iG8 



LITERATURE, CONTINENTAL, IN 18T1. 



and states what he has seen. In the third and 

 final volume of Prince Vasiltchikof s work 

 " On Self-Government, " we have an inquiry 

 into the systems of local taxes in England, 

 France, and Prussia, and into the working of 

 the present tax system in Russia, with sug- 

 gestions for its reform. The remarkable series 

 of studies on " Ten Years of Reforms," pub- 

 lished in the Messenger of Europe, which will 

 make a formidable volume, is ascribed to Grot, 

 of the Academy. It is a careful analysis of the 

 changes lately produced in Russia, regarded in 

 a great measure from their financial side. The 

 question of the revision of the tax laws has 

 originated an instructive and valuable book, 

 " Financial Management and the Finances of 

 Prussia," by A. Zablotzky-Desiatofsky. The 

 " History of the Political Literature of the 

 Nineteenth Century," of which the first vol- 

 ume only has appeared, by Y. G. Zhukofsky, 

 also the author of some essays on the " Ques- 

 tion of Population," is a history of the views 

 which have prevailed on the most vital ques- 

 tions of political science and economy which 

 have a practical bearing. Standing between 

 two ruling systems, order, or discipline, and 

 progress, the author hopes to arrive at the 

 only fully satisfactory system by a survey of 

 the economy of human societies as parts of the 

 general economy, of Nature. 



It will be remembered what a stir was made 

 three years ago by the publication of " The 

 Border Lands of Russia," by Yurii Samarin. 

 The Germans flew to arms to attack the book. 

 Mr. Samarin has just issued the third volume, 

 which treats of the events in the Baltic prov- 

 inces in 1841 and 1842, the time of the move- 

 ment toward orthodoxy among the peasantry. 

 The book is, of course, published at Berlin, as 

 the Russian censorship would not allow it. 

 " Russia and Europe," by N. Danilevsky, now 

 republished from one of the Reviews, is a book 

 written in the most extreme Slavonophile 

 spirit, which attempts to show that the civili- 

 zation of the West is evidently rotten ; that its 

 regeneration must come from the Slavonians, 

 with Russia at their head ; but that still Russia 

 cannot entirely separate itself from the rest of 

 Europe. 



The comparatively large number of books 

 on law, both treatises and collections of deci- 

 sions, published during the last year, proves that 

 the judicial reform is taking firm root, and is 

 making lawyers something Russia never had 

 until lately. 



In historical literature the year has been 

 very rich and productive in interesting books. 

 By far the most important is " Russian His- 

 tory," by Prof. K. Bestuzhef-Rumin, of the 

 University of St. Petersburg, the first volume of 

 which is just out. Two volumes more, now 

 in the press, will complete the work, which 

 will be the only well-written critical history 

 of Russia in any thing like a reasonable com- 

 pass. The twenty-first volume of the " His- 

 tory of Russia," by Prof. Solovief, is devoted 



to the first three years of the reign of the Em- 

 press Elizabeth, a most interesting period. It 

 is in the author's well-known style, abounding 

 in long quotations, not always quite readable. 

 The indefatigable Kostomarof has given us 

 three more of his entertaining and fascinating 

 studies " Dissent, as shown by the Writings 

 of Dissenters ; " " Personages of the Period of 

 Confusion," devoted to Shuisky, Pozharsky, 

 Minin, and Susanin ; and " Ivan the Terrible." 

 The last is an attempt to show that the popular 

 idea of this cruel monarch, and that put forth 

 by Karamzin and Count Tolstoi, is really the 

 true one, and that he was not, as Solovief and 

 others maintain, a mere creature and repre- 

 sentative of his time. Interesting, but of less 

 importance, are " The Relations of Leibnitz to 

 Russia and to Peter the Great," by V. Gerrye, 

 from the papers of Leibnitz in the Hanover 

 Library ; " The Relations of Russia with Rome 

 from 1845-1850," by A. N. Popof; and Du- 

 brovin's " History of the War and of the Rus- 

 sian Domination in the Caucasus." A. Kle- 

 vanof has given us three of the old chronicles 

 in modern language, under the form of a 

 " Chronicle of Southwest Russia to the Middle 

 of the Fourteenth Century." Those old stories 

 are always reread with interest. Every day 

 new stores of historical material are being 

 brought to light; and, besides "The Russian 

 Past," edited by Samefsky, which has greatly 

 improved during the past year, and " The Rus- 

 sian Archives," by Bartenief, we have two new 

 volumes of the "Archives of Prince Voront- 

 zof," and the first volume of a new collection, 

 " The Nineteenth Century," all prepared by 

 the same industrious librarian. The "Memoirs 

 of Dolrynin " show us into the cabinet of an 

 Archbishop of Sevsk in the good old time of 

 Catharine ; and, besides curious and laughable 

 pictures of monastic and clerical life, give us 

 also many glimpses of the work and vexations 

 of official life in the then just-annexed prov- 

 inces of Mohilev and Vitebsk. They are most 

 delightful reading. The Berlin edition of the 

 " Memoirs of Admiral Shishkof," once Minister 

 of Public Instruction, has many curious details 

 about court life and the Emperors Paul and 

 Alexander that could not be printed in Russia. 



The literature of geography and travel is 

 more numerous than usual. Kostenko has 

 published a useful book on " Central Asia," 

 and an account of the "Russian Mission to 

 Bokhara in 1870," with a detailed map of the 

 route; and Veniukof gives us two volumes, 

 one on " Japan," and the other " Sketches of 

 the Extreme East." 



The Franco-Prussian War could not pass by 

 without leaving its impression on the literature 

 of Russia as well as of other countries. Gen- 

 eral Annenkoff was twice sent by the Emperor 

 to the German headquarters, and his little 

 book, " Impressions of a Russian Officer," is a 

 thoughtful inquiry into the causes of the Ger- 

 man success. The book has not been without* 

 influence on the reorganizations devised and 



