RUSSIA. 



European Russia is divided politically into 

 fourteen general governments, or viceroyalties, 

 and fifty-one governments. The governors- 

 general have discretionary powers in all affairs, 

 civil and military. Geographically and ethno- 

 graphically it is divided into Great Russia, con- 

 taining 880,798 square miles and a population 

 in 1879 of 26,364,757 souls ; Little Russia, con- 

 taining 80,226 square miles and 8,806,895 in- 

 habitants ; Eastern Russia, containing 546,470 

 square miles and 17,213,607 inhabitants ; South 

 Russia, containing 168,381 square miles and 

 6,857,949 inhabitants; Western Russia, con- 

 taining 161,897 square miles and 11,508,243 

 inhabitants ; and the Baltic provinces, con- 

 taining 57,267 square miles and 3,743,356 in- 

 habitants. The government of Poland, which 

 was formerly separate, was finally merged in 

 that of Russia by a ukase issued Feb. 23, 1868. 

 Various provinces have their peculiar institu- 

 tions and customs. The Baltic provinces en- 

 joy particular rights, but these have been much 

 modified lately. The Grand Duchy of Finland 

 preserves its separate government and repre- 

 sentative institutions. 



The average density of the population of 

 Russia in Europe, including Poland and Fin- 

 land, is forty persons to the square mile ; that 

 of Asiatic Russia two to the square mile; that 

 of the entire empire twelve to the square mile. 

 According to official returns for 1867-70 the 

 natural increment of the population of the em- 

 pire is about 781,000 per annum. 



The Slav population of European Russia is 

 divided into three groups the Great Russians, 

 or Veliko-Russ ; the Little Russians, or Malo- 

 Russ ; and the White Russians, or Belo-Russ. 

 The Great Russians, inhabiting the central 

 provinces, number about 35,000,000 souls. The 

 Little Russians, some 11,000,000 in number, 

 constitute the bulk of the population of Pol- 

 tava, Kharkov, Chernigov, Kiev, Volhynia, Po- 

 dolsk, Ekaterinoslav, and Taurida. The White 

 Russians, numbering about 3.000,000, are dis- 

 tributed over the provinces of Mobile v, Minsk, 

 Vitebsk, and Grodno. 



The area in square kilometres and estimated 

 population of the provinces of Central Asia in 

 1880 were as follow : 



to the decree of March 8, 1861, was estimated 

 to be 22,000,000. The number of owners was 

 109,340. The peasants paid for the lands al- 

 lotted to them on a scale by which the value 

 of their previous labor was capitalized at 6 per 

 cent, interest. Of the capital sum 20 per cent. 

 was paid down by the peasant and 80 per cent. 

 advanced by the Government, to be ivpji'nl 

 with interest by the peasant in forty-nine an- 

 nual installments. Of the cultivable land of 

 Russia proper about 5 per cent, is held by for- 

 mer serfs, and lo per cent, by crown peas- 

 ants, while 34 per cent, belongs to the state, 

 20 per cent, to nobles and other great proprie- 

 tors, and 20 per cent, is the property of other 

 owners or is unsurveyed, and the remaining 

 5 per cent, town lands and mining property. 

 The movement of population is reported for 



1880 in Russia, Poland, and Siberia, and for 



1881 in Finland, as follows: 



The number of crown peasants liberated by 

 the late Emperor was 22,225,075. The num- 

 ber of serfs belonging to nobles and other pri- 

 vate owners who were emancipated according 



The following is a list of the cities which 

 contained at the latest returns more than 100,- 

 000 inhabitants : 



CITIES. Population. 



St. Petersburg (1880) 8,|20 



Moscow (1882) 7&0,87 



Warsaw(lS82) 406,261 



Odessa (1882) 217,OoO 



Riga (1881) S,M 



Kichinev (1880) ' W 



Kiev(1374) 127-251 



Saratov (13%) }JWg 



Kharkov (1879) 102,059 



Roman Catholics are most numerous in the 

 formerly Polish provinces, Lutherans in the 

 provinces of the Baltic, and Mohammedans in 

 Southern Russia, while the Jews are almost 

 entirely settled in the towns and larger vil- 

 lages of the western and southwestern frontier 

 districts. 



Education. The empire is divided into nine 

 educational districts, over each of which a cu- 

 rator is appointed. There are nine universi- 

 ties, attended in 1878 by 6,250 students. There 

 were in 1876 24,456 elementary schools, with 

 1,019,488 pupils. The number of pupils in the 

 normal schools in 1877 was 4,596 ; the number 

 in the lyceums, gymnasia, and other secondary 

 schools was 88,400. In the budget for 1882, 

 18 030 867 rubles were appropriated for public 

 education. In 1860 only 2 per cent, of the 

 recruits for the army could read and write; in 

 1870 11 per cent. In Finland all of the popu- 

 lation who are of adult age are able to read, if 



Commerce. The following table shows the 

 growth of the export commerce in ten years, 

 giving the value of the merchandise exported 

 each year to Europe and the West, to Finland, 

 and to Asiatic countries, in millions of rublt 

 and tenths of millions : 



