THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.

The aspect of affairs in Europe gives the public a strong interest in measuring the forces and the energy of the great antagonist whose aggression has called forth the fleets and armies of England and France to battle after an unbroken peace of forty years. It has seldom happened to any nation to engage in hostilities with a foreign power whose real strength and resources are so imperfectly known. No other empire but that of Russia ever succeeded in keeping so vast a portion of the globe a secret and a mystery from the rest of mankind. We know that she possesses territories wider than the realms of Tamerlane; and that the troops under her banners are as countless as the hosts that followed Napoleon when he was the master of Europe.

Russia, taking its whole extent, is by much the largest empire of which there is any record in the annals of the world; and vast as it is, it may be said to be compact and continuous, without the intervention of land belonging to any other power. In this great empire every variety of climate is to be found, and every vegetable production, from those of the climate of southern Europe to the icy regions of the north, where vegetation fails, and nature is for ever bound in unproductive fetters—may, in one district or another, be brought to maturity. Nor are the mineral riches less copious; for there is scarcely a valued product of the mine which may not be obtained in some part of Russia, and several of the most useful ones, in great abundance, and of excellent quality. We insert a correct table [3] of the population and extent of the empire.

More than a hundred peoples, speaking a hundred different idioms, inhabit the surface of the empire. But almost all these peoples are scattered along its frontiers. The whole interior is inhabited by one sole race, that of the Russians proper. The Russian race alone consists of about 50,000,000 souls, whilst all the other tribes of the empire put together do not exceed 15,000,000.

AREA AND POPULATION OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE.


Natural Divisions	Area in English Square Miles.	Population in		Mean Population in 1852, per Sq. Mile.
Natural Divisions	Area in English Square Miles.	1846.	1852.	Mean Population in 1852, per Sq. Mile.

Great Russia,	328,781	19,220,900	20,403,371	62·
Little Russia,	150,141	11,093,400	11,775,865	78·4
New Russia,	96,636	3,070,700	3,259,612	33·7
White Russia,	70,399	2,767,200	2,937,436	41·7
Western Provinces,	47,076	2,704,300	2,870,667	60·9
Baltic Provinces,	36,616	1,659,800	1,761,907	48·1
Northern Provinces,	536,226	1,338,300	1,420,629	2·6
Ural Provinces,	447,788	10,146,000	10,770,181	24·
Cossack Districts,	123,776	1,089,700	1,156,736	9·3
Poland,	49,230	4,857,700	5,156,543	104·7
Finland,	135,808	1,412,315	1,499,199	11·

Total in Europe,	2,022,477	59,360,315	63,012,146	31·1




Caucasian Provinces,	86,578	2,850,000	2,850,000	32·8
West Siberia,	2,681,147	3,500,000	3,500,000	1·3
East Siberia,	2,122,000	237,000	237,000	·11
American Possessions,	371,350	61,000	61,000	·16

Total Extra European,	5,261,075	6,648,000	6,648,000	1·26

Totals,	7,283,552	66,208,315	69,660,146	9·5

In respect to Race, the population of the Russian Empire may be classed approximately, as follows;—

Sarmatian Race.	{	Lithuanic Branch	{	Lithuanians and Letts,			2,000,000
	{	Slavonic Branch	{	Russians	49,000,000	}
				Bulgarians and Illyrians,	5,000,000		56,000,000
				Poles,	6,500,000
							—————
							58,000,000
Germans,					650,000
Dacian Romans,					750,000
Tshúds,					3,400,000
Tartars,					2,150,000
Mongols,					250,000
Munshús,					100,000
Hyperborean Races,					200,000
Caucasian Tribes,					2,750,000
Greeks,					70,000
Jews,					1,600,000
Gipsies,					30,800
Miscellaneous,					50,000
					————
							12,000,000
							—————
	Total,						70,000,000

In respect to religion, there are probably in the Russian Empire 50,000,000 belonging to the so-called Greek Church (i. e. Byzantine Catholics); about 7,000,000 Roman Catholics (chiefly Poles); and upwards of 3,000,000 Protestants (Germans and Tshúds).

Relative proportion of the dominant race to the other races in the Russian dominions:—Slávs to non Slávs, as 29 to 6, or 4·8 to 1: Russians to non-Russians, as 7 to 3, or 2·3 to 1.

No other state in Europe possesses so numerous a population belonging to one nation. Even France contains but 32,000,000 of Frenchmen out of 35,000,000 or 36,000,000 of inhabitants; and Great Britain about 19,000,000 of Englishmen out of 30,000,000 of inhabitants. The 36,000,000 inhabitants of Great Russia speak identically the same language, from the highest classes to the lowest, from the Emperor to the peasant. The dialects of the White Russians and of 7,000,000 of Little Russians are slightly different, but still comprehensible. To this complete unity of language must be added, among the Great Russians, the most surprising uniformity of manners and customs.

Another still more important element of political strength is the unity of the Russian Church. This unity is complete amongst the Little Russians and Ruthenians, a few of the latter only being in communion with the Church of Rome. The Great Russians are divided by a schism, but the Staroverzi (or members of the old faith) have seceded from the Established Church, not on the grounds of doctrine, but of ceremonial usages.

Although the first Russian empire, which was governed by Rurik, was founded by Normans (the Varangians), who must have introduced into Russia the fundamental Germanic institutions and the principles of the feudal system, this system never took root amongst the Sclavonian population. On the contrary, all the popular institutions of Russia assumed the patriarchal character, which is peculiarly adapted to the Sclavonian race, and especially to the Russian people, which in this respect closely resembles the ancient nations of the East. The social organization of Russia forms in all its relations and degrees an uninterrupted scale of hierarchy, every step of which rests on some patriarchal power. The father is the absolute sovereign of the family, which cannot exist without him. If the father dies, the eldest son takes his place and exercises the full paternal authority. The property of the family is common to all the males belonging to it, but the father or his representative can alone dispose of it. Next comes the village or township, which is like an enlarged family, governed by an elected father or starost. This starost is elected for three years. His power is absolute, and he is obeyed without restriction. All the inhabited and cultivated lands of the village are held in common as undivided property. No portion is ceded as private property. The starost divides the fruits or profits of the whole amongst them. So, again, all these villages or townships form the nation; a nation of men equal among themselves, and equally subject to the chief of the empire and the race—the Czar. The authority of the Czar is absolute, like the obedience of his subjects. Any restriction on the authority of the Czar appears to a true Russian as a monstrous contradiction. “Who can limit the power or the rights of a father?” says the Russian; “he holds them, not from us, who are his children, nor from any man, but from God, to whom he will one day answer for them.” The mere form of words, “It is ordered,” has a magical effect on the Russians. They pay the same respect to the agents of the government, whom they regard as the servants of the Czar, and to all their superiors. A Russian calls batiouschka—little papa—not only his father or an old man, but the starost, or any of his superiors. The Emperor himself is never addressed by the people by any other name. An old serf will call his master “little papa,” even though he should be a child of ten years old.

In Russia there is no national or domestic association which has not its centre, its unity, its chief, its father, its master. A chief is absolutely indispensable to the existence of Russians. They choose another father when they lose their own. The starost is elected to be unconditionally obeyed. This must be well understood in order to comprehend the true position of the Czar. The Russian nation is like a hive of bees, which absolutely require a queen-bee. In Russia the Czar is not the delegate of the people, nor the first servant of the state, nor the legal owner of the soil, nor even a sovereign by the grace of God. He is at once the unity, the chief, and the father of his people. He does not govern by right of office, but, as it were, by the ties of blood, recognised by the whole nation. This feeling is as natural to the whole population as that of their own existence, insomuch that the Czar can never do wrong. Whatever happens, the people always think him right. Any restriction on his power, even to the extent of one of the German Diets, would be considered in Russia an absurd chimera. The Czar Ivan IV. committed the most cruel actions, but the people remained faithful to him, and loved him all the more. To this day he is the hero of the popular ballads and legends of the country. When the Czar Ivan the Terrible, weary of governing, sought to abdicate, the Russians flung themselves at his feet to entreat him to remain on the throne.

The feeling of the Russians is not so much one of deep attachment to their country as of ardent patriotism. Their country, the country of their ancestors, the Holy Russia, the people fraternally united under the sceptre of the Czar, the communion of faith, the ancient and sacred monuments of the realm, the tombs of their forefathers—all form a whole which excites and enraptures the mind of the Russians. They consider their country as a sort of kinsmanship to which they address the terms of familiar endearment. God, the Czar, and the priest, are all called “Father,”—the Church is their “Mother,” and the empire is always called “Holy Mother Russia.” The capital of the empire is “Holy Mother Moscow,” and the Volga “Mother Volga.” Even the high road from Moscow to Vladimir is called “our dear mother the high road to Vladimir.” But above all, Moscow, the holy mother of the land, is the centre of Russian history and tradition, to which all the inhabitants of the empire devote their love and veneration. Every Russian entertains all his life long the desire to visit one day the great city, to see the towers of its holy churches, and to pray on the tombs of the patron saints of Russia. “Mother Moscow” has already suffered and given her blood for Russia, as all the Russian people are ready to do for her.

There is not in Europe any nobility which possesses such large fortunes, (?) such vast personal privileges, such liberties, (??) such political rights in the internal administration of the empire, (???) or so much physical power as the Russian aristocracy. The nobles possess in absolute property more than one-half of the lands under tillage. More than half the population of Russia Proper, that is, more than 12,000,000 of souls, which means more than 24,000,000 of heads, are not only their subjects, but their serfs.

It must be understood that in Russian rent-rolls the term “souls” means exclusively the males on an estate. In every valuation of the agricultural population, however, the unity taken is the Tiéglo of two souls, or, more exactly, five persons; the women and younger children being included.

The class of Russian serfs, or mougiks, represents, according to M. Leouzon le Duc, no less than one-twentieth part of mankind. It exceeds the whole population of France or Austria, and is computed to amount to no less than forty millions of human beings. The condition of these serfs differs in no material respect from that of the negro slaves of the United States, for the law holds them to be absolutely disqualified from possessing property; all they may earn or hold is really the property of their lord, and at his mercy. The Russian landlord is armed with a power which even the American planter does not possess. He is bound to feed the terrible conscription of the army, year by year, with an aliquot part of his own peasants. The rule of the Russian army is twenty-five years’ duty. The power of drafting off particular men into the army amounts to an absolute control over their existence. The body of the serf is equally subject to every caprice of the master, and the use of the whip is universal. The virtue of the female serf is in his power, and it is considered an honor among the Russian peasantry to reckon the adulterous offspring of their master amongst their own. The law itself precludes all redress, for the Swod expressly enacts that, “if any serf, forgetting the obedience he owes to his lord, presents a denunciation against him, and especially if he presents such a denunciation to the Emperor, he shall be handed over to justice, and treated with all the rigor of the laws—he, and the scribe who may have drawn up his memorial.” We cannot conceive in any country or any age a more complete annihilation of human independence, or a more total degradation of human society.

The pay of the Russian army in all ranks is wretchedly small. The common soldier receives about $7 50 a year; a lieutenant-general about $850; a colonel, $500; a captain from $250 to $300.