vious to the year 1861 the mass of the people were serfs subject to the proprietors of the soil. The emperors Alexander I and Nicholas I took the same initial steps toward the emancipation of this class; but a bold and complete scheme of emancipation was begun and carried out by Alexander II. The decree of emancipation was dated 3 March 1861 and began to come into execution within two years. There were about 22,000,000 of serfs belonging to private proprietors and rather more than that number on the crown lands. By an imperial decree of 8 July 1863, lands were granted to the peasants on all the estates of the Crown on a 49 years' rental equal to the former poll-tax and as a freehold estate at the expiration of this period. A similar arrangement was made on behalf of the peasants on the lands of private proprietors. The redemption money of the serfs with their land was estimated at 163 years' purchase of their annual produce. Twenty per cent of this had to be paid by the serfs on procuring their emancipation, the remaining 80 per cent was guaranteed by the gov ernment, which levied it from the peasantry in a tax extending over 49 years. The emancipation of all the serfs on these terms was arranged for by July 1865, and from that date this form of servitude ceased to exist in Russia. From this change until 1917 the cultivable land in Russia was mainly distributed among three classes. The Crown held nearly 35 per cent, the emancipated peasants about 20, while the remainder, with the exception of mines and town lands, remained in the hands of the nobility and other landed proprietors. Soon after their advent to power in November 1917 the Bolsheviki undertook the solution of the land question. All private ownership was declared to be henceforth null; the land was nationalized and given to the people who cultivated it. The large estates of the nobility, all the lands belonging to the state and to the Church were left to the disposition of local committees pending a decision of the Constituent Assembly. Mines, forests and great waterways became the property of the state; while lesser forests and waterways were turned over to local communes.

Bibliography. GENERAL: Aleksinskü, Grigorii, Modern Russia' (translated by Bernard Miall, London 1913); Baring, Maurice, The Mainsprings of Russia (London and New York 1914); Bond, Sir Edward A. (ed.), 'Russia at the Close of the Sixteenth Century' (London 1856); Child, Richard Washburn, Potential Russia) (New York 1916); Drage, Geoffrey, 'Russian Affairs) (London 1904) Duff, James (ed.), 'Russian Realities and Problems (by Paul Milyoukov, Peter Struve, A. Lappo-Danilevsky, Roman Dmowski, and Harold Williams, Cambridge, England 1917); Fanning, Clara Elizabeth, Selected Articles on Russia (New York 1918); Graham, Stephen, "Russia and the World' (ib., 1915); Hume, George, Thirty-Five Years in Russia (London 1914); Leroy-Beaulieu, Anatole (Henry Jean Baptiste Anatole), The Empire of the Tsars and the Russians' (translated from the 3d French edition with annotations by Z. A. Ragozin, New York 1902-05); Lethbridge, Mrs. Marjorie Colt (Byrne), 'The Soul of the Russian' (New York 1916); Miliukov, Pavel Nikolaevich, 'Russia and its Crisis (Chicago 1906); Souiny-Seydlitz, Leonie Ida Philipovna,

'Russia of Yesterday and To-morrow' (New York 1917); Stephens, Winifred (ed.), "The Soul of Russia) (London 1916).

ASIATIC RELATIONS: Beveridge, Albert Jeremiah, The Russian Advance) (New York 1903); Meakin, Annette M., 'In Russian Turkestan (London 1903); Popowski, Józef, 'The Rival Powers in Central Asia' (Westminster 1893); Simpson, Bertram Lenox, The Coming Struggle in Eastern Asia (London 1908); Campbell, Jane Maud, 'Selected List of Russian Books' (Chicago 1916); Herberstein, Sigmund, Notes upon Russia,' being a translation of the earliest account of that country, entitled 'Rerum Moscoviticarum Commentarii) (Hakluyt Society Publications, 1851–52); Aleksinskii, G., Russia and Europe (translated by B. Miall, New York 1917); Jarintzov, Nadine, 'Russia: The Country of Extremes' (ib. 1914); Mackail, John William, 'Russia's Gift to the World' (rev. ed., New York 1917); Sarolea, Charles, 'Great Russia, Her Achievement and Promise' (ib. 1916); Vinogradov, Pavel Gavrilovich, The Russian Problem' (London 1914); Wiener, Leo, 'An Interpretation of the Russian People, contains a bibliography (New York 1915); Bain, Robert Nisbet, The Pupils of Peter the Great: A History of the Russian Court and Empire from 1697 to 1740) (Westminster 1897); Ballou, Maturin Murray, Due North; or, Glimpses of Scandinavia and Russia (Boston 1887); Buel, James W., A Nemesis of Misgovernment' (Philadelphia 1899); Dobson, George; (Russia) (London 1913); Eastlake, Elizabeth, 'A Residence on the Shores of_the_Baltic (London 1841); Geddie, John, "The Russian Empire: Historical and Descriptive' (New York 1882); Graham, Stephen, A Vagabond in the Caucasus) (New York 1911); Hubback, John H., 'Russian Realities' (London 1915); Reeves, Francis Brewster, 'Russia Then and Now, 1892-1917) (New York 1917); Reynolds, Rothay, 'My Slav Friends' (London 1916); Sears, Robert, 'An Illustrated Description of the Russian Empire; Embracing its Geographical Features, Political Divisions, Principal Cities and Towns, Manners and Customs, Historic Summary, etc.) (New York 1855); Beazley, Charles Raymond, Russia from the Varangians to the Bolsheviks (Oxford 1918); Cazalet, Lucy, 'Short History of Russia' (Oxford 1915); Krausse, Alexis Sidney, 'Russia in Asia; a Record and a Study, 1558-1899) (New York 1900); Munro, H. H., "The Rise of the Russian Empire' (London 1900); Poole, Ernest, The Dark People: Russia's Crisis (New York 1918) Russell, Charles Edward, Unchained Russia' (ib. 1918); The Russian Year-Book.'

JOHN B. MCDONNELL,

Editorial Staff of The Americana.

2. RUSSIAN HISTORY. The Russian Slavs were one of the Asiatic tribes designated by the Greeks, "Scythians," who in unknown times immigrated into the vast plains of eastern Europe. They had settled near lakes and rivers in the primitive forests of the region extending east and west from lakes Ilmer and Chud to the lower banks of the Dnieper and the Dniester. There were other East-Slavonic tribes the Lithuanians, west, and the Finns north of them, while the Turks and Tartars lived in the southeast. The Russian Slavs lived

in small communistic and patriarchic groups governed by the Vieche (a council of family elders) until the Variagi, or Northmen, helped them to form an independent state. No exact data is available concerning its origin. It is unknown whether the Slavs submitted to the Northmen of their own accord or whether they were forced into submission by conquest. According to the chronicle, the state originated in 862 when the three Varangian brothers, Rurik, Sineus and Truvor, became rulers of the Slavonic Stenm clan, the country began to be called Russia, and Novgorod became the centre of the principality. Simultaneously another centre, Kiev, sprang up in the south where two Varangian brothers, Askold and Dir, had formed another principality. Upon the death of Rurik's brothers, their territory also passed to him and he assumed the title Grand Prince. The successor of Rurik was his relative Oleg (879) whose wisdom and steady success gave him the surname "Vieschi," which means "soothsayer." He extended his rule over all the Slavonic clans except the Viatichi and imposed upon them a heavy tax. He took possession of Kiev and made it the capital of his principality, naming it "Mother of Russian Cities. He also led an expedition against Byzantium with the results which favored Russian business enterprises in Greece. Oleg was followed by his son Igor in 912, who also several times attacked Byzantium but with no success. His main object was to quell uprisings of subjugated Slavonic clans and to repel attacks of the pillaging savages of the Ural Steppes, called Petchenegi. He met his death in 945 at the hands of Drevlian, a Slavonic clan, while visiting them for the purpose of collecting the yearly tribute. Upon Igor's death, his wife, Olga, an energetic and cunning woman, became ruler for the time of their son's minority. She avenged her husband's death by setting on fire the capital of the Drevlian, Kastrov, and then subjugating its people. The most noteworthy event of her time is her conversion to Christianity (957).

When her son Sviatoslav became ruler, he displayed all his cunning and ambition in the numerous expeditions for the purpose of conquest. He defeated the Turkish tribe Khazarui and subjugated the Viatichi, the only Slavonic tribe still under tribute to them. At the suggestion of the emperor of Byzantium Nikifor Fok, he turned his weapons against the Bulgars along the Danube, but with no consequences. Returning home he was killed near Kiev by the Petchenegs who in his absence had attacked the city (972). Sviatoslav had divided his dominion among his sons, but it was reunited by the youngest son Vladimir; he killed his oldest brother Yaropolk who had already assassinated another brother Oleg and subdued several revolting clans. He also made several successful attacks on the Poles, the Yatvags and the Bul-. gars along the Kama. The most significant event of Vladimir's rule was the conversion of the Russians to Christianity (988) after Vladimir's conquest of the Greek city Khersan. Until then they had been pagans and worshiped all natural phenomena which they represented by different idols. Vladimir, at first cruel, voluptuous and an assassin, is known to history as the "Beautiful Son of Kiev," due to a change said to have been worked in him by the Christian faith. Following the custom of the time

ness

Vladimir before his death in 1015 again divided the country among his sons, Garoslav, Yaropolk and Sviatopolk, but Garoslav reunited it at the time of the mutual fight of the brothers in which Yaropolk died and Sviatapolk fled. Garoslav I like his father divided in 1054 the Russian principality among his sons, the oldest receiving the principality of Kiev with the title of Grand Prince. This division of the country into a group of states was known as the system of Appanages. Each state had a ruling prince and subordinate or appanaged princes. The grand prince had authority over all of them and lived in the capital. He had a guard, called the druzhina, consisting of volunteer warriors who were his friends and counselors at all times and were well rewarded for their services. The drushiniks (members of the druzhina) of the highest rank called Boyare, acted by the appointment of the king as viceroys in cities, as judges, called tiunui, and collectors of tributes and fines. The king himself was chief justice. The main administrative was the Viechi, a popular assembly convened by the princes. Its head was the possadnik elected by the people, who next to the prince was the highest authority. The possadnik, just as well as the tiuiniu guarded social order and conducted trials. Self-government had reached its highest development in Novgorod which had become almost an independent state. Novgorod was also the commercial centre in the North, just as Vladimir in the South, both having busiconnections with the Hanseac Union formed of the German cities on the coast of the Baltic and the German Sea. While the system of the Appanages on the one hand favored the distribution of population and the development of commerce, on the other hand it led to internal wars of the appanaged princes. After Yaroslav the right of succession to the throne was transferred from the oldest son to the oldest in the family and Yaroslav's sons and grandsons ruled one after another. Their rule was greatly disturbed by internal wars of the appanged princes, complicated by the question of seniority in such a large family as that of Yaroslav. During these struggles Kiev was subject to attacks and pillage which finally caused its fall. In the second half of the 12th century it was replaced by another capital, Vladimir upon the Kliazma. At that time Russia began to suffer from the destructive invasions of the Palovtzui, a tribę kindred to the Pechenegs. For better protection against the external enemy, the cousins and nephews decided to make peace and by the treaty in Linbetz (1097) resolved that everybody inherit his own paternal estate. In spite of it the internal wars continued until Vladimir Monomakh, the son of Vsevolod and grandson of Yaroslav I, became ruler. He was the first to realize the ideal of a peaceful principality with the grand prince as the supreme power. He exercised his authority to stop the wars of the appanaged princes and, instead, have them join him in his expeditions against the savages to check their invasions.

The internal wars, however, had considerably weakened the country, and it could not resist the wild hordes of the savage Mongols and Tartars. Their invasion resulted in Russia's subjugation to Mongol oppression (1237)_and the formation of a Tartar kingdom, the Zolo

8

taya Orda, along the lower Volga, with Sarai as its capital. In these days two prominent figures stand out. Aleksander Yaroslavitch Nevsky, prince of Novgorod, and Daniel Romanovitch Galitzki in the South. The first attained fame through his victory over Birger in the war against Sweden, and the second, by checking the invasions of the Lithuanians, who at that time had united with Poland and became a powerful principality to balance the power of the German orders on the Baltic Coast

The first attempt at freeing Russia from Mongolian oppression was made by Dimitri Danskoi (1363-89). He defeated the Tartars in the famous battle of Kulikov 8 Sept. 1380 and after renewed attacks under Ivan III they were driven from Russia and the Zolotaya Orda was destroyed. The Lithuanian conquest pressing in from the west, and the Tartar invasion from the south, greatly impeded the growth of the Moscovite empire into which the northwestern territories had begun to form, with Moscow, founded according to the chronicle by Yuri Dolgoruki (in 1147) on the Moscow River, as the dominating city and later, under Joann Kalita the capital and ecclesiastical centre. The first steps toward building the Moscovite empire was the annexation of the principality of Novgorod by Vasili I (1389-1425) and the abolition of self-government by the dissolution of the Vieche (1478) under Joann III (1462-1505), the son of Vasili II (1425-62) and the grandson of Vasili I. The two remaining territories, Pskov and Riasan, were annexed by the son and successor of Ivan III (1505-08).

The first prince to be crowned (1547) Tsar of Moscow was Ivan IV, son of Vasili III and Helen, the daughter of a Lithuanian magnate. This was a time of great oppression and revolt. The former friendly relations of grand princes and druzhina had long ceased. The peasants were in serfdom, having been tied by the Moscovite princes to the land which they cultivated. The members of the Boyarskaya Duma, the ruling power during Ivan's minority, contested for individual power at the expense of the people's freedom and the little Tsar's education. As a result he developed into a hardhearted and cruel man, hence his surname "Grozni" (Terrible). Oppressing the people, Ivan was suspicious of disloyalties and was liberal with punishments by death. His lack of success in the war against the Polish King Stefan Batore he ascribed to treason. His bodyguard were the "oprichniki» (a band of young noblemen) of whom he required a complete renunciation of their parents, and absolute submission to him. These sad days were brightened by the conquest of Siberia, an achievement of the Cossacks of the Don and their leader Ermak. The hard and exciting times of Ivan the Terrible were followed by. the peaceful rule of his son Feodor (1584-98), a pious and mild prince who left the ruling to the Boyarskaya Duma, headed by Boris Gudunov, his wife's brother. As he was childless and his brother Dimitri dead, the line of Ruriks came to an end with his death. The people and the Zemskaya Duma (an assembly of merchants and landlords which convened only in important cases) elected the cunning. Boris Gudunov to the throne despite the opposition of many boyars, With this Tsar begins the

period of incessant troubles in Russia. Boris, suspicious of the hatred of the boyars, spared no punishments and, as a crowning piece of misfortune, the country was stricken by famine and epidemics. At his death he left the throne to his son but Lzhedimitri (False Dimitri), pretending to be Feodor's dead brother, by the help of the Polish King Sigismund, who dreamed of spreading Catholicism in Russia, seized the throne and ruled 11 months, when he was assassinated by a conspiration headed by Vasili Shniski, who succeeded to the throne. During his rule another pretender, Lzhedimitri II, unsuccessfully besieged Moscow for two years. Here begins the period of interregnum and anarchy. The Moscovite Crown was threatened by the Polish King Sigismund and was saved only by the bravery of a meat merchant Kozma and Prince Pozharski; the former by his fiery patriotic speeches stirred the people of Novgorod, who, joined by other cities, elected Pozharski as their leader and forced the Poles to surrender. The Zemskaya Duma convened in 1613 and elected to the throne Michael Fedorovich of the dynasty Romanov. When the dynasty of Romanov came to the throne the Moskovite Empire extended from the Arctic Ocean to the mouth of the Don and Caspian Sea, and from the White Sea to the Ural Mountains and throughout Siberia. Its main cities were the capital, Moscow, fortified by the famous Kraul, and the two commercial cities Novgorod and Arkhangelsk engaged since Ivan III in negotiations with Holland, Germany and England. The territories in the immediate vicinity of Moscow were called the territories of the Grand Prince. They were inhabited by a mixture of Finns and Slavs. In the south lived the Cossacks, in the Don region, while Turkish and Mongolian tribes inhabited the steppes of Azov and the Black Sea. Southwestern Russia was occupied by the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom, of which the main divisions were Little Russia, White Russia and Galicia. Though the Russians in these regions were the Greek Orthodox, the union of Liublin (1569) made them recognize the Pope as the ecclesiastical head. This aroused the discontent of the people and finally led to the uprisings of the Cossacks which resulted in the separation of Little_Russia from Poland and its annexation to Russia under Alexei Mikhailovitch. Later (1667), however, the western region went back to Poland. With Michail (1613-45), anarchy came to an end and peace and order were re-established. The rule of his son and successor, Alexei (1645-76) is marked by a revolt of the people against oppression and heavy taxation as in the time of Ivan III. This pointed to the necessity of a new code of laws and the Sobornoye Polozheniye was composed. Ivan's oldest son, Feodor Alexsieyevich (1676-82), succeeded him and six years later was followed by Peter the Great, the youngest son of Aleksei Michailovich and Natalia Naruishkina, as his older brother Joann, son of Maria Miloslavskaya, was in illhealth. Owing to the ambition of their sister Sophia Miloslavskaya two parties formed and contested for the throne. The result was that both princes were crowned in 1682 and Sophia made regent till Peter's majority.

Peter the Great spent his childhood in the suburban Moscovite village surrounded by for

eign friends and instructors. He often visited the German settlement called the Koki and made the acquaintance of German officers who assisted him in building a little army while playing at soldiers with his boy companions. German officers had been called to Russia by Peter's father and grandfather to teach the Russian soldiers military arts. There were at that time in Moscow many other foreigners of different professions, such as merchants, physicians, druggists, architects, who had begun settling there during the rule of Joann III, when relations with Europe, broken during the Mongolian oppression, had been resumed through his marriage with Sophia, the daughter of the emperor of Byzantium, who came to Russia together with many Greeks and Italians. At the age of 17 Peter I placed in a monastery his sister Sophia, who still had pretensions to the throne, and by means of intrigues tried to attain her ends and finally succeeded in sharing the reign with her brother. Tsar Peter's interest in the army and navy, which was shown in his early childhood, still continued. He went twice to Arkhangelsk to view foreign vessels and conceived the idea of gaining a foothold on the Azov Sea for the purpose of trading with Southern Europe. After an unsuccessful attack he triumphantly took possession of Azov in the next year (1696). He then set out traveling in western Europe to study fortresses and to learn the arts of Western civilization. He joined his own embassy to Europe and, disguised as a Dutch carpenter, settled in Sardam to study the art of shipbuilding. There he boarded with a blacksmith, but, upon identification he changed his abode for Amsterdam, where he continued his studies. He was impressed by foreign customs and manners and began reforming Russia according to foreign models. He tried even to change the appearance of the Russians by replacing the feriaza, a long coat with very long sleeves, by the longtailed coat and the kaftan, and by prohibiting a beard to all except the clergy and the peasants, unless a tax were paid for the privilege of wearing one. He turned also his attention to the condition of women, against whose seclusion he strongly protested, and made the Moscovite princes introduce their daughters in society, costumed according to Western fashions. He organized gatherings for social intercourse which he called "assemblies.» Marriage agreements were to be made only by the consent of the two concerned and not by their parents, as had been the custom up to this time. With the change of the Russian ways and habits Peter also started a reconstruction of the empire. In the place of the former prikazni he established collegii, the different branches of which were to take charge of commerce, revenue, army and navy, etc. The Boyarskaya Duma was replaced by the Senate and different German official ranks were substituted for Russian. Ecclesiastical affairs were entrusted to the Synod, an assembly of archbishops, which was to take the place of the former patriarchate. He was aware of the lack of education and established schools for children of the nobility, who were not allowed to carry before they could read and write. The army as well as the people, particularly the clergy and the staroviertzi (i.e., old believers), were dissatis

9

fied with the foreign innovations. Protesting against the strict foreign discipline the army revolted during Peter's absence abroad, but the revolt was quelled and the rioters severely punished upon his return. Dissatisfaction with the reforms was persecuted and tried by a special secret court (Tainoe Sudilishte) before which one could be brought by any one who cared to denounce his personal enemies by simply pronouncing the words "slovo i dielo (i.e., "word and act"). Peter replaced the militia called "strieltzy" by a standing army to be composed of peasants and urban population. Military duties became compulsory even for the young noblemen unless declared unfit or employed in the civil service. The greater part of his reign Peter spent in wars against Sweden. In alliance with Poland and Denmark he set out against the Swedes for the recapture of lost possessions along the Gulf of Finland, but after the battle of Narva (1700) retreated with heavy losses. This encounter with the Swedes was for him a lesson in the art of warfare and he utilized it to gain a foothold on the Finnish coast (1703) by capturing many cities in the absence of King Charles who was fighting the Polish king, August II. By taking possession of the Swedish fortress Nienshanz upon the Neva, he came into possession of the river, and under his own supervision built there a church and the Peter-Paul fortress as the nucleus of Petrograd which he now made the capital. Charles XII was lured again to Russia by his hopes to secure the Little Russia, whose hetman (or chief) Mazeppa turned traitor to Peter and promised to assist the Swedes with a great army of Cossacks. Charles XII met, however, with a crushing defeat in the battle of Poltava, 27 June 1709, and together with Mazeppa fled to Turkey. Here he instigated the Turkish sultan to declare war against Russia. With an army of 40,000 Peter set out for Turkey to face a considerably greater army of Turks and Tartars on the shores of the river Pruth. He was repelled, however, and by the Treaty of Pruth was forced to give up Azov and with it the outlet to the Southern seas and the mouth of the Don (1711). He succeeded, however, in establishing himself firmly on the coast of the Baltic Sea where, as a result of a warfare of 10 years, by the Treaty of Nieshtat (1721) Sweden ceded to Russia Livland, Esthonia and Ingria (the present district of Petrograd). In that same year he crowned himself, assuming the new title of "Imperator." Peter's infirm brother having died, his empire went to his grandson, Peter II, whose father, Aleksei, had died in exile escaping his death sentence pronounced against him by Peter I for expressed dissatisfaction with reforms. Peter Alekseiyevich was, however, only 10 years old, and Peter's second wife, Katharine I, used the opportunity to become ruler for two years (1725-27). At the expiration of this period she appointed Peter Alekseiyevich as her successor, and the Supreme Secret Council, a body of high officials,

as

the regents during his minority. As Katharine I was German by birth the chief officials of the empire under her were Germans, and Ostermann, the son of a German pastor, was at the head of the government. The same state of affairs continued when Peter

10

RUSSIA

Alekseiyevich died before he reached his majority, and the Duchess of Courland, Anna Joannovna (1730-40), the daughter of Joann V, ascended the throne. Biron, a native of Courland, was at the head of the government. He was a cunning and hard-hearted man who for his selfish purposes imposed a heavy tax on the peasants and exacted it with unusual cruelties. At that time Munnich, who was in charge of the military affairs, introduced strict discipline in the army. He was the founder of the corps of cadets for the training of military officers. He became Prime Minister under Anna Leopoldovna, a niece of Anna Joannovna and the mother of little Joann VI (1740–41), whom Anna Joannovna appointed her successor to the throne. The dissatisfaction of the people with a foreign court grew greater and greater, and as a result little Joann, with his mother, Anna Leopoldovna, spent the rest of his days in the Schluesselburg fortress where Biron was also imprisoned. The domination of Germans at the Russian court came to an end with Elizabeth (1741-61), second daughter of Peter I. Munnich and Ostermann were exiled to Siberia and the Germans were replaced by Russian statesmen, Razumovski and Shuvalov. In those days it became the_custom to use the French language at the Russian court. The nobility and the bureaucracy, following the tone of the court, engaged foreign educators for their children. Elizabeth's rule was marked by valuable internal improvements. During her reign the first Russian university (1755) and the first Russian theatre were founded in Moscow, the Academy of Science having been established in Petrograd by Peter I.

External affairs also proved to the world that Russia since Peter the Great was occupying a prominent position among European powers. It participated with great success in the Seven Years' War as an ally of Maria Theresa, empress of Austria, against the Prussian king, Frederick II.

The rule of Elizabeth's successor, Peter III, the son of her sister Anna, was of a very short duration. However, he succeeded in half a year in earning the gratitude of the people by abolishing the secret courts with its muchhated "Slovo i Dielo." He was succeeded by his worthy wife, Katharine II, née Princess Anhalt-Ferbst, whose rule of 34 years (176296) was for Russia a period of expansion. Russia came into possession of the long-desired outlet to the Black Sea, and hence to the Mediterranean by her victories over the Turks at Larga and Kagula (1770) under the command of Rumiantzev Zadunaiski in the so-called First Turkish War which ended by the Treaty of Peace concluded at Kuchuk-Kainardgi (1774); and in the Second Turkish War, under the commanders Potyenkin and Suvarov, in which she took possession of the famous fortresses Ochakov (1788) and Izmaihil (1790) and, by the Treaty of Peace of 1791 concluded in Yassmui, obtained the territory on the northern coast of the Black Sea. By the third partition of Poland, Russia annexed White Russia, Voluinia, Lithuania and Courland. This took place in 1795 when, after a desperate battle under the leadership of Kosciusko and the successive partitions, the Polish kingdom ceased to exist. During Katharine's rule Eastern Rus

sia suffered a great deal from the insurrection stirred by the Cossack, Pugachev, who pretended to be the dead Peter III, and, with a band of Cossacks, Tartars and fugitives of malcontent peasants and laborers of the Uralworks, attacked and took possession of one fortress after another along the Ural boundary, putting to death their commanders. The insurrection was finally subdued and its leader executed in Moscow in 1775. Catherine II carried out and promoted some of the important reforms started by Peter I. He had divided Russia into 12 districts; she extended the division to 150 governments (districts) with subdivisions into counties in 1775. Each district had its administrative and judicial departments. Two hundred villages were turned into townships with a local administration. The city charters of 1785 divided the urban population into three classes: the merchants, the citizens and the craftsmen. The centre of the city administration was the city council (Gorodskaya Duma) and its head was the mayor elected by the people. The nobility was granted a charter defining its rights and privileges. These were a voluntary military body exempt from taxation and corporal punishment. Peter the Great had placed church property under state supervision. Catherine II made the land and the serfs belonging to the Church property of the Crown in 1764. She attempted also a reform of the Russian judicial courts by abolishing tortures at trials and contemplated a code of new laws. She had composed her own legal maxims and appointed a committee to help her draw up a new code of laws, but these attempts were stopped by the outbreak of the Turkish wars. She showed great concern in the spread of education by establishing several city schools and a few other educational institutions; as also in the moral rectitude of the people by increasing salaries of officials in order to stop bribery. She also took an active part in educational reform by writing fairy tales and comedies in which she ridiculed vice for the purpose of correction. Her reforms were continued by her son and successor, Paul I (1796-1801). Of these the most valuable was the improvement of the condition of the peasant serfs limiting the service to their masters to three days in the week. He further reconstructed the army following the Prussian style which was then considered the model by all Europe. He introduced even the Prussian decorative court uniform of locks and pigtails. When the French Revolution broke out, Paul I formed an alliance with England, Austria and Prussia to fight the French revolutionists, but dissatisfied with his allies he soon withdrew his troops after some successful military operations in Italy. His successor, Alexander I (1800-25), is represented in history as a good-natured man of a friendly attitude who won the favorable disposition of the people by the changes which he at once instituted. Some of his edicts greatly improved the condition of the peasantry and gradually led to its emancipation. His main administrative reforms were: the removal of the system of collegii established by Peter I and their replacement by a group of ministers, such as the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Education, Ministry of War and others. He