706 



RUSSIA. 



produced in that form works which demand 

 orchestral utterance, and thus demonstrate that 

 he had a musical grasp beyond the piano. Ru- 

 binstein also knew the language of the orchestra, 

 and wrote in it with firmness and freedom; but 

 there can be no question that his symphonies 

 rank below his piano pieces in pure musical 

 value. Only in his songs does Rubinstein equal 

 his piano music, and there seems to be ground 

 for this excellence in his complete and beautiful 

 mastery of the art of producing vocal effects in 

 piano playing. 



It is altogether probable that the future will 

 look upon Rubinstein as a master of the piano, 

 and award him a respectable but not high posi- 

 tion as a composer. As a pianist he displayed 

 all the traits of greatness. His power and pas- 

 sion were the irresistible expression of a mag- 

 nificent musical temperament, his delicacy of 

 touch when needed and his bewitching beauty 

 of color came from a deep poetic feeling, and his 

 clear, high, and eloquent exposition of the mean- 

 ing of such masters as Beethoven was the prod- 

 uct of an intellectual equipment larger than that 

 of an ordinary man. There was a certain 

 rugged grandeur about the man that ennobled 

 all his artistic labor and prevented him from 

 ever falling into triviality or mawkish sentiment. 

 He was a great player of the piano, but with that 

 summary of his power the application of the 

 term " great " must stop. 



RUSSIA, an empire in northern Europe. The 

 legislative, executive, and judicial powers are 

 united in the Emperor, who is assisted by a 

 Cabinet of Ministers presiding over the execu- 

 tive departments: a Council of State, charged 

 with the examination of projects of law brought 

 forward by the ministers ; a Ruling Senate, 

 having direction over the judiciary and powers 

 to look into the general administration ; and a 

 Holy Synod, superintending ecclesiastical and 

 religious affairs. The throne is hereditary in the 

 male line of the house of Romanoff-Holstein- 

 Gottorp, or in the female line in default of male 

 heirs. The reigning Emperor is Nicholas II, 

 born May 6, 1868, who succeeded on the death 

 of his father, Alexander III, Nov. 1, 1894. He 

 married, on Nov. 26, 181)4, Alexandra Feodorovna, 

 formerly Princess Alix of Hesse. The following 

 were ministers in the beginning of 1894 : Presi- 

 dent of the Council, N. C. de Bunge ; Minister 

 of the Imperial House and Imperial Domains, 

 Gen. Count Vorontsoff-Dashkoff : Minister of 

 Foreign Affairs, Nicholas de Giers ; Minister of 

 War. (leu. Vannovsky; Minister of Marine, Vice- 

 Admiral Tchikhateheff ; Minister of the Interior, 

 J. D. Durnovo ; Minister of Finance, S. J. Witte ; 

 Minister of Public Instruction, Count J. D. De- 

 lianolT: Minister of Justice, N. V. Moravioff ; 

 Minister of Communications, M. Krivoshein ; 

 Procurator General of the Holy Synod, K. P. 

 Pobedonost/elT ; Controller General, T. J. Filip- 

 poff; Minister of Agriculture and State Do- 

 mains, A. S. Yermoloff ; Minister for Finland, 

 Gen. von Diihn. 



Area and Population. The area of Russia 

 in Europe is 1,906.921 square miles, with a popu- 

 lation estimated in the beginning of 1891 at 

 88,665,796 ; area of Poland, 49,157 square miles, 

 containing a population of 8,900,418: area of 

 Finland, i44,255 square miles, having 2,380,140 



population ; area of the Caucasus, 180,843 square 

 miles, with 7,955,725 population : area of Siberia, 

 4,833,496 square miles, with 4,782,652 inhab- 

 itants; area of Russian central Asia, 1,548,825 

 square miles, with 6,106,894 inhabitants ; total 

 area of the Russian Empire, 8,658,668 square 

 miles, with a total population of 119,032,750. 

 The number of marriages in 1890, as far as re- 

 turned, was 972,146: of births, 5,304,978; of 

 deaths, 3,837,160; excess of births, 1,467,818. 

 The population of the chief cities in 1891 was : 

 St. Petersburg, 1,035,439; Moscow, 822.397; 

 Warsaw, 455,852 ; Odessa (1892), 340,526 ; Khar- 

 koff, 194,385; Kieff, 180,321; Riga, 180,278; 

 Lodz, 136,091 : Kazan, 134,359 ; Saratoff, 122,- 

 019; Kishineff, 117,108; Vilna, 109,526; Samara, 

 100,017. 



Finances. The ordinary revenue for 1893 

 was 1,045,685,000 rubles, exceeding the estimates 

 by 84,463,000 rubles. The extraordinary receipts 

 were 174,375,000 rubles, making the total revenue 

 1,220,060,000 rubles, which was 179,602,000 

 rubles better than the budget estimates. The 

 ordinary expenditures were 947,690,000 rubles, 

 which was 735,000 rubles less than had been 

 estimated ; while the total expenditures, ordi- 

 nary and extraordinary, amounted to 1,060,536,- 

 000' rubles, exceeding the estimates by 20,078,000 

 rubles. The ordinary sources of revenue pro- 

 duced the following sums : Direct imposts, 100,- 

 497,000 rubles; indirect taxation, 511,927,000 

 rubles ; stamps, etc., 68,780.000 rubles ; royalties, 

 40,025,000 rubles; domains, 142,477,000 rubles; 

 sale of domains, 866,000 rubles ; redemption of 

 lands conveyed to peasants, 98,994,000 rubles ; 

 repayments of advances, 72.270.000 rubles : other 

 receipts, 9,849,000 rubles. The amounts dis- 

 bursed under the various heads were: Public 

 debt, 266,903,000 rubles; superior government 

 bodies, 2,240,000 rubles; Holy Synod, 12,309,- 

 000 rubles; Ministry of the Court, 10,522,000 

 rubles; Ministry of 'Foreign Affairs, 5,125,000 

 rubles; Ministry of War, 236.312,000 rubles; 

 Ministry of Marine, 50,387,000 rubles : Ministry 

 of Finance, 124,337,000 rubles ; Ministry of Do- 

 mains, 25,293,000 rubles: Ministry of the Interior, 

 83.233,000 rubles; Ministry of Public Instruc- 

 tion, 22,410,000 rubles ; Ministry of Roads and 

 Communications, 75,556,000 rubles ; Ministry of 

 Justice, 25,508,000 rubles; Imperial Control, 

 4.493.000 rubles; stud, 1,305,000 rubles; other 

 expenses, 1,022,000 rubles. 



The budget approved by the Emperor for 1894 

 makes the ordinary receipts 1,004,823,277 rubles, 

 and extraordinary receipts 19,764,940, besides 

 59,013,309 rubles 'balance available from the 3- 

 per-cent. loan of 1891, which makes the total 

 1,083,601,526 rubles. The ordinary expenditures 

 are estimated at 981,222,950 rubles, and the ex- 

 traordinary expenditures at 102,378,576 rubles, 

 making the total 1,083.601,526 rubles, balancing 

 the receipts. Of the extraordinary expenditure*, 

 66,678,576 rubles are for constructing railroads 

 and harbors, 34,700,000 for armaments, and 

 1,000,000 for contingent requirements. 



The public debts on Jan. 1, 1894, amounted to 

 1,270.919,800 metallic rubles, 3,160,048,270 credit 

 rubles, 2,429,600 sterling, and 539,125,500 francs. 

 The expense of the debt in 1894, reckoned in 

 paper, was 257,877,084 rubles. The loss by ex- 

 change was 39,459,641 rubles. 



