'62 



RUSSIA. 



Viernoe, on the border of the Chinese territory 

 of Kuldja, whence it ean be extended later in a 

 northerly direction to Semipalatinsk, on the river 

 Irtish, there to meet the projected branch of the 

 Siberian Railroad from Omsk to the south. An- 

 other branch of the Siberian Railroad from a 

 point near Lake Baikal southward to Kalgan. 

 on the Great Wall of China, is under considera- 

 tion. The Turkish Government has been asked 

 for permission to build a short railroad from 

 Kars to Erzerum. 



The zone tariff for passengers was introduced 

 on Russian railroads in 1894, and in three years 

 the traffic increased 29 per cent, and, although 

 fares were reduced so that a journey of 2.000 

 miles can be made for 17 rubles instead of more 

 than 43 rubles, the receipts from passengers in- 

 creased 18 per cent., the total for 1S97 being 66,- 

 767,500 rubles from 53,354,18(5 passengers carried. 

 The freight traffic in 1895 was 90, 11 5.000 tons, 

 having increased nearly one third in four years, 

 while the mileage was increased two fifths. The 

 gross receipts for 1896 of all the railroads ex- 

 cepting the Transcaspian. and the railroads of 

 Finland, the aggregate length being 25,756 miles, 

 were 426,322,767 rubles, and the working expenses 

 248,245,732 rubles; net receipts, 178,077,035 rubles. 

 The revenue of the Government from railroads, 

 both state and private, was 312,374.372 rubles, 

 and the expenditure 278,283,293 rubles, leaving a 

 balance of 34,091,079 rubles, whereas in previous 

 years there had been constant deficits, but this 

 balance was reduced by expenditure for improve- 

 ments to 25,283,461 rubles. The railroads belong- 

 ing to the Government had a length in 1898 of 

 17,009 miles, but of these 516 miles were leased by 

 the Government to private companies. The rail- 

 roads operated by the Ministry of Communications 

 formed two thirds of the total mileage of the 

 empire. The capital cost of the Government rail- 

 roads was 2,744,923,577 rubles. The gross re- 

 ceipts of the railroads under Government man- 

 agement \vas 273,969,819 rubles, and the expenses 

 157,366,602 rubles, leaving 116.603,217 rubles of 

 net receipts. Including a railroad just taken 

 under state management, the net income was 

 119,666,619 rubles, out of which 110,635,698 rubles 

 had to be paid as interest on capital borrowed 

 for the purchase and construction of the state 

 lines, showing a clear net profit of only 9,030.921 

 rubles. The lines under private management had 

 a length in 1897 of 9,566 miles, built at a cost 

 .of 1,005,145,885 rubles, on which interest was 

 paid amounting to 41,668,695 rubles. The gross 

 receipts from these lines in 1896 were 140,224,306 

 rubles and the expenses were 81,851,231 rubles, 

 leaving a net revenue of 58,373,075 rubles. By 

 the transfer of private railroads to the Govern- 

 ment the debts owed by companies to the state 

 were reduced from 819,170,204 rubles on Jan. 1, 

 1897, to 253,685,615 rubles on Jan. 1, 1898. 



Posts and Telegraphs. The post office in 

 1897 carried 271,263,000 internal and 34,568,000 

 external letters, 54,708,000 internal and 7,098,000 

 external postal cards, 242,310,000 internal and 25,- 

 752,000 external newspapers and circulars and 

 16,639,000 internal and 606,000 external money 

 letters of the declared value of 23.954,365,000 

 francs and 369,781,000 francs. The postal receipts 

 were 170,161,024 francs ;. telegraph receipts, 58,- 

 757,372 francs; expenses of posts and telegraphs, 

 132,117,648 francs. The state telegraphs had a 

 length in 1897 of 84,087 miles, with 175,866 miles 

 of wire. The Anglo-Indian line in Russian terri- 

 tory had a length of 2,253 miles, with 4,860 miles 

 of wire, and privately owned lines a length of 

 2,641 miles, with 5,300 miles of wire. There were 



12.S68.226 internal dispatches, 1,054,918 foreign 

 dispatches sent and 1,08(5.845 received, 224,776 

 transit dispatches, and 1.083,294 service dispatches 

 in 1897: total, 16,318,059. 



Student Troubles. The regulations issued by 

 Count Tolstoi when Minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion, forbidding students to associate together or 

 to form clubs or societies of any kind, were ex- 

 tended and made more stringent by M. Bogole- 

 poff, the new minister, in the beginning of ls.9. 

 Against these new regulations the students of 

 the University of St. Petersburg protested with 

 noisy and turbulent manifestations when they 

 assembled on Ftfb. 20 to celebrate the anniversary 

 of the foundation. The university building was 

 thereupon filled with police in spite of the pro- 

 tests of students and professors, and when the 

 students left the building and started to go into 

 town over the Neva by the bridge or on the ice 

 the new mounted constabulary, carrying whips 

 like Cossacks, brutally lashed them with these 

 to keep them back. When the Government im- 

 pelled students who had taken part in the demon- 

 stration the whole body remained away from lee- 

 tures. In consequence of this the minister closed 

 the university, the Military Academy of Medicine, 

 the Institute of Ways of Communication, the 

 Institute of Civil Engineers, the School of For- 

 estry, the Academy of Arts, the Mining School. 

 and* the Technological Institute. The students 

 of these schools, about 0,000, remained quiet, al- 

 though some were arrested daily and numKers 

 of them were expelled and told to leave tin- 

 city by order of the minister. The strike . \ 

 tended to Moscow, Kharkoff, and other univi i -i 

 ties, and similar disciplinary measures wen- taken 

 against the students, some of whom were ban- 

 ished to Siberia. After a stormy dUcn ion in 

 the Council of Ministers. M. Witte undertook to 

 bring the whole matter to the notice of the < 

 As the result of the sympathy displayed in regard 

 to the real grievances 01 the students in his com- 

 munication to the Czar. Gen. Vannofsky. e\- Min- 

 ister of War, was ordered by the Czar to make 

 an inquiry into the causes and circumstance-, of 

 the troubles. The result was that the expelled 

 students were allowed to return and the power 

 of punishment was taken away from the police 

 and restored to the university authorities. How- 

 ever, shortly after the resumption of lecture-. 

 the disturbances were renewed, and the university 

 was again closed. The students of Moscow and 

 Kieff had been subjected to disciplinary punish- 

 ment, instead of being amnestied like their fel- 

 lows in St. Petersburg, and the latter decided to 

 support them as they had been supported by all 

 the students in Russia, and at a meeting voted 

 to resume the strike, which extended to the Min- 

 ing School and other institutions in St. IV 

 burg, and then to the universities and technical 

 schools of the provinces, affecting more than 

 30,000 students. The Government decided not to 

 readmit students who could not give guarantee-* 

 for their future good behavior. The- new tech- 

 nical colleges established in the provincial capi- 

 tals had shown as much discontent as the uni- 

 versities. M. Goremykin, the Minister of the 

 Interior, supporting the repressive policy i tin- 

 Minister of Education, set to work to discover 

 political disaffection among the students, employ- 

 ing agents provocateurs, it was said. Many -in- 

 dents were imprisoned for being in posseion of 

 a seditious proclamation calling for radical polit- 

 ical reforms. When allowed on their petition to 

 return to St. Petersburg and other university 

 towns for the purpose of passing their examina- 

 tions, the students frequently came into collision 



