RUSSIA. 



665 



The trial of eleven prisoners, seven men and 

 four women, charged with being Nihilists, and 

 with being concerned in Solovieff's attempt on 

 the life of the Czar, and in the assassination of 

 General Mesentzeff, was begun at St. Peters- 

 burg May 18th. Among the prisoners was 

 Dr. Weimar, who held a high office at court, 

 and who was charged with having lent his car- 

 riage to the murderer of General Mesentzeff, 

 with having procured for Solovieff the revolver 

 which he fired at the Emperor, and the poison 

 which was found in his possession, and with 

 having, three years before, assisted in the flight 

 of Prince Krapotkine, who was charged with 

 Nihilism. All the prisoners were found guilty. 

 Two of them were sentenced to be hanged, the 

 others to terms of imprisonment and labor 

 Dr. Weimar to fifteen years of labor in the 

 mines. The sentences were afterward all com- 

 muted, the sentences of death to terms of labor 

 in the mines, the other sentences to shorter 

 terms. 



Twenty-one persons were convicted at Kiev 

 of forming an illegal society with the object of 

 forcibly overthrowing the existing order of the 

 state, and sentenced to death and imprisonment. 

 Their sentences were also commuted in accord- 

 ance with the new policy adopted by the Gov- 

 ernment of mitigating the severity of its admin- 

 istration. The Czar had previously, in April, 

 granted a full pardon to three students of the 

 University of Kharkov, who had been sentenced 

 to exile in Siberia for carrying on a revolution- 

 ary propaganda, with the effect of producing a 

 more favorable impression on the students of 

 the university. A trial was begun before the 

 military tribunal of St. Petersburg, under the 

 presidency of Major-General Leicht, November 

 10th, of sixteen prisoners, among whom were 

 the supposed authors of the explosions in the 

 Winter Palace and under the railway at Mos- 

 cow, and the man who was accused of having 

 prepared the mine near the Alexandrovsky 

 station on the Sebastopol Railroad. The pre- 

 sumed author of the explosion in the Winter 

 Palace was a peasant from the government of 

 Viatka, named Stephen Chaltasen, who was 

 employed as a carpenter in the palace under 

 an assumed name. The mine near the Alex- 

 androvsky station was laid in 1879 for the pur- 

 pose of blowing up the imperial train, but had 

 only recently been discovered, on the occasion 

 of the train passing the spot. It was divided 

 into two partitions, each filled with dynamite, 

 and connected by a wire with the roadway ad- 

 jacent to the railway track. On the approach 

 of the imperial train a carriage drawn by three 

 horses came rapidly up on the roadway, but 

 drove off after the train had passed. It is sup- 

 posed the carriage contained an electric battery, 

 and that the attempt proved unsuccessful on 

 account of the wire having been accidentally 

 cut. Another of the prisoners was charged, 

 upon the confession of the actual murderer, 

 with being concerned in the assassination of 

 General Krapotkine, the Governor of Kharkov. 



The prisoners were permitted to address the 

 Court in their own defense. Several of them 

 admitted that the charges against them were 

 substantially true, but maintained that their 

 acts were justified by the coercive measures of 

 the Government. One of them asserted that 

 it was no crime to belong to a secret society, 

 inasmuch as there was no other country in the 

 civilized world where meetings were not al- 

 lowed. Another one told the judges that the 

 struggle would not be finished with the death 

 of the prisoners. Five of them were sentenced 

 to death, the others to various terms of impris- 

 onment and servitude. Three of the capital 

 sentences were commuted, but two of the con- 

 victed persons were hanged November 16th. 



A Russian named Hartmann was arrested in 

 Paris in February on a supposition that he was 

 the owner of the house in Moscow whence the 

 mine was laid in 1879 to blow up the railway 

 train carrying the Czar. Although no extradi- 

 tion treaty existed between the two countries, 

 the Russian Government asked the French Gov- 

 ernment to surrender him. The French Gov- 

 ernment, after examining the case, declined to 

 give up the prisoner, on the ground that the 

 evidence of his identity and participation in 

 the offense charged against him was not clear 

 enough to justify it, and permitted him to go to 

 England. The refusal caused a temporary cool- 

 ness of feeling. 



After negotiations extending over several 

 months, a preliminary agreement has been con- 

 cluded between Russia and the Vatican refer- 

 ring to the ecclesiastical organization of the 

 Roman Catholic bishoprics in Russia. It deals 

 with the position of the bishops, the regulation 

 of several dioceses, the control of the bishops 

 over ecclesiastical seminaries, and the instruc- 

 tion of the clergy. The Holy See was, in No- 

 vember, about to examine the question of pro- 

 viding for the vacant sees in Poland, in view 

 of the recommendations of the Russian Gov- 

 ernment concerning the choice of the new 

 prelates. 



An imperial decree, published in May, re- 

 lieved Count Tolstoi, at his own request, of 

 the posts of Minister of Education and Su- 

 preme Procurator of the Holy Synod, and ap- 

 pointed him a member of the Council of the 

 Empire. Privy Councilor Saburoff, Curator 

 of the Dorpat Educational District, was made 

 Minister of Education, and promoted to the 

 rank of Secretary of State, and Privy Council- 

 or and Senator Pobedonosszeff was appoint- 

 ed Supreme Procurator of the Holy Synod. 

 The new Minister of Education, immediately 

 after his appointment, gave notice that all re- 

 ligious instruction in the elementary schools 

 would in the future be given by lay teachers. 

 The first stone of the University of Tomsk, in 

 Siberia, was laid September 7th. 



Mr. Greig, Minister of Finance, resigned his 

 office in November, and was succeeded by Mr. 

 Abaza, who, on assuming office, stipulated for a 

 more complete control of the spending power 



