belokhia, attains the height of 12,000 feet. The snow-line is from 6000 to 6500 feet above the horizon of the water. The Altai serves as the dividing-line from which flow the rivers of that region, on one side into the Arctic Ocean, and on the other into the streams of the Keergaich, Turkestan, and Zoonghiu steppes. The Sayan mountains extend betwixt the Yenisey and Baikal, a distance of 1260 versts. The Daorion extend from the Sayan mountains, touch the Yablonnoy range, and run into the Chinese dominions.
The rivers of Asiatic Russia that discharge themselves into the Arctic Sea are amongst the most considerable of Rivers, the ancient world. The most remarkable of these are,—1st, The Ob, whose course is 2170 miles in length, during which it receives the great rivers Tom, Tcholeem, Ket, Vakha, the Irtish, Sosva, and all their tributary streams. 2d, The Yenisey, which has a course of 2000 miles, with fewer sinuosities than are usually observed in other great rivers. It is formed by the confluence of the Great Ket and Angara, which latter is the greater river of the two. The upper Toongoozka or Angara rises in the government of Irkoutsk, joins the Eeleem, and flows for 1000 miles. The right affluents are the Middle and Lower Toongoozkas, and the left are the Abakan and Toorookhan. 3d, The Lena, one of the largest of the Russian-Asiatic rivers. It rises in the Baikal Mountains, in the government of Irkoutsk; is from half a mile to 2 miles broad, at Irkoutsk about 6 miles; and falls into the ocean in Lat. 70. 40., and Long. 164. 26., after a course of 2666 miles. The Lena is navigable at Verkholemsk, 200 miles from its source, until it receives the Aldan. Its tributaries on the right are the Veteeem, Olekma, and Aldan; on the left the Velui. Besides the Ob, Yenisey, and Lena, whose lower courses water the northern flat of Siberia, along the toondras flow the following considerable rivers:—The Taz, Khatanga, Anabara, Oleneik, Yan, Indigirka, and Kolema. The rivers flowing from the eastern declivity of the Stanovoy hills into the great ocean and sea of Okhotsk are mostly unimportant and rapid, because this range is steep, rocky, and often closely approaches the shores. The chief are the Anadir, Kamchatcha, and Avatcha, remarkable as forming the bay of Avatcha, surrounded on all sides by mountains, and 9 miles in diameter; Port Peter and Paul, the Penzeena, Gizgezhina, Okhotka, and Amoor.
The Amoor is formed by the confluence of the Argoon Amoor and Sheelka, in the south-east angle of the Trans-Baikal River region, at a point called the Oost-Strelka. The Trans-Baikal region spoken of borders on Chinese Daoria, of which latter a vast portion has been silently incorporated with Russia, and called Russian Daoria. From the Strelka mouth to the last Russian station on the Tartar Gulf, called the Petrofiskou Winter Quarters, the entire length of the Amoor is 1880 miles. The chief tributaries of this river are the Zayahi, Newman, Augooba, Soongari-Oolakh, and Oassoori,—all mighty streams. The Soongari-Oolakh, called in Chinese Khoon-Tsoon-Tsian, unites with the Amoor 950 miles below the Strelka mouth. The Soongari runs through Chinese Mantchooria, and the Amoor may rather be said to fall into it. In many places from a mile to a mile and a half broad, the Amoor is navigable throughout its whole course, the depth being considerable, often averaging ten fathoms; and there are few rapids or shallows to impede navigation. It must, however, be observed, that the last exploring expedition took place in May, when the waters were at their highest. The current generally runs at the rate of 24 miles an hour. No forts are as yet laid down along the river's course, and it is only near the mouth of the Amoor that there are fortifications; but they have not yet had time to become important. The left river-bank is being permanently colonized. The sole considerable position at present held by the Russians on the right bank is the Mareeinski station, near Lake Keezi. Sakha-leen-Oolakh-Khoton is the only large town on the Mantchoorian, or right bank of the Amoor. On the left bank there is not a single town. Toongooz tribes inhabit the whole of this region, which is extremely fertile, the soil and climate being both excellent. Lake Keez, at the Mareeinski station, on the right bank of the Amoor, is 26 miles long, of varying breadth, and in parts tolerably deep. It naturally forms a convenient harbour, and the idea has therefore been entertained of establishing a way of communication, either by canal or rail, across the hilly ridge—only 13 miles in breadth—which separates Lake Keez from De Castrics' Gulf in the Sea of Okhotsk. When one takes into account that the Mareeinski station is 290 miles higher up the river than its mouth, the utility of the plan becomes obvious. A railway from the Amoor, to be connected with the internal lines of road, has been more than once projected; but either the demands made for a cession of bordering crown-lands were so unreasonably exorbitant, or the offers made so unsupported by sufficient guarantees, that the plan has been rejected. The railroad will yet be effected, though on another basis, and then the results will be of high interest to England. The chief considerations which suggest themselves are,—1st, That Russia has now managed to acquire a vast portion of Chinese territory, with a valuable harbourage and sea-board, on the North Pacific; 2d, That a vast amount of trade in Central Asia is being opened out to her merchants; and, 3d, That she is hereby obtaining a direct water communication with India, which is thus in process of becoming more and more closely hugged by Russia both by land and sea. Two rivers, of great interest to England, remain yet to be noticed: the Oxus, or Amoo-Daria, which rises in the western extremity of Lake Sir-i-Kol, Lat. 37° 27', and Chron. Long. 69° east of Greenwich, in the table-land of Pamir in Central Asia; and the Jaxartes, or Sir-Daria, which rises in China, and passes through Kokan, Turkestan, and Tashkent. Both fall into the Aral Lake, the Amoo-Daria, after an approximative course of 800, and the Sir-Daria of about 520 miles.
The lakes in Russian Asia are very numerous, and some of them so extensive as to form inland seas. One of the largest is the Baikal or Holy Lake, between Lat. 52° and 55°, and Long. 104° 26' and 109° 56', extending over 11,180 square miles. Its water is clear and bright, and the depth varies from 18 to 500 feet. The River Angara, which runs into the Yenisey, issues hence. It contains a great number of rocky islands. The other is the Aral Lake, or Blue Sea, situated on a parallel with the northern part of the Caspian. It is 230 miles long by 150 miles broad. The lakes next in extent are the Tchani and the Piasanskoë, both in the government of Tomsk; but there are one or more lakes in every province. A large number of steamers already ply on these inland seas and rivers of Asiatic Russia.
From the Ooral Mountains to the Yenissey the climate differs little from that of European Russia, but beyond that river the difference is marked. The general severity, however, of the climate in Russia—apparently so inimical to health and comfort—is considered by the inhabitants as one of their greatest blessings. The vast expanse of frozen snow that environ them both shortens distances and facilitates travelling. Ice-cellar also form a positive necessary of life, for by their means provisions, which could not otherwise be kept from putrefaction, are preserved during summer. The fine fresh air engendered by a bracing frost is likewise most conducive to health. The intense cold, however, that prevails in Siberia beyond the Yenisey, like every extreme, is an evil, and forms one of the great obstructions to travelling, as does also the plague of mosquitoes in summer. The natural wealth of the country consists at present in its minerals, timber, furs, produce of the chase, fisheries, and cattle. The southern territory, which is often covered with luxuriant pastures, might be made to yield very rich crops, if the inhabitants would but change their taste for nomadic life, and till the ground. For some time past, indeed, the Kheergheez have shown indications of commencing agricultural pursuits; yet notwithstanding the general neglect of tillage, the produce is in some parts extremely plentiful, and crops are raised even without the aid of manure. The rearing of sheep for wool is a branch of industry lately much increased in Siberia, and the Kheergheez steppes supply countless droves of cattle for the Russian market. Pasturage, indeed, and agriculture will ultimately form the chief riches of the land, because inexhaustible. The mineral productions are gold, silver, lead, platinum, copper, dendritic and stalactitic copper or malachite, iron, coal, anthracite, tin, cinabar, and zinc; bismuth, arsenic, sulphur, alum, sal-ammoniac, nitre, naphtha, and natron, are met with in abundance; and a few precious stones are also found. Near the River Argoun are found the common topaz, the hyacinth, the Siberian emerald, the beryl, onyx, and beautiful red and green jaspers. Near Yekaterinburg are the gem-mines of Moorsinsk, where are found the beryl and chrysolite. Near Lake Baikal red garnets are very common; and lapis lazuli, as well as the baiklitze of Keervan, are also met with. The Altai Mountains furnish the opal.
The mineral springs of Russia are found principally in Mineral the Asiatic part, especially in Kamchatka. The only European mineral waters that merit particular notice are the hot spring near Selo-Klinitchy in Perm; a chalybeate spring in the village of Singovo, Olonetz; an assemblage of springs strongly impregnated with iron near Sarepta, on the Volga; the Sergius sulphur waters in the government of Orenburg; several naphtha springs in the Taurida; and at Piatigorsk, on the Terek in the Caucasus, warm springs, that serve as baths. Similar baths exist in the province of Nertchinak, and springs impregnated with naphtha and petroleum are also found near Lake Baikal. Chalybeate waters likewise are met with among the iron mines near Yekaterinburg, and a few in the province of Dacoria. The principal hot baths of Asiatic Russia are in Kamchatka. Those near Natchukhin, containing vitriolic and nitrous salts, fall in a rapid cascade, about 300 feet below which they are collected into a basin 6 or 7 feet broad, and 18 inches deep.
The territory which stretches along the southern Asiatic Frontier, border alone deserves particular mention, as the most favoured district of Siberia. This vast space is chiefly inhabited by Kozzacks, whose number has been lately much augmented, under a system perfected between the years 1852–59 by Count Mooraviell-Amoorski. There are three descriptions of Kozzacks—the inhabitants of towns, foot regiments, and horse Kozzacks, who form the chief military force.
therefrom, warrant us in here giving a short account of the Amoor acquisition. It was in 1845 that Academician Middendorff, appreciating the necessity of an outlet for Siberia into the North Pacific, crossed the frontier despite Chinese prohibition, and found during his four months' travels in this quarter, that the Russian government erroneously considered the Stanovol mountains as their boundary by the treaty of Nertchinak, the Chinese therewith having erected boundary-post on the mountain, among the affluents of the Amoor, and that thus an immense extent of territory would accrue to Russia, besides the desired outlet into the Pacific. About the same time Captain Nevelskoi, after sailing round South America, entered unbidden the mouth of the Amoor, being the first European navigator who had done so, and proved that Sakhalin was not a peninsula, but an island. Delighted with the discovery communicated to him by Academician Middendorff, Nicholas immediately acted upon it. Captain Achtie was despatched to execute the idea, and political circumstances being favourable, the result has at length been the acquisition by Russia of the whole left bank of the Amoor, its right and left banks from the Oosori downwards, the dependent sea-board on the Gulf of Tartary, its outlet into the Pacific, its prospectively boundless trade, the whole island of Sakhalin, and nearly one million square miles of territory. Russia now wants only an outlet into the North Atlantic by the acquisition of a seaport in Swedish Finnmark. arm of the country. In their capacity of soldiers, they mount guard in turn at the different posts assigned them; and their leisure time is employed in the rearing of cattle, gardening, hunting, and fishing. The territory they occupy is for the most part very fertile, especially between the forty-ninth and fifty-first degrees of latitude, where the soil spontaneously produces fruit trees, melons, tobacco, &c.; whilst in the most easterly part the picturesque and fruitful valleys of the Altai, rich in every description of odoriferous flowers, enable the inhabitants to rear innumerable swarms of bees, which furnish the greater part of Siberian honey. Several manufactories, especially of leather, have been established in the towns. The progress of trade will doubtless hereafter enhance the value of the natural productions of these regions, amongst which must be reckoned the lakes of salt water so numerous in the steppes. Important as they are in relation to commerce, these lakes likewise present to the naturalist a series of interesting phenomena. Their waters hold so great a quantity of salt in solution that the action of the summer heat is of itself sufficient to convert it into crystals, which, carried towards the banks, form there immense shoals of salt. Magazines have been formed upon the borders of Lake Koriak, and the salt therein preserved generally amounts to many thousands of tons. But however rich this lake may be, it is less so than three others, the Karoshak, the Kolkaman, and the Djémanton, situated in the steppes on the right bank of the Irish. Each of these basins is from 12 to 15 miles in circumference, and the action of the solar rays produces in them during the summer season crystals of salt so numerous that, by mutual contact, they at length form solid arches, which, like winter ice, cover the surface of the lakes. These masses are frequently nine inches thick. The action of the air whitens the upper layers; the lower ones preserve a bluish tint, which in some places assumes a beautiful violet hue; and the solidity of these crystal fields is such that horses, camels, and chariots pass over them with the greatest safety.
The mines of Russian Asia are by far more productive than those of any other portion of the empire, as from them is extracted the whole of the gold, silver, platinum, and lead, nine-tenths of the copper, and eleven-twelfths of the iron which is brought into use. These mines are mostly situated in the Ooral and Altai mountain ranges. It is in those parts which face Siberia—that is, the eastern slope of the Oural, and the northern declivities of the Altai, with its secondary branches—that are found the veins of precious metal. The best account of these mines is that contained in Tcheffkin's able work on the subject, published in 1851, and to which we call particular attention, as well worthy of translation. The original discovery of gold—and that, too, in its native state of veins—occurred in 1743, near Yekaterinburg; but the subsequent discovery, in 1814, of auriferous sand-fields afforded a much cheaper means of obtaining this metal, and caused the working of gold-mines to be nearly abandoned. The Berezoff mine gold, containing $1\frac{1}{2}$ oz. troy to 100 cwt. of ore, cost, for working expenses alone, 18s. an oz.; whereas the sand-gold of the same mining district, containing only $\frac{1}{4}$ oz. in 100 cwt. of sand, cost but 10s.; so that, supposing the yield to be equal, the extraction of sand-gold would be ten times cheaper than that of ore-gold. The working of auriferous sand-fields was first introduced by the Ooral government mining foundries; but in 1819 it passed into the possession of private foundries. In 1829 private companies began to work these fields in Western, and about 1838 in Eastern Siberia. An extension of the gold produce in Russia is scarcely to be expected. For several years no new discoveries of importance have been made, excepting only in the Nertchinsk foundry district, where, indeed, such promising deposits have been found among the affluents of the Sheelka that the yield of this district, which amounted from 1846 till 1849, to about 8 cwt. a year, rose in 1850 to 24 cwt. The love of exploration, however, has subsided; the former deposits are becoming exhausted; the yield of the auriferous sands is perceptibly diminishing; and the gain of the private Siberian companies, particularly of Eastern Siberia, has sensibly decreased. The average yield of the sands washed in the Oorals, which, from 1814 to 1839, was 12 dwt. of gold to 100 cwt. of sand, fell in 1846 to less than 5 dwt.; and there are whole districts where the yield of the sands has fallen to below 4 dwt. In the Verkh-Isetski foundries of Mr Yakovlieff, for many years, about 50 cwt. of ore are won, at a yield of only 2 dwt. With regard to diamonds, only small stones are found. These regions, as yet but little known, are now explored with systematic regularity. The two chains, the Ooral and the Altai, are divided into several mining districts. In each of them, the officers to whom is confided the direction of the works send out every summer detachments of discovery, whose duty it is to examine in detail the mountains assigned to them; and the point at which the expedition stopped the preceding year is generally that of departure for the next year's expedition.
Asiatic Russia, independently of Transcaucasia, has recently been distributed into the following divisions:—Western Siberia, comprising the governments of Tobolsk and Tomsk, and the provinces of Semipalatinsk and Omsk; Eastern Siberia, comprising the governments of Yakootsk, Yenisey, and Irkootsk, and the Transbaikal and Kamitchata provinces. It is further intended to divide the Amoor region into two new provinces.
The population of this territory amounts to 5,361,234 inhabitants, and consists of Slavonians, called Siberiaks, settlers from the interior of Russia; Siberian Kozzacks, Finnish races, Samoyeds, Ostiaks, Toongooz, Yakoots, Booriats, Gheeliaks, Mongols, Tartars, and Keergheez. It is rapidly increasing; and here, as in the Caucasus, it was religious questions, much more than political causes, which contributed most to the colonization of the country. In 1765 alone, 40,000 sectarians, called Polish settlers, were exiled to Siberia from Starodob and other towns in the government of Tchernegeoff; and fully two-thirds of the Ooral Kozzacks are also sectarians, whose superstitions are extremely absurd, and often noxious. In ten years, from 1832-42, seventy thousand peasants, male and female, were sent to Siberia for bad conduct by their proprietors, the town corporations, and rural communes. Except for crimes, however, none can be sent without their families. The Swedish officers who fell into the hands of Peter the Great, and a regular succession of recruits furnished by the empire itself, formed another part of the population. The lowest class of exiles are condemned to the mines; a class whose offences are of a milder character, are distributed amongst the distilleries; a third class receive grants of lands, for which a trifle is paid to government. The individuals comprising this section are formed into settlements, under the superintendence of a strict police. Siberia has its schools, gymnasia, and other institutions of the kind, which have lately been much increased. Irkootsk is the centre of the greatest civilization, and it possesses a section of the Russian Geographical Society, very important for statistics. The Keergheez steppes are supposed to contain about 750,000 inhabitants, divided into the Great, Middle, and Little Ordes.
The manufactures are few, and unimportant, with the exception of spirits and leather, which are made to a considerable extent in various parts. There are several establishments for soap-boiling, the melting of tallow, and making of stearine candles. Cotton and wool are manufactured in some parts into coarse stuffs. The chief trading towns are Irkootsk, Kiakhta, Krasnoyarsk, Omsk, Tomsk, and Tobolsk, Irkootsk, the principal city of Eastern, and Omsk, of Western Siberia, being the seats of the respective governors, are of course emporiums for the sale of European commodities, which are also largely dealt in at the fairs of Ibit and Tiumen. This latter place is rapidly rising in importance. Independently of the sale of colonial and other goods, the produce of European Russia, such as corn, meal, and iron, tools and utensils, are exchanged for the skins, cattle, caviar, fish (salted and fresh), and game, brought to them from the interior by the Ostiaks or Tartars. Every year the merchants of Tobolsk, Tiumen, and other towns send boats laden with flour up the Irtish and Ob to Berezoff and other small towns situated farther to the north, and these boats return freighted with fish. It is, however, on the Caspian that the most productive fisheries are established. One alone is farmed for L34,375 yearly, and there are several others; but, like its waters, the productiveness of this sea is declining. Measures have been proposed to remedy this evil by piscicultural enactments. The Ooral river yields also great quantities of beloogar, or large sturgeon, which furnishes the delicate Russian caviar. The agents of the merchants, established in the small towns upon the banks of the Ob, purchase also of the Ostiaks valuable furs, which, together with soap, tallow, and leather, they afterwards export, partly to the fair of Neezni-Novgorod, and partly to the Keergheez of the steppes, who pay them in horses, cattle, and cotton stuffs, purchased by themselves of the Bookharians; the remaining produce of the government of Tobolsk is exported by the way of Kiakhta into China, whence are brought in exchange silks and tea. Kiakhta is the sole point of commercial intercourse between the two great empires of Russia and China. Almost all the principal tea-dealers in Russia have agents at that place, whilst the Chinese traffickers consist chiefly of temporary visitors without their families. The Russians there receive the staples of China, for which they give in return the productions of their own country. The nature and extent of the commerce of Kiakhta will be seen from the following statement:
**Exportation of Russian Merchandise to China.**
| Description | In 1853. | In 1857. | |-------------|----------|----------| | Skins to the amount of | 638,964 | ... | | Leather | 212,137 | 324,850 | | Linen | 58,633 | ... | | Cottons | 296,321 | 1,363,592 | | Cloths | 641,857 | 1,429,445 | | Furs | ... | 1,247,350 | | Gold and silver articles | ... | 1,236,642 | | Corn, iron, steel, copper, glass, and other articles | 413,185 | ... | | Flax, hemp, silk, and woollen produce; hoofs and horns, metal articles, &c. | ... | 477,225 | | Transit merchandise | 155,923 | ... | | **Total.** | **2,384,460** | **6,169,104** |
Or sterling...L1,372,337
**Importation of Chinese Merchandise into Russia.**
| Description | In 1853. | In 1857. | |-------------|----------|----------| | Tea | 1,974,042 | 5,892,261 | | Sugar | 59,599 | 73,782 | | Silks | 35,064 | 13,146 | | Cottons | 53,398 | 267,660 | | Drags, &c. | ... | 623 | | Wool | ... | ... | | Other different articles, such as fruits, grain, colours, furs, raw silk, &c. | ... | 1,535,891 | | **Total.** | **9,192,193** | **7,542,472** |
Or sterling...L1,331,578
There is a school at Kiakhta for teaching the Chinese language. The trade with China is a great source of wealth to Siberia, as will also be that carried on by the Amoor; for now that Siberia has an outlet on the navigable Pacific, it will flourish like California.
Another great commercial line is that which branches from Irkootsk, down the Lena, into the heart of the frozen regions and the shores of the Arctic Ocean. Yakootsk, situated about 800 miles down the Lena, is the emporium where the furs and other products of these desolate regions are collected. They are brought from the remotest extremities of the land which borders on Behring's Straits, and from the American territory. A considerable proportion consists of the tribute which is paid to government, and the wandering traders exchange tobacco, spirits, cutlery, beads, and toys for the remainder. The wild animals of this country are the polar bear, wolf, lynx, Arctic fox, wild boar, beaver, sable, ermine, squirrel, sea-lion, walrus, seal, otter, and sea-cat. Stray tigers and panthers have likewise been met with.
A geographical and statistical account of the Caucasus at large having been already given in the general description of Russia, we need only add the following complementary remarks. That part which extends from the southern governments of European Russia, up to the central mountain range of the Caucasus belongs to Europe, and is called Circassia; the part beyond belongs to Asia, and is called Transcaucasia. The latter is divided into the following governments:—1. Tiflis; 2. Derbend; 3. Tchelmakh; 4. Erivan; 5. Kutais,—each with a chief town of the same name. Tiflis is the capital. These governments comprise the former provinces of Gruzia, Armenia, Imeritia, Daghestan, and some other lesser ones. Small as this territory is, compared with the vast extent of Russia, it is of no trifling importance to her in a commercial, financial, and political point of view. Its geographical position appears to us the happiest possible for a power prosecuting gigantic schemes of commercial intercourse and of territorial aggrandizement. Climate, soil, natural capabilities, situation, and political relations, all prove that, whatever it has cost Russia to acquire and maintain her Transcaucasian dominions, their value, which as yet is developed only to a small extent, justifies her policy. A history of the Caucasus, with a full account of its productions, by Colonel Uslar, being about to appear under the auspices of the Russian government, we would rather call attention to this fresh source of trustworthy information than give returns which are both incomplete and antiquated. The following general account we know to be true:
The cultivation of the mulberry tree is now very much improving, and as much as 9660 cwt. of raw silk were forwarded in 1858 to Moscow alone for manufacture there.
The natural capabilities of the country afford a possibility of immensely increasing the production of this valuable commodity. It has lately been very much developed. The quality is still rather inferior; and although cotton is produced in some of the other southern or Asiatic possessions, it will be long ere Russia becomes independent of the United States for this article, more particularly since her own internal demands are extensively increasing.
The wine is indigenous to these regions, and presents a great variety of kinds. The vineyards are numerous and rich, the country being well adapted for the cultivation of the plant. All the wine and brandy produced are entirely absorbed by the internal consumption, which is incredible. Among the natural products likely to become important articles of trade, but which are at present nearly all consumed at home, are rice, saffron, madder, and cochineal. The Armenian or southern parts of the Transcaucasian provinces, produce a kind of cochineal which is said to yield a dye equal to that of Mexico. The mountain off- shoots of the Kazbeck and Elbrus are rich in silver-lead ore, which has been found in fifty different places. Parts of this country also produce coal.
Extensive herds might be reared in these provinces, which afford great facilities for their maintenance. Great numbers of cattle and sheep are indeed raised, but the wool of the one is bad and the breed of the other inferior. Merino sheep have been successfully introduced into this quarter. There is a fine race of horses, and an abundance of camels, asses, mules, and swine. The natural capabilities of these provinces are very great, affording facilities for the production of the most valuable commodities, exclusively furnished by southern climates. These have only been developed to a partial extent; but the government displays so much laudable zeal in encouraging such branches of industry as are best suited to the various divisions of the empire that, after a certain time, she will be nearly independent of what are called colonial goods,—silk, cotton, and the like.
This is not the place to enter into the important question relative to the political influence which Russia is likely to exercise over the East by thus firmly establishing her dominion beyond the Caucasus; but her far-sighted policy has two main objects, which will be promoted by rendering the Caucasian isthmus a commercial country, securely incorporated with the rest of the empire. These are the creation of a manufacturing industry that will in time render her independent of other countries, particularly of England, and the establishment of her power in Asia, whence great advantages are not unreasonably expected. Now these provinces will at once supply the raw material necessary for manufactures, and at the same time open out a market for them in the East. It is true that the Caucasian mountains almost totally sever this limb from the great body of the empire, the passes of Mozak being difficult of access, and the country infested with predatory hordes. But there are other and more eligible means of communication,—viz., the Caspian on the east, and the Black Sea on the west. Over the former Russia now reigns paramount, no other vessels of war but her own being allowed to navigate there. In this vast reservoir the Volga, which is the great artery of Russia, pours its waters, collected during a navigable course of 2053 miles through some of the most fertile regions of the empire, and including in its tributaries those most distinguished for manufacturing industry, which is the main object. This noble stream communicating with the Baltic, there is an easy transport of goods insured from the remotest governments of the empire to the Caspian, and thence to the Transcaucasian territory. There is also on the other side a communication by the Black Sea, but it does not present so many advantages as that by the Caspian.
In the Baltic Sea are,—1. The Aland Islands, more than 100 in number, forming a group at the entrance of the Bothnian Gulf. They are almost all rocky; and the largest are Aland, Lemland, Eckero, Feghe, and Brende. 2. Hochland, nearly in the middle of the Finnish Gulf, is a high granite cliff. 3. Kotlin, on which is situated the fortress of Cronstadt, one of the strongest in Europe. 4. Oesel. 5. Dago. 6. Worms. 7. Mon, on the western coast of Estonia. 8. Rüno, in the Gulf of Riga. Besides these, on the northern coast of Finland, lie a countless number of rocky islets called scheeren, often affording very picturesque scenery. In the Caspian Sea the islands are generally rocky. The most remarkable on the western coast are the Tiulen or Seals' Island, and the Zeeloy, on which the vine is cultivated. In the White Sea is the Solovetsky group, abounding with Muscovy glass or mica (vitrum ruthenicum.)
The islands in the Northern Ocean are,—1. Kolgoosk, opposite Tchek Bay, visited by the inhabitants of the government of Arkhangel for its great quantity of geese and eider-down. 2. Novaja Zemlija, consisting of two large islands, separated by the Matotchkin Strait, and of several smaller ones. In June the Russian hunters resort hither for chasing the moose, sea-hares, and seals. 3. Waigats, at the north-eastern point of European Russia. 4. The Spitzbergen Archipelago. 5. The Lena Archipelago, situated at the mouth of the Lena, and the principal of which are New Siberia, Thaldeus, Koteli, and Liakhoff. 6. To the north of the Kolema lies the Bears' group. These islands are covered with snow during nearly the whole year. Their surface is generally rocky, and on some of them there are marks of volcanoes. They are chiefly remarkable for the teeth of the mammoth, rhinoceros, buffalo, and other animals found upon and beneath the surface of the ground. It was the search for ivory which originally induced the Russians to visit these regions, and their first exploring expedition was despatched in 1820. These islands are not inhabited, though traces of human beings have been discovered by the Russians engaged in the fisheries. Several kinds of shrubs are found, but no trees, although the shores are covered with drift wood. The southernmost point of these islands is in Lat. 69° 5', and they extend to Lat. 76° 20'. Their longitude is between 154° and 183° 50' E. of Greenwich.
These consist of the N.W. coast of America, extending from London, with a narrow stripe of coast reaching as far south as 55° 30' of N. Lat. Further, of the islands lying to the south and east of Kamchatka, enumerated as follows:—1. The Kurile group, twenty-two in number, and of which nineteen belong to Russia. They are all volcanic, and the few inhabitants are of Japanese origin. 2. The Commander's Group, comprising Behring's and Copper islands, on the latter of which Behring himself was buried. 3. The Aleutian Islands, divided into four groups,—the Bleegai or Near, the Rat, the Andreanoff, and the Fox groups. The largest of the Aleutian Islands is Oonalashka, 100 miles by 35. The volcano of Agazedan, on Ounalashka, is 9000 feet above the water-level. 4. The Shumagin; and 5. The Eudoxian, both to the south of the peninsula of Aliask. 6. Kadyak, to the east of Aliask. 7. Sitkha and the adjacent islands, lying on the extreme southern confines of the Russian coast. 8. The Prebeeloff, to the north of the Aleutian. 9. St Matthew's Island; and 10. St Lawrence's, both to the north of Prebeeloff's group. 11. Grozdief, or St Diomed's Island, in Behring's Straits. Every one of these islands is either a distinct mountain or the continuation of a chain. On the American continent the whole interior of the stripe extending from the southern border to Mount St Elias, is one continued mass of mountains, which sensibly declines as it approaches the Polar Sea and Eastern Ocean. The eastern parts of these possessions are covered with marshes and forests. The soil is mostly stony and the climate cold, though not so much so as in Kamchatka. It is even warmer than the province of Yakootsk in Northern Asia. Thick fogs brood over these inhospitable shores; and the produce of the chase or fishing forms the sole source of riches to the natives. The population, on the 1st January 1858, in the American colonies of New Arkhangel, Kadyak, Oonalashka, Akhtinsk, the Kurile Islands, and Kenaik Bay, amounted only to 5322 males and 4743 females, making a total of 10,065 souls; of which number 746 were Russians, 688 being males and 1838 Creoles, of whom 910 were males.
There were further in America 9 orthodox Greek churches and 35 chapels, besides 1 church at Ayan in Asia, altogether with 12,000 parishioners, of whom 9050 natives, called Kolosches, Kadyaks, Oonalashkins or Aleuts, Akhtins, Kenaizses, Tchoogatches, Alegmatutes, and Koikh-paktes, besides some Esquimaux. Five Creoles were or- Rustchuk, a town of European Turkey, in Bulgaria, on the right bank of the Danube, here about 2 miles broad, opposite Giurgevo, and 55 miles below Nicopolis. It stands on a series of low hills, among extensive orchards, from the midst of whose foliage it rises conspicuous with its white chimneys and minarets. Extensive fortifications surround the town, and a citadel commands the passage of the river. The buildings are generally mean-looking, but there are several mosques, Greek and Armenian churches, synagogues, bazaars, and baths. Rustchuk is the seat of a Greek archbishop and of a Turkish pasha. There are some manufactures of woollen and cotton cloth, silk, leather, linen, and tobacco; while an active trade is carried on with Constantinople and Wallachia. For river navigation there is a harbour under the walls of the citadel. A battle was fought here between the Turks and the Russians in 1811, after which the town was taken by the latter. Rustchuk is inhabited by Turks, Wallachians, Greeks, and Jews. Pop. 30,000.