762 



RUSSIA. 



The Army. The Russian Empire, exclusive 

 of Finland, is divided into 13 military districts, 

 each of which can send into the field an inde- 

 pendent army. The European districts or cir- 

 cumscriptions have from 2 to 4 corps d'armee 

 apiece, in all 20 corps, composed, as a rule, of 2 

 divisions of infantry, 1 division of cavalry, 2 

 brigades of field artillery and 2 batteries of 

 horse artillery. There are 192 infantry regi- 

 ments of 4 battalions. The men are now armed 

 with the Berdan rifle of the model of 1870, hav- 

 ing a caliber of 10-7 millimetres. In 1890 10,- 

 500,000 rubles were appropriated for rearming 

 the troops with a new rifle that is being manu- 

 factured in Government factories, a small-bore 

 repeating rifle, which will be introduced grad- 

 ually. It is 2 pounds lighter than the old one, has 

 a range one half greater, and can fire 20 shots a 

 minutes. It is said to be free from the defects 

 of the German and Austrian rifles. The cavalry, 

 numbering 56 regiments of 4 squadrons, ex- 

 clusive of the Cossacks, carry the Berdan carbine 

 and the saber. Each brigade of field artillery 

 has 2 heavy and 4 light batteries of 4 pieces in 

 time of peace, and 8 on the war footing. Of the 

 288 batteries, of which 12 are armed with mount- 

 ain guns of 63'5 millimetres caliber, 72 have in 

 peace the war complement of guns. The horse 

 batteries have each 6 light pieces. The field 

 guns, of the model of 1877, have 106-8 milli- 

 metres bore for the light and 86 - 9 millimetres 

 for the heavy batteries. The fortress artillery, 

 mortar regiments, train, railroad brigades, sap- 

 pers and miners, sharp-shooters, and most of the 

 troops in Asia are outside the formations of the 

 corps d'armee. The army is recruited in 24 lo- 

 cal districts, divided into 558 administrations. 

 Three quarters of the conscripts of Poland, Es- 

 thonia, Livonia. Courland, and Bessarabia are 

 scattered through all the Russian infantry regi- 

 ments. The foot artillery is recruited locally, 

 but the guards, grenadiers and rifles, cavalry, 

 horse and reserve artillery, technical troops, etc., 

 are taken indiscriminately from all parts of the 

 empire. The levy of recruits for 1890 was 262,- 

 400 men, inclusive of 2,400 special troops. The 

 peace effective was 883| battalions of foot sol- 

 diers of all classes, having 15,673 officers and 

 426,604 men ; 344 squadrons of cavalry, num- 

 bering 2,186 officers and 57,862 men, with 50,730 

 horses ; 346 batteries of field artillery, number- 

 ing 2.048 officers and 60,098 men ; 44 companies 

 of engineers, numbering 772 officers and 23,547 

 men; military equipages, 423 officers and 7,178 

 men ; reserves, 4,182 officers and 63,263 men ; 

 garrison troops, 1,605 officers and 38,428 men ; 

 depot troops, 202 officers and 4,836 men ; Cossack 

 infantry, 150 officers and 4,956 men; 11 squad- 

 rons and 275 sotnias of Cossacks, 1.912 officers 

 and 44,714 men; Cossack artillery, 100 officers 

 and 3,340 men, with 106 guns ; 28 sotnias of 

 militia in the Caucasus, 71 officers and 3,358 

 men ; custom-house and frontier guards, 860 

 officers and 28,500 men ; total peace effective, 

 30,184 officers and 766,684 men, with 152,386 

 norses. The war effective is reported to be 49,- 

 169 officers and 2,343,158 men, with 830,087 

 horses, not counting the territorial army and the 

 Cossack militia. 



The Navy. The naval forces in 1889 consisted 

 of 24 ironclads, including 3 under construction, 



34 unarmored vessels, 56 unarmed steamers, 1 

 sailing ship, and 107 torpedo boats in the Baltic 

 Sea ; 5 completed and 1 unfinished armored ves- 

 sels, 35 unarmored ships and gunboats, 10 un- 

 armed steamers, and 28 steam launches, and 23 

 torpedo boats in the Black Sea ; 8 armed and 7 

 unarmed steamers in the Caspian ; and 40 ves- 

 sels in Siberia. The " Tchesma," " Catherine 

 II," and "Sinope" are the largest vessels in the 

 navy, 320 feet long and 69 wide, with 16 inches 

 of armor, and armed with six 50-ton and seven 6- 

 inch guns, mounted in a pear-shaped redoubt cov- 

 ered with 14-inch plates. The next most pow- 

 erful ships are the "Alexander II" and "Nico- 

 las I," 326 feet long and 67 wide, with 14-inch 

 armor and two 50-ton, four 9-inch, and eight 

 6-inch guns, and the older "Peter the Great." 

 Three other turret ships are in course of con- 

 struction, 2 of them for the Black Sea. There 

 are 6 belted cruisers and a partly belted bar- 

 bette cruiser, all of modern design, with armor 

 6 to 10 inches thick, carrying 8-inch and 6-inch 

 guns, and three deck-protected cruisers armed 

 with 6-inch guns have lately been completed. In 

 May, 1890, an armored cruiser, the "Rurik," 

 was begun, which will be 426 feet long and 67 

 broad, with a displacement of 11,000 tons, a speed 

 of 18 knots at natural draught, and coal capa- 

 city for 20,000 miles. 



Commerce. The value of the imports from 

 Europe was 373,700,000, from Finland, 13,200,- 

 000, from Asia, 50,000,000 rubles in 1889, mak- 

 ing the total of 437,000,000 rubles. The exports 

 to European countries were 687,000,000, to Fin- 

 land 17,600,000, and to Asia 61,900,000 rubles; 

 total, 766,000,000 rubles. From Germany came 

 124,315,000 rubles of imports ; from Great Brit- 

 ain, 100,704,000 rubles ; from the United States, 

 50,760,000 rubles ; from China, 27,280,000 rubles ; 

 from France, 19,103,000 rubles; from Austria- 

 Hungary, 18,779,000 rubles ; from Persia, 11,650,- 

 000 rubles ; from Belgium, 8,224,000 rubles ; from 

 Italy, 7,581,000 rubles; from Turkey, 7,111,000 

 rubles; from Sweden and Norway, 6,111,000 ru- 

 bles; from the Netherlands, 4,442,000 rubles ; from 

 Roumania, 1,623,000 rubles ; from Denmark, 1,- 

 623,000 rubles ; from Greece. 1,156,000 rubles ; 

 from all other countries, 46,670,000 rubles. Of 

 the exports, 274,377,000 rubles went to Great 

 Britain, 192,345,000 rubles to Germany, 47,793,- 

 000 rubles to the Netherlands, 42,893,000 rubles 

 to France, 30,972,000 rubles to Austria-Hungary, 

 30,141,000 rubles to Italy, 26,196,000 rubles to 

 Belgium, 18,758,000 rubles to Turkey, 13,184,000 

 rubles to Sweden and Norway, 11,648,000 rubles 

 to Denmark, 8,819,000 rubles to Persia, 7,602,000 

 rubles to Roumania, 6,838,000 rubles to Greece, 

 1,522,000 rubles to the United States, 1,359,000 

 rubles to China, and 51,555,000 rubles to all oth- 

 er countries. 



In the report of the trade with other countries 

 of Europe the imports of textile materials were 

 valued at 126,870,000 rubles, and the exports 

 at 109,135,000 ; the exports of cereals at 352,- 

 030,000 rubles, against 427,032,000 rubles in 

 1888 ; the exports of timber at 54,863,000 rubles ; 

 the exports of linseed at 45,178,000 rubles; the 

 imports of tea and coffee at 19,877,000 rubles ; the 

 imports of coal at 15,084,000 rubles ; the exports 

 of naphtha and petroleum at 6,333,000 rubles ; 

 the imports of hides, leather, and peltry at 11,- 



