RUSSIA. 



39 



500,000,000 pounds), arc among the mineral pro- 

 ductions. The total value of the natural produc- 

 tions of the empire is estimated to exceed 40,000,000 

 roubles. 



The population of Russia, including Poland and 

 Finland, is 57,000,000, of nine different races:!. 

 Sclavonians, 44,000,000, including the Russians 

 (42,000,000 among whom are the Cossacks, about 

 600,000 capable of bearing arms) and the Poles ; 2. 

 Finns, who are scattered over the country, from 

 Tornea and the Niemen to the Obi (3,000,000) ; 

 3. Tartars from the Dniester to the Caucasus 

 (2,000,000), mostly under their own government, 

 without agriculture or fire-arms ; 4. Georgians and 

 Circassians (2,000,000) ; 5. Samoiedes ; 6. Mant- 

 choos; 7. Mongols, to whom belong the Calmucks; 

 8. eastern tribes (including Tchutsches, Kuriles 

 and Aleutians) ; 9. Jews, particularly in the Polish 

 provinces. Besides these races, there are natives 

 of almost all countries of Europe and Asia, as 

 Greeks, Arabs, Hindoos, Gypsies, French, British 

 and Danes. There are among these Russian sub- 

 jects eighty tribes, differing in language, religion 

 and manners, from the rudest state of barbarism to 

 the highest degree of European civilization. The 

 population is divided into four classes, the nobility, 

 clergy, common people or freemen, and peasants or 

 serfs. In 1811, the number of persons subject to 

 do mib'tary duty was as follows: 643,135 persons 

 engaged in trade; 6,389,279 crown peasants; 

 10,113,177 peasants belonging to individuals; 

 1,077,636 appanage peasants; 112,453 freemen ; in 

 all, 18,335,730 men. 



We find manufactures of leather, tallow, candles, 

 soap, felt, coarse linen, mats of the bark of the lin- 

 den tree, hardware, and the art of dyeing, among 

 the Russians before the time of Peter the Great ; 

 but since his reign these have been carried to much 

 greater perfection, and many new manufactures 

 have been introduced. In 1815, Russia contained 

 3253 manufacturing establishments; twenty-three 

 of these deliver to the government annually cloth 

 of 700,000 roubles in value, and there are, besides, 

 181 private establishments. Drugs are prepared in 

 forty-five laboratories; and there are distilleries of 

 brandy, of which 120,000, 000 gallons are consumed 

 in the country. Ship building is carried on in the 

 large villages on the Wolga and in the seaports. 

 On the Wolga, boats are built without iron, which 

 are eventually used in Petersburg, Astrachan and 

 other cities for fuel. The fabrication of fire-arms 

 is the most important branch of metallic manufac- 

 tures; in Tula alone 17,000 muskets, 6500 pair of 

 pistols, and 16,000 side-arms, are made by about 

 6000 workmen. The board of manufactures, in 

 Moscow and Petersburg, has the superintendence 

 over all the branches of manufacturing industry. 

 The commerce is carried on partly by land and 

 partly by sea. The inland commerce is neither 

 impeded by tolls nor staples, but is facilitated by 

 navigable rivers, lakes, canals, the snow in winter, 

 and -the great fairs, especially at Novgorod. Goods 

 may be exported from any port or frontier place, 

 but can be imported only into Petersburg, Riga and 

 Odessa. The foreign land trade in Asia is with 

 China, Persia, Bucharia, and the Caucasian coun- 

 tries, and in Europe with Turkey, Galicia, Prussia, 

 Silesia and Saxony. This branch of trade is chiefly 

 in the hands of Armenians, Buchanans and Jews, 

 while the maritime is chiefly carried on by the Bri- 

 tish. Since 1815, the yearly value of the imports 

 by sea has amounted to 28,000,000 roubles, and 



that of the exports to 45,000,000. The board of 

 commerce in Petersburg is the supreme tribunal in 

 all commercial matters. In 1770, a bank was estab- 

 lished, whose paper is at par, and has afforded 

 great facilities to the inland trade. 



The government is an unlimited monarchy ; the 

 emperor is autocrat of all the Russians ; the state 

 is indivisible; the ruler cannot be, at the same time, 

 ruler of any other country (since 1815, however, 

 he has been king of Poland), and must be of the 

 Greek religion. In 1797, the succession was settled 

 in the male line, by the rules of primogeniture, and, 

 in failure of males, in the female line. All the 

 princes of the blood are called grand-princes. By 

 the ukase of March 20, 1820, it was declared that 

 only the children of a marriage acknowledged by 

 the emperor are capable of succeeding to the throne. 

 The highest councils are, 1. the imperial council, 

 under the presidency of the emperor, erected Jan. 

 1, 1810, with four departments that of legislation 

 (the supreme tribunal in civil and ecclesiastical 

 suits), that of war, that of civil and ecclesiastical 

 affairs, and that of finance ; 2. the senate, foi 

 home affairs (a deliberative body, consisting of 

 eight departments, three of which have their seat 

 in Moscow) ; 3. the holy synod ; 4. the ministry of 

 state. The ministers have a seat and voice in the 

 imperial council and in the senate. The ministry 

 is divided into three sections that of foreign af- 

 fairs, war, the marine, the home department, eccle- 

 siastical affairs, education and finance; that of the 

 imperial treasury ; and that of the public accounts, 

 roads and canals, and justice. The whole state is 

 divided into fifty-one governments and several pro- 

 vinces ; of these, forty are in Europe, exclusive of 

 the Cossacks of the Don, the Cossacks of the Black 

 sea, and the kingdom of Poland. The revenue, in- 

 cluding that of Poland, amounted, before the recent 

 disturbances, to 12,375,000; the public debt, in 

 1824, was 38,250,000. The bank paper, which, 

 since 1817, has been in a course of redemption, was 

 about 33,750,000. 



The army, in 1822, consisted of more than 

 1,000,000 men, among whom 613,000 were infantry, 

 118,000 cavalry, 47,000 artillery, 105,000 irregular 

 cavalry, 77,000 in garrison, 27,000 supernumeraries, 

 and 50,000 forming the Polish army. In 1827, the 

 number of troops was 649,300, exclusive of 20,000 

 officers, which, in 1828, was increased, on account 

 of the Turkish war, to 870,000. (See Military 

 Colonies.') The navy has its principal station on 

 the Baltic ; it consists, according to the most pro- 

 bable accounts, of thirty-two ships of the line, 

 twenty-five frigates, twenty corvettes and brigs, 

 eighty-seven smaller vessels, twenty-five floating 

 batteries, and 121 gun-boats, with 6000 cannon and 

 33,000 men. The principal naval station, on the 

 Baltic sea, is Cronstadt, and, on the Black sea, 

 Sebastopol. There are some ships on the Caspian. 

 No country in Europe supports its military forces 

 so cheaply as Russia. 



The prevailing religion is that of the Greek 

 church, with a full toleration of all religions ; all 

 Christian sects enjoy equal privileges. The supreme 

 direction of the affairs of the Greek church is in- 

 trusted to the holy synod at Petersburg; subordi- 

 nate to this are twenty arch-priests, with the same 

 number of consistories, and 68,000 secular clergy ; 

 there are 480 male and eighty female convents, with 

 7300 monks and 1300 nuns, all of the rule of St. 

 Basil. (See Greek Church.) Those; who adhere to 

 the old Greek church are called Roskohidms. There 



