RUSSIA 



47 





Under Catharine II. ( q. v. ) successful wars were 

 carried on against Turkey, Persia, Sweden, and 

 Poland, which largely extended the limits of the 

 empire. The acquisition of the Crimea, which gave 

 Russia a firm footing on the Black Sea, and the 

 first partition of Poland, were two most important 

 steps towards the consolidation of the empire. In 

 home affairs the work of further centralisation 

 was prosecuted. But, notwithstanding Catharine's 

 friendship with the ' Encyclopaedists ' of France and 

 the excellent ideas expressed both in her corre- 

 spondence and in various ' Instructions' (nakazy), her 

 reign was exceedingly oppressive for the peasants. 

 The rights of the landlords over their serfs were 

 extended ; no less than 800,000 free peasants 

 were distributed as serfs among Catharine's 

 favourites ; serfdom, abolished in Little Russia by 

 Bogdan Hmelnitsky, was reintrodnced there as well 

 as among the Don Cossacks ; and once again the 

 whole state was shaken by the impostor Pugatchev, 

 who, supported by the raskolnik Ural Cossacks, 

 pitilessly nanged the landlords and officials in east 

 Russia, ravaging the country under the assumed 

 name of Pet* jfl. 



Catharine's son and successor, Paul I. (1796-1801), 

 at first, through apprehension of the revolution in 

 France, joined the Austrians and British against 

 France, but soon after capriciously withdrew, and 

 was about to commence war with Britain when his 

 assassination took place. He gave freedom of wor- 

 ship to the ' Old Ritualists,' but recklessly turned 

 free crown peasants into serfs for his favourites. 

 He established a severe censorship of the press, 

 prohibited the introduction of foreign publications, 

 reorganised the secret police, and altogether treated 

 his subjects in the most contemptuous way. A 

 palace conspiracy put an end to his reign ana life. 

 His eldest son, Alexander I. (1801-25), was at the 

 outset desirous of peace, hut was soon drawn into 

 the vortex of the great struggle with France, in 

 which he played a prominent part. The character 

 of his rule is sketched under his name, and 

 an outline of the warlike operations the great 

 French invasion of 1812, the burning of Moscow, 

 and the disastrous retreat i given in the article 

 NAPOLEON. The Holy Alliance (q.v.) and the 

 example of conservative policy set by Austria 

 exercised a pernicious influence on the later 

 part of his reign ; and the higher classes, who 

 had looked for the introduction of at least a 

 portion of the liberal institutions they had seen 

 and admired in western Europe, became so dis- 

 satisfied that, when hi* youngest brother, Nicholas 

 I. (1825-55), from whom they had nothing to hope, 

 succeeded, they broke out into open rebellion, 

 which was speedily crushed. A full stop was now 

 put to the intellectual development of Russia. 

 Wars were declared with Persia and Turkey ; and 

 a long and deadly struggle commenced with the 

 Caucasian mountaineers. The cession of Erivan 

 and N"ahithevan by Persia, of the plain of the 

 Kuban, of the protectorate of the Danubian princi- 

 talities, and of the free right of navigation of the 

 Ulack Sea, the Dardanelles, and the Danube by 

 Turkey only induced him to further prosecute his 

 aim of conquering for Russia a free issue from the 

 Black Sea in the Dardanelles. In 1830 he converted 

 Poland (q.v.) into a Russian province: in 1849 he 

 aided Austria in quelling the insurrection of the 

 Magyars ; and in 1853 he began a war with Turkey 

 which became the Crimean War (q.v.), and in 

 which, though the allies, Britain, France, and 

 Sardinia, did not obtain any decided success, Russia 

 suffered immense loss. 



The accession of Nicholas's son, Alexander II. 

 (1865-81) one of whose first acts was the cnnrlu- 

 Kion of the peace of Pad* (I860), by which Russia 

 lost the right of navigation on the Danube, a 



\ 



strip of territory to the north of that river, and 

 the right of keeping a navy in the Black Sea was 

 the signal for a general revival of intellectual life in 

 Russia. Public opinion broke the bonds of censor- 

 ship and constrained the well-meaning but weak 

 emperor to carry through the long-expected aboli- 

 tion of serfdom. It was abolished in 1861 after 

 many hesitations. Corporal punishment was 

 abolished and the judicial organisation was com- 

 pletely revised (1864). Unhappily the insurrection 

 of Poland (1863-64) put an end to the reform 

 period. The old serf-owners' party took again 

 upper hand, and the last great reform, by 

 which self-government (zemstvo) was granted to 

 the provinces (1866), did not receive the import- 

 ance which it formerly was proposed to give to 

 it, as a preparatory step to constitutional govern- 

 ment. Obligatory military service for all Russians 

 was introduced in 1874. 



The insurrection in Poland was suppressed with 

 extreme severity; and in 1868 the last relics of 

 Polish independence disappeared in the thorough 

 incorporation of the kingdom with the Russian 

 empire. The subjugation of the Caucasus was 

 completed in 1859. Russian supremacy was 

 established over all the states of Turkestan. 

 In 1876 the administration of the Baltic Pro- 

 vinces was merged in that of the central 

 government; but the autonomy of Finland was 

 respected and even extended. In 1870, during the 

 Franco-German war, Russia declared that she 

 considered herself bound no more to the obligation 

 of keeping no navy in the Black Sea, and in a 

 conference at London in 1871 her claims were 

 recognised. The misgovernment of her Christian 

 subjects by Turkey, and her cruel suppression of 

 incipient rebellion in 1876, led to a conference of 

 the European Powers at Constantinople. Turkey 

 rejected the proposals made by the conference with 

 a view to the better administration of the subject 

 provinces ; and Russia, to enforce these concessions 

 on Turkey, declared war in April 1877. At first 

 the Russian progress was rapid ; but the energy 

 displayed by the Turks during the summer, and 

 the resolute defence of Plevna by Osman Pasha 

 from July till December, checked the progress of 

 the Russian army. During the winter, however, 

 she crossed the Balkans, and her vanguard reaching 

 the Sea of Marmora, stood in view of Constant- 

 inople. The armistice signed in January 1878 was 

 followed in March by the treaty of San Stefano; 

 and after diplomatic difficuties that seemed for a 

 time not unlikely to issue in war between Russia 

 and England, a Congress of the Great Powers met 

 at Berlin in June 1878, sanctioned the re-arrange- 

 ment of the Ottoman empire explained under the 

 article TURKEY, and the cession to Russia of the 

 part of Bessarabia given to Moldavia in 1856, as 

 also of the port of Batoum, of Kara, and of Ardahan. 

 The growth of revolutionary discontent (see 

 NIHILISM), leading to severe repressive measures, 

 has been marked by several murders of high 

 officials; anil on March 13, 1881, Alexander II. 

 was killed by the revolutionists. Panslavism (q. v. ) 

 has influenced Russian thought and policy to some 

 extent. 



The reign of Alexander III. (1881-94) was in the 

 main characterised, in contrast to the liberal reforms 

 of the last reign, by reactionary steps ; though 

 strenuous efforts were made to put an end to 

 the colossal plundering of state money and appro- 

 priation of state lands common in the last half of 

 the reign of Alexander II. The self-government 

 of the zemstvo has been limited and put under the 

 authority of the nobility : the justices of peace 

 were abolished, and an attempt at reintroducing 

 manorial rights has been made. The redemption 

 taxes imposed upon the liberated serfs were slightly 



