332 



KRUNITZ KUTUSOFF. 



KRUNITZ, JOHN GEORGE, physician at Berlin, 

 was born 1728, studied at Gottingen and at Frank- 

 fort on the Oder. In 1759, he returned to Berlin, 

 devoted his whole life to literary pursuits, and died 

 in 1796. A great number of useful publications upon 

 medicine, natural history, geography, and other sub- 

 jects, original and translated from various languages, 

 are the fruits of his industry. His chief work is the 

 lEkonomisch-technologische Encyklopadie, which h 

 began in 1773. It amounted to seventy-three 

 volumes, and had just reached the article Leiche 

 (corpse), when he was removed by death. The 

 work is valuable, as containing much matter carefully 

 selected. There is, however, a want of method and 

 proportion in it. After his death, the brothers 

 Florke, and, since 1815, J. W. D. Korth, have con- 

 tinued the work, which, in 1828, amounted to 142 

 volumes, and reached as far as SCH. The abridg- 

 ment of the large work, thus far, amounts to 32 

 volumes. 



KUH, EPHRAIM MOSES, born 1731, of Jewish pa- 

 rents, showed early uncommon strength of memory, 

 vivacity of mind, and a restless desire of knowledge. 

 His rather, a rich trader, intended at first to educate 

 him in Jewish learning ; and, when the result by no 

 means answered his expectations, he desired to make 

 him a merchant. He allowed him to receive instruc- 

 tion in the French, Italian and English languages, 

 by which means he attained a knowledge of modern 

 literature and poetry. After his father's death, 

 he went to Berlin, as first clerk in the counting- 

 house of his uncle. Here his talents gained him the 

 friendship of Mendelssohn, Ramler, Lessing, and 

 other learned men, by intercourse with whom 

 his poetical talent began to be developed. He 

 possessed considerable property, besides a good 

 salary ; but his easy good nature, which made him 

 often the prey of the fraudulent, united with an 

 extravagant love of books, in a few years exhausted 

 his means. He left Berlin, travelled through Hol- 

 land, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, and 

 became, at last, dependent on his family. These 

 circumstances produced in him a fixed melancholy, 

 which at length increased to insanity, from which 

 he was restored only by the activity of a skilful 

 physician. In his lucid intervals, he produced the 

 best of his poems. In 1785, he was deprived of 

 strength and speech by apoplexy, in which state he 

 died, 1790. Posthumous Poems, by Ephraim Moses 

 Kuh, appeared at Zurich, in 1792. 



KULM. See Culm. 



KUNERSDORF. See Cunersdorf. 



KURDS. See Curds. 



KURILES ; a long range of small islands at the 

 eastern extremity of Asia, extending from the 

 southern point of "Kamtschatka to the isle of Jesso, 

 or Matsmai, which belongs to Japan. The whole 

 length of the chain amounts to nearly 900 miles. 

 Some of the islands are not inhabited, and several 

 are even uninhabitable, on account of the absolute 

 want of water. Others are fertile, well wooded, full 

 of game and fish. Some contain volcanoes; and they 

 are all subject to frequent earthquakes. The number, 

 without reckoning Jesso, is twenty-five. They were 

 successively discovered, in the eighteenth century, by 

 the Russians, and have been accurately known only 

 since Krusenstern's voyage. The inhabitants are 

 perhaps a thousand, and are known by the name of 

 Kurilft, which is applied also to the people of the 

 neighbouring coasts of Asia, and of the southern 

 part of Kamtschatka. They are heathens, and some 

 of them resemble, in language, shape, and manners, 

 the Japanese. Others, on the contrary, resemble 

 the people of Kamtschatka, many of whom, on the 

 conquest of Kamtschatka by the Russians, fled to the 



Run it- islands. Some of the islands have inhabitants 

 descended from each of these stocks. The southern 

 Kuriles are under Japanese government : the northern 

 (21), on the contrary, are subject, in some measure, 

 to Russia, and furnish, mostly under compulsion only, 

 a tribute of sea-otter skins, fox skins, and other 

 peltry. The chain extends from lat. 42 to 51 N. 



KUTUSOFF (GoLENiscHTscnEFF, prince Smo- 

 lensky), a Russian field-marshal, was born in 

 1745, entered the army in 1759, served in Poland from 

 176'4 till 1769, and afterwards against the Turks, 

 under Romanzoff. He stormed the fortress Shumla, 

 and, at a later period, contributed greatly to the 

 subjugation of the rebel Pugatscheff. In 1788, he 

 was present at the siege of Oczakow, having been 

 appointed governor-general of the Crimea the year 

 before. At the siege of Oczakow, he was wounded 

 near the right eye. He assisted the prince of Coburg 

 to gain the victory of Fockschani, and, in the 

 memorable conflict of Rimnik, December 31, 1789, 

 he performed miracles of bravery. After the storming 

 of Ismail, under Suwaroft", he was advanced to the 

 rank of lieutenant-general, and, in the negotiations 

 with Turkey, which took place shortly after, he 

 gained the fame of an able diplomatist. In 1793, he 

 was appointed ambassador at Constantinople, and, 

 in the subsequent Polish war, we find him in the 

 Russian army, under Suwaroff. He was particularly 

 conspicuous during the memorable day of Praga. 

 (q. v.) After the restoration of peace, Kutusoff was 

 first appointed commander-in-chief of Finland ; Paul 

 afterwards named him governor-general of Lithuania. 

 He resided several years at Wilna, and endeavoured 

 to retrieve, by study, the deficiencies of his early 

 education. For a short time, he filled the situation 

 of ambassador to Berlin, but soon returned to Wilna, 

 to his governor-generalship. After this, he was 

 appointed chief of the corps of cadets, and, in 1801, 

 governor-general of St Petersburg. In 1805, when 

 he was at the age of sixty, the emperor Alexander 

 gave him the chief command of the first Russian 

 corps against the French. He led it towards the 

 Inn, but did not arrive there until after the capitula- 

 tion of Ulm, upon which he united himself with the 

 small Austrian corps of general Kienmayer, and 

 checked the whole of the French army. On the 

 right bank of the Danube, to which he had crossed 

 over, he was closely pursued by the French, and had 

 several engagements with theni, especially that near 

 Durnstein, where he encountered marshal Mortier, 

 on the 18th and 19th November, the issue of which 

 contest was fortunate for him. The emperor o5 

 Germany sent him, on this occasion, the grand cross 

 of the order of Maria Theresa. Hereupon, having 

 joined the other Russian corps, he commanded the 

 allied army, under Alexander, at Austerlitz, where 

 he was wounded. In the Turkish war, he received 

 orders from Alexander to close the campaign on the 

 Danube. This being done, Kutusoff returned to 

 Russia, and, when Barclay de Tolly resigned th e 

 command, after the first retrograde movement, he 

 received, at the age of seventy, the chief command 

 of the Russian army, in the war of 1812. After the 

 battle of Mosaisk, he adopted a new plan of warfare. 

 (See Russian- German fFar.) To commemorate hit, 

 victories, he received from Alexander the surname 

 of Smolenskoi. Foreseeing the fate which awai.r.j 

 the retreating enemy on the banks of the Berezina, 

 he pursued but slowly, and the campaign was already 

 at an end, when he reached Wilna, where he received 

 his emperor. This campaign had exhausted KutusofFs 

 strength. He was not in favour of a continuation of 

 the war ; for to him, a man beyond seventy years of 

 age, it appeared too bold an enterprise to attack the 

 enemy in the seat of his power. After having issued 



