BALTIC QUESTION. 



of the provinces. Tho Esthonian awl Lettish 



peasants were to be transported into the iu- 



: id' Uu-isia. and their places to be supplied 



tsions. Tin' jil.ui failed in conse<iui-;i< .- 



MI uf money. Tho attempt was then 



, by promises of land, and of exemption 

 from military service, to induce the peasants 



:\c i !n- Lutheran and join the Greek 

 Church. Many thousands accepted the Rus- 



;ler; but they were soon cruelly disap- 

 pointed, and ascertained, to their dismay, that 

 licit IHT they nor their children, nor oven the 

 children of marriages, one party of which wan 

 a member of the Greek Church, were allowed 

 t ) return to the Lutheran Church. Their de- 

 mand for permission to return to "their God" 

 ne so impetuous that the Emperor sent 

 his adjutant, Count Bobrinsky, into the prov- 

 ince, for the purpose of investigating their 

 ecclesiastical condition. Count Bobrinsky, in 

 April, 1864, reported that, of the 140,000 

 "orthodox" who were said to live in Livonia, 

 hardly one-tenth professed the orthodox doc- 

 trine ; and that as a member of the orthodox 

 Church, and as a liussian, he was mortified to 



ith his own eyes the humiliation of Rus- 

 sian orthodoxy by the disclosure of this official 

 fraud. This report was neutralized by another 

 from the Archbishop of Riga, who soon after 

 was called upon to investigate, likewise, the 

 condition of affairs. In 1865, perhaps in con- 

 sequence of Prussian influence, the so-callod 

 reservale was abolished, by which all parties 

 contracting marriages had to promise the edu- 

 cation of all the children in the Greek creed, 

 in case one party was a member of the Greek 

 Church. The Greek clergy continued, however, 

 to enjoy the support of the Russian authorities 

 in their endeavors to force the peasants into 

 the Greek Church. These efforts have, of late, 

 not had any notable results, but appear to have 

 increased the aversion of the rural population 

 to the Russians, and strengthened their ami- 

 cable relations with the Germans. 



Tho efforts of the Russian Government were 

 ohietly directed to the introduction and the 

 diffusion of the Russian language. Nicholas I., 

 contrary to the express stipulation of the Pri- 

 vilegium Sigismundi Augusti, decreed in Janu- 

 ary, 1850, that the official authorities of the 

 three provinces might correspond among them- 

 selves, with the officers of other Russian prov- 

 inces (governments), and with the imperial 

 authorities at St. Petersburg, in the Russian 

 language, if the necessary number of officers 

 understanding the Russian language could be 

 found. The decree was never executed, be- 

 cause, as was expressly declared by the minis- 

 terial committee, the requisite number of such 

 officers could not bo found. On Juno 1st a 

 new ukase ordered the actual and immediate 

 execution of the order of 1850, and the Russian 

 officers at once began on their part to use the 

 Russian language in their correspondence with 

 the provincial authorities. Once more, the 

 earnest and united protest of the Germans 



made an impression upon the Emperor, but the 

 Governor-General of the provinces, Albcdinski, 

 knew how to overcome the doubts of the Em- 

 peror, who, in February, 1868, discharged the 

 civil governor, A. von Oettingeu, and appointed 

 in his place a pliant tool of the Russians, 

 Lysander. Since then, extreme measures have 

 been taken to force the Russian language in- 

 to nil public offices. An entire Russian gym- 

 nasium has been established at Riga, all the 

 other gymnasia have been required to have the 

 instruction in mathematics, and in history, 

 given in the Russian language, and even into 

 the public schools the Russian language wa- to 

 bo introduced; the latter plnn, however, had 

 to be for the present abandoned, as the peas- 

 ants generally ejected the Russian teachers 

 from the schools. Very effective, on the other 

 hand, were the measures which the Russian 

 Government adopted to silence the German 

 press of the provinces. 



The efforts to induce the rural population 

 to emigrate into the interior of Russia were 

 resumed in 1860 by Muraviev, who promised 

 to the peasants the gratuitous transfer of land 

 in the province of Samara. Many followed 

 this invitation, as well as similar ones, in the 

 years 1865 and 1868, inviting them to Nov- 

 gorod and Mohilev. A few of these emigrants 

 returned and reported that a large portion 

 of their fellow-emigrants had wretchedly 

 perished. Nevertheless, the Governor-General 

 of Esthonia, Galkin, succeeded, in 1869, in or- 

 ganizing emigration to the crown-lands of the 

 interior, on a still larger scale, and heavy taxes 

 upon those who remained depopulated whole 

 districts. 



These harsh measures of the Russian Govern- 

 ment produced in Germany a profound sym- 

 pathy with the German interests of the Baltic 

 provinces. On December 7, 1867, in the 

 Prussian Diet, the Deputy Lowe interpellated 

 Count Bismarck with regard to the forcible 

 Russification of the Germans of Russia. Bis- 

 marck, in reply, declared it to be his "duty, 

 in the name of a foreign and friendly govern- 

 ment, to repel the attempt of meddling in its 

 affairs; " but, in spite of this declaration, the 

 organs of the Conservative party, in union with 

 the papers of all other partie?, continued to 

 express a warm sympathy with the movements 

 of the Baltic Germans to resist the plans of 

 Russia ; while, on the other hand, the Russian 

 press regarded the declaration of Bismarck as 

 any thing but sincere, and endeavored to 

 arouse the national feeling in Russia against 

 all that is German. 



The following table shows the area, and the 

 German and non-German population of each 

 of the Baltic provinces : 



