750 



EUSSIA. 



as a common soldier, and informed that the 

 Polish contingent was to be sent to Siberia for 

 military service. This gratuitous cruelty led at 

 once to a general insurrection, which in April, 

 1863, had not been fully repressed. 



The promised emancipation of the serfs, an- 

 nounced by the Czar in his proclamation of 

 February, 1861, to be consummated in two 

 years, was a measure which, though reflecting 

 much credit on its projectors, and fraught 

 with future benefits for Russia, was involved 

 in great difficulties of detail. The serfs com- 

 prised considerably more than one half of the 

 population of the European portion of the em- 

 pire, and were, the agricultural portion or them 

 at least, attached to the soil, and could only be 

 sold with it. Hence they had come to regard 

 the soil as belonging to them, while they ac- 

 knowledged themselves the serfs of their mas- 

 ters. Among the provisions of the code drawn 

 up for the regulation of the future relations 

 between masters and serfs, was one which re- 

 quired the serf to work for his master on low 

 wages till the expiration of the two years, and 

 previous to that time to negotiate with the land- 

 holders for the purchase at a certain price (to 

 be fixed by disinterested appraisers) of the fee 

 simple of the land, which they were henceforth 

 to own themselves. The serfs, who, though in- 

 genious in mechanical inventions, are very slow 

 to understand legal or constitutional matters, 

 in many districts refused to work for the boyars 

 or landed proprietors, or to make provision for 

 the payment for the lands, alleging that they 

 already belonged to them, or that the Emperor 

 would pay for them. On the other hand the 

 boyars, who by the refusal of the serfs to work 

 or to purchase their lands were likely to be re- 

 duced to poverty, were disposed to resist the 

 decree. In some of the governments armed 

 bodies of the serfs assembled and committed 

 violence, and were only reduced to order by 

 considerable loss of life. The serfs who were 

 not attached to landed estates, also had their 

 difficulties, and in some instances engaged in 

 emeutes, but on the whole, there was perhaps 

 less trouble than was to be expected. The 

 freedom of the serfs was to date from February, 

 1863, but they were not to come into full pos- 

 session of their lands, in most instances, free 

 from incumb ranee till the expiration of seven 

 or nine years. The serfs of the crown, whose 

 condition had been much superior to that of 

 the serfs on private estates, were also to be 

 liberated by the Emperor at the same time with 

 the others and to pay for the lands in instal- 

 ments, the Government giving them liberal 

 terms both as to time of payment and the price 

 of their lands. 



The feeling pervaded all classes in Russia, 

 on the announcement of the Emperor's deter- 

 mination to emancipate the serfs, that a meas- 

 ure involving such changes in the principles 

 on which the Government was founded, was 

 but a preliminary step to other and equally 

 radical changes in the political management of 



the empire, which should transform it into a 

 limited and constitutional monarchy. The Em- 

 peror, if he had formed any such plans, did not 

 immediately reveal them, and, indeed, repress- 

 ed, though with an apparently vacillating pur- 

 pose, any manifestations of a desire for greater 

 freedom. 



The students of the universities of St. Peters- 

 burg, Moscow, and Kasan, and the academy of 

 military engineering at St. Petersburg, 'had 

 since the accession of Alexander II to the 

 throne, enjoyed greater liberty than under the 

 stern and despotic rule of his father ; and they 

 had improved their opportunities to establish 

 libraries, aside from those of the universities, 

 mutual aid societies to help the poorer stu- 

 dents, and to discuss the questions of state 

 policy. The minister of public instruction, M. 

 Kovalefsky, was supposed to favor these devel- 

 opments of youthful freedom, and he was re- 

 moved, and the Admiral Putiatin, a reaction- 

 ary officer, put in his place. His first acts 

 were the closing of all the female seminaries, 

 the advance of the charges at the universities 

 to $160 per year, in order to exclude the poorer 

 students ; and the dismission of the ablest and 

 most liberal professors. By the second of 

 these measures over 600> students were at once 

 excluded from the university of St. Petersburg, 

 and a larger number from the other universities. 

 The dismission of the professors led to protests 

 on the part of the students, for which many of 

 them were imprisoned, their libraries confis- 

 cated, and the universities closed. The Polish 

 students, affected by the condition of Poland, 

 and the massacres at Warsaw, chanted requi- 

 ems for the dead, and the Polish national 

 hymn, " Poland is not Dead," and many of the 

 Russian students sympathized with them. The 

 Poles were arrested and imprisoned, and 600 

 of the Russian students petitioned the Emperor 

 to be allowed to share their fate, but received 

 no reply. M. Putiatin, not satisfied with hav- 

 ing closed the female seminaries and the uni- 

 versities, proceeded to shut up also the scien- 

 tific schools, and the private schools and Sun- 

 day schools of the empire. In Moscow the con- 

 flicts between the students and the authorities 

 led to some bloodshed, and many of the students 

 were banished or consigned to unwholesome 

 prisons at Perm, Archangel, Viatka, Vologda, 

 and Olonetz,. where they died of typhus fever. 

 Admiral Putiatin was finally removed by the 

 Emperor, and M. Golownin appointed in his 

 place, who, though not fully a liberal in his 

 views, reopened the universities and schools, 

 and undid a part of the mischiefs of his prede- 

 cessor. 



But it was not the students alone who were 

 thus excited by the radical changes proposed 

 by the Emperor. The press also demanded a 

 relief from censorship, and a liberty of utter- 

 ance befitting a free people, and was disposed 

 to take, ere the Emperor was ready to grant, 

 that which it asked for. The Constituent As- 

 semblies of the different governments, which 



