614 



RUSSIA. 



decline in the prosperity of the peasant class was 

 ascribed by some authorities to their ignorance 

 and indolence and the primitive methods of agri- 

 culture in use, and some ascribe their backward- 

 ness to the communal system of the villages which 

 deprives the peasants of any incentive to improve 

 the land and discourages individual enterprise 

 and initiative. The agricultural classes find fault 

 with the inadequacy of the provisions for the en- 

 couragement of agriculture and the education of 

 the masses, compared with the sums devoted by 

 the Government to the development of industry, 

 and also with the incidence of protective duties. 

 Experts estimate that the richest of the black soil 

 is being robbed of the elements of fertility and 

 value the annual deterioration at 725,000,000 

 rubles a year, which could be balanced by main- 

 taining 30,000,000 more horses and cattle than 

 Russia now possesses. The peasants of each mir 

 in the majority of cases graze their cattle on 

 common pastures and cultivate the fields in com- 

 mon, dividing the crops. In other communes, 

 while pastures are common, the arable lands are 

 allotted each year to heads of families. The Gov- 

 ernment decided to free the village communities 

 of their joint responsibility for the payment of 

 taxes and assess them separately on the individual 

 members, so as to encourage thrift. In view of 

 the existing distress it was decided to remit ar- 

 rears of taxation amounting to 130,000,000 rubles. 

 The famine of 1901 affected 17 governments hav- 

 ing a population of 24,000,000, for whose relief the 

 Imperial Government spent 33,500,000 rubles be- 

 sides finding employment for 61,000 men. Under 

 the communal system as it exists in Russia a 

 peasant may not without the consent of the mir 

 absent himself from the village, but must remain 

 to do his share of the work and bear his share of 

 the taxes and debts unless he has such consent. 

 If he is allowed to go out to earn wages elsewhere 

 he must still pay his share, and there is no legal 

 way of severing his connection with the commu- 

 nity, not even by abandoning his share in the 

 common lands. The zemstvos have in many 

 places distributed agricultural machinery among 

 the communes at cost price, and have even em- 

 ployed agricultural instructors to teach the peas- 

 ants better methods. Many of the local com- 

 mittees recommended for the improvement of ag- 

 riculture .education of the peasants, equality with 

 other classes before the law, a juster distribution 

 of taxes, the substitution of an income tax for the 

 indirect taxes that press most upon the poor and 

 have been doubled in twenty years, the increase 

 of their allotments of land, and the reduction 

 of the protective tariff on industrial products. The 

 zemstvos, whose powers were curtailed in 1890, 

 put in a plea through their members who were on 

 the committees for independence of the restraints 

 to which they were subjected by officials of the 

 Central Government, for liberty to consult and 

 cooperate among themselves, and in general for 

 reorganization on a democratic basis. Because 

 these suggestions were rejected as outside of the 

 scope of the inquiry one committee dissolved. 

 Other committees reported in favor of increasing 

 the authority and independence of the zemstfos, 

 giving the peasants as well as the landed gentry 

 representation in these bodies, placing funds at 

 their disposal, and consulting them on legislative 

 measures affecting the rural population. To curb 

 the discussion of local self-government and other 

 political questions the Government imprisoned 

 or exiled some of the leading members of the 

 provincial and district committees who were 

 responsible for dragging these matters into the 

 reports. 



Finland. The grand duchy of Finland, when 

 united to Russia in 1809, preserved by grant of 

 the Czar Alexander I its constitutional form of 

 government. Its legislative body is composed of 

 representatives of the Four Estates, viz., the 

 knighthood and nobility, the clergy, the citizens, 

 and the peasants. Laws are prepared by the 

 State Secretariat of Finland in St. Petersburg 

 and submitted to the Four Estates, whose unani- 

 mous consent is necessary for amendments to the 

 Constitution or for the imposition of new taxes. 

 The Czar in Finland bears the title of Grand Duke. 

 The Governor-General is Gen. N. Bobrikoff. Fin- 

 land owes its high state of civilization to its excel- 

 lent educational system. There are 1,757 ele- 

 mentary schools, of which 285 are Swedish, 16 

 Swedish and Finnish, 1 Finnish and German, and 

 1,455 Finnish; also 50 lyceums, 20 modern schools, 

 38 girls' high schools, 7 training-colleges for 

 teachers, 46 technical schools, 1 polytechnic, 1 

 university with 2,355 students, and numerous ag- 

 ricultural and commercial schools. 



The area of Finland is 144,255 square miles. 

 The population in 1899 was estimated at 2,673,- 

 200, divided into 1,322,949 males and 1,350,251 fe- 

 males, the whole comprising 2,300,100 Finns, 362,- 

 500 Swedes, 7,500 Russians, 1,900 Germans, and 

 1,200 Lapps. Helsingfors, the capital, with Svea- 

 borg, had 88,711 inhabitants. The number of 

 marriages in 1899 was 19,539; of births, 88,358; of 

 deaths, 53,042; excess of births, 35,316. The im- 

 migrants in 1899 numbered 79,074, and emigrants 

 76,320. 



The receipts of the Government for 1900 were 

 estimated at 87,506,882 marks, or francs, inclu- 

 ding 23,176,554 marks carried over from previous 

 years and 3,000,000 marks from the reserve fund; 

 and expenditures were made to balance the re- 

 ceipts, 21,254,786 marks being carried over to 1902. 

 Direct taxes yielded 5,953,115 marks of revenue, 

 and indirect taxes 34,055,000 marks. The timber 

 of the Government forests yields a revenue of 

 3,000,000 marks a year. The expenditure for mil- 

 itary purposes was 6,959,519 marks; for civil ad- 

 ministration, 10,339,806 marks; for education and 

 worship, 9,469,813 marks; for railroad construc- 

 tion, 12,774,460 marks; for the public debt, 4,971,- 

 160 marks. The amount of the debt on Jan. 1, 

 1901, was 111,488,864 marks, an increase of 26,- 

 357,920 marks since the previous year. The Fin- 

 nish army is being assimilated to that of Russia. 

 New military regulations, which go into force in 

 1903, provide that the Finnish recruits shall be in- 

 corporated in Russian regiments, mainly those sta- 

 tioned in the districts of Finland and St. Peters- 

 burg, to serve three years in the active army and 

 fifteen years in the Zapas. The existing force con- 

 sists of 9 battalions of rifles and 1 regiment of dra- 

 goons. Excepting the life-guard battalion and the 

 dragoons these troops will be disbanded. 



The agricultural production of Finland in 1899 

 was 50,666 hectoliters of wheat, 3,602,551 hecto- 

 liters of rye, 1,330,192 hectoliters of barley, 5,279,- 

 639 hectoliters of oats, 4,524.059 hectoliters of po- 

 tatoes, 1,430 tons of flax, and 566 tons of hemp. 

 The live stock consisted of 8,486 horses, 1,457,423 

 cattle, 1.031,185 sheep, 214.206 hogs, 119,917 rein- 

 deer, and 9.083 goats. The production of timber 

 in 1898 was 2.348.604 cubic meters. The minimi 

 production in 1900 was 90.600 tons of iron ore, 

 31,002 tons of pig-iron, 18,324 tons of bar iron. 

 The imports of c-ereals in 1900 were 71.100.000 

 marks in value; of machinery, 16.600.000 marks: 

 of cotton and cotton goods, i5.000.000 marks; of 

 coffee, 14.100.000 marks; of iron and iron manu- 

 factures, 13.100,000 marks; of woolen goods, 11,- 

 100,000 marks; of sugar, 9,100,000 marks. The 



