NIJNI-NOVGOROD 



NILE 



503 



Russia was then divided into general governorships, 

 the governors receiving the power of confirming the 

 sentences of death pronounced hy the courts-martial, 

 and freely using it. Several attempts against the 

 life of the czar were niade : by Sofovioff ( in April 

 1879), twice by wrecking imperial trains (Novem- 

 ber 1879), and finally by a destructive explosion 

 in the Winter Palace (February 1880). Seventeen 

 revolutionists were hanged and hundreds exiled to 

 Siberia during the same twelve months. After the 

 Winter Palace explosion Alexander II. , who already 

 more and more abandoned the direction of state 

 atfairs, nominated Count Loris-Melikoff president 

 of a supreme commission for the management of 

 the affairs of the state. Wide promises of consti- 

 tutional reforms were circulated by the new ruler, 

 but none of them were realised, and the nomination 

 was cancelled a few months later. So the executive 

 committee of the party of the ' Will of the People," 

 which had at that time very wide ramifications 

 over Russia, and whose secret press always re- 

 appeared in spite of the seizure of its printing- 

 offices, prosecuted its underground work, and 

 Alexander II. was killed by bombs March 13, 

 1881, on the morning of which very day he had 

 signed the convocation of what he himself described 

 as the Assembles des Notables. The new czar, 

 Alexander III., after a six weeks' hesitation, dis- 

 missed his father's ministers and proclaimed his 

 resolution to remain an absolute sovereign. He 

 lived almost a prisoner in Paul I.'s palace at 

 Gatehina, and fresh plots continued to ' dis- 

 covered, spreading also into the army and navy. 

 Nicholas II., who succeeded his father in 1894, 

 continued his policy and so l>ecame obnoxious to 

 the revolutionists. Public discontent is stirred by 

 the systematic demolition of the reforms conceded 

 and other reactionary measures, and it penetrates 

 among the peasants, who see in the abolition of 

 the justices of peace (1889) and the restrictions 

 imposed upon tne provincial self-government so 

 many steps towards the reintroduction of the 

 manorial justice of the nobles, and who met these 

 measures by a series of outbreaks in 1889-90. 



See G. B. Arnando, II Nihilitmo (Turin, 1879; also 

 trans, into French); S. Stepniak, Vndergrou.nl Jliutin 

 ( 1883 ) ; Oeichichte der rccolutionarcn Bevceguniien in 

 Ruttland, an elaborate work by A. Than (1883); 

 Almanac of the Witt of the People for 1883 (published 

 at Geneva in Russian, contains all the name* and dates, 

 and an historical sketch of the movement); Stepniak, 

 Jt atria tinder the Ttari (1885); E. Noble, The Ruttian 

 Revolt (1885) ; 'Russia and the Siberian Exiles' ( Century 

 Magazine, 1887-89), by George Kennan ; the present 

 writer's In Ruttian and French Pritora ( 1887 ) ; Rihilitm 

 ai it It ( 1805, mainly by Stepniak ) ; other works named 

 at KHOPOTKIN and STEPNIAK ; also AJJABCHI.SM. 



XIJnl-Nov'gorod ('Lower Novgorod'), a 

 famous commercial city of Russia, ami capital of 

 a government, is situated at the confluence of the 

 Oka with the Volga, 274 miles E. of Moscow by 

 rail. There is an upper city, containing the 

 Kreml and many of the fifty churches, a lower 

 city, and a suburb. The great fair brings buyers 

 and sellers from all climes between Germany and 

 China. For the convenience of those frequenting 

 the fairs, there is an enormous market-hall, and 

 sixty blocks of buildings for booths, containing 

 more than 2500 apartments separated by fireproof 

 walls. There are three annual fairs, two of them 

 of minor account. The third, beginning at the 

 loth of July and continuing into September, is still 

 the greatest in the world. But like the fair of 

 Leipzig, it is evident that the great Russian fair 

 is declining in importance. During the fair, the 

 normal population (70,680 in 1895) is increased 

 fivefold or even sevenfold ; and the value of the 

 goods sold at the great fair of 1889 was stated at 



18,854,277. At these fairs all foreign goods were 

 supplied in smaller quantities, those of Russian 

 production showing an increase. Nijni-Novgorod, 

 founded in 1221, was devastated on several occasions 

 by the Tartars ; its prosperity dates from the vear 

 1817, when the great fair was removed to Nijni- 

 Novgorod from Makarief after a great (ire. The 

 government, which has an area of 19,797 sq. m. and 

 a pop. ( 1893) of 1,586,764, produces timber, iron and 

 iron goods, salt, copper, gypsum, wool, and leather. 



\ijlli-Tagilsk. a town of the Russian govern- 

 ment of Perm, amid the Ural Mountains, 150 miles 

 E. of Perm by rail, with great platinum, copper, 

 and iron works. Pop. 30,000. 



\ikolaovsk, a decayed town of eastern 

 Siberia, 23 miles from the mouth of the Amur. 

 Pop. 3500. 



S'ikolaiefT, headquarters of the Russian Black 

 Sea Beet, in the government of Kherson, at the 

 confluence of the Ingul with the Bug, and 42 miles 

 from the Black Sea. The joint estuary of the Bu<* 

 and Dnieper is defended by the forts of Otchakon 

 and Kinbum ; and Nikolaieff is a great fortified 

 naval station, with docks, an arsenal, &c., and has 

 a large trade in exporting grain, though its imports 

 are trifling. Since its connection with the central 

 railway system of Russia its trade and importance 

 have increased rapidly. Pop. (1891) 77,211. 



Nikolsblirg (Czech Mikulov), a town of 

 Austria, in the south of Moravia, 27 miles S. of 

 Briinn by mil, lies at the foot of hills famous for 

 their rich red wines. In the middle of the town, 

 upon a rock, stands the castle of the princely 

 Dietrichstein family. Pop. 7642. 



Nikon (1605-87), the Russian patriarch and 

 primate whose revision of the very incorrect Slav- 

 onic service-books caused the secession of the 

 Kaskolniks (q.v. ). 



Mkosia. See NICOSIA. 



the longest river of Africa, if not of the 



world, hydrographically, historically, and geo- 

 graphically a river of tlie greatest interest, and to 

 the ancient Egyptians pre-eminently the sacred 

 river, draws its largest supplies of water in the 

 country of its sources from the Victoria and Albert 

 Nyanzas. Several .streams flow into the Victoria 

 Nyanza, but which originates farthest to the south 

 is not yet definitely known ; the honour seems to 

 lie between the Shimiyu and the Isanga. At any- 

 rate, the most distant feeders of the great river 

 may probably be placed near to 4 S. lat. The 

 river Kagera or Alexandra Nile, which joins the 

 Victoria Nyanza high up on the west side, is 

 believed to issue from Lake Alexandra, some 250 

 miles to the south-west ; that stream brings a large 

 volume of water to the lake. The Nile leaves 

 Victoria Nyanza at its northern end, pouring over 

 the Ri|>on Falls, 150 to 170 yards wide but only 12 

 feet high, and then for 300 miles races between 

 high rocky walls, over rapids and cataracts, at first 

 north-west, then west, until it joins Albert Nyanza 

 near its north-east corner. Aliout 20 miles from 

 this lake the river leaps down 120 feet into a wild 

 gorge, with high rocky walls. The section between 

 the two Nyanzas is called the Victoria Nile or 

 Somerset River. At its south-western extremity 

 the All>ert Nyanza is joined by the river Semliki, 

 which drains away the surplus water of the Albert 

 Edward Nvanza (discovered by Stanley in 1889); 

 and this lake in its turn drains the slopes of the 

 snowy Ruwenzori and adjacent mountains. The 

 combined river leaves the northern extremity of 

 the All>ert Nyanza as the Bahr-el-Jebel, and from 

 that point flows in a general northerly direction to 

 the Mediterranean. The first 130 miles to Dufile 

 it passes through a level country, and frequently 



