Russia, political and social

Front matter

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Preface

Of late years Russia has attracted more and more of the attention of England and the civilised world. This attention is the more significant, as its object is not now, as formerly, only the Government. That which engages it is the country itself, i.e., the people. Many publications on Russia, multitudes of translations from Russian novelists, are a clear proof of this.

I hope, therefore, that I need not explain the reasons that have urged me to undertake this work. I have tried, as much as possible, to bring it within the reach of the general public by making it as brief as possible, and at the same time sufficiently thorough and serious for the reader to study in it Russia as a whole.

Russia as a social organism is my subject. I aim at describing political and social Russia just as it is, with its infinite territories, peopled by

IV PREFACE,

millions of peasants, uncultured but full of sympathetic qualities ; with its oddly organised classes ; with its intelligueniia, that martyr of its historic mission ; with its political problems, so mysterious, so involved. I see before me this land that causes so much suffering to those who love her, and yet knows how to attach them to her so strongly that no sufferings on her behalf terrify them. I am thinking of the poet's cry :

" Poor and rich, Powerful and powerless, Oh, Mother Russia!"

Will this image rise to the eyes of my reader ? It is for him to answer the question.

An indispensable explanation is yet necessary. Not knowing enough French to write in that tongue, I wrote the work in Russian, and then translated it with the help of my friend, M. Albert Savine. I made a literal translation : M. Savine gave to this translation a literary style. Thus the purely literary form of the book belongs to his able pen. I may add that I have always been struck with the refinement of M. Savine's taste ; and although he does not know Russian, I find he has rendered admirably the finest shades of meaning in my text, a task the more difficult

PREFACE.

as my ideas often, by his own confession, go far beyond, and sometimes are in opposition to, his.

Moreover, my book owes to M. Albert Savine certain slight alterations in the arrangement of the chapters, etc. Finally, and most important, I owe to M. Savine many hints as to the side of Russian life most likely to interest the general public. If, therefore, the reader finds this book answer in any way the questions he wants to ask about Russia, he will bear in mind that he owes this in a great measure to- my collaborator. Without his help, the attainment of this end would have been very difficult for one addressing a public unknown to him and so different from the Russian audience to which he is accustomed.

L. TIKHOMIROV.

February, 1886.

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NOTTINGHAM MECHANICS' INSTITUTION

LENDING LIBRARY.

NOTE BY THE TRANSLATOR.

I HAVE tried to translate the work of Leo Tikhomirov

accurately, but I would not wish to be understood as

necessarily endorsing every opinion expressed in it.

Whilst in almost every case such an endorsement would

be forthcoming, there are one or two instances in which

his ideas, though not, I believe, going beyond mine, are

to some extent in opposition to them.

E. A.

VOL. I. b

LENDING UBRARY

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

Book I. The Russian Empire And Russia

PAGE

Chap. I. Russia as a name in political geography, and the Russian nation. — Weakness and fragility of great empires. — The vitality of Russia. — Her manner of L-^ historical development. — This essentially the develop — ' ment of her people ..... .5

Chap. II. Population of Russia. — Population of Russian 1^ race. — Population of foreign race. — Slight influence of the latter. — Distribution of these populations . . 11

Chap. III. Finland. — Union on the basis of equality. — Its consequences. — Ancient liberties of Finland. — Modus Vivendi. — Strategic irhportance of Finland to Russia. — Why the Finlanders are growing uneasy . 15

Chap. IV. Baltic provinces. — Importance of their ports to Russia. — Lithuanian race. — German conquerors. — Land question.— Stupid indifference of the Government . . . . . . . . -23

Chap. V. Poland. — Polish and Russian population. — The Ukraine and White Russia Questions. — Historical. — Milioutine's ideas ; his agrarian reform. — Ties between Poland and true Russia. — Evil policy of the Govern- i> ment ......... 29

Chap. VI. Bessarabia. — The Crimea. — The Caucasus and

VIII CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

PAGE

Georgia. — Armenia. — Policy — economic and police — , of the Government of such a nature as to involve the

loss to Russia of their services ..... 44

Chap. VII. Turkestan.- — Indigenous populations. — The Russian Government only knows how to conquer. — Conflict with England, commercial and — one of these days — military . . 55

Chap. VIII. National feeling in the Ukraine. — Chevtchenko and the Nationalists contemporary with him.— Popular aspirations. — The Nationalists do not satisfy these. — •Dragomanov and his influence. — Summary and conclusion ...... .60

Book II. Russian Russia

GERMANS AND JEWS.

Chap. I, Russia considered physically. — Influence of its unity of climate and soil on the unity of the Russian people. — Influence of the struggle for life on this unity. — Differences of provincial types. — The three great Russian races . . . . . . . - 67

- Chap. II. Characteristic traits of these three races, as shown in their popular songs and tales. — Differences of dialect 72

Chap. III. The Cossacks. — Their part in history. — Organization of the Cossack " army." — Policy of the Government in respect to the Cossacks.— Discontent to which this has given rise among them ... 85

Chap. IV. Germans and Jews. — German pretensions to have civilized Russia.— Great influence on Russian policy of the Germans of the Baltic. — German labour colonies. — The part they have played in southern Russia. — The Jews. — Their importance as part of the

CONTENTS OF VOL. I. IX

PAGE

people. — Their despised position. — Polish and Caucasian Jews. — Rights of domicile. — Jews in the administration and in the schools. — Economic role of the Jews.— Their poverty and their plundering. — The Semitic question. — The means to its solution . . 93

THE SOCIAL I I T ' I'T, ri'i|- iMImil \

THE PEOPLE.

Chap. I. The Tartar invasions have nipped in the bud the development of the germs of a landed aristocracy and of a commercial class. — The ancient village in Russia. — The primitive mir. — Preponderating importance of the popular class. — Their indirect action on authority. — In their eyes serfdom was only a transitory institution. — They connect serfdom rather with the OTzV, the one asylum of liberty 107

Chap. II. What the mir is. — Russian villages : the izba ; the dvor. — The osmak. — Organization of labour. — Administration of the mir. — The Assemblies. — Woman's rights. — Administrative control. — Division of the soil. — Communal labour. — Why the sharing of land came to an end. — Its renewal . . . . . .115

Chap. III. The clan. — Early agriculture and markets. — Individual property. — The volosi. — Who were the landowners ? — The family commune. — The fractional com- • mune. — Origin of the mir. — The tchetvertniks. — Illustrations. — The commune of the mir. — Mobility of the population. — Development of self-government. — Illustrations. — Influence of foreign elements. — The average of the commune family and of the individual family. — Influence of the Government. — Demands of the peasants. — Summary . . . . . . -130

X CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

PAGE

Chap. IV. The mir contrasted with the political system of the country. — Na'ivet'e of popular ideas. — Confusion of effects due to physical phenomena with those due to political. — Illustrations from travellers' observations and popular tradition. — Belief in sorcerers. — The legend of emancipation. — Contempt for human dignity. — The Great Family of old . . . . -174

Chap. V. The people take part in the moral movement. — The Schism : its causes and effects. — The sectaries : their role in Russia itself — The action of Europe. — The educated classes draw near the people. — Tolstoi ministry; Russian schools. — The " otkhoji^ promysly ;" their importance in the life of the Russian people. — Disappearance of the " ancient family." — Family partitions . . . . . . . . .188

Book IV. The Social Classes

THE CLERGY, NOBILITY, BOURGEOISIE.

Chap/ I. Is there any other organic force in Russia than

^""^ the people and the tzar ? — The Muscovite autocracy,

; and its part in history. — Its degeneration into tyranny.

— The tzars try to concentrate around them the upper

classes, tamed . . . . . . . .205

Chap. II. The Russian clergy. — Church organization. — The part played by our clergy as police. — Black and white clergy. — Tyranny of the black clergy. — Absence of moral influence. — Persecution of the raskol. — Tolstoi's clergy. — Nihilism carries off the flower of the ecclesiastical youth. — The real clergy and the imperial policy . . . . . . . -215

Chap. III. The old princely aristocracy. — The Russian nobility. — Their reinforcement from the plebs. — The

CONTENTS OK VOL. I. XI

PAGE

tchin.^General effeteness of tlie nobility. — Ancient privileges and serfdom. — The horrors of serfdom. — Serf revolts. — The nobility's function as civilizer. — Intro- \ / duction into Russia of the ideas of Western Europe, i — The nobility and the ukase of emancipation. — What they ought to do, and what they do. — Liberal nobility. 225 Chap. IV. The bourgeoisie. — Bourgeoisie of the towns. — Russian capitalism. — No third estate in Russia. — Primitive accumulation. — Frauds and thefts the source of fortunes. — Business jobbers. — The village bourgeoisie : koulaks and miroifeds 247

BOO/C V.

ECONOMIC AND INDUSTRIAL RUSSIA.

Chap. I. Natural riches of Russia. — Its poverty from the point of view of effective products. — Total yearly pro duction. — Revenue per head. — State expenses. — Rapid growth of the population out of proportion to the increase in the national revenue. — Russian agriculture and industry, their backward position .... 265

Chap. II. The Crimean War revealed to Russia her economic inferiority. — Emancipation of the serfs. — Government policy opposed to logic. — Agriculture the chief economic force in Russia. — Large landed property.-^Peasant holdings. — Measures antagonistic to the extension of these last. • — Buying-up speculations. — The land crisis. — ^Exportation stationary , . 271

Chap. III. Industry. — Action of Government in favour of large capital. — Speculation. — Joint-stock companies. — Railroads.— -Protectionist tariffs. — Trans-Caucasus and frontier questions.^ Germans in Poland. — Wonderful remedy proposed by Katkov. — Commercial balance sheet 281

Xll CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

PAGE

Chap. IV. State finances. — Their condition. — State debt. — Deficit and monetary crisis. — Depreciation of the rouble 292

Chap. V. Democratic character of landed property. — Transmigration of the peasants. — Policy of the Government. — Local industries. — Initiative of the peasants. — Crisis in these industries 296

Chap. VI. Material condition of the Russian people. — Budget of the well-to-do family and of the indigent. — Workmen's wages — Budget of the Muscovite peasants. — Food.- — Famine-bread. — Growth of population.— Births and deaths 306

LENDING LIBRARY.

Book I. The Russian Empire And Russia

VOL. I.

MECHANICS' INSTITUTION I LENDING L/BRARY. J

BOOK I.

Chap. I. Russia as a name in political geography, and the Russian nation. — ^Weakness and fragility of great empires. — The vitality of Russia. — Her manner of historical development. — This essentially the development of her people.

Chap. II. Population of Russia. — Population of Russian race. — Population of foreign race. — Slight influence of the latter. — Distribution of these populations.

Chap. III. Finland. — Union on the basis of equality. — Its consequences. — Ancient liberties of Finland. — Modus vivendi. — Strategic importance of Finland to Russia. — Why the Finlanders are growing uneasy.

Chap. IV. Baltic provinces. — Importance of their ports to Russia. — Lithuanian race. — German conquerors. — Land question. — Stupid indifference of the Government.

Chap. V. Poland. — Polish and Russian population. — The Ukraine and White Russia questions. — Historical. — Milioutine's ideas ; his agrarian reform.^ — -Ties between Poland and true Russia. — Evil policy of our Government.

Chap. VI. Bessarabia. — The Crimea. — The Caucasus and Georgia. — Armenia. — Policy — economic and police — of the Government of such a nature as to involve the loss to Russia of their services.

Chap. VII. Turkestan. — Indigenous populations. — The Russian Government only knows how to conquer. — Conflict with England, commercial and — one of these days — military.

Chap. VIII. National feeling in the Ukraine. — Chevtchenko and the Nationalists contemporary with him. — Popular aspirations. — The Nationalists do not satisfy these. — M. Dragomanov and his influence. — Summary and conclusion.

MECHANICS' mmuTm

^^^^LENDINGUBRARy.

Chapter I

Russia as a name in political geography, and the Russian nation, — Weakness and fragility of great empires. — The vitality of Russia. — Her manner of historical development. — This essentially the development of her people.

Glance at the map of Russia ; then try to imagine, with closed eyes, the endless space before you. Unbidden this question comes into your mind : Is Russia in truth a country, or is it only a geographical name ? Can there be a real inner bond uniting all these populations, so far asunder ? In truth, what bond can exist between an inhabitant of Kamtchatka and an inhabitant of Podolia, seeing that, from the nature of the means of communication, the mere passing from one of these countries to the other implies a three or four months' journey ? Even if we imagine a train travelling at forty kilometres an hour, without stopping, straight from the western frontier to the eastern limit of Russia, it would take not less than a fortnight to traverse this distance of 15,000 kilometres ; and at his journey's end the traveller might congratulate himself on having passed through a territory greater than Europe and Australia taken together, a territory equal to one-sixth of the land on the globe — 22,31 1,997 square kilometres.^

In truth this seems too large for a nation. History furnishes some examples of gigantic monarchies. Thus the Mongolian empire was much larger than Russia. Turkey, at the time of its magnificence, had a territory of 10,000,000 kilometres. England, with its colonies, actually exceeds Russia by 464,000 kilometres. But who would regard one of these states as a single country ? England has India and Canada. No one will say that these are English countries. For centuries Turkey held Greece or Bulgaria. It has always been clear that there was no organic connexion between these countries and their conqueror, although the latter had imposed upon them its political name. This is a characteristic of all huge monarchies, and the explanation of their comparatively short duration. Do we not see a handful of mountaineers in the Pyrenees keep their organic unity for centuries, whilst, one after the other, by the side of this handful of Basques, the empire of Rome, the eternal city, the universal empire of Charlemagne, the empire of Charles V., on which the sun never set, appear, wax, and wane ?

These great memories of history haunt you when you picture to yourself the enormous territory of Russia. Can we find there any part endowed with organic unity ? Is it but a fragile conglomeration, like the empires of Attila and of Tamerlane ? This

1 For the sake of comparison, let us remember that France, exclusive of its colonies, contains only 528,577 square kilometres; Germany, 544,907 ; Austria, 624,045.

last supposition seems the more plausible, seeing that in the list of Russian nationalities there are, without reckoning foreigners, more than seventy names. How can these diverse peoples be held as one ? Ought we not to expect to see Russia break up one of these fine days, leaving in its place a number of independent countries .''

Without working out in full this question — I shall give later on some details that will make the reader clear on this point, — it is certain that one fact thoroughly proven is always worth more than any number of suppositions. Russia is a fact humanity has had plenty of time to grasp. The existence of gigantic artificial empires, like the Oriental ones, is not lasting. Russia has existed already more than five hundred years as a state, more than a thousand as a national unity. What changes she has seen around her during all these centuries ! She was present at the astounding rise and at the final fall of the Tartar empire. She saw the birth of that powerful Ottoman empire whose inevitable death is now but a question of years. Born at the same time as Russia, Poland has already passed through all the stages of political growth and decomposition. Kindred revolutions have occurred in Western Europe. The power of Spain blossoms and decays. The temporal power of the popes is born and dies. A crowd ot small political organisms — the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden — have reached those extreme limits of growth which they cannot pass. . . . And Russia ? Russia lives, develops always ; she has not passed her highest point, is not upon the downward path that leads to decrepitude. She marches rather

II MECHANICS' INSTITUTION |

G LIBRARY. J towards a completeness as yet unachieved. Her appearance has little likeness to that of states that have only an artificial existence. Even in the growth of the Russian empire the presence of some unknown organic force is felt. That growth in no way resembles the conquests of Tamerlane, which ten years afterwards were as if they had not been. Russia grows without pause through whole centuries.

The Russian state had in the 15th century 560,000 kilometres; in the i6th, 8,720,000; in the 17th, 14,392,000; in the 18th, 17,080,000; in the 19th, 22,311,992. The regularity and steadiness of advance in these figfures should be noted. Yet more significant is the fact that very often the increase in size of the state was preceded by an increase in size of the national territory. Large areas, north, east, south, were often occupied or conquered by the people before the Government dreamed of taking them. It has even come to pass that the Government has refused to take under its protection territory that the Cossacks have conquered.

Hence the characteristic phenomenon, that the growth of Russian territory depends but little on the genius of its rulers. That growth did not cease under imbecile sovereigns like Theodore I., nor did it cease at the times of the greatest political confusion. The beginning of the 1 7th century was foi: Russia a period of political disorganization that almost ended in the loss of her independence. Nevertheless, whilst in 1598 she had a territory of 8,792,000 square kilometres, in 1645, at the end of this troublous time, she had raised it to 14,000,000.

The same phenomenon occurs in the second quarter of the 1 8th century. It is clear that this fact cannot be ascribed to the accidental successes of great conquerors, and that its causes must be sought more deeply than these, in the very life of the nation.

The vitality of Russia is shown yet more clearly in her times of trial. Our history is that of a ceaseless struggle, that more than once has brought the people to bay. From 1238 Russia bowed beneath the yoke of the Tartar conquerors, a terrible yoke borne by her for two centuries. Half- vanquished, torn limb from limb, she nevertheless recovered strength enough to rise and to re-enter on the scene with more power of resistance than ever. During the troublous times at the beginning of the 17th century, Russia, torn by civil war, was not only without a reigning dynasty, but without a national Government. Part of her territory was invaded by the Swedes ; the rest to a great extent conquered by the Poles, who held even the capital of the empire. Russia had no longer either an army or an administration. The boyards, who formed the miserable provisional Government of the country, decreed, under the Polish soldiers' bayonets, the accession of Prince Vladislas to the Muscovite throne. On a sudden from all sides resounded the voices of patriots ; not tzars, nor great boyards, nor governors, nor officials, but men of the people, — inferior nobles like the brothers Liapounov, the monk Abraham Palitzine, a small trader, Kouzma Minine. Prince Pojarsky, whose family had long fallen, was the most eminent of them. A general revolt breaks out in Russia. Small bodies of lO RUSSIA, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL.

insurgents (chichis, they were called) vanquish the Polish army. A militia of 100,000 men approaches Moscow ; this finding itself powerless, countless new troops come from the hearts of the provinces. That mighty struggle, ending in a complete deliverance of the fatherland, is borne by the people. Even after the tzar is nominated, the National Assembly (zemsky-sobor) sits for many years ; and it is above all to the energy and prudence of its representatives that Russia owes her freedom.

Do not these history-memories proclaim the organic forces of Russia, forces whose activity does not cease even in times of political disorganization ? These forces more than once put to nought the calculations of conquerors, who as a rule only saw in Russia her Government. Thus, in 16 12, the Jesuits, always at one with the kings of Poland as to every conquest of Russia, thought it sufficient to strike a strong blow at the centre of government. A century later, Charles XII., King of Sweden, based all his calculations on an understanding with the Government of the Ukraine. The plans of Napoleon I.,^ who thought he had only to fight Alexander I., were always thwarted by the people.

1 Napoleon I., however, with the keen nose of a man who belongs by birth to a revolutionary time, had some suspicion of the importance of the masses of the people : he tried to seduce the Russian serfs by promises of emancipation. This timid attempt produced no result. The popular imagination has, however, been influenced by the memory of the great conqueror. Even at the present time among our sectaries there is a group called Napoleonovchtchina (Napoleonians), who worship Napoleon's portrait. As to the bulk of the people, they confuse him with Antichrist.

LENDING UBRARY.

nottTngham' MECHANICS' INSTITUTION .LENDING LIBRARY

Chapter II

Population of Russia. — Population of Russian race. — Population of foreign race. — Slight influence of the latter. — Distribution of these populations.

If we now examine more in detail the composition of the Russian population, the existence of a national unity will not astpnish us so much. It is true the Russian empire includes more than seventy different nationalities ; but we must not exaggerate the importance of this fact. Of 100,000,000 inhabitants of the empire, the Russian race reckons as 67,000,000, so that there are left for all other races only 33,000,000. Thus the number of each of the latter cannot be large ; in fact, the Finnish race — the most numerous, except the Slav, in Russia — forms only six per cent, of the population of the empire, and moreover is broken up into eleven varieties, separated one from the other by enormous distances, by difference of speech, by utter absence of intercourse. Besides, many of these races are savage tribes of some thousands of people. -^ Speaking

■■• E.g. Samoyedes, 25,000 ; Vogoulis and Ougres, 2,000 ; Mongols of Siberia, 5,000 ; loukaghirs, Tchoiiktchis, Guiliaks, Kamtchadals, together, 40,000. The mountain tribes of the Caucasus (Karatchais, Oubikhs, Koumiks, Svanets, Ossetines, etc.) are often not more numerous ; each only numbers from 5,000 to 25,000 people. These examples might be multiplied.

generally, we might ignore one-half of them without the population of the empire really dimishing one-half per cent. These small tribes, in ■ fact, can be left more and more out of our calculations, partly because they are assimilating to the Russians, partly, unhappily, on account of the mortality, at times terrible, among them.

Of course some of the peoples of the empire not belonging to the Russian race are of more importance than this. Whole provinces have had their his- • tory, and preserve even to-day a highly developed language and a civilization at times superior to that of the purely Russian race. These provinces occupy part of the west and south of Russia. Finland, the governments of the Baltic, Lithuania, Poland, part of Bessarabia, the governments situated beyond the Caucasus, are all so many countries where Russia is looked upon as a stranger. Often these provinces are only kept in subjection by aid of bayonets and the police. Yet, eliminating all these countries hostile by nature to Russia, we have left after all a colossal territory, inhabited by a purely Russian race, with here and there a small number of inhabitants belonging to other races. This territory, of more than four million square kilometres, stretches in European Russia from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea and the Caucasus. Of the population upon this territory, the Russian race forms ninety per cent. In Asia, the territory almost exclusively peopled by Russians occupies all the south of Siberia and from the Oural to the Pacific Ocean (at least five million kilometres). To give the exact figures of the Russian population in this district is impossible, but half of the population of Siberia is Russian. Whatever that population may be, Siberia belongs, beyond doubt, to the Russians ; the natives — small savage tribes — have been driven.^ to the forests and the marshy plains of the north, and cannot be our rivals.^

There are, however, among the aborigines of Siberia, races capable of civilization,^ e.g., the Yakouts (nearly 250,000), and especially the Bouriates (nearly 260,000). But these races easily come under Russian influence, and hence are not able to bring about any political complication.

At the eastern end of the empire, on the banks of the Amour and Oussouri, are provinces to which China may lay claim. These provinces belonged to her formerly. Excepting these, the other twelve to thirteen million square kilometres of Siberia are incontestably Russian.

Thus, not reckoning those provinces of the empire

1 Of one of these tribes, a writer whose sympathy with all the oppressed is indisputable, says : " The Ostiaks belong to the category of races that are dying out. One can see this at the first glance. They are very weak and stunted. Two Ostiaks can get into a canoe so small that it could scarcely carry one European of average size. It is sad to see these half-naked savages trotting alongside a river. The men are only clothed in a shirt, dirty and almost in rags. Their bellies and heads seem disproportionately big. Their horribly thin feet make them look like birds." — Debagory-Mokrievitch : " Memoirs," in the Messenger of the Will of the People, No. I.

2 An historian of some ability, Chtchapov, was descended on his mother's side from the Bouriates. The mother of the revolutionist, Neoustroev, shot lately, was an lakoutka. The celebrated traveller, Mikloukha-Makla'i came also from a Siberian race, I do not know which. Similar examples are not infrequent.

H RUSSIA, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL.

that have with Russia only a connexion more or less artificial, we still find a territory of seventeen to eighteen million kilometres for Russia properly so-called, a territory inhabited by 77,000,000 people, of whom 67,000,000 are pure Russian. The predominance of the Russian race explains to a certain extent, therefore, that national unity so often manifested in history.

We see, then, that Russian nationality is firmly fixed in the empire, although this consideration certainly does not destroy the importance of the question of nationalities in Russia.

To speak of, to insist upon, this question, is not to lose sight of the aim of this book. On the contrary, it limits very rigidly its subject-matter. Our study cannot, in fact, pass the point at which the purely Russian provinces end. If the author were to write, not upon actual Russia alone, but also on Poland, Finland, Georgia, etc., his book would become a library.

The existence of immense provinces, only held by Russia through force of bayonets and the omnipotence of the police, is in itself an internal question of great gravity. The periodical risings in Poland absolve me from the necessity of urging this point.

In speaking, then, of Russia, I must devote some pages to its frontier provinces, concerning myself especially with the firmness of the ties that join them to the Russian state, and with the importance to the imperial interests of the possession of these provinces.

M "^ UTION RY. J)

NOTTTNGwTirr MECHANICS' mmUTlOfi

Chapter III

Finland. — Union on the basis of equality. — Its consequences. — Ancient liberties of Finland. — Modus vivendi. — Strategic importance of Finland to Russia. — Wliy the Finlanders are growing uneasy.

Russia proper is surrounded, as I have already noted, on the southern and western side by a large belt of three million square kilometres, peopled to the number of at least twenty-four millions by subjects of stranger races. Hence the peculiar aspect of the Russian empire. Its maximum of force is at the centre, its relative weakness at the circumference, in the stranger bark that invests the central pith. Russia, however, shows in Its different frontier provinces different degrees of solidity or, if you will, of weakness. Further, the importance to Russia of the question of nationalities is not the same in all her provinces. Let us look, therefore, at the position of affairs In each of them.