478 



EUSSIA IN EUEOPE. 



service, without the option of substitution. 



Fig. 2.5. 



-XlKOLAYEV AND THE BuG LlMAN. 

 Scale 1 : 574,000. 



war. Before 1874 it was recruited by conscription amongst the peasantry and 

 artisans of the towns, besides volunteers and the sons of soldiers. But according 

 to the new law all able-bodied men twenty-one years old are bound to military 



The use of the rod is abolished 

 except in the disciplinary corps. 

 The normal period of service is 

 fifteen years, of which six are in 

 the active army and nine in the 

 reserve. But the population being 

 too great to need all available 

 recruits, about two-thirds of them 

 are at once dismissed to the militia, 

 while the rest, chosen by lot, are 

 retained in the active service only 

 till the cadres are completed, when 

 they receive their congé for an 

 indefinite period. In the reserve 

 they are bound to serve only during 

 war-time, but must present them- 

 selves yearly at the nearest camp 

 for a few days' exercise. Few 

 regiments except those of the 

 Guards are complete, although of 

 the 650,000 yearly recruits about 

 200,000 are retained for active 

 service. The Don, Ural, Terek, 

 Kuban, and Siberian Cossacks 

 have preserved their special mili- 

 tary organization, each of their 

 "armies" furnishing a certain 

 number of fully equipped regi- 

 ments always ready to take the 

 field at ten days' notice. In 1877 

 the European Cossacks in the 

 active service numbered 40,000, 

 which on the first call might be 

 raised to 100,000. 



In the same year the whole 

 army numbered over 1,000,000, but it varies from 710,000 to 1,200,000 according 

 to circumstances. Till recently the mortality was excessive, but since 1872 has 

 been much reduced by improved sanitary arrangements, and a more vigilant 

 control over the army contractors. In time of peace it now amounts only to 

 1 per cent., and even in war the proportion has been considerably lessened by 

 more efficient ambulance and hospital service. 



5l°50 



E ôfG. 



(o 32 Sheep-folds. Mounds. Farmsteads. 

 Feet. 



