708 



RUSSIA. 



which permits of wagon transport, without the 

 tramway projected by Gen. Tchernaieff, and 

 that of abundant and succulent grass at cer- 

 tain seasons , but the disadvantage of preca- 

 rious wells of brackish water. This does not 

 apply to the last third of the road, which 

 passes through a part of the oasis of Khiva. 

 One of the causes which led to a search for a 

 direct route to Central Asia, was the improve- 

 ment of steam navigation on the Caspian Sea. 

 Formerly navigation was retarded by the want 

 of coal, but an excellent fuel has been found in 

 the refuse of petroleum-refineries. 



Religions Legislation. A relaxation of the de- 

 crees against the Raskolniks, or sectaries, con- 

 trasts with the general reactionary tendency 

 of the Emperor's policy. He has need of 

 the good- will of this great clan's, powerful in 

 wealth, intelligence, and numbers, which has 

 flourished under persecution. While numbers 

 of Old Believers have embraced the Orthodox 

 creed, the partly or wholly rationalistic sects 

 have gained thousands of recruits annually 

 among the peasantry. The present number of 

 dissenters is estimated at 12,000,000. The 

 official estimates divide them into 3,000,000 

 with priests, 8,000,000 without priests, about 

 1,000,000 Spiritual Christians, and 65,000 en- 

 thusiasts. The latter category, comprising the 

 Chlistli, or flagellants, the Skopze, or eunuch 

 sect, etc., is on the decline. The "heretics" 

 possess a rich literature. Education among 

 them is almost universal. The tendency of the 

 priestless sects is toward rationalism and indif- 

 ferentism in religious belief. This makes them 

 cling the more earnestly to the principle of in- 

 tellectual liberty and the ideas of the ancient 

 Slav democracy, corrupted through Tartar 

 rule and aristocratic institutions imported from 

 Europe. They constitute, therefore, a power 

 in the state which can not be won over to the 

 support of the existing order, and which has 

 many points of contact with Nihilism. The 

 Mennonites, who refuse to perform military 

 service, are forced to emigrate. The Khan of 

 Bokhara has declined to allow them to settle 

 in his territory. Small colonies went to China 

 and other parts of Asia during the year. 



Of a progressive nature also were measures 

 taken to conciliate the Poles, especially the 

 arrangement of a modus vivendi with the Vati- 

 can. The terms of a convention were settled 

 with the Curia in the early part of 1883. The 

 subject was first broached in 1880 by M. d'Ou- 

 bril, then embassador at Vienna, who dis- 

 cussed it with Cardinal Jacobini, Papal nun- 

 cio to that court. The negotiations were con- 

 tinued by M. Mossoloff, Director of Foreign 

 Creeds, but were interrupted in consequence 

 of the murder of the Czar. The Russian Gov- 

 ernment expressed a desire to terminate the 

 period of ecclesiastical pressure by a practical 

 arrangement, without going into questions of 

 principle. The details were arranged by M. 

 Mossoloff and M. de Giers at the Vatican. The 

 exiled Bishops of Wilna and Jitomir and the 



Archbishop of "Warsaw were pardoned. The va- 

 cant sees were filled, the seminaries placed under 

 the control of the bishops, sermons and pasto- 

 rals were exempted from censorship, and the 

 rights of the bishops enlarged in other respects. 

 In return, the Vatican promised to bind the 

 clergy to a loyal demeanor, to secure the 

 state interests of Russia, and to have Russian 

 taught in the seminaries. The language of the 

 pulpit is to be that of the majority of the par- 

 ishioners. A Polish Catholic, Gen. Gurko, was 

 appointed Governor-General of Poland. 



Kussitiration of the German Provinces. The 

 confirmation of the autocratic system, and the 

 adoption of a stationary internal policy, con- 

 tributed not less than the anti-Russian politi- 

 cal combinations of Prince Bismarck to the 

 eclipse of Russian influence and the Panslavis- 

 tic idea among the South Slavs, and left the 

 Balkan Peninsula open to the intellectual activ- 

 ity and commercial facilities of the Germans. 

 Within the confines of the Russian Empire 

 under Alexander III, Muscovite ideas have 

 every chance of prevailing in the conflict be- 

 tween Teutonic and Slav civilization. German 

 placemen, of the class which since Peter the 

 Great has battened in the public service, and 

 with arrogant pride developed an oppressive 

 and alien method of government, have made 

 way for Russians who understand the people 

 and can talk to them in their own language. 

 The Russification of the Baltic provinces pre- 

 sents practical problems which are difficult of 

 solution. The autonomous institutions of this 

 German corner of Russia work well, and dis- 

 closed few abuses to the commission appointed 

 to examine into them. The agrarian question 

 is a still more delicate one. Any measure to 

 relieve the Esth and Lett peasantry from their 

 economical subjugation would be a weapon in 

 the hands of the Socialists. The agitation in 

 Livonia, Esthonia, and Courland continued 

 through 1883, and in some places degenerated 

 into agrarian murder and arson. One symptom 

 of the movement is the wholesale conversion 

 of the peasantry from the Lutheran to the 

 Greek Catholic confession. The course of the 

 Government authorities would be simpler if the 

 disaffected people were Muscovites, but they 

 hesitate to aid and countenance the national 

 Ruthenian movement, which was formerly 

 rigorously suppressed with the assistance of the 

 German barons. Here, as in Austria, the con- 

 flict of nationalities takes the form of a battle of 

 languages. The Little Russian language is a 

 pure Slavic idiom, while the Muscovite dialect, 

 which has been imposed by the power of the 

 autocracy upon the Western Slavs, is the prod- 

 uct resulting from the imposition in former 

 centuries of the Russian language upon the 

 Finno-Tartar population of Great Russia.* 



* Nestor, who wrote in the eleventh century, distinguishes 

 the Turanian race, which inhabited Muscovy, from the Aryan 

 people of Kiev. Olearius, a German traveler, who wrote 

 in the latter part of the seventeenth century, says the in- 

 habitants of the eastern part of the land of Moscow spoke 

 Finnish. The Abbe Chappe found the same radical difference 



