720 



RUSSIA. 



Cronstadt or engaged in cruising in European 

 waters. 



The movement of commerce in 1869 was as 

 follows (value expressed in rubles) : imports, 

 169,940,000 ; exports, 121,280,000. 



The merchant navy, in 1869, was composed 

 as follows : sailing - vessels, 2,534 ; steamers, 

 114; total, 2,648. 



The length of railroads in operation, on 

 January, 1872, amounted to 13, 944 kilometres. 

 On January 1, 1872, the telegraph-lines in op- 

 eration had an aggregate length of 50,848 kilo- 

 metres, while the length of wire was 88,901 

 kilometres. 



On January 22, 1872, an imperial decree was 

 issued, which subjects all male citizens of 

 Eussia to military service. It was a few days 

 later followed by another, making the use of 

 the Russian language compulsory in the pri- 

 mary schools of Poland. The efforts of the 

 Russian Government to substitute in the Polish 

 and Baltic provinces the Russian language for 

 the Polish and German, in the schools of all 

 grades, continued throughout the year. 



At the meeting of the nobility of the prov- 

 ince of Moscow, which was held in February, 

 Prince Mestchersky, who was reflected to the 

 office of marshal, brought forward a scheme 

 for the establishment of a charitable asylum 

 for children of the poorer nobility unable to t 

 meet the expenses of education at the Gym-' 

 nasia of Moscow. An elaborate draught of 

 regulations for the protection of minors and 

 lunatics, and for the appointment of guardians, 

 was discussed and adopted by the assembly. 

 But the most important of the questions de- 

 bated was the one brought forward by M. 

 George Samarin, an eminent writer of the 

 Panslavist school. He submitted to the as- 

 sembly the draught of a petition to his Impe- 

 rial Majesty, praying that all persons exiled or 

 imprisoned by the administrative authorities 

 (i. e., the secret police) should have the power 

 of claiming to be brought to public trial within 

 a fortnight after their arrest. The motion 

 xv as adopted, owing, in a great measure, to the 

 support it received from Count Orloff Davidoff, 

 one of the principal and most enlightened land- 

 ed proprietors in Russia. The count urged 

 that the grant of the right demanded by the 

 nobility of Moscow would have a beneficial 

 effect on the Government itself, since it would 

 in future protect it from the accusation of 

 abusing an arbitrary power in matters relating 

 to the liberty of the subject. The necessity 

 for advocating such an elementary reform 

 proves the existence of a state of things some- 

 what incompatible with the reform of the 

 law courts, the emancipation of the serfs, 

 and other liberal measures introduced during 

 the present reign. Under a charter granted 

 by Catherine II. the noble classes possessing a 

 property qualification have the right of hold- 

 ing a triennial Parliament for the purpose of 

 electing officers for the administration of cer- 

 tain funds belonging to the nobility, as well as, 



generally, for the purpose of considering mat- 

 ters connncted with the welfare of their body, 

 and this convention can make representations 

 to the sovereign with respect to the needs and 

 wishes of the nobility. The meetings are 

 presided over by a marshal of the nobility, 

 who is generally the most influential and 

 distinguished landed proprietor in the prov- 

 ince. 



On June 12th (old style May 30th) all Russia 

 celebrated the two-hundredth anniversary of the 

 birth of Peter the Great. In all the inhabited 

 places of the vast empire, from the two capi- 

 tals down to the most insignificant villages, 

 the civil, military, and ecclesiastical authorities 

 united with the people in commemorating the 

 day which gave to the largest empire in the 

 world its greatest man. 



The operations of the Russians in Central 

 Asia appeared to reach a crisis in 1872, in the 

 campaign against the Khan of Khiva. The 

 fullest preparations were made for this, ex- 

 pedition. So far as was possible, all the im- 

 pediments which had before stood in the way 

 of an energetic advance, were removed. To 

 make success more probable, it was necessary 

 that the Russians should be in a position of 

 complete security in the two khanates already 

 subjected to their control. This was not diffi- 

 cult to accomplish, for the extension of Rus- 

 sian rule into the centre of the formerly Inde- 

 pendent Tartary has struck the Central Asiat- 

 ics with a terror from which they are not 

 likely to recover for many years. Bokhara 

 had for two years accommodated itself with 

 remarkable equanimity to its inevitable fate. 

 A large fraction of the malcontent mollahs 

 had been made quiet by the premature and 

 evidently violent death of the rebellious Kette 

 Tore, or crown-prince ; and the order and sub- 

 jection to law, prevailing in the parts of the 

 border districts of the Zereschau, which had 

 been annexed to Russia, could not fail to pro- 

 duce a good effect upon the agricultural, as 

 well as the trading class in Bokhara. Expres- 

 sions of enmity had become less frequent in 

 the current speech of the country ; the indi- 

 vidual tribes of Ozbecks and Toorkomans found 

 themselves less free to indulge their warlike 

 tastes. Mosaffar-ed-din-Khan, the ruler of Bok- 

 hara, notwithstanding his apparently friendly 

 attitude toward the Governor-General of Rus- 

 sian Toorkistan, was not at all pleased with 

 this state of affairs. He still entertained faint 

 hopes of regaining his former power, as was 

 indicated by his sending embassies to Cabul 

 and Constantinople for sympathy. Yet, mind- 

 ful of the experience he had already had of 

 Russian strength, it could be assumed that he 

 would be on his guard against giving an actual 

 manifestation of his unfriendliness. In Kho- 

 kan affairs had, during the two years, been 

 shaping themselves still more favorably for the 

 Russians. Khudajan Khan who had been 

 stupid and dissolute in his youth seemed in 

 his more mature age to be quite at ease under 



