"And in England, France, North Germany, with the exchange at the same rate, that would be the real value of the money you receive," added Mr. Mapps. "On account of the depreciation of the money in Russia, the prices are higher. I was speaking of the value of the exports, and when I speak of twenty million rubles, it means three fourths as many dollars. Flaxseed, or linseed, brings in almost as much money as the flax itself."
"What is it for?" asked a student.
"For making painters' oil. The exports of tallow and lumber are each about twelve million rubles. The chief imports are raw cotton, metals, machinery, tea, and manufactured goods. The soil of Russia varies greatly, and large portions of it consist of sandy plains and vast morasses. The condition of agriculture is improving under the encouragement of the government, but does not yet compare favorably with most of the western countries of Europe. Nearly half the land is unimproved, and one fourth is forest land, which, however, is so badly managed that it produces but a small fraction of what it might yield. Iron, copper, gold, silver, and platinum are mined in the Ural Mountain region and in Siberia. Iron is produced in excess of the wants of the empire, and almost all the platinum in use in the world comes from Russia. Vast quantities of salt are mined, and manufactured from the brine springs. Peter the Great and all his successors have encouraged manufactures, and the empire has made great progress in this direction. Raw cotton, to the value of about forty million rubles, is imported for the use of the mills. Woollen and silk goods are also manufactured in considerable quantities.
"Nearly the whole of Russia is in higher latitude than the United States, the Crimea, or southern portion, being in the latitude of Maine, and St. Petersburg on about the same parallel as the northern point of Labrador and the southern point of Greenland. About the middle of November the Neva freezes, and is not open again till the last of April. In December and January the thermometer sometimes indicates twenty-five degrees below zero; but the average temperature at St. Petersburg in winter is eighteen degrees above zero; in Moscow, fifteen degrees; in Archangel, nine degrees. The average in summer is sixty degrees in St. Petersburg, sixty-five degrees in Moscow, and fifty-eight degrees in Archangel. The climate is generally healthy, though there are various maladies peculiar to different regions, as scrofula and scurvy.
"The government of Russia is an absolute hereditary monarchy; in other words, the Czar or Emperor, is the legislative, executive, and judicial power of the empire, which is the same thing as saying that his will is the law of the land. But it ought to be added, that certain traditions and rules are considered of binding force by the sovereigns; as the law of succession to the crown, established by the Emperor Paul; otherwise the Czar might select the next ruler; every sovereign, his wife and children, must be of the Greek church. The heir apparent is deemed to be of age at sixteen, which proves that a boy of this age may be good for something. The members of the imperial family cannot marry without the consent of the Emperor; and the children of any union without his permission cannot inherit the throne. The present Emperor is Alexander II., son of Nicholas I. and the Princess Charlotte, of Prussia, who was the daughter of King Frederick William III., and sister of the present king of that country. The Empress, his wife, is the daughter of the late Grand Duke Ludwig II., of Hesse Darmstadt. They have six children, of whom the oldest is the Grand Duke Alexander, heir apparent to the throne. He was born in 1845, and is, therefore, twenty-five years old. At the age of twenty-one he was married to Maria Dagmar, daughter of the King of Denmark. The style of the emperor is Autocrat of all the Russias, Czar of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland, &c. His sons are called Grand Dukes. The hereditary Grand Duke is often called the Czarowitz. The term Czar, which evidently comes from Cæsar, is variously spelled. In the Slavonic, which is the church language of Russia, it is Tsar.
"The government of Russia, under the Emperor, is in the hands of four great councils, the principal of which is the council of the empire, consisting of the Ministers, the Grand Dukes, and such other members as the sovereign may appoint. Though this board has a president, the emperor often presides at its sessions. Its general duties are to propose new laws, or alterations in old ones, and to attend to the execution of the laws. The second council is called the Directing Senate, and it is also the high court of justice, controlling all the inferior tribunals. It is resolved into eight committees, five of which sit at St. Petersburg, and three at Moscow, each of which has its peculiar function. Appeals from the lower courts go to this council, either in committee or as a whole, though the former may decide certain cases. This body examines into and reports upon the revenues and expenditures of the empire, appoints many public officers, and advises the sovereign in matters within its jurisdiction. The third council is the Holy Synod, having charge of all matters pertaining to religion. It is composed of the chief dignitaries of the church, of which the emperor is the head, and its decisions have no force without his approval. The fourth board is the Council of Ministers, consisting of eleven members, whose functions are substantially the same as in other countries. Of course the emperor has absolute control over these councils, to the extent he pleases to exercise it.
"You have already noticed that this map is cut up into small divisions. These are governments, corresponding to departments in France, and counties in America. Besides these, the country is divided into vice-royalties, or general governments, at the head of each of which is a viceroy, or general governor, who represents the emperor, commands the troops, and has the supreme control of all affairs, civil and military. In each government, or province, a civil governor is appointed to represent the general governor, who is advised by a council. Governments are divided into districts, which are again subdivided into smaller ones. The officers of these smaller districts are elected by the people. Every five houses in a place may choose one delegate to the assembly of the commune, who elect delegates to the district assembly, one for every ten houses. There are certain village courts, presided over by two members elected by the commune, called 'conscience men,' who try cases relating to property in which no more than five rubles is involved. You see that the Russians vote under their absolute monarchy.
"The Russian nation is composed of more than a hundred different races, speaking forty languages. The Russians—properly so called—are the inhabitants of Great and Little Russia, who are from the Slavic races. Besides these, there are Tartars, Poles, Germans, Jews, Finns, Mongols, Persians, and others, who have been united in one nation. The government has permitted these people, as their territory was conquered and annexed to the empire, to retain their own laws and customs, so far as they were not inconsistent with the general code of Russia.
"The original nobility of the country were the boyars; but Peter the Great established a new order, and there are now in the empire over half a million whose titles are hereditary, and a quarter of a million who have only personal rank. The citizens of towns are ranked in six classes, the first owning real estate; the second, having a certain amount of taxable property; the third, mechanics; the fourth, resident foreigners in business; the fifth, artisans, soldiers, and scholars; and the sixth, all others. There are forty-seven million peasants, of whom twenty-two millions were serfs, emancipated in 1863, though indirectly they are obliged to pay for their freedom, for the government compensated the owners of the land to which they were attached, and collects the amount paid by an annual assessment on the emancipated for the succeeding forty-nine years.
"The state religion, which is professed by a great majority of the people, is the Greco-Russian, officially Styled 'Orthodox-Catholic Faith.' When the Roman empire was divided into two portions, the Eastern, or Byzantine, empire retained the Catholic religion, and the bishop, or patriarch of Constantinople, was officially recognized as second only to the Pope at Rome. But there was a schism in the Eastern division, which resulted in a total separation in 1054. Then the Patriarch of Constantinople became the head of the Eastern church, of which the Russian church was a part. In 1588 a separate patriarchate was established in Russia, and the Greek church is now made up of ten independent organizations. The Russian church is governed by the Holy Synod, at the head of which is the emperor, who has greater power than the Pope of Rome in the external affairs of the church, but cannot render a decision himself on theological questions. In critical doctrinal cases, the patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria are consulted, and when a decision is reached, the emperor is as much bound by it as the prelates; and he does not officially style himself the Head, but the Protector and Defender of the Church.