728 



RUSSIA. 



classes from the gymnasia and universities on 

 account of lack of means or social station. In 

 St. Petersburg the arrest of many of the stu- 

 dents who engaged in a demonstration against 

 the rector was followed by a stormier outbreak, 

 during which the authorities shut the rioters in 

 the building. In January the Minister of Edu- 

 cation announced that the universities of St. 

 Petersburg, Moscow, Kasan, Kharkov, and 

 Odessa would not be opened at the beginning 

 of the term. The Kiev and Moscow universi- 

 ties were the first ones reopened, before the 

 end of January. Several hundred students 

 were sent to Siberia or to prison ; but eventu- 

 ally some of the obnoxious university statutes 

 were altered, and complaints of the students 

 ceased. A Siberian university was opened in 

 August at Tomsk with the establishment of a 

 faculty of medicine to supply the need of doc- 

 tors, who now number only twenty-two for the 

 whole of Siberia. 



Commemoration of the Introduction of Christianity. 

 The nine hundredth anniversary of the adop- 

 tion of Christianity under Vladimir the Great 

 was celebrated throughout Russia on July 27, 

 1888. The principal festivities were held at 

 Kiev, the mother of Russian cities and the first 

 seat of the Russian Church. 



The Political Situation. With Count Tolstoi 

 at the head of the Ministry of the Interior, 

 Pobedonostzeff in charge of ecclesiastical af- 

 fairs, and a high Protectionist directing the 

 finances, the Nationalists, Panslavists, and Old 

 Conservatives have controlled the internal poli- 

 tics of Russia during the reign of Alexander 

 III, and have even influenced the Czar to 

 sometimes act in foreign affairs at variance 

 with the officially declared policy of his Gov- 

 ernment, although they have not succeeded in 

 displacing M. de Giers from the Foreign Office. 

 The Greek Orthodox propaganda has been car- 

 ried on by the aid of Government encourage- 

 ment and intervention. Poland is governed as 

 though it were a part of Old Russia. The 

 state schools of the Baltic provinces have been 

 Russified, and the separate police system of 

 Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland has given 

 place to Russian institutions conducted by 

 Russians. The provincial and district autonomy 

 granted by Alexander II has been shorn of one 

 feature after another, the independence of the 

 courts has been reduced to the smallest limits, 

 and ecclesiastical and civil bureaucrats rule 

 with power as unrestricted as in the time of 

 the Emperor Nicholas. Early in 1888 Count 

 Tolstoi brought forward a. project for the 

 transformation of the Semstvos or representa- 

 tive bodies of the governments and districts 

 established by the law of January 13, 1804. 

 These councils, in which land-owners, manu- 

 facturers, merchants, and rural communes are 

 proportionally represented, have the disposal 

 of the local revenues and of a part of the im- 

 perial revenue that is devoted to local pur- 

 poses, and are empowered to legislate in mat- 

 tars relating to the erection and maintenance 



of schools, churches, poor-houses, jails, roads, 

 and bridges ; to sanitation, and the prevention 

 of epidemics and cattle - plagues ; to public 

 charities, mutual insurance, and the encourage- 

 ment of commerce and industry ; and to satis- 

 fying the requirements of the civil and mili- 

 tary authorities and the post-office. The gov- 

 ernor can protest against acts of the Semstvo; 

 but the decision rests with the Directing Sen- 

 ate. The Semstvo elects an executive commit- 

 tee from among its members, and fixes the sal- 

 aries of the committeemen. Tolstoi proposed 

 to change the basis of representation by hav- 

 ing each 8,000 acres of land held by the nobil- 

 ity, each 450,000 rubles of commercial capital, 

 and each 4,000 adult male peasants represented 

 by one delegate in the council, thus giving the 

 nobles a great preponderance. Even then he 

 would give the governor an absolute veto over 

 the decisions of the Semstvo, while the stand- 

 ing committee which prepares the legislation 

 would be appointed by the Government, not 

 necessarily from the members of the Semstvo, 

 and the rate of salary would be determined by 

 the Government. There was much opposition 

 in several of the ministries to this plan, which 

 practically extinguishes the right of local self- 

 government, and the question was therefore 

 postponed till another year. A proof of the 

 strength of Panslavism was the appointment in 

 April, 1888, to the chief place in the Depart- 

 ment of the Interior, next to that of the minis- 

 ter, of Gen. Bogdanovich, whom a year before 

 the Czar had dismissed from the army in dis- 

 grace because he had entered into secret deal- 

 ings with Gen. Boulanger with the object of 

 bringing about an alliance between Russia and 

 France. Gen. Ignatieff was elected president 

 of the Slavonic Benevolent Society, which is 

 the chief agency of Panslavic agitation in the 

 Balkan Peninsula on the eve of the anniver- 

 sary of Russia's conversion to Christianity. 

 The organs of Liberal opinion and Western 

 ideas have all been suppressed in Russia, ex- 

 cept one monthly. 



Central Asia. Col. Alikhanoff on the Afghan 

 frontier has succeeded in bringing nearly all 

 the Turkomans under the Russian aegis. The 

 Afghan authorities at the instigation of Col. 

 Maclean, the British political agent in that 

 region, have sought to prevent by force the 

 migration of Turkomans into Russian domin- 

 ions, and on April 15, 1888, a collision took 

 place between Afghan troops and Salor Turko- 

 mans. According to the British account, Ali- 

 khanoff entered Afghan territory, as he had 

 done before, in order to protect a band of 168 

 emigrant Salors in their flight over the border, 

 while the Russians say that the Afghan troops 

 pursued the fleeing Salors 36 versts (about 20 

 miles) on Russian territory ; and on overtaking 

 them fired at them and received their fire in 

 return, which caused them to recrossthe fron- 

 tier, carrying with them their dead and 

 wounded comrades before Alikhanoff and his 

 cavalry appeared on the scene. 



