RUSSIA. 



761 



andufie entered the Cabinet in his place. Gen. 

 Mano remained President of the Council and 

 Minister of the Interior ; Lahovary, Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs ; Gen. Vladescu. Minister of 

 War ; and Germani, Minister of Finance. The 

 Senate elected as President Gen. Floresco, the 

 candidate of the United Opposition. 



RUSSIA, an empire in northern Europe and 

 Asia. The legislative and executive powers are 

 united in the autocratic hereditary monarch of 

 the Romanoff dynasty. The reigning Czar is 

 Alexander III, born Feb. 26, 1845, who succeeded 

 to the throne when his father was assassinated 

 on March 13, 1881. The heir-apprent is the 

 Grand Duke Nicholas, born May 18, 1868, the 

 eldest son of the Czar and the Czarina, Maria 

 Feodorowna. second daughter of King Christian 

 of Denmark. The administration is exercised 

 through the Council of State, which is intrusted 

 with the duties of putting into form the projects 

 of laws approved by the Czar and discussing the 

 budget ; the Ruling Senate, which promulgates 

 the laws and is the supreme judicial body: the 

 Holy Synod, which superintends religious affairs ; 

 and the Committee of Ministers, who act as ad- 

 visers of the Emperor. The following are the 

 ministers in office in 1890 : Minister of the Im- 

 perial House, Gen. Count Vorontzoff-Dashkoff ; 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nicholas Carlovich 

 de Giers; Minister of War, Count Vannovski; 

 Minister of the Navy, Vice- Admiral Tchikatch- 

 koff ; Minister of the Interior, Durnovo : Minis- 

 ter of Public Instruction, Delyanoff; Minister 

 of Finance, Vyshnegradsky ; Minister of Justice, 

 Manasein; Minister of Domains, Ostrovsky; 

 Minister of Public Works and Railroads, Von 

 Hiibbenet ; Chief of the Department of General 

 Control, Filipoff. 



Area and Population. The area of the 

 empire is 8,644,100 square miles, and the popula- 

 tion, according to official estimates for 1887, is 

 113,354.649. In European Russia there were es- 

 timated to be 85,282,101 inhabitants; in Poland, 

 8,319,797; in Finland, 2,232,378; in the Cau- 

 casus, 7,458,151 ; in Central Asia, 5,532,021 ; in 

 Siberia, 4,493,667. The marriages in Russia in 

 Europe numbered 692,665 in 1885 ; births, 3,942.- 

 277 ; deaths, 2,742,350; surplus of births, 1,199,- 

 927. In Poland the number of marriages was 

 60,938 ; births, 328,721 ; deaths, 201,784 : surplus 

 of births, 126,937. For Finland the marriages 

 were reported in 1886 as 16,248 ; births, 78,576 ; 

 deaths, 49,514; surplus of births, 29,062. In 

 Siberia there were 23,481 marriages, 212,148 

 births, and 150,197 deaths in 1885 ; surplus of 

 births, 61,951. In the Caucasus the number of 

 marriages returned was 56,550 ; births, 268,250 ; 

 deaths, 171,708; surplus of births, 97,542. Of 

 the total population of the empire in 1885 the 

 towns contained 13,947,825 persons, while 94,- 

 063,353 lived in the country. The males num- 

 bered 54,063,353 and the females 54,723,883. 

 The population of St. Petersburg in December, 

 1889, was 861,303. Moscow in 1885 had 753,469 

 inhabitants; Warsaw, 454,298; Odessa in 1887 

 had 270,643 ; Riga in 1885 had 175,332 : Khar- 

 koff, 171,416 ; Kieff in 1887 had 170,216 ; Kazan 

 had 140,726 in 1885 ; Saratoff, 122,829 ; Kishineff, 

 120,074; Lodz, 113,413; Vilna, 102,845. 



Finances. The receipts of the Government 

 for the financial year 1889 were 927,035,000 rubles 



from ordinary and 62,899,000 rubles from extraor- 

 dinary sources, making with 20,748,000 rubles 

 the surplus of former years, the sum of 1.010,682 

 JU rubles. Of the ordinary receipts, 88.896 000 

 rubles were derived from the land, license 'ami 

 income tax, which is 5 per cent., 274,920 (XX) 

 rubles from the tax on drink, 138,051,000 rubles 



17Tc) C nnn 0m S 28 ; m >< rubles 'n tobacco, 

 17,9o9,000 rubles from the sugar tax, 20,168,000 

 rubles from stamps. 11,899,000 rubles from 

 registry fees, 40,329,000 rubles from other in- 

 direct taxes, 32,735,000 rubles from minim? and 

 mint royalties, the post-office, and telegraphs 



oT'SnS ru ^ Ies from domains and forests, 

 91,747,000 rubles from sales, and 110,348.000 

 rubles from other sources. The total ordinary 

 revenue was 61,572,000 rubles in excess of the 

 2?fS estimates - The total expenditures were 

 057,881,000 rubles for ordinary and 104,958,000 

 rubles for extraordinary purposes, making in all 

 962,839,000 rubles, which left a balance of 47- 

 843,000 rubles on hand at the end of the year. 

 The ordinary expenditures under the various 

 heads were 270,693.000 rubles for the public debt, 

 225,989,000 rubles for war, 107,662,000 rubles for 

 financial administration, 75,663,000 rubles for 

 the Interior. 40,784,000 rubles for the navy, 36,- 

 066,000 rubles for roads and communications, 

 24,435,000 rubles for the domains, 21,622,000 

 for justice, 21,941,000 for education, 11,186,000 

 for the Holy Synod, 10,560,000 for the court, and 

 5,380,000 for other purposes. 



For 1890 the ordinary receipts were estimated 

 at 888,898,051 rubles, and the extraordinary re- 

 ceipts at 15,869,465 rubles; the ordinary expendi- 

 tures at 887,457,282 rubles, and the extraordinary 

 at 57,818,700 rubles. The revenue is estimated 

 at some 7,500,000 rubles less than in 1889, not- 

 withstanding new sources of income were in- 

 cluded, because the harvest had been very poor. 

 The surplus that the Government had been en- 

 abled by the abundant harvests of 1877 and 1888 

 to accumulate was sufficient to cover the addi- 

 tional extraordinary expenditures. A steady 

 augmentation of taxation has added in six years 

 73,500,000 rubles to the annual revenue, and 31,- 

 750,000 rubles of the increase in the revenue are 

 due to the general development of the empire. 



The debt of the empire on Jan. 1, 1890, con- 

 sisted of 330,477,570 rubles of loans payable in 

 specie, 2,975,331,268 rubles payable in paper 

 money, a Dutch loan of 60,487.000 guilders, and 

 one payable in England of 25.811,100; Polish 

 debts of 14,141,450 rubles in specie and 35,863,- 

 922 rubles in paper currency ; the Nicholas Rail- 

 road bonds amounting to 548,097,000 francs; 

 the consolidated railroad debts of 14,628,000 

 and 632,734,000 metallic rubles, and bonds of 

 railroads acquired by the Government, amount- 

 ing to 17,821,141 rubles in specie and 10,309,000 

 rubles in paper currency. For the debts con- 

 tracted in specie the payments in 1890 amount 

 to 70,156,859 rubles, and for the debts contracted 

 in paper rubles 147,765,488 rubles, making, with 

 49,109,802 rubles premium on the payments in 

 gold and silver, a total expenditure of" 267,032,- 

 149 rubles. The attempt to convert the debt, 

 begun in 1887, was facilitated by agricultural 

 prosperity, and by the end of 1889 the amount 

 of debt on which the interest was reduced from 

 5 to 4 per cent, was 610,000,000 rubles in gold. 



