GEOGRAPHY. 71 



glass, powder, sugar, wooden ware, ropes, twine, &c. The inhabitants 

 of the extreme north fish and hunt exclusively, while those of the Steppes 

 raise cattle. 



The form of government is an absolute monarchy. The head of the state 

 (Emperor, now Nicholas L, born 1796, of the House of Holstein-Gottorp) 

 must profess the religion of the Greek Church. No accurate idea can be 

 formed of the revenues and expenditures of Russia, as nothing official is 

 published on the subject. The European land force, with the reserve, is 

 stated to amount to 568,000 men, with 97,640 horses, and 1672 pieces of 

 artillery ; to this must be added the Caucasian army, the Finnish, the 

 Orenburg, and Siberian corps, together with various corps of Cossacks. 

 The navy is estimated at fifty-six ships of the line and forty-eight frigates, 

 without the steamboats and smaller vessels. 



Political division. The Russian Empire is divided into governments, of 

 which forty-nine belong to European Russia in its most restricted sense, 

 eight to Finnland, and five to Poland. In addition to these, we shall present 

 the historical division. 



I. Great Russia contains nineteen governments : Moscow (with the old 

 capital Moscow, pop. 360,000), Woronesch, Kursk, Tambow, Rjasan, 

 Tula, Orel, Kaluga, Smolensk, Pskow or Pleskow, Novogorod, Kostroma, 

 Twer, Wladimir, Nischnei-Novogorod, Jaroslaw, Wologda, Olonetz, 

 Archangel. 



II. Little Russia, whose eastern portion was formerly called the Ukraine, 

 contains four governments : Kiew, Tschernigow, Pultawa, and Charkow (tli e 

 Slobodian Ukraine), 



III. The Baltic Provinces consist of four governments : Ingermanland '.»r 

 St. Petersburg (with the capital and royal residence St. Petersburg, pop. 

 450,000), Esthonia, Livonia, andCourland. 



IV. The Kingdom of Kasan consists of five governments : Kasan, 

 Simbirsk, Pensa, Wjatka, and Perm. 



V. The Kingdom of Astrachan consists of four governments : Astrachan, 

 Orenburg, Saratow, and Stawropol (Caucasus). 



VI. South Russia, the most southern part, contains five governments : 

 the land of the Don Cossacks, Jekaterinoslaw, Tauria, Chersonesus, and 

 Bessarabia. 



VII. West Russia, the south-western part, includes the governments of 

 Witebsk, Mohilew, Podolia, Volhynia, Minsk, Grodno, Wilna, and Bialystok. 

 Of these provinces, Pultawa has the largest population, and Astrakan the 

 smallest ; while on the other hand. Archangel is of greatest extent, and 

 Bialystok of least. 



Other lands belonging to the European portion of Russia are : 



VIII. The Grand Principality or ViceroyaUy of Finnland, containing 

 1,400,000 inhabitants, divided into eight governments : Nyland, Abo, 

 Tawassehuus, Wiborg, St. Michael, Kuopio, Wasa, and Uleaborg. 



IX. The Kingdom of Poland, with a population of 4,857,000, of which, 

 in 1845, 3,800,000 were Roman Catholics, 550,000 Jews, 250,000 Lutherans, 

 240,000 United Greeks, 4200 Independent Greeks, 3800 Reformed, 3800 



71 



