682 



RUSSIA. 



ernment has lately decided to appoint official 

 commercial agents in central Asia and also in 

 the European and American centers of trade. 

 Bokhara and the Russian part of the Pamirs 

 have been incorporated in the Russian customs 

 frontiers. 



Navigation. There were 5.650 vessels entered 

 at the Baltic ports, 642 at the White Sea ports, 

 and 4,514 at the Black Sea and Sea of Azov ports 

 in 1891 ; total, 10,806 vessels, of which 4,790 car- 

 ried cargoes and 6,016 were in ballast. The de- 

 partures numbered 5,512 from Baltic ports, 615 

 from White Sea ports, and 4,513 from the South- 

 ern ports ; total, 10,640, of which 9,523 carried 

 cargoes and 1,117 were in ballast. The total 

 number of steamers entered was 7,711, and 

 cleared 7.613. Of the total number of vessels 

 entered, 3,359 were English, 1,529 German, 1,387 

 Russian, 1,349 Swedish and Norwegian, 1,017 

 Danish, 686 Turkish, 213 Austrian, and 132 

 Dutch, etc. 



Communications. The railroads have a total 

 length of 27,814 versts, or 18,340 miles, without 

 counting the railroads of Finland or the Trans- 

 caspian line of 900 miles. The eastern section 

 of the Trans-Siberian Railroad, from Vladivostok 

 to Nicolsk, was opened in the beginning of 

 September, 1893. The Cesarevich has been made 

 president of the committee for expediting this 

 national undertaking. The state and other tele- 

 graphs have a length of 126,474 kilometres, with 

 301,240 kilometres of wire. The number of dis- 

 patches in 1891 was 12,133,940. The post-office 

 carried 192,005,000 domestic and 25,679,000 for- 

 eign letters, 30,345,000 postal cards, and 169,833,- 

 001) printed inclosures. 



The Army. The army is organized in 21 

 corps of about 45,000 men each, distributed in 

 14 circumscriptions. The infantry, which is 

 armed with a repeating rifle very much like the 

 French Lebel, comprises 165 regiments of the 

 line, 20 regiments of chasseurs, 16 regiments of 

 grenadiers, and 12 regiments of the guard. The 

 cavalry is divided into 671 squadrons, of which 

 352 are regular cavalry, including cuirassiers, 

 dragoons, hussars, and uhlans, and 319 are Cos- 

 sacks, who furnish their own horses and uni- 

 forms, and are therefore exempt from all taxes, 

 The artillery is composed of 96 siege batteries. 

 194 field batteries, 15 mountain batteries, 43 

 mounted batteries, and 3 mortar regiments, hav- 

 ing altogether nearly 5,000 field and light guns 

 and 1,500 siege guns. 



About 1,000,000 young men are available an- 

 nually for service, of whom the best are enrolled 

 in the active army and the rest in the militia. 

 The militia, which is composed of all able-bodied 

 Russians between twenty and forty-five years of 

 age who are not in the active army, is divided 

 into two vans. The first van, destined to fill 

 vacancies in the regular army and its reserve, is 

 made up of the young men and those who have 

 served their time in the regular army and re- 

 serves. The second van constitutes a territorial 

 militia, to which recourse would be had only in 

 case of invasion or extraordinary danger. The 

 peace strength of the active army is 50,561 

 officers and 787,372 rank and file; total, 817,933. 

 The war strength is 3,420,746, without counting 

 the Cossacks or the territorial army. The first 

 steps were taken in 1893 to Russify the Finnish 



army, which under the privileges granted by the 

 Emperors after the conquest has had a national 

 organization entirely distinct from the Russian 

 military system, being commanded exclusively 

 by Finnish officers and liable to service only for 

 the defense of Finland. When encamped for 

 the first time with the Russian troops, in the 

 summer of 1893, the Finnish soldiers showed 

 their animosity in various acts of violence. The 

 Russophiles, who dominate the Government, wish 

 to see the Finnish troops added to the effective 

 force of the empire and commanded where 

 necessary by Russians and to change the period 

 of active service in Finland from three years to 

 five, so as to put the Finns on the same footing 

 as Russians, and abolish the Finnish militia. 



The Navy. The Russian navy is composed 

 of four separate fleets on the Black Sea, the 

 Baltic, in Siberia, and on the Caspian. The 

 Baltic fleet in 1893 consisted of 5 armored 

 turret ships, 16 armored cruisers, 1 casemated 

 cruiser, 12 armored coast-guard monitors, 3 

 armored gunboats, 2 flush-decked cruisers, 11 

 clippers, 3 torpedo cruisers, 3 corvettes used as 

 school ships, 10 torpedo gunboats, 6 yachts, 3 

 floating batteries, 12 first-class torpedo boats, 

 80 small torpedo boats, and 6 transports, 

 carrying altogether 379 large and 894 small 

 guns. The Black Sea fleet comprised 5 arm- 

 ored turret ships, 2 popoffkas, 1 cruiser. 8 gun- 

 boats, 3 steamers, 2 torpedo cruisers, 16 first- 

 class torpedo boats, and 6 transports, having an 

 aggregate armament of 88 large and 295 small 

 guns. In Siberia there were 4 gunboats and 2 

 torpedo boats, and on the Caspian 2 gunboats and 

 4 other vessels. The navy was manned by 1,249 

 officers, 807 employees, and 25,736 seamen. In 

 the beginning of October, 1893, the " Roosalka." 

 one of the old ironclad monitors, went down in 

 the Gulf of Finland with all on board. A new 

 naval and military port was opened in August, 

 1893, at Libau, which will also be opened for 

 commercial vessels. This port is not as liable to 

 be closed by ice as Cronstadt. A naval commis- 

 sion has been appointed to select a naval harbor 

 on the northern coast near the Norway frontier, 

 whence war ships could have access to" the ocean 

 in case the Baltic fleet should be blockaded by 

 Great Britain or some other naval power. The 

 site chosen is the Bay of Pujmanki, near Cape 

 Kalassari, in northern Finland, which can be 

 connected with the northern terminus of the 

 Finland railroad system at Uleaborg by 400 

 miles of railroad. A squadron was stationed in 

 the Mediterranean in 1893, consisting of some of 

 the vessels that visited America, and afterward 

 returned at Toulon the visit of the French fleet 

 at Toulon. The " Rurik," a large cruiser, car- 

 rying 4 8-inch and 16 6-inch guns, one of the 

 fastest vessels afloat, was equipped in 1893, and 

 the " Ushakoff," a powerful ironclad for coast 

 defense, was launched in the Baltic yard on the 

 Neva, and at Nikolaieff the " Three Saints," the 

 sixth first-class battle ship in the Black Sea. 



Tariff War with Germany. In November, 

 1891, negotiations were begun for a commercial 

 treaty with Germany, to facilitate which the 

 Russian Government lowered its duties on a 

 large number of articles. The German Govern- 

 ment, anxious to secure favorable tariff arrange- 

 ments with Austria, Italy, Belgium, and Switzer- 



