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Countries of the World: Russia

RELIGION.-The Russo-Greek Church is established by law and partly supported by the Imperial Government, and is said to have a membership of over 54,000,000 souls in European Russia. There is a sect known as "Old Believers," who profess to be the true representatives of the ancient orthodox faith, and who are very strong in many districts. There are over 7,000,000 Roman Catholics (mostly Poles); about 3,000,000 Protestants (principally of the Lutheran denomination); about 2,000,000 Mohammedans; nearly 3,000,000 Jews; and some Pagans in the Caspian provinces, where Buddhism prevails. Popular education is at a low ebb in Russia, and the peasants are ignorant, superstitious, and degraded. The culture of the higher classes is little more than a veneering of French superficiality, although Russia is by no means destitute of institutions of science and learning, some few of which rank very high. Within the past 30 years a wonderful impetus has been given to Russian literature by the labors of native poets, novelists, and historians, nearly all of whom belong to the Liberal school of politics.

ARMY AND NAVY. -The Russian army has been reorganized since the Turkish War. On a peace footing nearly 800,000 men, with 3400 guns, are supposed to be under arms; in European Russia, 420,000 combatants, with 2800 guns; in the Caucasus, 250,342 combatants and 300 guns; and in Asia, 131,116 combatants, with 196 guns. On a war footing it includes altogether 2,151,000 men, with 3400 guns. The navy, according to Lord Brassey, is as follows-March 1, 1891 :- First Class. Seven Hulls of iron. Maximum armor not less than 9 inches. Displacement exceeding 8500 tons. Second Class. -Four Hulls of iron or of wood. Maximum armor not less than 8 inches. Displacement not exceeding 8500 tons. Third Class-Eleven Hulls of iron or wood, armor 4½ to 6 inches. Fifteen Coast Defense vessels, together with unarmored and protected cruisers. GOVERNMENT AND FINANCES.-The government is an absolute monarchy, hereditary in the House of Romanoff, the ruler bearing the title of "Czar" or "Autocrat;" in Russian, "Samoderzhetz." The highest consultive body is the State Council, which consists of the ministers, or rather heads of departments, and such other dignitaries as the Emperor may select, and which is divided into 3 deparments, legislative, administrative and financial.

The Senate has charge of the promulgation and execution of the law, and forms the court of final appeal. The Holy Synod has jurisdiction over all Church matters. There is no parliament or representative body whatever, the ministers are little more than clerks to the Czar, and the people have absolutely nothing to say about how they shall be governed. All power centres in the person of the Czar, who appoints governors for the various provinces, and all other officers. Trial by jury was introduced in 1866, and the laws are strictly executed.

Emperor Alexander II. initiated many important reforms, and in the emancipation of the serfs by an imperial ukase of March 3, 1861, he revolutionized the social condition of Russia. But the laboring classes though emancipated were not enfranchised, and the resultant discontent finds expression only in conspiracy, secret meetings, and the study of treasonable literature of an inflammatory character. Extreme communistic views are held by a vast majority of the peasants and artisans, while Nihilism-a form of political belief which appears to aim at the destruction of all government and the establishment of anarchy as the supreme good-has, it is said, many thousand supporters even among the aristocratic classes.

Russia has a large national debt, amounting to £568,000,000. From the year 1800 to the present time the national expenditures have invariably exceeded the annual revenues, and Russia has always been cursed with a depreciated paper currency. The commercial honor of the nation has always been carefully upheld, and even while groaning under the fearful burdens entailed by the Crimean War Russia honorably paid the interest upon its bonds, although most of them were held by aliens and enemies. It is said that the annual expenditures reach 600,000,000 rubles, of which the army and navy absorb one-third and interest of the debt more than onesixth. A light poll tax is levied, there is a protective customs tariff, and the excise duties on salt, spirits, beer, and tobacco yield the greater part of the national revenue.

GREAT CITIES. -St. Petersburg, the capital of the Russian Empire, is entirely the creation of the last century and a half, having been founded by Peter the Great in 1703. It occupies a low, marshy site on the banks of the Neva, which is navigable to this point for vessels or moderate draught. Notwithstanding the unfavorable nature of the site, which is subject to periodical inundations, a grand city has been built here, containing some of the handsomest streets in Europe, and many splendid palaces, public buildings and monuments.

Moscow, the former capital, is one of the most interesting of European cities, ana contains a great number of churches and public buildings of peculiar and striking architecture. It was founded in the 12th century, and was almost entirely destroyed in 1812 by the Russians, in order to dislodge the army of Napoleon from its winter quarters.

Among the other large cities are Novgorod and Odessa.

HISTORY.-The Scythians and Sarmatians of the country bordering on the Don and the Dnieper, were known to the Greeks and Romans of old, and are mentioned by Herodotus, Strabo, and Tacitus. In the earlier centuries of the Christian era successive invasions of Goths, Huns, and other warlike peoples swept over the land, and either drove out or absorbed the native inhabitants. At this point we find the first mention of the Slavs, who drove the scattered Finnish tribes to the far N. and became the founders of the Russian people and government. There stands in Novgorod a splendid monument which was erected in 1862 on the millennial anniversary of the foundation of the Russian Empire.

But for many centuries the country was divided into practically independent provinces, some of which retained their autonomy up to a very recent period. The empire was divided and again united; it was broken into 4 parts; became a Confederacy, and again, under Ivan III., (1462-1505), became a nation. Christianity was introduced about the year 950, and two centuries later the greater part of the empire was overrun by the Mongols. From 1380 to 1470 tribute was paid to the Tartars, but Ivan the Great broke their power and his son and successor, Ivan the Terrible, contributed much to the greatness of Russia.

Under Peter the Great, the 4th monarch of the Romanoff dynasty, Russia emerged from barbarism, the boyars (noblemen) lost their influence, and the country assumed the position which it has ever since retained as a leading member of the European family of nations. Since the time of Peter its national policy has been directed to the acquirement of additional European and Asiatic territory, and every reign has seen vast possessions added to this already enormous power. Russia became involved in the general European wars of the first 15 years of this century, and destroyed its greatest city that it might not afford shelter to the hated invader. All efforts of the various nations which have at one time or another been absorbed by Russia to regain their independence have been barren of results; she never gives anything back. Although her schemes of aggrandizement on the Black Sea were temporarily checked by the war of 1854-55, in which England, France, and Sardinia supported the Ottoman Empire, Russia has since made greater strides E. and S., and has almost attained her chief aim, the full and unrestricted control of the Black Sea. She presses England upon the line of the Himalayas, and China finds its great wall an insufficient defence against the disciplined legions of this great power.

Properly speaking, Russia is an Asiatic power with great possessions in Europe rather than a European power with subject provinces in Asia, and its march has been and continues to be in a directly opposite line to the ordinary movement of population and empire.