Chapter XV: From the Founding of the German Empire to the Close of the European (9)

=Passes to Charles V. of Germany.=--As Philip died in 1506, his elder son, the celebrated Charles V., became heir to the united monarchies, and was elected emperor of Germany in 1519. Thus, by a succession of fortunate marriages, the House of Hapsburg became the most powerful dynasty in the world.

Charles V., however, resigned all his German territories to his younger brother, Ferdinand I., who was thus the continuation of the Austrian branch of the line. Under Ferdinand the power of Austria greatly increased.

=Division of the Empire.=--In the partition of the inheritance that took place among Ferdinand’s three sons, the eldest, Maximilian II., received the imperial crown along with Austria, Hungary and Bohemia; the second, Ferdinand, Tyrol and Upper Austria; the third, Charles, got Styria, Carinthia, etc. Maximilian II. was fond of peace, tolerant in religion, and a just ruler. He died in 1576; and of his five sons, the eldest, Rudolf II., became emperor.

Rudolf II. was negligent, leaving everything to his ministers and the Jesuits. His war with the Porte and Transylvania brought him little credit; and the Protestants of Bohemia, oppressed by the Jesuits, extorted from him a charter of religious liberty. In 1608 he was obliged to cede Hungary, and in 1611 Bohemia and Austria, to his brother Matthias.

Matthias, who became emperor in 1612, ceded Bohemia and Hungary to his cousin Ferdinand, son of the Archduke Charles of Styria, third son of Maximilian II. Matthias lived to see the outbreak of the Thirty Years’ war, and died in 1619.

=Ferdinand II. and the Thirty Years’ War.=--Bohemia refused to acknowledge his successor, Ferdinand II., to whom all the Austrian possessions had again reverted, and chose the Elector Palatine, Frederick V., the head of the Protestant Union, as king. This election gave the signal for the Thirty Years’ war, in which the House of Austria took the lead, both as the champion of Catholicism, and the head of a power which aimed at universal domination in Germany and in the Christian world. The battle of Prague (1620) subjected Bohemia to Ferdinand, who formally set about rooting out Protestantism in that country and in Moravia. The emperor also succeeded in extorting acknowledgment of his sovereignty from the states of Austria; and here, too, Protestantism, which had made great progress since the time of Luther, was mercilessly suppressed.

Under Ferdinand’s successor, the Emperor Ferdinand III. (1637-1657), Austria continued to be a theater of war; and at the peace of Westphalia (1648) had to cede Alsace to France.

=Leopold I. and the War of the Spanish Succession.=--Ferdinand III.’s son and successor, Leopold I., provoked the Hungarians to rebellion by his severity. The struggle between Leopold and Louis XIV. of France for the heirship to the king of Spain led to the War of the Spanish Succession, during which Leopold died, in 1705.

His eldest son and successor, the enlightened Joseph I., continued the war. He died childless in 1711, and was succeeded by his brother, Charles VI.

=Hapsburg-Lorraine Line of Rulers.=--With the death of Charles VI., in 1740, the male line of the Hapsburgs became extinct, and his daughter, Maria Theresa, who was married to the duke of Lorraine, assumed the government. For many years it had been the aim of Charles to secure the adhesion of the European powers to the Pragmatic Sanction, by which the possessions of the Austrian crown should pass to Maria Theresa. Those powers during his lifetime had promised to second his wishes, but he was no sooner in his grave than nearly all of them sought to profit by the accession of a female sovereign.

=War of the Austrian Succession.=--A great war arose, in which England alone sided with Maria. Frederick II. of Prussia conquered Silesia. The Elector of Bavaria was crowned king of Bohemia, and elected emperor as Charles VII. in 1742. The Hungarians, however, stood by their heroic queen, who was soon able to wage a fairly successful war against her numerous foes. At the death of the empress in 1780, the monarchy had an extent of two hundred and thirty-four thousand square miles, with a population of twenty-four millions. The administration of Maria Theresa was distinguished by unwonted unity and vigor, both in home and foreign affairs.

Her successor, Joseph II., was an active reformer in the spirit of the enlightened despotism of the times, though often rash and violent in his mode of proceeding. He was succeeded in the government by his brother, the grandduke of Tuscany--as German emperor, Leopold II.--who succeeded in pacifying the Netherlands and Hungary.

=Austria and the French Revolution.=--At the outbreak of the revolution in France the fate of Leopold’s sister, Marie Antoinette, and her husband, Louis XVI. of France, led him to an alliance with Prussia against France; but he died in 1792 before the war broke out. War was declared by France on his son, Francis II., the same year, and by the treaty of Campo Formio, 1797, Austria lost Lombardy and the Netherlands, receiving in lieu the Venetian territory.

In 1795, at the second partition of Poland, it had been augmented by western Galicia.

Francis, in alliance with Russia, renewed the war with France in 1799, which was ended by the peace of Lunéville. It is needless to follow all the alterations of boundary that the Austrian dominions underwent during these wars. The most serious was at the peace of Vienna (1809), which cost Austria forty-two thousand square miles of territory. It was in 1804, when Napoleon had been proclaimed emperor of France, that Francis declared himself hereditary emperor of Austria as Francis I. On the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine, he laid down the dignity of German emperor, which his family had held for nearly four hundred years.

The humiliating peace of Vienna was followed (1809) by the marriage of Napoleon with the Archduchess Maria Louisa, and in 1812 Austria figured as the ally of Napoleon in his great campaign against Russia, but she did not give much active assistance. In August of the following year Austria joined the grand alliance against France and the Austrian general, Schwarzenberg, was entrusted with the chief command of the allied forces, which at the battle of Leipzig and in the campaign of 1814 broke the power of Napoleon.

=Congress of Vienna and Subsequent Period of Metternich.=--The sacrifices and great services rendered by Austria in the gigantic struggle received full consideration at the treaty of Vienna (1815). As recompense for the loss of the Netherlands she received Venice and Dalmatia, which afforded an outlet for her foreign trade.

After that time Austria, under the diplomatic guidance of Prince Metternich, exerted a powerful influence in European politics generally, and more especially in the German Confederation, of which her emperor was president. The death of Francis I. in 1835 made little alteration in the policy of Austria; Ferdinand I. trod in his father’s footsteps. The political alliance with Russia and Prussia was drawn closer by a personal conference of the emperor with Nicholas I. and Frederick-William III. at Teplitz in 1835.

=Revolution of 1848.=--In Austria, after the fall of Metternich from power, the revolutionary period of 1848-1849 was one of exceptional severity, the movement for constitutional freedom being complicated by the revival of the national spirit in Hungary, Italy and Bohemia. The time was everywhere ripe for revolt, when the fall of Louis-Philippe of France (February 24, 1848), gave the signal for the outbreak of the revolutionary elements all over Europe. Nowhere was the spirit of change stronger than in Vienna, which for many months became a scene of confusion.

The leaders of the popular movement in Vienna were in sympathy with Hungary, and when the imperial troops were ordered to suppress the national rising there, the citizens again rose in insurrection. In the meantime the military forces had withdrawn from the capital in order to prevent the Hungarians coming to the aid of the Viennese. Vienna was now besieged, and surrendered at the end of October, after a resistance of eight days.

=Francis Joseph Emperor.=--The reaction was triumphant, and the leaders of revolt severely punished; but as Ferdinand had not shown sufficient vigor in the great crisis, he was persuaded to abdicate, and Francis Joseph was declared emperor at the age of eighteen. Thus restored, the central authority had now to assert itself in Hungary and to complete the reconquest of northern Italy. With the surrender of Venice, which took place in August, the subjugation of Italy was complete.

=Conquest of Hungary.=--In Hungary, the Magyars, though the Germans and Slavs within the country itself were hostile to them, began the campaign of 1849 with decided success. But the government had already solicited the aid of Russia, whose armies, entering Transylvania and Hungary, added to the imperial cause the irresistible weight of numbers. Surrounded on every side by superior forces, the Hungarians were completely beaten. It was in vain that Kossuth transferred the dictatorship to General Görgei. Görgei, whether from treachery, as the other Magyar leaders maintained, or from necessity, as he himself averred, laid down his arms to the Russians at Vilagos (August 13). The surrender of Komorn, in September, completed the subjugation of Hungary, which was treated as a conquered country.

The ten years which followed on the revolutionary troubles of 1848 were a period of reaction and of absolutism. A constitution which had been granted in 1849 was soon annulled. The policy pursued was one of strong centralization under a bureaucratic government, by which the claims of nationality and of freedom were alike disregarded. Liberty of the press and trial by jury were set aside. A rigorous system of police was maintained. The aim was to Germanize the whole empire and to crush the aspirations of both Slavs and Hungarians. The Church pronounced against national freedom, and supported the central authority and received great privileges by the Concordat of 1855. The result of all these proceedings was only to irritate the national feeling in Hungary, Italy and Bohemia.

=Struggle Between Austria and Prussia.=--On the confused arena of German politics, the struggle for ascendancy was kept up between Austria and Prussia. In 1850 the two powers were armed and ready to come to blows with reference to the affairs of Hesse-Cassel; but the bold and determined policy of Schwarzenberg prevailed, and by the humiliating arrangement of Olmütz, Prussia gave way. For a few years longer the preponderance of Austria in the German Confederation was secured.

The rule of Austria in Italy had always been unsatisfactory. From her own provinces in Venice and Lombardy she controlled the policy of the courts of central and southern Italy, and her influence tended invariably towards the suppression of national feeling and popular liberty.

=Loss of Italian Possessions.=--Sardinia was the only state that worthily represented the spirit of the Italian people. In the spring of 1859 it began to arm against Austrian supremacy. Austria demanded immediate disarmament, on pain of war; but Sardinia refused. Austria accordingly commenced hostilities by crossing the Ticino at the end of April, 1859. Sardinia having secured the aid of France, the Austrians were defeated at Magenta, Solferino and elsewhere, and their emperor was fain to seek an armistice from Napoleon. On July 11 the two potentates met at Villafranca, and concluded a peace, ceding Lombardy to Sardinia. Venice was all that still remained of the Italian possessions of Austria.

=Austro-Prussian War.=--The rivalry of Prussia and Austria for influence in the Germanic body of states dated from the rise of Prussia to be a leading power. The arrangement of Olmütz in 1850 had left a painful feeling of humiliation in the minds of the Prussian statesmen. The long rivalry was now to be brought to a decisive issue. In 1864 the combined Prussian and Austrian forces drove the Danes out of Sleswick-Holstein, but the two victors quarreled about the subsequent arrangements. War was declared, and in 1866 the Austrian armies in Bohemia were completely beaten by the Prussians, in a campaign of seven days, which closed with the great defeat of Königgrätz or Sadowa.

=Period of Reforms.=--After the great war of 1866 the history of Austria has been concerned chiefly with two important interests. In the first place, the government had to attempt an arrangement of the conflicting claims and rights of the peoples constituting the empire; in the second place, it has had to establish working relations with the great neighboring powers, Germany and Russia, and especially with the latter, on the Eastern Question.

=Union of Austria and Hungary.=--Hungary’s claims to be recognized as a separate and distinct country were now, with great advantage, pressed forward. In 1867 its political rights were successful in being regarded as justified. This agreement was the famous Ausgleich, which has since been in force, and which has to a sufficient degree justified its adoption.

At the end of 1867 the first parliamentary ministry was formed. The Concordat was set aside. Education was freed from the control of the Church. Marriage was placed under the jurisdiction of the civil power. The press laws were relaxed. Finally, the Prussian system of military organization was introduced.

In the foreign affairs of Austria the chief aim was to arrive at a satisfactory understanding with Germany and Russia. After 1871 Bismarck arranged as between Germany, Austria and Russia a “Three Emperors’ Alliance,” which after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 was superseded by an alliance between Germany and Austria. This, by the inclusion of Italy, in 1882, became the Triple Alliance, which remained in full force down to the great European war of 1914.

During the Turkish revolution of 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed the Turkish provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which the Treaty of Berlin had placed under Austro-Hungarian administration and military occupation in 1878.

=Racial Difficulties Bearing Upon the European War, 1914-1917.=--The multiplicity of races and their mutual jealousies rendered the task of the central government in Austria-Hungary both delicate and difficult. (See Peoples and Races.) Russia, as a Slav nation and a great power, had long exercised a predominant influence in the Balkans. Acting under this influence, Servia secretly fostered aspirations in the direction of a Pan-Slavic propaganda with the apparent object of not only lessening Austrian influence in the Balkans but of breaking up, through internal defections, the Austrian Empire; from the accomplishment of this Servia hoped to profit.

The Slavs are closely allied with Russia. The spread of Pan-Slavism constituted a menace to the very existence of the Dual Monarchy. The growth of German and Russian aspirations directed at expansion through the Balkan States had, therefore, a direct connection with the racial element of which Pan-Slavism was but one manifestation. As an evidence of the spread of the doctrine of “Pan-Slavic Unity” and of the bitterness of the racial antipathy which it engendered, the Austrian Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, the Duchess of Hohenberg, were assassinated on June 28, 1914, at Sarajevo, the capital of the Austrian province of Bosnia. This act led directly to a declaration of war against Servia on July 28th, followed by an Austrian invasion on July 30th. (Further causes and details of the war will be found under the European War.)

SOVEREIGNS OF AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

The following is a list of the Hapsburg rulers of Austria (Dukes
and, from 1453, Archdukes of Austria, from 1526, also Kings of
Hungary and Bohemia, from 1804 Emperors of Austria).

HOUSE OF HAPSBURG
Albert I. 1282
*Rudolf II. 1282
*Rudolf III. 1293
Frederick (III. as rival Imperial claimant) 1307
*Leopold I. 1314
*Albert II. 1314
*Rudolf IV. 1358
*Albert III. 1365
*Albert IV. 1395
Albert V. (II. as Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia) 1404
*Ladislaus (King of Hungary and Bohemia) 1439
Fredrick V. (III. as Emperor) 1457
Maximilian I. 1493
Charles I. (V. as Emperor) 1519
Ferdinand I. 1520
Maximilian II. 1564
Rudolf V. (II. as Emperor) 1576
Matthias 1611
Ferdinand II. 1619
Ferdinand III. 1637
Leopold I. 1658
Joseph I. 1705
Charles II. (VI. as Emperor, III. of Hungary) 1711
*Maria Theresa. 1740
HOUSE OF HAPSBURG-LORRAINE
Joseph II. 1780
Leopold II. 1790
Francis I. (II. as Emperor) 1792
*Ferdinand I. (V. of Hungary) 1835
*Francis Joseph I. 1848
Charles Francis Joseph 1916

* All except those marked with an asterisk likewise filled the
throne of the Holy Roman Empire.

THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE

Russia extends over eastern Europe, the whole of northern Asia, and
a part of central Asia. This area, which is more than twice as large
as Europe, and embraces one-sixth of the land-surface of the globe,
has a population estimated at near one hundred and seventy-four
millions. The Russian Empire consists of two well-defined parts:
European Russia less than one-fourth of the whole but including
nearly three-fourths of its population; and Asiatic Russia. The
inhabitants of European Russia mostly belong to the Slavic branch of
the human race.

The subdivisions are indicated in the following table:

=======================================+=========+===========
| AREA |
GOVERNMENTS AND | ENGLISH |POPULATION
PROVINCES | SQUARE |JAN. 1912
| MILES |
---------------------------------------+---------+-----------
_European Russia_: | |
Russia proper (50 Provs.) |1,862,524|122,550,700
Poland (10 Provs.) | 49,018| 12,776,100
Finland (Grand Duchy) | 144,178| 3,140,100
_Asiatic Russia_: | |
Caucasia (11 Provs.) | 180,703| 12,288,100
Central Asia (10 Provs. and Regions)|1,325,530| 10,727,000
Siberia (8 Provs. and Regions) |4,786,730| 9,577,900
_Dependencies_: | |
Khiva | 26,028| 800,000
Bokhara | 78,524| 1,500,000
Inland Lakes | 317,468| --
+---------+-----------
|8,770,703|173,359,900
---------------------------------------+---------+-----------

The various sections of European Russia differ greatly from one another, and have thereby given rise to certain _popular divisions_ that are even better known generally than the strictly governmental provinces. These, with their distinguishing features, may be indicated as follows:

_Great Russia_ (Muscovy).--All the central and northern regions to the Arctic shores. Chief towns: Moscow, Tula.

Except on its outskirts, this region presents everywhere the same aspects, wide, undulating plains covered with cornfields and dotted with small deciduous forests. The soil is of very moderate fertility in the north, but very fertile in the black earth belt of the south.

The Great Russians, numbering about fifty-five millions, are a vigorous and manly stock, usually rather light-haired, with blue or brown eyes, well-formed hands and feet, and a serious, kindly, but somewhat crafty, temperament, an inborn disposition for a wandering life, a very small regard to the value of time, and (especially in the peasantry) an extreme carelessness and slovenliness in all details of daily life.

_Little Russia_, or the Ukraine.--In the southwest. Chief town: Kieff.

The little Russians, over twenty-two millions in all, are settled in the Ukraine, which contains also in the borderlands some twelve per cent of Jews and six per cent of Poles. Their religion, like their love for music and poetry and their passion for country life, they share with their relations on the north and northeast, but in their developments of folklore and popular song, and in the more feminine character both of their physique and their intellect, they offer marked peculiarities. The Little Russians of the Dnieper basin are closely allied to the Ruthenians of Austria-Hungary.

The Ukraine comprises the governments of Tchernigoff, Kieff, Poltava, and part of Kharkoff, as well as Volhynia and Podolia on the spurs of the Carpathians, the richest and most populous parts of Russia. The soil is mostly a rich black earth, and assumes farther south the aspect of fine grassy steppes, or prairies, yielding rich crops of wheat.

The practical ambition of Peter the Great has probably never been surpassed by any sovereign in history. He began empire building with his travels in 1697. It was an unparalleled step for a young sovereign of twenty-five to take: to withdraw from his kingdom and journey abroad in order to learn the art of government. He was deeply interested in all branches of engineering, especially ship-building, which he first studied in Holland, working as an ordinary laborer in a dockyard. In 1698 Peter went to England to pursue his studies in the theory and practice of ship construction, which he did by visiting the dockyards of Woolwich, Chatham, and Deptford.]

_Eastern Russia._--Chief towns: Astrakhan, Kazan, Samara, Saratoff.

This part of the country is more elevated, but less effectively drained; and vast forests stretch from the upper Volga to the Urals.

The peoples are of Turkish origin and include the Tartars of Kazan; the Nogai Tartars of the Crimea in the south, and the Kirgiz on the Caspian. The Bashkirs, Chuvash, and others, in the Ural and Volga, are Tartarized Finns. The Kalmucks may be taken as the purest type of the Mongols; they are short, swarthy, broad-shouldered horsemen, black-haired and black-eyed, the eyes slanting down toward the flat nose.

_South Russia._--Along the Black Sea. Chief towns: Odessa, Nikolayeff, Kisheneff.

This is chiefly the steppe-region, a belt more than two hundred miles wide along the littoral of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and extends east through the region of the lower Volga and Ural till it meets the steppes of central Asia.

Here are gently undulating plains, clothed with rich grass and coated with a thick layer of fertile black earth.

In order to people Bessarabia after its conquest in the eighteenth century without depriving the Russian landowners of their serfs, several races of foreigners, as Moldavians, Wallachians (Vlachs), Servians, Greeks, Germans, and even Scotch, were freely invited to settle there. The population of the steppe-region exceeds thirteen millions.

_Western Russia._--Including the Lithuanian provinces of Kovno, Vilna, and part of Grodno and Vitebsk, drained by the Niemen and the upper Dwina, and other portions of the former kingdom of Poland. Chief town: Vilna.

Here dwell the White Russians, who number about six millions, but they are more mixed with Poles, Jews and Little Russians. In all essentials they are merely “poor relations” of the Great Russian family, living, on the whole, in a more degraded and undeveloped state than any other Russians.

_The Baltic Provinces._--The coast-lands of the Gulfs of Finland and Riga. Chief towns: Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Revel, Riga.

These are four Russian governments bordering on the Baltic--viz., Courland, Livonia, Esthonia, and Petrograd; or in a restricted sense, often the first three. The Baltic provinces once belonged to Sweden, except Courland, which was a dependency of Poland. They came into the possession of Russia partly in the beginning of the eighteenth century through the conquests of Peter the Great, partly under Alexander in 1809.

They occupy an undulating plain three hundred to eight hundred feet above the sea. Owing to the influence of the sea, this region enjoys a milder climate than the rest of Russia, and has maintained its excellent forests, chiefly of oak. The soil is of moderate fertility.

The more important non-Slavic peoples of this region are the Lithuanians (one million two hundred and fifty thousand) and Letts (one million five hundred thousand), chiefly in Kovno, Vilna, Grodno, Vitebsk, Courland, and S. Livonia. The Germans (one million five hundred thousand) are mainly descendants of the mediæval conquerors of the east Baltic coasts (Teutonic Knights, Knights of the Sword, and their followers) and of the agricultural colonists brought by Catherine II.

_The Grand-Duchy of Finland._--In the northwest, next Scandinavia. Chief towns: Viborg, Helsingfors, Abo.

Finland was ceded by the Swedes in 1809, but still retains an independent administration. The interior, chiefly elevated plateau, consists largely of forest land, and is well supplied with lakes, many of which are united by canals. (See also under Europe.)

Education is highly advanced; Swedish and Finnish are the two languages of the country, Russian being practically unknown. There is an excellent Saga literature, and the beginnings of a modern literature. The Finns came under the dominion of the Swedes in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and were by them Christianized.

The Finnish race includes the Finns and the Karelians (two million four hundred thousand in Finland and three hundred and fifty thousand in European Russia); the Esthonians, the people of Livonia, and other Western Finns in the Baltic Provinces (about one million); the Lapps and the Samoyedes in the far north; and the Volga Finns and the Ugrians (one million seven hundred and fifty thousand in European Russia and fifty thousand in Siberia). The Eastern Finns are being rapidly absorbed by the Russians; but the Western Finns warmly cherish their nationality.

[7]_Poland._--In the west, next Germany. Chief town: Warsaw.

[7] Russian Poland was created into an independent kingdom by a
joint edict of Germany and Austria-Hungary promulgated at Warsaw
November 5, 1916. What its future status may be when the map of
Europe is re-adjusted after the close of the European War is
uncertain. For the present it is given a place among the independent
nations.

=Surface Features.=--In general these embody the plains of European Russia and the lowlands and plains that extend to the north of the two great plateaus of Asia--the high plateau of East Asia and the western plateau of Persia and Armenia.

In European Russia, apart from the Caucasus, the Urals, and the Crimea, the only districts rising above one thousand feet are the Valdai hills at head of the Volga, the Timan range (over three thousand feet) in the Pechora basin, several heights in Russian Lapland (over one thousand five hundred), and some in Ukraine (over one thousand). The main divisions of its landscape are the treeless northern tundras, frozen in winter, grassy in summer; the rock and lake plateau of Finland; the immense central forest region, the cultivated parts of which supply Europe with grain; and the treeless steppes, which lie across the south of the plain from the saline borders of the northern Caspian toward Roumania on the west.

In Western Asia, the Caucasus is a single chain, so narrow that the same summits may be seen from the steppes which reach out from its northern base, and from the deep valleys which separate it from the heights of Armenia on the south. It has thus no great valleys in the direction of its length. The spurs descending from the main chain have deep gorges or troughs between. The culminating points are the Elbruz peak and Koshtan Tau, towards the western end of the chain; and Mount Kazbek, near the middle of it--all rising grandly from deep valleys.

The two most important passes over it were called in ancient times the Caucasian and Albanian gates. The former, now called the Dariel Pass, lies close to the eastern base of the Kazbek, and is a narrow cleft eight thousand two hundred and fifteen feet above the sea, available for carriages in the summer. The latter skirts the eastern termination of the range on the shores of the Caspian.

Over the whole chain vegetation is vigorous, but more luxuriant on the warmer southern slopes. The valleys opening in that direction are highly fertile, producing rice and cotton and silk, indigo, tobacco, and vines, and luxuriant woods. The northern slopes, exposed to the keen winds of the steppes, are characterized by bare pasture-lands and scattered firwoods.

All Western Siberia, nearest the Ural belt and European Russia, is a vast plain rising almost imperceptibly from the shores of the Arctic Ocean to the Kirghiz steppes and the base of the Altai mountains, which spring up from it like a wall, forming the northern buttress of the great tableland of Central Asia. The northern border of this plain is occupied by the marshy frozen tundras; the broad central belt is covered with forest, in the cleared spaces of which the soil is fertile and well suited to agriculture; all the southern portion of it is occupied by treeless steppes which reach away south towards the Caspian and Aral Seas.

The chief elevation in eastern Siberia is a chain of volcanic mountains running down the center of the peninsula of Kamchatka, some of whose peaks reach an elevation of seventeen thousand feet.

=Rivers.=--The chief rivers of Russia are the Niemen, the Dwina, the Lovat (continued by the Volkhov and the Neva), the Onega, the Dnieper, the Don and the Volga. By means of three lines of canals and canalized rivers, which connect the upper tributaries of the Volga with the streams that flow into Lakes Onega and Ladoga, the real mouth of the Volga has been transferred from the Caspian to the Gulf of Finland--Petrograd being the chief port of the Volga basin. The upper Volga and the upper Kama are also connected by canals with the North Dwina, and the Dnieper with the Düna, the Niemen, and the Vistula.

The rainfall of Russia is small, and as part of it falls in the shape of snow, the rivers are flooded in spring and in early summer. During the winter navigation of course ceases.

=The Lake District.=--This region lies in the north, and includes the governments of Petrograd, Novgorod, and Finland. The lakes in the district are well-nigh innumerable, the government of Novgorod alone containing more than three thousand lakes. The chief lakes of Finland are the Enare and Saima. Lake Ladoga is the largest lake in Russian Europe. For a third of the year its surface is frozen. The lake abounds with fish, and has a peculiar species of seal. The Neva flows from the lake into the Gulf of Finland.

Lake Onega is joined up to the White Sea by means of a series of lakes and streams.

Lake Ilmen is formed by the meeting of a number of rivers in a shallow depression; the average depth does not exceed thirty feet.

Lake Peipus, a part of which is called the Lake of Pskov, connects with the Gulf of Riga and with the Gulf of Finland. This lake also is very shallow and does not in any part exceed a depth of ninety feet.

=Seaboard and Islands.=--The ports on the Arctic coast are of little importance, since for nearly three-quarters of the year the outlets are frozen.

The White Sea with its port, Archangel, had lost much of the importance which it formerly possessed until brought into use during the European war in 1916-1917.

The Bering Sea and the coasts which border on the Sea of Japan lose much of their value because they are bleak and inhospitable. The great gulf which has the town of Vladivostok at its head is separated by miles of waste land from the interior, and the value of one of the most magnificent harbors in the world suffers much from this fact.

The sea which is of most importance to Russia is the Baltic, with its gulfs of Bothnia, Riga, and Finland. The chief Russian ports are to be found situated on its banks, and yet it can in no respect be regarded as a purely Russian sea.

The chief islands of the Baltic are: the Aland Archipelago, Dago, Oesel, Mohn, Hochland, and Kotlin, which contains the fortress of Cronstadt.

The Black Sea is becoming of more and more importance every year. The coast lands are being developed, and as the produce of the interior becomes greater so the importance of the Black Sea increases.

The Sea of Azov is the greatest inlet of this sea, but on the whole the importance of the Black Sea is lessened by the fact that it has so few good ports. The best are those of the peninsula of the Crimea, but these are too remote to be of any great importance.

Odessa is the second port of Russia and the greatest port of the Black Sea. Sebastopol is the great naval station, and Batum owes its importance to the fact that it is the port of the oil fields of the Caucasus.

The great inland sea of Russia, the Caspian, lacks importance chiefly because of the fact that it is an inland sea. It forms a good means of communication from the Transcaucasian provinces to Central Asia, and also between Central Asia and Persia; but although attempts have been made to unite it with the Black Sea, the fact that it lies seventy feet below sea-level prevents any real good from being done. It is, however, of vast importance as a fishing center, and supplies almost the whole of Russia with fish.

=Climate.=--In European Russia, except in the Baltic provinces, the south of the Crimea, and a narrow strip of land on the Black Sea, the climate is continental. A very cold winter, followed by a spring which sets in rapidly; a hot summer; an autumn cooler than spring; early frosts; and a small rainfall, chiefly during the summer and autumn, are the main features. The winter is cold everywhere. All the rivers are frozen over early in December, and they remain under ice for from one hundred days in the south to one hundred and sixty days in the north.

=Products and Industries.=--Excepting along the tundra belt on the Arctic coasts, in Finland, and in the saline steppes of the southeast, the cultivation of grain extends all over the great Russian plains.

=Agriculture and Forests.=--Rye and barley, oats and flax, are the chief crops in the north; wheat and vines, hemp and tobacco, the products of the center and the south. The south central governments, extending from the Upper Oka to the Ukraine on the Dnieper, may be regarded as the granary of Russia, for they produce a third of all its corn supply. Russia is thus most important of all as a grain-producing country.

Its forests extend over about forty per cent of the surface--pine and fir and birch in the north; oak and elm and lime in the center and south. The timber is sent down the Niemen and Vistula to the Baltic, and to Archangel in the White Sea, in enormous quantities for the supply of western Europe. In Russia itself the larger portion of the houses are built of wood.

=Live Stock and Fisheries.=--The steppes of the south are the great pastoral lands of Russia, which possess more than forty-five millions of sheep, about twenty-five per cent yielding fine wool; twenty-five millions of cattle; and twenty millions of horses. Russian leather is famous. Swine are also kept in very large numbers all over the land; the export of bristles and brushes from Russia is very large. Reindeer form the wealth of the Lapps and Samoyeds in the north; camels of the Tartars in the southeastern steppes. Hunting the bear, wolf, fox, and deer, and trapping the sable in the forests for their skins, give employment to many. The Caspian, as well as the Sea of Azof, the Black Sea, and the great rivers, are rich in fish--tunny, sturgeon, salmon, anchovy. Most caviare is made at Astrakhan on the Caspian.

MINERALS.--The Obdorsk and Ural Mountains contain very great mineral riches, and, with the Altai range, are the principal seat of mining and metallic industry, producing gold, platinum, copper, iron of very superior quality, rock-salt, marble, and kaolin, or china-clay. Silver, gold, and lead are also obtained in large quantities from the mines in the Altai Mountains. Russia is now the largest producer of petroleum in the world. Great supplies of petroleum and naptha are found in the Baku, Kerch, and Taman. An immense bed of coal, both steam and anthracite, and apparently inexhaustible, has been discovered in the basin of the Donetz (between the rivers Donetz and Dnieper). Other mineral products are: gold, platinum, pig iron, steel and rails, copper, quicksilver, salt and lead.

=Education.=--From the close of the sixteenth century onward till 1861, the greater portion of the inhabitants of Russia were serfs, belonging either to the crown or to private individuals. Under these circumstances it is not surprising that the masses of the people in Russia are without education. Finland is in advance of all other parts of the empire in respect of education; it possesses a separate system. Probably not more than ten per cent of the population have received instruction of any kind. The control and maintenance of primary schools is divided between the Ministry of Public Instruction and the Holy Synod. Conditions are, however, improving. Secondary institutions comprise gymnasia and good schools, but numbers and attendances are small. Special schools are increasing in number, especially in the European cities. There are universities at Kazan, Kieff, Kharkoff, Moscow, Odessa, Petrograd, Saratoff, Tomsk, Yurieff and Warsaw.

=Religion.=--The great bulk of the Russians--excepting a few White Russians professing the Union--belong to the Greek-Russian Church, or to one of its numberless sects of dissenters. The Poles and most of the Lithuanians are Roman Catholics; while the Finns, the Esthonians, and other Western Finns, the Swedes, and the Germans, are Protestant (about four millions).

=Cities and Towns.=--The largest towns in European Russia are Petrograd (2,018,596), Moscow (1,173,427), Warsaw (756,426), Riga (500,000), Odessa (449,673), Lodz (351,570), Kieff (329,000), Kharkoff (197,405), Vilna (162,633), Saratoff (143,431), Kazan (143,707), Ekaterinoslav (135,552), Rostoff (119,889), Astrakhan (121,580), Tula (109,279), and Kishineff (125,787); while Nijni Novgorod, Nikolaieff, Samara, and Minsk have populations between 90,000 and 95,000. In Asiatic Russia the Caucasus contains two towns with over 100,000 inhabitants: Baku (179,133), and Tiflis (160,645); Turkestan contains five large towns, Tashkend (156,000), Namangan, Samarkand, and Andijan; in Siberia Vladivostok has 90,000 (one-third Chinese), Tomsk, Irkutsk, and Ekaterinburg have each about 50,000 inhabitants. Nijni Novgorod, though small, is a station on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and has annually the largest fair in the world.

=Petrograd=, the splendid looking metropolis of the Russian Empire, is situated on the River Neva, near its entrance into the Gulf of Finland. The flat and low marshy ground upon which the city is built only recently emerged from the sea. The mighty Neva, which flows thirty-six miles from Lake Ladoga, subdivides into many branches, thus forming some one hundred islands.

Peter the Great began to build, in 1703, a small hut for himself, and some wooden hovels near the old fort. Now the quays form noble uninterrupted walks for several miles on each side of the broad, deep, rapid, and clear river. The climate is cold, damp, and changeable with a mean summer temperature of sixty-four degrees, mean winter temperature of fifteen degrees.

GENERAL ASPECT AND DIVISIONS.--The main body of the city stands on the mainland, on the left bank of the Neva; and a beautiful granite quay, with a long series of palaces and mansions, stretches for two and one-half miles. Only three permanent bridges cross the Neva; a bridge of boats is constructed each spring and removed each autumn.

The island Vasilievsky, between the Great and Little Nevas, contains the Stock Exchange, the Academy of Sciences, the University, the Philological Institute, the Academy of Arts, and various schools and colleges.

On the Petrogradsky Island, between the Little Neva and the Great Neva, stands the old fortress and prison of St. Peter and St. Paul, facing the Winter Palace, and containing the mint and the cathedral wherein the members of the imperial family are buried, also the arsenal.

THE CHIEF CENTER.--The main part of Petrograd has for its center the Old Admiralty. Its lofty gilded spire and the gilded dome of St. Isaac’s Cathedral are among the first sights caught on approaching Petrograd by sea. Three streets radiate from it, the first of them, the famous Nevsky Prospect. The street architecture, with its huge brick houses covered with stucco and mostly painted gray, is rigid and military in aspect.

A spacious square, planted with trees, encloses the Old Admiralty on three sides. To the east of it rise the magnificent mass of the Winter Palace, the Hermitage Gallery of Art, and the semicircular buildings of the general staff.

In the Petrogradsky Square is the well-known statue of Peter I. on an immense block of Finland granite. The richly decorated cathedral of St. Isaac of Dalmatia, erected by Nicholas I., is an almost cubic building (three hundred and thirty feet long, two hundred and ninety feet broad, and three hundred and ten feet high), surmounted by one large and lofty and four small gilded domes.

In Nevsky Prospect are the Kazan Cathedral, the Public Library, the square of Catherine II., and the Anitchkoff Palace.

The aristocratic quarter lies between the line of the Nevsky Prospect and the River Neva.

The principal places of interest are: the Imperial or Winter Palace, the Hermitage, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the Kazan Cathedral, the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, the Smolnoi Church, the Academy of Science, the House of Peter the Great; and, in the environs, Tsarskoe Selo, and Peterhof. For most travelers the greatest attraction in Petrograd is:

THE HERMITAGE.--It is connected with the Winter Palace, and was originally built by the Empress Catherine II. as a retreat. The present building, erected 1840-1852, by Klenze, is in the Greek style; it is a parallelogram, five hundred and twelve feet by three hundred and seventy-five feet, and for elegance of form as well as for beauty and costliness of materials employed has scarcely a rival in Europe.

Baedeker says: “The gallery of the Hermitage unquestionably stands among the first in Europe, not on account of its numbers (it boasts over one thousand nine hundred pictures) or on account of its completeness--the art of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and the entire German school is lacking--but because it possesses such a number of masterpieces from the best periods of the various schools, that for the Spanish masters it ranks next to the Prado and the Louvre, in French masters it is surpassed only by the Louvre, in Flemish artists it stands on a level with the principal galleries, and it is the premier collection of the Dutch school, especially Rembrandt.”

CATHEDRAL OF ST. PETER AND ST. PAUL is in the fortress. It was erected 1714-1733, and was several times damaged by lightning. It has a beautiful spire, three hundred and two feet, the loftiest in Russia, except that at Reval. All sovereigns of Russia, including and since Peter the Great, except Peter II., who was interred at Moscow, lie buried here. The tomb of Peter the Great is near the south door. On the walls are many military trophies, keys of fortresses, flags, weapons, shields, etc. Nearby the Cathedral, in a brick building, is the boat of Peter the Great, preserved exactly as when it engaged the curious attention of Peter and so led to the creation of the Russian navy, of which it is facetiously called the “Grandfather.”

The largest in Petrograd, was begun a century ago by Catherine II.; but was rebuilt in 1819-1858, by Montferrand, in the shape of a Greek cross. It is a simple but massive pile, with one hundred and twelve pillars in the four fronts. Those at the chief entrance are sixty feet high, and seven feet diameter--all round and highly polished granite monoliths from Finland. The dome, two hundred and ninety-six feet high, is surmounted by a golden cross and covered with copper, overlaid with gold. The Altar screen is of immense value and the entire edifice cost about fifty million dollars.]

THE KAZAN CATHEDRAL is situated upon the Nevsky Prospect, and is approached by a circular colonnade, in imitation of St. Peter’s at Rome. In front are fine statues of Smolenskoi and de Tolly. The interior corresponds in its magnificence and display to St. Isaac’s. The special object of interest is the image of “Our Lady of Kazan,” which is covered with gems, the diamonds of the crown being of exceeding value. Around the cathedral are banners of important victories won by Russian arms and valor.

A very striking equestrian statue, erected by Catherine II. in 1782. It is of colossal size, by Falconet, and stands on a huge pedestal of granite, between St. Isaac’s Church and the River Neva.]

THE SMOLNOI CHURCH, at the eastern extremity of the city, is peculiarly rich in its effects, the entire structure and all its decorations being of the purest white. In connection with this church is a celebrated seminary for young ladies of noble birth.

CATHEDRAL AND MONASTERY OF ST. ALEXANDER NEVSKY is at the extreme east end of the Nevsky Prospect. The buildings cover much ground, and include twelve churches, the monastery, and gardens. The Cathedral, which is that of the Metropolitan, dating from 1790, is enriched with marble and agate and paintings--the altarpiece, the Annunciation, is by Raphael Mengs. On pillars opposite the altar are large portraits of Peter the Great and Catherine II. The shrine of St. Alexander Nevsky is of silver, about two thousand pounds of the metal being used in the whole; near the tomb are suspended the keys of Adrianople. The Monastery has a rich collection of jeweled mitres, gold brocaded vestments, and a mass of valuables, also many objects of interest, including the crown of St. Alexander and the bed on which Peter the Great died.

TSARSKOE SELO (_tsär’kō-ye sā´lō_), about fifteen miles south of St. Petersburg, contains a famous imperial palace, a favorite summer residence of the court. The Old Palace, begun in 1744, is richly decorated, the walls of one room are incrusted with amber, those of another with lapis lazuli. The magnificent marble gallery, two hundred and seventy feet long, connects the palace with a detached building. The park is full of caprices, such as a Chinese tower and village, an Egyptian pyramid, a Turkish kiosk, and the so-called doll-houses of the royal princesses.

PETERHOF (_pā´ter-hōf_), near Oranienbaum, was begun in 1720, and built by Leblond for Peter the Great. A marine palace, with a long front, made to retain its original appearance, even its ancient yellow color has been continually renewed. It contains porcelain, malachite, tapestry, paintings of victories in the reign of Catherine II., and a collection of three hundred and sixty-eight portraits of women, painted by Count Rosali for the empress during a journey. All are in the national costume. The gardens are full of Neptunes and Tritons and good fountains. The well-wooded park has many curiosities:--Marli, a favorite resort of Peter the Great; the cottage of the Empress Catherine, brilliant with gold and mirrors; the Palais de Paille; the English Garden, with a ball-room.

connected with the Winter Palace, is one of most famous in Europe and contains one thousand seven hundred paintings of all schools, among them being some by Murillo, Velasquez, Rubens, Van Dyke, Rembrandt, and Ruysdael.]

=Moscow= (_mŏs’kō_), the ancient capital of the Russian Empire, is one of the most magnificent and interesting cities of the world. The city is gathered in a semi-circle around the citadel, or Kremlin, which stands immediately upon the river bank. The streets are exceedingly irregular, though generally presenting the appearance of broad, well-paved avenues of a modern European city. The innumerable white, semi-oriental structures which greet the vision from every commanding point, with their unnumbered domes, spires, belfries, towers, and minarets, give to the city a magnificence of beauty scarcely to be found elsewhere in the great cities of Europe.

THE KREMLIN.--The historic, as well as the most interesting part of the city, is within the walls of the Kremlin. It is associated with much that is held in deepest reverence by Russians--here the imperial power receives religious consecration, and the great bell of Ivan Veliky proclaims the new monarch. The Kremlin is an assemblage of many buildings, covering quite a section of the city--churches, palaces, arsenals, barracks, monuments--enclosed within a brick wall about a mile and a half in circuit. Upon the wall, which is sixty feet high, are twenty-one towers. The principal gate, the Gate of the Saviour, is on the east side. Over the passage of the gate is the venerated “Saviour” brought from Smolensk in 1685, and it is the custom for the passer-by to uncover his head.

THE TOWER OF IVAN VELIKY, or John the Great, built in 1600, and three hundred and twenty feet high, contains thirty-four bells, the largest of which weighs sixty-four tons. When all these bells are rung together at Easter the effect is wonderful. At the foot of this tower is the vast Tsar Kolokol, or Monarch of Bells. It once hung in a tower (burned in 1737), weighs four hundred and forty-four thousand pounds, and is twenty feet high and sixty feet round. The value of the metal in the bell is nearly two million dollars.

Outside the Kremlin is the Chinese town, so-called, founded by Helena. Here are the Romanoff Palace, the Iberian Gate and Chapel, the University, the great Riding School, the Theaters, and the largest Bazaar in Russia, except that of Nijni-Novgorod.

THE CHURCH OF THE SAVIOUR, is conspicuous near the river, a quarter mile southwest of the Kremlin. This beautiful church, by the architect Thon, was erected 1837-1883, at a cost of more than eight million dollars. It has five cupolas, the principal being about one hundred feet in diameter; many figures in relief of patriarchs and saints upon the facade. The interior is elaborately decorated with marble and gilding; upon the walls are tablets relating to military events, admirable paintings and sculpture.

THE CATHEDRAL OF ST. BASIL, erected 1554-1557, is a remarkable edifice, consisting of eleven chapels with as many cupolas, all different, but wonderfully proportioned.

=Vladivostok= (_vlä-dē-vōs-tok´_), capital (since 1903) of the vice-royalty of Eastern Asia, Siberia, is situated on the east shore of Amur Gulf. It has one of the finest harbors in the world, is a naval station, has an arsenal, and is a terminus of the Siberian railroad. It escaped attack during the Russo-Japanese war, but suffered from naval mutiny and unrest in the Russian disturbances of 1905-1906. Its climate is severe--the average annual temperature being only forty degrees Fahrenheit.

HISTORY OF RUSSIA

The races who peopled Russia were vaguely known to the ancients as
Scythians, and their country as Sarmatia. It received its name from
the _Ruotsi_ or _Russ_, a tribe of Norse “rovers” or freebooters,
who entered the country from the west about the eighth century. The
name was later applied to the realm of Moscow, and modified to
Russia.

=Early Traditions.=--Three brothers, Rurik, Sineus, and Truvor, Scandinavians, were invited, according to tradition, to come and protect territory in northwest Russia against the Finns and the Lithuanians. They and their successors built new forts, and took part in wars. The times of the “Sunny Vladimir” (980-1015) are the “heroic” epoch of early Russian history, and the feats and feasts of Vladimir and his “war companions” have been handed down through ages in legend and song; while his conversion to Christianity made him the hero of the annals written by monks.

=Kieff the First Historic Center.=--The first half of the eleventh century, during which Yaroslaff the Wise was grand prince at Kieff, was the most brilliant time for Kieff, then the “mother of the Russian towns.” The great cathedral of St. Sophia was built at that time; schools were opened, and the first written Russian law was compiled. At his death (1054) Yaroslaff was ruling over most of the Russian towns.

The next two centuries of Russian history correspond to the feudal period of Western Europe. The Russians at that time were steadily extending their territory toward the east; they colonized the Oka, the Don, and the Finnish territories in the northeast.

=Settlements in and about Moscow.=--Owing to the gradual colonization of the basin of the Oka and the upper Volga, a new Russian territory had grown in importance in the meantime. Suzdal and Rostoff were its chief centers. It differed from southwest Russia in many respects. Its inhabitants were Great Russians--a hard-working race, less poetical and less gifted, but more active than their southern brethren. Besides, a good many of its inhabitants were peasants, settled on the lands of the boyars, and the cities themselves, being of recent creation--like Vladimir and, later on, Moscow--had not those traditions of independence which characterized Kieff or Novgorod. It was therefore easier for the authority of the prince to develop in the northeast, under the guidance of the church and the boyars.

The first Suzdal prince, Andrei Bogolubsky (1157-1174), was the first representative of that policy. He invited many Kieff boyars to settle in the land of Suzdal, and finally he took and burnt Kieff (1169).

The supremacy of Kieff was thus destroyed, and the land of Suzdal became the Ile-de-France of Russia--the nucleus of the future Russian state. The Suzdal land continued to grow and to enjoy prosperity during the next fifty years; economical, educational and literary progress were marked, and the Russian territory extended farther eastward.

=Tartar Invasion.=--But in the thirteenth century a great calamity visited Russia: a Mongol invasion suddenly put a stop to the development of the country and threw it into a totally new direction.

The Tartars first appeared in 1224, but their real conquest, under Batu Khan, was made in 1238 and the years immediately following. They subdued all the little Slav states except the republic of Novgorod. Latterly the rulers or princes of Moscow gained an ascendency over the other states, and formed the nucleus of a central sovereignty.

=Ivan III. Expels the Tartars.=--The Tartar supremacy lasted till about 1480, when Ivan III. (1462-1505) succeeded in throwing off their yoke. He did much to consolidate and extend his kingdom, and conquered Novgorod in 1478. The reign of Ivan IV. “The Terrible” (1533-1584) is of great importance. In 1547 he assumed the title of Czar or Tsar, a variant of Cæsar. He conquered Kazan and Astrakhan, and the conquest of Siberia was begun in his reign. The epithet “terrible” has reference to his cruel persecution of the boyars, a kind of powerful baronial class.

=House of Romanoff Established.=--The accession of the still-reigning Romanoff house took place in 1613 when the States-General elected Michael Romanoff as ruler. Under Alexei (1645-1676), son of Michael, territory was won from Poland, the Cossacks of the Ukraine had to submit, and the power of Russia greatly increased. The reign of Alexei’s son, Feodor III. (1676-1682), witnessed a war with Turkey, but was signalized by many important reforms. His imbecile brother Ivan was heir apparent, but Feodor willed the throne to his half-brother Peter, known in history as the Great; but Peter only obtained sole power in 1689 after overthrowing Sophia, Ivan’s sister.