II3 o RUSSIA 



Russian railways always showed a considerable deficit for the Exchequer, the last two 

 budgets of the third Duma were closed with a large net profit of some 16,000,000. 

 During the first two years of the third Duma the latter constantly urged economy and 

 better management of railways, while it recommended the kind of measures most likely 

 to conduce to those ends. On one occasion it took the unusual course of reducing the 

 estimates of the Railway Department by i rouble in order to mark its disapproval of the 

 Government policy in that respect. The credits for education rank first in the relative 

 figures of increased state expenditure. These have been nearly quadrupled since 1907, 

 before which year they amounted to about 43,000,000 roubles; in 1912 they came to close 

 upon 170,000,000 roubles. Next in importance are the assignments in connection with 

 migration to Siberia and agricultural assistance and improvement. The money for these 

 " pet children " of the third Duma, as the President of the Budget Commission called 

 them, has been increased by about 78,000,000 roubles (from 40,000,000 roubles before 

 1907 to 118,000,000 roubles in 1912). 



The estimates for the budget of 1913, subject to the scrutiny of the Duma, were 

 balanced at the colossal sum of 3,208,496,961 roubles, and their chief characteristic 

 is an enormous increase of revenue and expenditure, the latter extending to all branches 

 of the government, and amounting to 335 million roubles more than the expenditure 

 of 1912, whilst the anticipated revenue is 277 million roubles more than that of 1912. 

 Consequently the expenditure for 1913 is calculated to exceed the growth of revenue 

 by 78 million roubles. 



The attention of the third Duma was much occupied by questions of National De- 

 fence. Its unrelenting hostility to the Ministry of Marine and persistent refusal to 

 grant more money led to administrative change and revision in that de- 

 dcfeacc. parlment (Vice-Admiral Grigorovich becoming Minister in 1911), after 

 which more credit was duly voted. In 1907 the Admiralty estimates 

 amounted to 87,000,000 roubles; in its last Budget the third Duma provided 230,000,000 

 roubles for the National Navy. Relations with the Ministry of War (to which General 

 Sukhomlinov was appointed in 1909) were less strained, and although that Ministry was 

 invariably criticized, more especially the Commissariat Department, the third Duma 

 was induced to satisfy all requirements of the Army to the extent of 545,000,000 

 roubles in 1913, or 150,000,000 roubles more than in 1007. 



Russia's finances have never before been in such a flourishing condition as they were 

 at the end of 1912. The free resources of the Treasury had attained to the unprecedent- 

 ed sum of 800,000,000 roubles, and the gold reserve of the State Bank, the 

 finance. largest reserve of any bank in the world, was close upon i milliard 572 

 million roubles. These brilliant results were due to two splendid harvests 

 and an unexampled development of trade and industry. As a matter of fact, in the 

 course of two years only, from 1910 to 1912, there was an increase of industrial employ- 

 ment for over 300,000 more workmen. 



The Ministry of Commerce and Industry reports that during the first nine months 

 of 1911 there were 295 labour strikes on economic grounds, in which 78,000 workmen 

 took part, and which entailed the loss of 540,000 working days. The great- 

 1911-12. es t number of these strikes was amongst workmen in the textile industries, 

 namely, 119, or 40 per cent, and the number of men involved was greater 

 than in any other industry. The industries producing metal goods were accountable 

 for 34 strikes, those dealing with animal products for 27, and those for the mechanical 

 treatment of wood for 24 strikes. The most serious strike took place in March 1912 

 at the mines of the Lena Goldfields Company in Siberia, and resulted in a wholesale 

 massacre of workmen, hundreds of whom were shot down mercilessly by the troops. 

 Discontent with the management of the mines was the only cause of the disturbance. 

 It roused general public indignation, and the Emperor sent a trusted senator to make 

 a special investigation and prosecute the parties responsible for so much loss of life. 



The prosperity of Russia, which is in the main an agricultural country, is almost 

 entirely dependent upon good harvest results. The harvest of 1911 was much inferior 



