RUSSIA (ROSSIYA), the general name of those portions of Europe and Asia which until 1917 formed the dominion of the "Tsar of All the Russias," and which are now broken up into several separate state formations. While the name Russia is applied to the whole area of the former empire it is frequently employed in a limited sense to Russia in Europe. The widest use of the term became current after the great expansion of the empire in the 19th century. The following articles, dealing with the area, topography, etc., consider Russia as it was at the beginning of 1917, before the fall of the empire. The history, government and political parties, language, education, etc., are considered as follows: 1. Geography, Topography, 12. Industry and Political Divisions. 2. History. 3. Language. 4. Literature. 5. Drama. 6. Art. 7. Architecture. 8. Musk. 9. Education. 10. Religion. 11. Government and Political Parties. factures. 13. Banking and Finance. cation. 15. Army and Navy. 16. Russia and the World 17. Russia, Diplomatic Rela- Manu Courland. 10,435 812,300 78 Don, Province of. 63,532 4,013,400 63 Esthonia 7,605 512,500 65 14,896 2,094,300 141 11,942 1,497, 200 125 24,587 1. GEOGRAPHY, TOPOGRAPHY, POLITICAL DIVISIONS, ETC. Russia is a federated republic comprising the whole of eastern Europe from about 23° East, and stretching continuously for about 170 degrees. over the whole continent of Asia to Bering Strait, or nearly half of the circuit of the world. The boundaries are the Arctic Ocean on the north, Bering Strait and Bering Sea on the east, the Pacific Ocean, Chinese Republic, Afghanistan, Persia, Asiatic Turkey and the Black Sea on the south, and on the west Esthonia, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania and Finland. The length east to west is estimated at about 6,500 miles; the average breadth north to south is about 1,500 miles. The whole area is officially given at 8,417,118 square miles, approximately twice the area of Europe, and one-seventh of the land surface of the globe. The republic consists of several well-defined parts; European Russia, the latter although less than a fourth of the whole, including nearly three-fourths of the entire population; in Asia- northern Caucasia, Transcaucasia, the Steppes, Turkestan, the Caspian and Transcaspian, and Sibera. The appended table gives the official divisions of Russia as it was on 12 March 1917, the date of the coup d'état Petrograd. Pskov Tula.. Tver. Ufa.. Vilna. 75 66 96 56 Poland 75 69 63 Daghestan, Province of. Yelizavetpol. 1,034,800 130 Sukhum, District of. Tiflis. Zakataly, District of.. 58 88 66 Total.. Expansion in Asia was a marked feature of Russian policy from the 18th century. The first settlements on the Pacific slope were established on the Sea of Okhotsk, and by 1859 the boundaries were pushed as far_south as the Amur River. In North America, Russia had extended its sovereignty over the Alaskan Peninsula, which, however, it sold in 1867 to the United States for $7,200,000. (See ALASKA and ALASKAN BOUNDARY COMMISSION). In 1872 it compelled Khiva (q.v.) to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Tsar, and in the following year Bokhara (q.v.), on which pressure had been brought to bear since 1850, and which had been invaded in 1866, became practically a Russian dependency. In 1875, the island of Sakhalin in the Sea of Okhotsk, north of Japan, was ceded to Russia by the Japanese. In 1898, after Japan's successful war with China, Russia obtained from Japan a lease of the Liao-tung peninsula, with the important ports of Dalny and Port Arthur (qq.v.), and after the Boxer uprising of 1901, occupied Manchuria (q.v.). Meanwhile Armenia had been partly absorbed; Russian influence had been strongly established in the Mongolian steppes, and the military outposts in Turkestan had been extended southward in the Pamirs The continuity of the empire might appear to demand a detailed description in a single article; but its immense magnitude, and the distinct names commonly used to designate the different portions, make it more convenient to consider them separately under the heads of European Russia, and Siberia and Asiatic Russia. See article SIBERIA AND ASIATIC RUSSIA. EUROPEAN RUSSIA. Various classifications, partly historical and partly geographical, of the numerous divisions of European Russia, include Great Russia, Little Russia, South Russia, West Russia, the Baltic Provinces and Caucasus (qq.v.). To The boundaries of European Russia on the north and west are the same as those given above for the republic. Its southern boundaries also are the same as far east as the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea. The eastern boundary is not so well defined. In its northern part the Ural Mountains form such a definite natural barrier that their title to fix the frontiers of Europe and Asia, so far at least as the governments Archangel and Vologda extend, has been almost universally recognized. the south of this the boundary may be said to be almost arbitrary, but is generally conceded to follow the Ural chain southward until it reaches the sources of the river Ural, and then follows the course of this river to its mouth in the Caspian. Parts of the governments of Perm and Orenburg, however, extend across the Ural Mountains, and are therefore in Asia. European Russia, as thus defined, is bounded northeast by the Ural Mountains, east by the government of Tobolsk, the steppes of the Kirghiz, and the Caspian Sea. |
