Readings from The History of Russia by William Richard Morfill New York:  P. F. Collier & Son, 1913 [IN PUBLIC DOMAIN] Part IV The Progress of the Modern Spirit 1855-19131 __________________________________________

ALEXANDER II  AND LIBERAL PROGRESS

1855-1881

When the new tsar ascended the throne he found the country in a very critical condition. Russia was being  exhausted by the drain upon her. The English, al though their efforts had not been crowned with any very brilliant results, were well furnished with the sinews of war; the French had tired of the campaign. A new element was added by the appearance of 15,000 Sardinians in the field. The English had some success in the Black Sea, and Kertch was taken. Previous to this, on March 22, 1855, the Russians made a great sortie from Sebastopol, which was ultimately driven back.

On April 4 a second Baltic fleet left Spithead; the Russians, however, had profited by the experience of the preceding year and had carefully fortified many exposed places. The English were annoyed when later on this fleet returned having accomplished so little.

The fall of Sebastopol was now approaching. On June 6 took place the third bombardment. The hill styled the Mamelon was soon afterward taken. In Sebastopol itself the Russians had suffered greatly, and two of their most distinguished naval commanders had been killed, Admiral Nakhimov, the hero of Sinope, and Admiral Kornilov. On June 18 the English and French were repulsed from the Malakov and the Redan. The arrangements for the assault had been badly made, the rockets were fired in a confused manner, and the assaulting parties did not go forward simultaneously. The raw recruits were not able to hold their position, and leaped back from the embrasures. Many brave men gave up their lives there. On June 28 died Lord Raglan, the English commander in chief, a noble-minded man, to vindicate whose memory Kinglake wrote his book. Raglan was perhaps too old a man to undertake such an expedition, but he thought it his duty to do so. The Sardinians won the battle of the Tchernaya on August 15. It is interesting to think that the great novelist, Tolstoi, fought in the Russian ranks on that occasion. How easily might the chance shot of an Italian peasant have deprived the world of the masterpieces " War and Peace " and " Anna Karenina."

Finally, after three days of terrible bombardment, the Malakov was taken by assault (September 8), and Sebastopol became untenable. The Russians abandoned the southern side of the city. They were seen in the night hurrying with their ammunition and stores across a bridge of boats. They left to the English and French only bloodstained ruins, and no attempt could be made to occupy the place, which afforded no protection.

As some compensation for the humiliation which she had undergone Russia had been able to take Kars from the Turks (November 25), although it had been bravely defended by General Fenwick Williams. The so-called Mingrelian expedition of Omar Pasha ended in a complete failure; he found the people whom he imagined he was going to raise against the Russians wholly unsympathetic.

The representatives of England, France, Austria, Russia, and Turkey signed the preliminaries of peace February 25, 1856. The final peace was signed at Paris on March 30. Russia gave back Kars to Turkey, and regained the places in the Crimea which had been taken by the allies. She renounced the protectorate of the Danubian principalities, which were to receive a new organization under the suzerainty of the sultan and the control of Europe. She renounced also all pretensions to a protectorate of the Christian subjects of the sultan; and she submitted to a rectification of her frontiers, i. e., she ceded a portion of Bessarabia to that state which was afterward to become Rumania, although at the time entitled the Danubian principalities. Russia also lost her right of having ships of war in the Black Sea, and she was not to fortify the Aland Islands in the Baltic. Some of the signatories of the treaty were anxious that a clause should be inserted whereby the sultan should stipulate that his Christian subjects should enjoy religious freedom. This was mainly suggested by England; but to save the susceptibilities of the sultan, it was announced that this declaration proceeded from " the free inspiration of his sovereign will." The powers, on the other hand, agreed in no way to interfere in the government of Turkey. Moreover, the integrity of the Ottoman empire was guaranteed.

Such were the terms of the Treaty of Paris, which, for selfish reasons, abandoned the Christians to the tender mercies of their Mohammedan masters. It may be truly said that all the powers who were cosignatories of it have repudiated it. It is rather interesting to see how few of the conditions have been held binding. Kars now belongs to Russia. The Danubian principalities have become the kingdom of Rumania, entirely independent of the sultan. The portion of Bessarabia which had been ceded to Rumania has been taken back again by Russia, and Rumania has received compensation by accepting the comparatively worthless province of the Dobrudsha, with its Tatars. Russia has acquired the right of having ships of war in the Black Sea, and Sebastopol is rebuilt as a military and naval fortress. The sultan has never made the slightest effort to concede any privileges to his Christian subjects, and even if he had attempted anything of the kind would not have been able to carry it out.

Russia, by this treaty, receded for a time from the position which she had held in Europe. She had completely regained it until the war with Japan brought both her army and navy into general discredit. Freed now from war, she began to set herself about building up again the fabric of her social life. There was an enormous reaction after the Crimean War, which had humiliated the nation, and liberal ideas began to prevail. The next great step was the emancipation of the serfs.

Serfdom in Russia, as in all Slavonic countries, is a modern institution. In Poland and Bohemia it dates from the fifteenth century; in Russia from the close of the sixteenth, and we may say even later. It was Boris Godunov who first chained the serf to the soil, for economic reasons solely, as Chicherin shows. But the serf was not legally fixed to the soil until the ,Ulozhenie  or  Ordinance of the Emperor Alexis, in 1649. Peter the Great did something to amend his position, as we have seen, and there was a gradual, but, it must be confessed, slowly developed desire to give him liberty altogether, It was felt that this must be done, but no monarch seems to have had the courage to carry through such a great economic revolution. On his deathbed Nicholas had en joined it upon his son, and in 1861 the act of emancipation was decreed.   Twenty-two millions of human beings received personal freedom. The landlords were to be paid an indemnity. Their serfs were released from their seigniorial obligations. The land of the village commune became the actual property of the serfs. The indemnity was paid by the help of sums advanced by the government, and an interest of six per cent. was added; in forty-six years' time the government was to be entirely reimbursed.

This great economic revolution was carried with comparatively few outbreaks on the part of the peasants. In some districts of Russia, as, for instance, the government of Kazan, there were riots among the peasants, who could not understand how it was that they had to pay for land which they had always regarded as their own. Special commissioners were appointed, and district judges, to arrange the complicated questions between the proprietors and the peasants. These riots were soon quelled, although they were frequently taken advantage of by anarchists. Two ardent laborers in this great work were Yuri Samarin and Cherkasski. The petite noblesse of Russia seem to have suffered the most, as they were in the habit of employing their peasants as domestics, and were thus deprived of their services.

Alexander II. surrounded himself with liberal coadjutors, as if to break as much as possible with the old order of things. Valuyev became minister of the interior, Reutern of finance, Dmitri Milutin of war, and Golovnin of public instruction. In 1864 the law was promulgated by which the zemstvos were created. These are provincial assemblies, consisting of representatives of the landed proprietors, the artisans, and peasants, who regulate the incidence of taxation, and settle matters affecting public health, roads, and other provincial needs. A great deal was done for education, and the universities were made practically independent. The finances also of the country, which had been greatly embarrassed by the Crimean War, now under judicious management, began to ameliorate. In 1871 Russia was financially sound.

In 1863 broke out the second great Polish insurrection. The country had for some time been in a disturbed condition. The repression exercised by Nicholas had not been successful; her political life being apparently extinct, Poland had clung to her religion and language. At the commencement of his reign, April 21, 1856, Alexander had made a memorable speech to the deputies of the nobility at Warsaw. He had said that he wished the past to be forgotten, but he concluded his speech with the memorable words: " Gentlemen, let us have no dreams! "

In the same year Prince Michael Gorchakov appeared as governor, and commenced a mild regime. Offers were made to the Polish émigrés to return, under somewhat favorable conditions, but few availed themselves of the offer. Scattered throughout Europe, especially in France, Switzerland, and England, they formed a considerable body, and might roughly be divided into two classes: the whites or moderates, who looked up to Prince Adam Czartoryski as their head, and the red or revolutionary party. Adam Czartoryski had, however, died in 1861, and his place had been taken by his son Ladislaus, also now deceased. Those of the nobility who had remained in their native country lived quietly on their estates, and secretly did what they could to unite their countrymen. The Russians, however, did not interfere with them unless they entered into communication with the émigrés. They continued as of old to exercise a certain patriarchal government on their estates—the kind of government which always seems con genial to the Slav, until he has been brought under other influences. The condition of the peasants was that of complete serfdom. There was, however, a society among the nobles, the chief of which was Prince Andrew Zamojski, who were bent upon improving the condition of the land and the peasants upon it, and this was called the Agricultural Society. Prince Andrew Zamojski was a man of liberal ideas, who had been educated in the University of Edinburgh. So popular did this society become, that it soon numbered more than 5000 supporters. Zamojski managed to keep it for some time without coming into direct collision with the government, but it soon became evident that its development would be interfered with.

For some time there had been a restlessness in the country, and political manifestations began to take place in the streets. The churches were filled with people in mourning, who sang the pathetic Polish hymn, "Boze, cos Polske!" On a service being held in commemoration of the battle of Grochow, riots occurred, and some of the spectators were killed. When the funeral of the victims took place one hundred thousand persons followed the procession. Alexander was willing to make many concessions to the Poles; he established municipal councils at Warsaw and in other cities of Poland. The Marquis Wielopolski, a Pole, was appointed director of public instruction, and Polish was to be the official language of the ancient kingdom. On the other hand, on April 6, 1861, the Agricultural Society was suppressed. The Poles seemed apathetic about the concessions of the emperor. A large gathering of the people took place, and was fired on by the Russian troops. It does not seem clear whether this deplorable event resulted by accident, or whether the Russians mistook the purpose of the Poles in singing the celebrated war song of Dembinski, "Jeszcze Polska nie zginela."

The government, however, still hoped to be able to arrange matters, and General Lambert was appointed viceroy, charged with a mission altogether conciliatory. He allowed the celebration at Horodlo, near Lublin, of a grand fete in honor of the ancient union of Poland and Lithuania. The anniversary of the death of Kosciuszko, October 15, saw the churches thronged with people, and led to the arrest of large numbers. Gerstenzweig, the governor of the town, committed suicide in consequence of the reproaches of General Lambert, who was recalled, and replaced by General Luders. This administration also proved a failure, and the Grand Duke Constantine, the tsar's brother, was appointed viceroy in 1862.

Meanwhile, the extreme party had been very active. On June 27 an attempt was made upon the life of General Luders, two attacks were made upon the Grand Duke Constantine, and two upon Wielopolski, but they were all unsuccessful. The moderate party in the country seemed to feel no sympathy with the changes introduced. The more concessions made to them the more their demands seemed to grow. Thus even those who were prepared to accept the tsar's reforms required that Lithuania and the eastern provinces should be reunited to Poland. On the night of January 15, 1863, a number of persons obnoxious to the government were seized in their beds and forced to serve in the Russian army.

The insurrection now broke out, and was directed by a secret committee at Warsaw called Rzad (the government). The proceedings of this institution were mysterious. No one could tell whence their proclamations emanated, but they were widely diffused and struck terror. The extreme Russian party was especially angry at the attempt of the Poles to claim Lithuania as Polish. It had been in its earliest days orthodox, and most of the governments which composed it were of the Little Russian nationality. As the Russians made so little progress in putting an end to the insurrection, the emperor sent for Count Muraviev, a veteran, who had been wounded at Borodino, and at the time of his appointment was sixty-seven years of age. He nominated him dictator of the whole northwestern district, and his headquarters were to be at Vilna, where he arrived in May. At that time the rule of the Russians was at a very low ebb throughout the country. According to the account of a Russian writer the military received the new governor joyfully, but the civil authorities, most of whom are Poles, with visible displeasure. The Jews were waiting to see what would happen. The Roman Catholic clergy spoke of all attempts at quelling the insurrection as likely to fail, and declared that the insurgents were comparatively few in number and insignificant. Soldiers were now distributed by Muraviev over the whole district, and the villagers were fined if it was found that any among their number had joined the insurgents. There were also fines to be paid by all those who wore mourning. Sentences on leaders of bands were pronounced and carried out at once. Thus two priests were executed in one week for complicity in the insurrection. The landed proprietors found themselves in a very awkward position. The bands of the insurgents visited their estates, and if they would not help them frequently put them to death. Sometimes the Russian soldiers found an unfortunate gentleman hanging by the neck in his own drawing-room. On the other hand, if they helped the rebels in any way they were executed by the Russians. They received orders from the St. Petersburg government to reside on their estates, and were held responsible if any disturbances took place upon them. The peasants in many places were formed into a rural guard, for it is well known that frequently they showed no sympathy with the insurrection.

The Russians had 87,000 men in Poland, against whom the insurgents were powerless in spite of their bravery. Indeed all thinking persons are agreed that this last great Polish insurrection was ill-planned and never had a chance of success. Owing to the frontier in the direction of Prussia being sealed and everything being done to impede the insurgents, most of the fighting took place on the borders of Galicia. The Poles contended with enormous difficulties; they could never take a town, as they had no artillery for the purpose. They trusted rather to the dense forests with which the country abounds. They were for the most part undisciplined, except when they were returned émigrés  who had seen foreign service. They frequently had no muskets, but were armed with pikes, scythes, and even sticks. The Russians, on the other hand, had the benefit of the latest weapons. Moreover, the insurgents had hardly any medical appliances, and wonderful stories are related even in the Russian accounts of their firmness amid unparalleled sufferings.

The bands of insurgents generally consisted of priests, small landowners, petty officials, and peasants without land. Marian Langiewicz succeeded in getting a band of 3060 men, and after fighting for three days was forced to cross the frontier into Galicia. Meanwhile, the secret committee was very active and was directed by a council of five. Armed agents were appointed to carry out the secret decrees of the government ( Rzad) by assassination. This government even had its special seal which was affixed to all its documents. The emissaries who carried out the orders for putting obnoxious people to death were called stiletchiki, because they carried secret daggers. Their first victim was the secretary of Wielopolski, who was killed as a spy. A singular case was that of the Jewish spy, Hermani, who was stabbed in the Hotel de l'Europe at Warsaw, a building full of secret passages and interminable labyrinths. His treachery to the cause of the insurgents had been proved by one of the secret emissaries visiting the house of the governor-general, disguised as a Russian tchinovnik, during his absence and opening his cabinet with false keys. Muraviev at Vilna got up a petition among the nobility there to show their reconciliation with the government. The head of these nobles was a certain Domejko. The Rzad at once sent from Warsaw to Vilna with the object of killing some of the more loyal of the nobles, and an attempt was accordingly made upon the life of Domejko.

By the month of June the insurrection seemed to get weaker. In November, 1863, tranquillity was restored in the northwestern part of the country. Thereupon Muraviev occupied himself with settling the peasants on the land, and releasing them from the heavy barstchina or corvée  which was due to their masters. He closed some of the monasteries, and established schools where Russian was taught. He then left the country, having earned the hatred of the Poles more than any other Russian. He died suddenly in 1866.

The chiefs of the insurgents were hanged when captured. Such was the fate, among others, of Mackiewicz, a priest; Narbutt, the son of the historian; and Sierakowski, who had been an officer in the Russian service. They all met their fate with unflinching courage. Meanwhile, the Rzad were as active as ever. They seem, as far as their secret proceedings have been unraveled, to have met in a room of the university. They issued newspapers, and no one could discover who printed them. When the emperor offered an amnesty they issued a decree forbidding anyone to pay attention to it. They levied taxes which were scrupulously paid, and they continued to get possession of large sums from the government treasury. All these successes of the insurgents put the government, as administered by Wielopolski and the Grand Duke Constantine, in very poor contrast with the success of Muraviev. In July Wielopolski resigned and retired to Dresden; the Grand Duke Constantine was recalled a month after ward, and Count Berg was made dictator. He began by forming a police of 3000 soldiers and sixty officers, divided the city into districts, and each officer had to know what was going on in the houses of his district. An attempt was made on the life of Count Berg from the windows of the Hotel de l'Europe, which was the property of Count Zamojski. It was sacked and for a time converted into a barracks. The furniture was thrown out of the windows, and there perished, among other things, some valuable oriental manuscripts and a pianoforte which had been used by the great Polish composer Chopin. The last engagement of the insurrection took place at Opatow, in the government of Radom (February 22, 1864). By May, 1864, the insurrection was suppressed; the Russians succeeded in apprehending the five heads of the secret committee, and they were executed.

This rash outbreak, for it can be called nothing else, had cost Poland dear. The title of Kingdom of Poland has now disappeared from all official documents; and the governments are sometimes spoken of as the districts by the Vistula. The University of Warsaw has been completely Russified, and the government schools also. In order to secure the allegiance of the peasant a ukase of March 26, 1 864, gave him the complete possession of the land of which he had been the tenant. The corvées were abolished. Some of the restrictions enacted with reference to the use of the national language have been relaxed under Tsar Nicholas II.

The war in the Caucasus was brought to a close in 1864. Schamyl had surrendered to Prince Bariatinski as far back as 1859. He was sent to live at Kaluga with a pension of 10,000 rubles. The Circassians emigrated in large numbers to the Turkish dominions, where they formed a somewhat lawless element of the population.  Many were planted among the Bulgarians, but the altered climatic conditions produced epidemics among them. They died in great numbers. 1t was the intolerable persecutions endured from these barbarians which drove the Bulgarians into revolt.

It was in 1866 that the great Circassian immigration took place. These miserable pilgrims arrived in great numbers, to the utter perplexity of the Turkish authorities. Eighty thousand came to Varna alone. A great many died on landing. A reliable ac count of them has been furnished by Barkley in his " Bulgaria before the War," from which we propose to make a few extracts, as our readers will thereby realize how difficult it was for the Russians to come to any arrangements with such people, and how idle it was for the English to talk of making them into a kind of independent nation, which should act as a bulwark against Russia. The word Circassian is used in the loosest possible sense, and is made to include all the motley populations of the Caucasus— Lesghians, Abkhasians, and even Georgians and Mingrelians. It is only by reading such books as Erckert on the races of the Caucasus that we can realize the multiplicity of their languages and how little solidarity they really possess. Lord John Russell indiscreetly remonstrated in his official capacity with the Russians on the supposed expulsion. To this the Russians answered with a good deal of aplomb, that the Circassians had been invited to leave off their marauding habits, and to settle down as agriculturists, and that lands had been allotted to them for the purpose. Moreover, when Lord John pointed to the depopulation of the country as a sign of its bad government, he was reminded that if the diminution of the number of inhabitants was a sign of misrule, he must apply the same principle to Ireland, the population of which had declined by one-half. Barkley says of these people: "They are a race of marauders and cattle-lifters, and the whole of them may be said to live by theft. They had not been in the country [Bulgaria] a month before they were at their favorite occupation, and before six months were over nearly all the men were mounted, though when they landed they had not money to buy food to stave off starvation. The old residents, both Christian and Mussulman, had at once to take precautions for the protection of their beasts, and for the first time in Turkey each village had to keep a strong patrol on the alert all night." Yet, as Barkley continues to tell us, these picturesque thieves would steal a horse or a cow under the very nose of the Turkish guard, and could rarely be caught. If, however, they were caught they were shot down like dogs and buried in the nearest hole. But even the dead were not safe. So poor were the Circassians that, as our author tells us, they dug up corpses for the sake of the rags in which they were buried.

And yet these were the men whom the English Turcophiles would fain have elevated into heroes. These were the men who elicited the warmest sympathies of such one-sided enthusiasts as Laurence Oliphant. The Turk is a lazy man, but his laziness is as nothing compared with that of the Circassian. At the close of the Crimean War Sir Charles Wood, afterward Lord Halifax, in replying to the charge that the government had deserted the Circassians showed that the English had at last awoke to the knowledge of what the Circassians really were. He avowed that he had discovered the populations of Georgia, Mingrelia, and Imeretia to be in favor of the Russians. How could it possibly be otherwise ? Speaking of the hill tribes, he confessed that they were like the Highland cattle-lifters, with no idea of union or cooperation, but with each man's hand against another. Nothing would have been more difficult than to establish a common government with which any negotiations could be opened.

To return, however, to the Bulgarians, we must bear in mind this last load of suffering heaped upon them. Their condition had been gradually getting worse; no security for life or the purity of the family. The brutal government of the renegade Greek, Mid hat Pasha, further complicated matters. According to Barkley, he hanged everybody he suspected, and the roads were filled with miserable peasants dangling in the air. We cannot wonder that such a man paved the way for the great Bulgarian outbreak; of which we are shortly to hear.

On April 16, 1866, took place the attempt of Karakozov upon the tsar. Up to that time no man of the people had been found guilty of such a crime, and the deed created a profound impression. It was followed by reactionary measures, and the Slavophile party gained the ascendant. They had been foremost in advocating the complete Russification of the empire. Many efforts in this direction were now made in the Baltic provinces, where, however, it must be remembered that the German element is very much in the minority, whatever dignity may be assigned to it as the language of culture. The University of Dorpat has become more and more Russified, and the name of the city restored to that which it had in the earliest times, Yuriev.

During this period anarchists had become more active in Russia. The mild counsels of such men as Herzen, who edited the Bell for many years in London, were no longer of any influence. A preacher of the new doctrine was Bakunin, who may be said to have been the founder of Nihilism in the sense in which it is understood now, although the word itself is believed to have been invented by Turgeniev. Bakunin escaped from Siberia, and joined Herzen in editing the Bell.  The consequence, however, of this was that the paper began to decline, and its sale fell off to such an extent that it was soon given up. During the rest of the reign of Alexander we shall find the Nihilists very active, and terminating their conspiracies by the murder of the tsar.

The question of Turkey was destined soon to come to the front again. England had gained but little by the Crimean War. Russia was only temporarily checked. In constituting herself the protector of Turkey, England was obliged to lean upon the broken reed of many delusive hopes; Turkey was to be regenerated; equal religious freedom was to be granted to all her subjects; and a variety of other fantastic notions were in vogue. The unnatural union between a country of progress and constitutionalism like England with a worn-out oppressive despotism had somehow to be explained. away. English statesmen have at last, even the most conservative, realized that the future of eastern Europe lies with the Slavonic races, and that they must be reckoned with.

A crisis in Turkish relations was reached in 1876. The trouble began with the appearance of Russian volunteers in the Servian revolt. The Servians fought bravely, but of course were no match for their foes either in numbers or discipline. Moreover, the Turkish army has always enjoyed the advantage of the training of western adventurers and mercenaries. As the Servians at length were losing ground everywhere, and the Turks invading their territory, the Russians stepped in as their natural allies. The whole Balkan peninsula was in a state of ferment. The insurrection in Bulgaria had been repressed by the Turks with great cruelty, and all Europe resounded with the accounts of the massacres which they had committed. The Bulgarian uprising had taken place immediately after the outbreak in Herzegovina. A revolutionary committee was active in Bucharest, and it was there that the youthful Stambulov first made himself conspicuous. At the close of 1875 the Turkish bashi-bazouks2 were plundering and murdering everywhere, and fruitless attempts at peace were made at the Constantinople conference in December, 1876, and January, r877. On this occasion, as on many others, the Turks were misled by the sympathy of their English supporters, to whom they assigned greater influence than they really possessed. Among the proposals at this conference were the increase of the territory of Montenegro, the rectification of the frontiers of Servia, and the local autonomy of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria, with Christian members in the governing body. Turkey proposed to offer as ample satisfaction the sham constitution concocted by Midhat Pasha.

On April 24, 1877, Russia declared war at Kishinev against Turkey, and on June 22 the crossing of the Danube by the Russian troops began. It lasted four days. Turkey in Asia was also invaded on the side of Armenia. The European army was under the command of the Grand Duke Nicholas, brother of the emperor, and Generals Nepokoi-shitski and Levitski for chief officers. The Russians had already made a treaty with Rumania, whereby they were granted a free passage through that country. They were spread out along the left bank of the Danube, having the Rumanian army on their extreme right, opposite to Widdin. There were some Turkish monitors at hand, but they seemed powerless, and two of them were blown up by Russian torpedoes before Matchin. The river was crossed at Sistova, and the great effort was to advance upon the Shipka Pass in the Balkans. To mislead the enemy, General Zimmermann forced the passage of the river to the north of the Dobrudsha, while a furious cannonade kept the Turks occupied from Rustchuk to Nicopolis. Thanks to their precautions, and the secret being well guarded, the Russians succeeded in passing the river and landing at Zimnitsa on the night of June 26. They now occupied Sistova, and at night their pontoons passed under the cannon of Nicopolis without being observed by the Turks. One Russian corps now covered Rustchuk, and extended along the Yantra; the other deployed toward the Vid, and seized Nicopolis on July 16. Meanwhile, an advanced guard, under the command of General Gurko, hastened to occupy the important pass of Shipka in the Balkans. Gurko passed through the defile of Hankoi without opposition. He suddenly appeared on the other side of the Balkans, in the valley of the Tundja, and taking in the rear the Turkish positions at Shipka, carried them, after a trifling reverse (July 19), and thus in the space of twenty days the Danube had been crossed, the passage of the Balkans forced, and the route opened to Adrianople and Constantinople. But suddenly these brilliant successes suffered a check. Osman Pasha of Widdin, by forced marches, had come on the Russian right, and had fortified Plevna, a place strong by nature. The Russians made their first attempt to carry these lines, but the assault was repulsed with great loss under the very eyes of the emperor. There were 20,000 Turks in the position, and their fortifications are said to have been planned by a very skillful Italian engineer, for accurate accounts show that Osman was personally inactive. Moreover, the pasha was in direct communication with Sofia and was well furnished with provisions. On July 29 a second attempt was made, but, although the Russians fought with great bravery, they could only carry the first lines and were finally repulsed.

Suleiman Pasha also made his appearance on the Tundja with 35,000 men, with a view of retaking Shipka, and the army under Mohammed Ali at Rustchuk now began to move. The Russians were, therefore, obliged to concentrate themselves, and in order to do so they retired to the north of the Balkans and fortified the Shipka Pass. All their efforts were now directed against Plevna, and they called their allies, the Rumanians, to assist them. The consequences of this movement were terrible to the Bulgarians, especially in the eastern part of what was afterward called Eastern Rumelia, but has now been definitely annexed to Bulgaria.

The bashi-bazouks overran the whole country between the Maritza and the Shipka Pass and reduced it to a wilderness, including the town of Eski-Sagra, now Stara-Zagora. Most of the inhabitants, however, escaped over the mountains into the territory occupied by the Russians. The cities of Kalofer and Sopot were also burned after the flight of the inhabitants.

The fate of Karlovo was even more terrible. This lovely spot, which would seem marked out by nature for rural happiness and peace, was the scene of much bloodshed. The inhabitants both Christian and Turkish, had in a way admitted the Russians in order to avoid having their territory devastated. But on the Russians evacuating the place, the Mussulmans, who had arranged the reception conjointly with their Christian neighbors, betrayed them into the hands of the bashi-bazouks. Of the citizens 864 were put to death. These unfortunate men were dragged to Philippopolis, some dying on the way, tried by court-martials, and hanged in various parts of the town. Their sad fate has been graphically described by their fellow-prisoner, Ivan Geshov, who survived this bath of blood to be one of the first Bulgarian finance ministers. In Sliven peasants were hanging on each side of the streets as the troops of Suleiman entered. The prisons were full, and suspected persons were everywhere executed.

The Turks now began an attack on the Russian position at Shipka, August 2 1, which lasted five days. They had almost succeeded in opening the route to Tirnova, but Suleiman was unable to withstand the Russian reinforcements, and could not make himself master of their works. Meantime, Mohammed Ali was able partly to keep the Russians in check on the Yantra. The Russians made a third attack on Plevna (September 11), but, al though Skobelev succeeded in carrying the Turkish redoubt, in consequence of the inadequate number of his troops this third at tack failed. It was calculated that in the three attacks the Russians had lost 30,000 men.

We must now turn to the campaigns in Asia. The army had entered Turkish territory in four columns under the command of Loris Melikov. They first marched upon Batum along the coast of the Black Sea; the other three went to Kars and Erzerum by different routes. The column on the route to Batum was soon obliged to retire before the Turkish attacks; the latter had undisturbed access to the Black Sea, and had disembarked Circassian emigrants to raise the Caucasus. On the left, Bayezid was taken without resistance (April 20); Ardahan was taken after twelve days' fighting; and the blockade of Kars commenced on June 4. The Turkish general, Mukhtir Pasha, retired, and awaited reinforcements. But Melikov was repulsed while trying to force his position at Zevin (June 25), and Mukhtir thereupon raised the blockade of Kars and forced the Russians to retreat, having gained an advantage over them at Kizil-Tepe (August 25).

The Russians in Turkey fought bravely, but were outnumbered. They sent for more troops, and Todleben, who had defended Sebastopol, was summoned, like another Suvarov, to the front. Todleben completely changed the plan of action. He had 112,000 men at his disposal, and thought that Plevna ought rather to be starved out, as the number of Turkish outworks was so great. His first thought was to cut off Osman Pasha's communications. On October 24, after a battle at Gorni Dubinck, he took 4000 prisoners, and cut off the communication between Plevna, Orkhanie, and Sofia; the Rumanians at the same time established themselves on the line to Riachovo. Osman was now completely surrounded, and Gurko concentrated his forces in the direction of Orkhanie. When he had exhausted his provisions Osman made a sortie, and was obliged to surrender with his 40,000 men. Plevna fell on December 12. Gurko crossed the Balkans on December 25, occupying four days in the passage.

Meanwhile, in Asia Minor, the Turks began to have the same bad fortune. Mukhtir Pasha was beaten by Loris Melikov, and forced by a series of battles into the defiles of Deve-Boyum, which protect Erzerum. Kars was taken, and the investment of Erzerum begun.

With the commencement of the next year the Russians advanced through the Balkans to Rumelia. Although the cold was intense, Gurko on the right turned the position of Arab-Konak and got possession of Sofia. He had, meanwhile, been joined by a Servian detachment, and now marched by way of the valleys of the Tundja and the Maritza to Adrianople. At Shipka 35,000 Turks laid down their arms. On January 15 Gurko took Philippopolis; before surrendering it the Turks cut the throats of all the unfortunate Bulgarians who remained in prison. The place had long been little more than a human shambles. During the years 1877 and 1878, in the provinces of Philippopolis and Adrianople alone, 16,632 Bulgarians had been put to the sword, 623 hanged, 65 burned to death, and 925 churches, schools, and shops, and 40,860 inhabited houses were destroyed and plundered. Of 129 churches in the province of Philippopolis 103 were reduced to ruins. It has been calculated that about 180 Bulgarian captives in Turkish prisons were strangled. Suleiman Pasha, worsted by Gurko at Philippopolis when the Russians took it, was driven into the Rhodope Mountains. On January 20 Adrianople was taken. The Turkish governor had been displaying great cruelty there, and had hanged some miserable Bulgarian refugees; one a doctor, who had attached himself to the hospital where he worked in attendance on the Turkish sick and wounded. " He was taken thence," Lord Bath tells us, " with the red crescent on his arm, and hanged with his fellow-citizens." The Russians were now at the very gates of Constantinople. On February 14 the Turks made proposals for peace.

Meanwhile, the English fleet had appeared in Turkish waters and passed the Dardanelles on February 1. The foreign policy of the country was at that time directed by Lord Beaconsfield, whose Turcophile proclivities are well known. He had spoken of the sultan as an amiable young man in a trying position who was worthy of sympathy. Meanwhile the Grand Duke Nicholas moved his troops to San Stefano, to the very gates of Constantinople. On March 3, 1878, he signed the Treaty of San Stefano with the Turkish diplomatists, Safvet and Sadullah; the terms of this memorable treaty were the independence of Servia, Montenegro, and Rumania, and addition of territory to the two former. The sultan had in reality never been able to exercise any authority over the Montenegrins, as these fierce mountaineers had repelled all at tempts at subjugation. A principality of Bulgaria was to be created tributary but autonomous. Reforms were to be granted to Bosnia and the Herzegovina, and these provinces were to be occupied and put under the administration of Austria. This was the great feature of the treaty in so much as it brought Austria as a factor into the Balkan peninsula. Rumania received the Dobrudsha, and Russia regained the piece of territory at the mouth of the Danube which she had lost by the Treaty of Paris. In Asia she gained Batum, a very important port, Ardahan, Kars, and Bayezid, and an indemnity was to be paid her of 300,000,000 rubles. European Turkey was reduced to a mere strip of territory, and had only three towns of any size left, Salonika, Adrianople, and Constantinople.

England and Austria were both dissatisfied with these arrangements. In England the Turcophile party was then much stronger than at present. The English were never more active than they were at that time in pursuing an inconsistent and somewhat selfish policy of taking the lead in the West in all religious and political progress, and at the same time keeping as far as they could their fellow-Christians in the East under the galling bondage of aliens in race and religion. The selfish anti-Slavonic policy of Austria was also very pronounced at the time. She has been forced in the hour of peril in recent times to interpret her political position much more sanely. At the instigation of Bismarck a conference was summoned at Berlin. As a result of this Berlin conference the Treaty of San Stefano was considerably modified. Bulgaria was made much smaller in the western portion and was to pay tribute to the Porte. The country south of the Balkans was re stored to the Turks, but received a certain autonomy and took the name of Eastern Rumelia, which, however, it was to have but a short time. Lord Beaconsfield is said to have been very anxious that the Turks should have Burgas, which was now practically their only port on the Black Sea. Montenegro, Servia, and Rumania received additions of territory. The first country had the port of Dulcigno allotted to it. Servia received Nish, which is now the second largest city in that country. The Rumanians were obliged to cede to Russia a portion of territory at the mouth of the Danube and received in exchange a barren part of the Dobrudsha, where the climate is remarkably unhealthful and the population consists chiefly of Tatars. Bayezid and the territory of Alashgeid in Asia were to go back to Turkey, but the Russians kept their other conquests and their frontier was considerably advanced.

The account of the administration of Bulgaria by Russian officials belongs to Bulgarian history. By the terms of the Treaty of Berlin (July 13, I878), Macedonia, which had been rescued by Russian blood, so lavishly shed, was handed back to the Turks on condition that certain reforms should be executed. By the creation of the province of Eastern Rumelia and the restoration of Macedonia to Turkey, a very short-sighted policy was adopted by England. The formation of such a small state would cause it to be powerless. Had England really been anxious to create a strong Bulgaria that could defy Russia, they should have followed the plan of the Treaty of San Stefano. On September 18, 1885, the governor of Eastern Rumelia, an irresolute old man, was escorted in derisive ceremony out of the city of Philippopolis, and the province was permanently united to Bulgaria. In the same way Moldavia and Wallachia were also joined, after they had been kept separate by the Treaty of Paris.

Finally, we must say something of the additions to Greece. She also received a large accession of territory, including Thessaly with its capital Larissa. Although by a foolish war with the Turks she ran the risk of losing some of her recently acquired territory, the European powers compelled Turkey to evacuate the provinces she had occupied, and in 1898 Crete was declared autonomous.

The latter part of the reign of Alexander II. was disturbed by many plots against his life. On April 16, 1866, Karakozov shot at him at St. Petersburg, as already mentioned, and the attempt might have succeeded had not a peasant pushed the assassin's arm. In the following year a Pole, named Berezowski, attempted the life of the emperor at Paris, while he was on a visit to Napoleon III. In 1878 Mezentsev, the head of the gendarmerie at St. Petersburg, was killed; and in the following year three attempts were made upon the life of the emperor, which were nearly successful. Soloviov aimed a pistol at the tsar, for which he was executed, and attempts were made to blow up part of the Winter Palace and to wreck the train by which the emperor was traveling in the south of Russia. On March 13, 1881, Alexander was killed by a hand grenade on the bank of the Catherine canal at St. Peters burg. Before this tragedy a mine had been excavated under the Malaya Sadovaya, by which street the emperor was to pass. It had been dug with great labor, as all the earth had to be secretly moved away in bags. A shop had been hired from which the mining was begun, and at this shop one of the female conspirators ostensibly sold butter and eggs. On the day of his murder the emperor was proceeding from the Mikhailovski riding-school, when a shot struck the carriage. Getting out to inquire what was the matter the emperor was hit by a hand grenade and desperately wounded; he had only strength to cry out: " Take me to the palace to die there." Zhelnikov, the conspirator who had thrown the bomb, was himself killed by the explosion. Another confederate blew out his brains as soon as he was arrested. The conspirators were found to be six in number and were condemned to death; one, a Jewess, Jessa Helfmann, was sent into banishment. The others: Zhelabovski, Sophia Perovskaya, who by letting fall a handkerchief had given the signal to the assassins, Kibalchich, Risakov, and Mikhailov were sentenced to be hanged. On April 15, 1881, they suffered death on the Semenovski Place near St. Petersburg. Sophia Perovskaya was a woman of undaunted courage and met her fate with a spirit worthy of a better cause.

Thus perished Alexander II., a man of amiable character, if not of great strength of mind, in whose reign Russia certainly made considerable constitutional progress. To him she owes the establishment of the zemstvo, but before all other things the emancipation of the serfs. It is well known also that he was about to revive a national sobor or states-general, which had existed in the old times, but had been in abeyance since the days of the Emperor Feodor at the close of the seventeenth century. This would have been a direct step toward constitutional government.

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THE REIGN OF ALEXANDER III

1881-1894

OWING to the great strides made by Russia in the reign of the Emperor Alexander III it seems necessary to say something about the condition of the country. Alexander II. was succeeded by his second son of the same name, the eldest son having died at Nice in 1865. The new sovereign was an amiable and honest man, but he adopted the advice of reactionaries. Nor indeed can we wonder at this policy, if we remember the results of the liberal tendencies of his father. The country was full of plots, and a kind of bodyguard of the emperor's person was formed by volunteers from the Russian aristocracy. The young emperor found reactionary advisers in Count Dmitri Tolstoi, Pobiedonostsev, and Katkov. The Nihilists were still active; an attempt was made in 1881 to kill Cherevin, who was the coadjutor of the minister of the interior. Strelnikov, procuror-general, was killed at Kiev in 1882, and Sudeikin, a high police official, the same year. In October, 1888, occurred the mysterious railway accident at Borki, on the Kursk-Kharkov line, in which several persons were killed and the imperial family nearly lost their lives. Some see in this occurrence simply an accident, but others look upon it as an attempt of Nihilists.

In pursuance of a reactionary policy, the number of the police was increased, and in the large towns the owners of houses were responsible for the behavior of their tenants; they were forced to exercise such a surveillance that no suspected persons could enter the houses, no contraband books were to be introduced, nor ex plosive materials. The dvornik or porter must keep watch over that part of the street which is immediately in front of the house where he is employed. During this reign also the Jewish question became a burning one. It is calculated that there are five millions of Jews in Russia, and they are only allowed to inhabit certain governments. They have emigrated in great numbers to the United States, Brazil, the Argentine Republic, and other countries. In the year 1891 alone more than 10,000 left Russia.

Poland, completely weakened by the failure of the insurrection of 1863, remained tranquil. Poles were, however, forbidden to purchase land in Lithuania, and a ukase was issued preventing foreigners from purchasing immovable property in Poland. The object of this is said to have been to keep Germans from settling in the country. One of the most extraordinary developments of modern times is the commercial growth of the town of Lodz, which is situated in the government of Piotrkow, and numbers 351,570 inhabitants, being one of the largest cities of the empire.

Great efforts were made, and have been continued to the present time, to Russianize the Baltic provinces. According to the most trustworthy accounts, the prevailing population is Esthonian, Curonian, or Lettish, the Germans (landlords or tradesmen and artisans in towns) being only 3.5;, 6.8, and 7.6 per cent. respectively of the population. Prince Kropotkin says that in the three provinces, Courland, Esthonia, and Livonia, Riga included, they hardly amount to 120,000 out of 1,800,000 inhabitants. The Russians have introduced their language as the organ of education, and the University of Dorpat has been Russified.

Although the natural bias of the Emperor Alexander III. was toward autocracy, he was not sympathetic in all points with the policy of Bismarck. He discovered that the courts of Vienna and Berlin had concluded another treaty to which he was not a party. He was also displeased at the efforts made by Austria to push her influence in the Balkan peninsula, in which she was assisted by Bismarck.

It has been said that Russia had made a secret stipulation with Austria that she should take Bosnia and Herzegovina. It seems that by so doing she would be adopting a suicidal policy, and would weaken her hegemony of the Balkan states, to attain which she had already shed so much blood and lavished so much treasure. In Bulgaria she had at one time lost influence. Alexander of Batten berg had been forced to resign, and had not succeeded in making himself a persona grata  to the tsar. His government of the principality, at first so vigorous and promising, had become feeble. Subsequent revelations have enabled us to understand this change. He was already suffering from the exhausting disease which was soon to carry him off. His successor, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe Coburg, was elected in opposition to the tsar, but eventually made peace with him. .The whole object of Stambulov in the marriage he arranged between Prince Ferdinand and a lady of the house of Hapsburg was distinctly anti-Russian. The Russian minister was for a time withdrawn from Sofia in consequence of this hostility.

The only firm ally of Russia in the peninsula was Prince Nicholas of Montenegro, who paid several visits to Alexander and was welcomed by him in very flattering terms. Two of his daughters married princes of the Russian imperial family, a third married a member of the family of Karageorgevitch, the rival candidate to the Servian throne with Obrenovitches. Another daughter has married the King of Italy.

Rumania, which had fought on the side of Russia in the Bulgarian campaign and whose troops had greatly distinguished them selves at the siege of Plevna, was more and more drawn toward Austria by economic reasons. In March, 1881, Charles of Hohenzollern had caused himself to be crowned at Bucharest. Milan of Servia also was crowned king of that country in the following year. He too showed Austrian leanings. In 1883 Alexander of Batten berg had got rid of the Russian minister and found himself con strained to adopt a more national policy. In 1885 Eastern Rumelia, as it was called, was annexed without bloodshed to Bulgaria. Upon this taking place the incapable Milan of Servia pretended that the aggrandizement of Bulgaria destroyed the equilibrium of the Balkan states. He accordingly invaded the Bulgarian territories with a large army. Alexander of Bulgaria, although he was inferior in numbers, encountered him at Slivnitsa on November 19, 1885, and completely defeated him. The Bulgarians now invaded Servia and won another victory at Pirot.

In spite, however, of his great services Alexander of Batten berg was seized in bed on the night of August 21, 1886, by conspirators of the Russian party, and made to sign an act of abdication. He was then conducted across the Danube into Bessarabia and from there to Lemberg in Austrian Poland. But Bulgaria protested against this outrage and the concocters of the plot. Battenberg was invited to return. The attempts of the Bulgarian prince to mitigate the wrath of Alexander III. were fruitless. The latter plainly told him that he did not approve of his return, and at the same time would not make any statement as to his future intentions. He simply said that he should act in conformity with the interests of Russia. The prince saw that all opposition was useless; he nominated a regency, one of the members of which was Stambulov, addressed a proclamation to the people, and retired from the country September 7, 1886. After an interregnum of nearly a year Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg was elected, a grandson of Louis Philippe, but he was not recognized by any of the powers; and the post of Russian minister at Sofia remained vacant.

Russia in this way found herself completely deserted by the Balkan states, which had been encouraged by Austria and Germany. It thus resulted that she looked to an alliance with France. In the year 1887 occurred the death of the eminent publicist Katkov, who had been allowed in his journal to preach almost a crusade against Germany. The Emperor of Russia had on two, if not more, occasions prevented the outbreak of another war between Germany and France. His sympathy with the latter country now became open. In the month of July, 1 89 1, the French fleet under the command of Admiral Gervais visited Kronstadt. On August 4 fifty-five officers and twelve sailors accompanied Admiral Gervais to Moscow and were very cordially received. Two years after ward a Russian squadron, commanded by Admiral Avellane, re turned to France the visit of Gervais. The Russian fleet came to Toulon and was received with a series of magnificent fetes. Avellane and his officers also paid a visit to Paris.

Toward the end of the year 1894 Europe suddenly learned that the Emperor Alexander was very ill. He suffered, among other maladies, from disease of the heart, and his ailments were probably aggravated by the life of continual agitation which he had been compelled to lead; grave political complications and Nihilist plots were on all sides. The unhappy emperor was frequently heard to exclaim that he envied the Russian muzhik (peasant), who could live in peace with his wife and children. Alexander was a man with a genuine detestation of war. He could never forget the horrors he had witnessed during the campaign in Bulgaria, in which he accompanied his father. He did all he could to make his children detest war. He used to dwell upon the frightful sufferings which he had witnessed, and used to say, " May God keep you from ever seeing war, or from ever drawing a sword." Perhaps it is in consequence of these teachings that his son Nicholas II. inaugurated the Council of Peace at The Hague. Alexander died at Livadia in the Crimea, whither he had gone for the benefit of his health, on October 22, 1894, and was succeeded by his son Nicholas.

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THE REIGN OF NICHOLAS II

1894—1913

Alexander was succeeded by his son under the title of Nicholas II. Nicholas was born at St. Petersburg on May 18, 1868. Under the care of General Danielovitch, Pobiedonostsev, and others he received the education usually given to members of the royal family. In 1881, on the death of his grand father, Alexander II., be became heir-apparent, with the customary title of tsarevitch. A quiet and retiring disposition led him to look with little favor on his military training. By temperament he was inclined to peace.

In 1890-1891, three years before his accession, he made an extensive tour of the East, visiting Greece, Egypt, India, Ceylon, and Japan. In the latter country he narrowly escaped assassination at the hands of a Japanese fanatic. The return journey lay through Siberia, where at Vladivostok the tsarevitch turned the first sod for the Trans-Siberian railroad. He was later a member of the imperial committee which carried through this great enterprise.

The early days of the new reign were marked by many liberal moves, and it was confidently hoped by many of the liberals. the later social and constitutional democrats, that the attitude of the tsar augured not only a change in the spirit of administration, but also a probable change in the constitution. The censorship of the press was relaxed, and the practice of guarding railroad lines when an imperial train passed was given up. It was on the occasion of the tsar's marriage to the Princess Alice of Hesse that for the first time in Russian history the route of the wedding procession remained unguarded by troops. This appeal for popular confidence had a good effect, for the tsar immediately became popular.

The Poles shared in the era of good feeling. At the petition of the Polish delegation sent to the imperial wedding, the tsar removed General Gurko, who for twelve years had governed the provinces with much brutality, and in his place appointed Count Shuvalov. The mother of Count Shuvalov was a Pole, and it was hoped that the new governor would rule less harshly than his predecessor. But while personally more gracious than Gurko, Count Shuvalov, in his administration, showed himself equally jealous in suppressing the Polish language and in crushing other signs of national opposition.

Questions of foreign policy attracted attention early in the year 1895. The Pamir difficulty was settled, the joint boundary commission agreeing upon a definite frontier between Russia, China, and Afghanistan. While the negotiations involved in this dispute were progressing, De Giers, minister of foreign affairs, died on January 27. In his place the tsar appointed Prince Lobanov, the Russian ambassador at Berlin. As for Russia's interests in the Balkan peninsula, the new minister issued a circular letter stating that the tsar's government favored the independent development of the Christian states; but almost simultaneously a less passive attitude was voiced in the News of St. Petersburg, which declared: " Pan-slavism is a specter which frightens nobody. Russia threatens no one, but she has historical traditions and will always watch over the weal of the Balkan Slavs, quite independently of her general policy." With France, Russia's relations continued to be very cordial. Suspicion of an offensive alliance between the two countries was set at rest by the declaration of the Figaro (July 3) that the compact had been made on the basis of the existing territorial status quo. Relations with Germany appeared somewhat strained owing to Germany's discontent with the international situation in the Far East. Although Germany had joined Russia and France in keeping Japan out of the Liao-tung peninsula, she was given no share in the arrangements for the Chinese loan. As a security, Russia and France were given prior claims on the Chinese maritime duties, and Germany obtained no recognition.

At home the tsar soon began to explain his position in a manner which disappointed the liberals. In reply to a delegation of the zemstvos which came to congratulate him upon his marriage he delivered an answer couched in reactionary language. " I rejoice to see," he said, " gathered here representatives of all estates of the realm who have come to give expression to their sentiments of loyal allegiance. I believe in the sincerity of these feelings, which have been those of every Russian from time immemorial. But it has come to my knowledge that in certain meetings of zemstvos, voices have lately made themselves heard from people who have allowed themselves to be carried away by foolish fancies about the participation of the zemstvos in the general administration of the internal affairs of the state. Let all know that I devote all my strength to the good of my people, but I shall uphold the principle of autocracy as firmly and as unflinchingly as did my ever-lamented father." Following this, government control over commercial, industrial, and social movements by means of new rules and regulations was considerably tightened. Before the year was out, the new penal code, on which experts had been at work since 1881, was completed.

The imperial coronation took place on May 26, 1896. The ceremonial with the accompanying festivities attracted a world-wide interest. Representatives of all the reigning houses of Europe were present, as well as the chief dignitaries of the Russian empire and several of the Asiatic potentates who acknowledged the tsar's suzerainty. The festivities were marred by a terrible disaster on the Khodinski Plain, whither the people of Moscow and the surrounding region had gathered to receive presents of food and drink in the name of the tsar. The police were inadequate to manage the large crowd, numbering nearly 400,000 persons, and in the crush and struggle some 3000 persons were suffocated or trampled to death. Much criticism was expressed at the time that in con sequence of this tragedy the remaining festivities were not suspended. On the very day of the coronation the tsar issued a proclamation remitting all arrears of taxation in European Russia and Poland; remitting or reducing all fines; lowering the land tax one-half for the period of ten years; canceling sentences for crimes, except robbery and embezzlement; directing that all exiles to Siberia or Sakhalin should, after serving ten or twelve years of their sentence, have the privilege of selecting their place of residence, and remitting one-third of the sentences of criminals imprisoned in Siberia. Further remissions were granted to political offenders and their civil rights were restored.

From Moscow the tsar proceeded to Nijni-Novgorod, where, on June 9, he conducted the formal opening of an exposition of all the Russias. The exposition had been originally the plan of the former tsar, and the work of organization had been intrusted to Serge Witte, the minister of finance.

In August the tsar and his court left for Vienna with the intention of visiting all the European courts. .The death of Prince Dobanov occurred early in the journey. The tsar found a successor in Shishkin, and ordered that the tour should continue. In September, accompanied by the new minister, he left for Breslau to meet the German emperor. The latter gave him a most effusive reception, but it was noticed that the tsar kept a dignified and rather cold reserve throughout the occasion. From Germany the route lay through England and France. There seems to be little doubt but that the tour increased the prestige of Russia.

In May, 1896, a treaty had been made with the Chinese Government, permitting the construction of a railroad through Manchuria, and leasing to Russia at the same time the port of Kiao-Chow. The Liao-tung ports, Talien-wan and Port Arthur, were practically placed at Russia's disposal so that she now held a powerful position in the Far East. At a considerable expenditure the Black Sea, Pacific, and Baltic fleets were strengthened and arrangements made for a fourth fleet to be stationed in the Arctic Ocean.

In Poland, the administration of Count Shuvalov seemed to bring about an era of good feeling, more especially as the younger generation of Poles appeared willing to accept the Russian connection in return for the same rights as the other European subjects of the tsar.

The year 1897 proved successful financially and politically. The budgets showed a large surplus. The currency was strengthened by forcing more gold into circulation, and by guaranteeing paper money by a gold deposit. It was observed from statistics that landed property was rapidly passing from the hands of the nobility into possession of merchants and wealthy peasants, men who a generation previous had been serfs. More accurate statistics were henceforth to be available from the work of the census commission appointed early in the year.

Liberal alterations were made in some of the provisions for internal administration. Jews who had passed the university course were to have freedom of residence irrespective of actual occupation. Children of mixed marriages were no longer obliged to be brought up in the orthodox faith. A legal eight-hour day was established for young people between twelve and fifteen years of age. As for Poland, the special tax imposed upon Polish land owners was abolished, and a scheme was drawn up to give Poland zemstvos and to allow the Poles to restore Roman Catholic churches. These concessions doubtless contributed to the cordial feeling which marked the tsar's reception in Warsaw in September.

Foreign policy fell into the hands of Count Muraviev, who was appointed minister of foreign affairs in January. His conciliatory temper kept the relations with foreign courts on a most friendly basis. The tsar received friendly visits from the German Emperor, the Emperor of Austria, and the President of France. All three promised to further the object of the tsar in bringing about a general and lasting peace. Despite the international situation in the Far East, relations with Germany were cordial, and a good understanding existed with Austria in regard to eastern Europe. The question of Central Asia likewise furnished no cause for alarm. General Kuropatkin expressed himself on the matter to this effect: " The policy of our government in Central Asia since the accession of the late tsar has been eminently one of peace; and recourse has never been had to arms until every other means of obtaining a given object has failed; I am led to be explicit on these points by a sincere wish that the public may be convinced that we have a settled Asiatic policy which is in no way inimical to Great Britain; and that we are perfectly satisfied with our present boundaries."

By a treaty concluded in 1896 between Japan and Russia, the interests of each country in Korea were more or less loosely formulated. Russia, however, seemed to gain a point over her rival, when by an agreement made in October of the same year, with the Korean Government, Alexiev was appointed adviser to the department of finance and superintendent of the Korean customs. The various departments of government were to conduct their financial affairs in accordance with the directions of the financial adviser, and in general to cooperate with him.

The year 1898 found the empire, on the whole, much more disturbed. The budget, indeed, showed a marked increase in the revenue, due perhaps to the fact that the government had now an almost complete monopoly in the distillation of spirits. From the surplus an additional 90,000,000 rubles was added to the naval appropriation for the construction of new warships. This seemed a curious prelude to the action of the tsar, when, later in the year, he advocated a general decrease of armaments on the part of the European states.

The dissatisfaction of the Poles under the rule of a new governor, Prince Meritinski, seemed to threaten almost open insurrection. In case of international complications, a danger from this quarter would have been very serious indeed. To meet the revolutionary spirit in Poland the ministry suggested the endowment of more orthodox churches, a stricter control over the schools, and the establishment of free libraries to check the influence of revolutionary literature. Although approved by the tsar, these recommendations were not carried into effect; their only result was a somewhat more reactionary spirit in the administration of Poland. The Poles as well as the Russian liberals were indignant at the ceremony which took place at Vilna, on the occasion of the unveiling of a monument to General Muraviev. Both in Russia and in Poland, the cruelty of this man—he was familiarly known as the " Hangman of Lithuania "—had passed into a proverb. Even Russian officials seemed to contribute reluctantly to the honor of a man whose only idea of government in Lithuania had been to stamp out ruthlessly the Polish race.

An outbreak in Central Asia, after General Kuropatkin had left to take charge of the war department, was easily quelled.

In the Far East, Russian diplomacy showed itself more and more enterprising. As a compensation for the Anglo-German loan which China had arranged for this year, Russia was given the right to extend her railroad as far as Port Arthur and Talien-wan. The occupation of Wei-hai-wei by England was indirectly advantageous to Russia since it lessened the tension of rivalry between the latter country and Germany. I t also improved the feeling between Russia and England, that is as far as the Orient was concerned, for the relations between the two had been somewhat strained since Russia's intervention at the Treaty of Shimonoseki. Russia proceeded to enter into an agreement with Japan concerning Korea, by which both governments " pledged themselves mutually to abstain from all direct interference in the internal affairs of the country." They " recognized definitely the sovereignty and entire independence of Korea." In the Near East, Russia incurred the displeasure of the Porte by her rather ostentatious support of the candidature of Prince George of Greece for governor of Crete. Yet notwithstanding this, and the rivalry with Germany in China, relations with foreign powers remained throughout the year on a friendly footing.

At the end of August Europe was startled to learn that the tsar was making a general proposal to the powers with a view to a reduction of their armaments. The proposal was contained in a dispatch of August 24, sent by Count Muraviev to the representatives of Russia at the different European courts. " It is the supreme duty," so ran the dispatch, " at the present time of all states to put some limit to these unnecessary armaments and to find means of averting the calamities which threaten the whole world. Impressed by this feeling, his majesty, the emperor, has been pleased to command me to propose to all governments accredited to the imperial court, the meeting of a conference to discuss this grave problem. Such a conference, with God's help, would be a happy augury for the opening century. It would powerfully concentrate the efforts of all states which sincerely wish to see the triumph of the grand idea of universal peace over the elements of trouble and discord. It would, at the same time, bind their agreement by the principles of law and equity which support the security of states and welfare of peoples."

The proposal was generally regarded as impracticable, yet all the powers agreed to be represented at the conference. The conference was called for the following year. It assembled at The Hague on May 18, 1899, delegates from all the powers being present. The Russian ambassador in London, De Staal, presided. The delegates agreed to consider military and naval armaments as one question; they also agreed to group their deliberations under the three heads of disarmament, humanitarian measures, and arbitration. As for the first point, the general opinion of the conference seemed to regard disarmament as impracticable. No one could draw a satisfactory line between an armament for offensive purposes and a force for national defense, and since the question of national defense was outside the province of international convention, there was little opportunity for agreement. The discussion of humanitarian measures revealed much difference of opinion, but the decision of the conference resulted only in condemning the use of bullets chat " expand in the human body," the throwing of projectiles or explosives " from balloons or by other analogous means for a period of five years," and the making use of projectiles " whose sole object is to diffuse asphyxiating or deleterious gases."

On the question of arbitration, the most important proposal was one made by the English delegate, Sir Julian Pauncefote, for the establishment of a permanent committee of arbitration. The proposal, subject to restriction, was ultimately accepted. It was the most practical outcome of the work of the conference. The last session of the conference was held on July 29, and its decisions were then embodied in a series of conventions, the best known of which is the one entitled: " A Convention for the Peaceful Regulation of International Conflicts."

An important move was made in 1899 by Witte, the minister of finance, looking toward the use of foreign capital in Russian industries. France, it was found, had invested money in Russian bonds and would go no further, while the prohibitive duties on Russian imports kept Russian goods out of the French market. Witte accordingly returned to England, realizing, of course, that the only possible chance of establishing better financial relations with that country lay entirely in the condition of public opinion. " The great English market will be open to our products, if we can dissipate the want of confidence, which, according to our commercial agents, exists among Englishmen as to the stability of the regulations in Russia defining the position of foreign manufacturers and merchants." The restrictions hitherto imposed upon the acquisition of land by foreigners for industrial purposes were removed, resulting almost immediately in the general commencement of industrial undertakings, which in the last quarter of the year created a so called " money famine " in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

The sudden death of the heir-presumptive in July threw the court into more or less consternation, as the tsar was still without a male heir. His second brother, the Grand Duke Michael, a prince of strong will and reactionary tendencies, was the next heir to the throne.

The year 1899 and the one following were marked by a series of strikes. The object of the workingmen was a reduction in the hours of labor, despite the fact that the number of hours had very recently been reduced. In many cases the workingmen resorted to violence and riot. It was generally supposed that the labor question was quite subordinate to the political one, and that the strikes were really the weapon of the revolutionists to bring pressure upon the government. The success of many of the strikes confirmed the confidence of the masses in the virtue of this new weapon, and they further convinced the laborers of the political possibilities in combination and collective action generally. The government took effective steps to quell all disturbance. Students in the universities took the side of disorder, and the universities were temporarily closed. Instruction was interrupted for only a short time, however. The tsar pardoned all the students concerned, except the more violent of the leaders, censured the police for their harsh measures, and reproved the teaching staffs of the universities for not having shown sufficient authority and moral influence in preventing disorder. A scarcity of food in certain districts added to the general disturbance. Thousands perished from starvation and fever, and the government was taxed to the uttermost to render the assistance called for. The famine district stretched from the Urals to Moscow on the west, and embraced more than ten degrees of latitude, north and south.

Finland gave cause for serious concern. It seemed to be the evident determination of the government to effect a complete Russification of the province, notwithstanding the fact that the Finns had enjoyed a special autonomy ever since their incorporation within the empire. A bill was laid before the Finnish diet proposing to introduce into the province the same obligation of military service from which no other Russian subjects were exempt. The diet was told that it could not discuss the principle of the bill, but merely its details. This was a violation of the constitution, and the Finlanders feared for their other constitutional guarantees. Their protest was met by a manifesto informing the Finns that although they were " by gracious consent " permitted to enjoy certain " special institutions," yet the tsar was autocrat over the whole empire, including Finland, and had the sole right to decide on all matters of " general interest and importance to the empire." As all deputations and petitions were in vain, many of the inhabitants of Finland emigrated to the United States, Australia, and England to escape the dreaded military service.

Meanwhile in the Far East, Talien-wan and Port Arthur were growing into prosperous commercial centers. Manchuria had become for all practical purposes a Russian province; all the important cities were garrisoned by Russian troops, and special attention was paid to the making of good roads and bridges. Russia and England agreed not to encroach upon each other in their respective railroad interests in China. In October Russia agreed - that the long-standing dispute between herself and the United States over the seizure of three American sealers in the Bering Sea should be submitted to arbitration.

In 1900 the policy of Russification continued to be applied to Poland and Finland, though in the former country Prince Meritinski, who unfortunately died at the end of the year, had done much to relax the severity of Russian rule. In June appeared an imperial ukase decreeing the gradual introduction of the Russian language into the administration of Finland, beginning with the chancery of the secretary of state and the Finnish senate. Five years was given all officials in which to adopt Russian exclusively in their official communications. The protests of the Finns were of no avail.

The question of Central Asia came to the front in February when reports were current of the movement of Russian troops, a siege train, and quantities of rails in the direction of Afghanistan. It appeared later that they were destined for Persia. Russia had become, through the Loan Bank of Persia, the principal creditor of the shah's government, and had practically secured a mortage over the Persian customs. Although Russia abstained carefully from interfering in the southern half of Persia, for British interests were there recognized as paramount, the northern half easily fell under Russian exploitation. Persia granted concessions for the construction of railroad lines which for Russia were important both economically and strategically.

The death of Count Muraviev, who had been minister of foreign affairs since 1897, led to the appointment of Count Lamsdorf. The new minister was confronted with the situation in China arising from the Boxer outbreak. In the meanwhile Russia had secured an important advantage in Korea. On March 30 Korea granted to Russia a site for a coal depot and a naval hospital for the exclusive use of the Pacific squadron at Masampo harbor, Russia agreeing at the same time not to acquire any of the surrounding land as long as other powers were excluded from doing so. Russia thus obtained an exclusive settlement for her naval stores, the best harbor in Korea abreast of Japan, and the exclusion, apparently, of Japan from obtaining similar advantages. At the same time the government, as though in anticipation of forthcoming troubles in China, made every effort to push on the Manchurian railroad and to fortify Port Arthur. It was during the construction of the railroad that the Russian laborers were suddenly attacked by Chinese troops, and in spite of the Cossack guards forced to abandon a large section of track. With the arrival of reinforcements the Chinese troops were put down with little effort.

During the months of July and August the Russians pushed vigorously the campaign in Manchuria, and joined the allied powers in the capture of the Taku forts, the operations at Tien-tsin, and the expedition for the relief of the Peking legations. In Manchuria the Russian troops successfully coped with the Boxer outbreak, but the guerrilla warfare and the brigandage which followed necessitated the concentration of large bodies of soldiers along the line of the railroad. Russia continued to declare, however, that the occupation of the port of Newchwang and of the province of Manchuria was merely temporary.

The year 19O1 saw a repetition of the student disorders which had marked the two previous years. In Moscow and St. Peters burg the population joined with the students in public demonstrations. The students protested against the excommunication of Count Tolstoi, and asked that they themselves might be excommunicated. Pacific measures quieted the disturbances temporarily, but they were followed by wholesale arrests, domiciliary visits, and the seizure of private papers. Count Tolstoi addressed two letters to the tsar. The first was an eloquent protest against the government's religious persecution. In the second Tolstoi declared that the existing discontent was due to the prevailing social and political order of things, dissatisfaction with which had spread even to the working classes. He recommended a programme of reform. This was circulated secretly in the spring, and exercised a very consider able influence.

In November Witte was able to announce to the tsar the completion of the Siberian railroad. It was to be open for " temporary traffic " as far as Port Arthur. It was expected that at least two years more would be required to replace the wooden bridges and loosely laid track in Manchuria with stone piers and a well-ballasted roadbed. The entire line had so far cost immense sums of money, much of which had disappeared through corruption, and there were many at the time who doubted whether the political and economic advantage would in any way compensate for the outlay. A draft treaty, establishing virtually a Russian protectorate over Manchuria, Chinese Turkestan, and Mongolia, was presented to certain Chinese officials for consideration. The protests of the other powers were sufficient to cause the proposal to be withdrawn. At the same time the Russian interference in the affairs of Manchuria appeared in strange keeping with previous agreements of evacuation. A dispute with England over the North China railroad, running from Peking to Newchwang, was settled by giving England the administration of the section within the Great Wall, that is, the line from Peking to Shan-hai-kwan.

With Persia, trade seemed to increase. The railroads and a new line of steamers added to the facilities for trade. Russia appeared to be taking the country away from English influence.

Russian influence in the Balkan peninsula appeared equally active. In Bucharest, the Orthodox Orient openly advocated the foundation of a confederation of all the Balkan peoples of the orthodox faith under the protectorate of Russia. Other signs were not wanting which showed that the question of the union of the Balkan states might very soon become one of practical politics. The need of a Russian protectorate, however, was not quite so obvious.

The visit of Delcassé, the French minister of foreign affairs, and his reception in St. Petersburg in April, together with the tsar's reception in France at the end of September, showed the cordiality which still marked the Franco-Russian alliance.

The year 1902, in Russia, saw an alarming spread of the revolutionary movement. It was becoming clear that the whole social, political, and economic fabric of the empire was being under mined. The troops showed a growing tendency to side with the agitators. University students and the professional classes ex pressed open sympathy; the agricultural classes were being drawn along with the rest. The government found it necessary to forbid gatherers of statistics, other than officials, from prosecuting their work among the villagers. Although the gathering of statistics may have been harmless in itself, it was nevertheless open to the suspicion of being a means to spread revolutionary propaganda among the peasants. Disaffection even showed itself in the ranks of the clergy.

Economic causes were responsible for much of the discord. Riots became common, and Spiaguine, minister of the interior, fell at the hands of an assassin. The zemstvos agitated for an increase of powers, and advocated reforms in education and in the judiciary. The tsar addressed himself to the task of allaying the discontent. To the peasants his utterances had a note of sternness, but also pa rental care. All interests involved in the agricultural districts were assured that the tsar was considering how best to satisfy their real needs. The zemstvos, however, were warned against any attempt to widen their administrative powers.

In the Far East the question of Manchuria was still a subject for diplomacy. The draft treaty of the previous year having been withdrawn, a convention with the Chinese Government was signed in its place. China was to reestablish her authority in Manchuria, and to resume the entire administration. Russian subjects were to be protected and to have full privileges of settlement. Russia was gradually to withdraw her troops, their place to be taken by Chinese soldiers. But she retained a right to guard the railroad, and this provision virtually negatived the intent of the convention. The railroad commanded every city and place of importance, so that evacuation, so-called, resolved itself into the concentration of the army of occupation along the line. A bureau of commerce was placed at Harbin with the object of displacing English and German trade in favor of Russian. To ail intents and purposes Manchuria still remained a Russian province.

 Relations with European powers were marked by the coming of several distinguished visitors to St. Petersburg. The reception of the German Emperor seemed a little less cordial than the others. Germans had been making too evident efforts to divert from Russia part of the Persian trade. Conflicting interests in Asia Minor increased the coolness between the two powers. But the tsar ex pressed great satisfaction at the visits of the President of France and of the King of Italy. With Bulgaria and Servia agreements were made with a view to developing Russian commerce in the Balkan peninsula. With the other Balkan states relations were thoroughly friendly.

 Early in 1903 the tsar seemed to be inclining to liberal measures to allay the prevalent discontent. On March 12 an imperial manifesto was issued which lightened many of the burdens imposed on the peasantry. Religious toleration was to be strengthened, communities were no longer to be corporately responsible for the taxes due from- individuals, peasants were relieved from the burdens of forced labor, and change of domicile was to be made easier. At the same time the control of administrative officials over the local representative bodies became more stringent. Independent discussion and the right of petition were considerably restricted. The people at large, and the liberal press in general, received these measures with pronounced satisfaction.

 Nevertheless, the agitation for political reform continued. Disaffection on the part of the peasantry led to acts of open violence. The simultaneous outbreak of strike riots in all the large manufacturing towns showed that apart from the economic cause of discontent, the workmen were conducting an organized revolutionary movement all over the empire. The social democratic party, working in secret, seemed to be established more firmly than ever. The demands of the party, as far as politics went, were the abolition of autocracy and the institution of a democratic republic in its place. Among the most active agents of the revolutionary propaganda were Jews, and the government was not above the suspicion of exploiting the religious prejudice of the lower classes against such opponents. On April 20 occurred a most brutal massacre of Jews at Kishinev, under circumstances so revolting as to arouse the indignation of the whole world. The massacre was apparently the work of ignorant anti-Semites who, having absolutely no connection whatever with any government agents, were nevertheless not re strained by the troops in the vicinity. The trial of the participants in the massacre was conducted in obedience to instructions from the government, and only a few were sentenced. Kishinev was followed by other anti-Semite riots, but in most cases the police intervened effectively, and the disturbances gradually quieted down. In general, however, there were ominous signs of the approach of a great crisis.

The policy of the government toward Finland more or less forced that province to join the ranks of the revolutionists and reformers. Emigration from Finland continued to increase. But in Poland the government appeared more lenient than heretofore. In Armenia, a decree ordering the transfer of the property of the Armenian church to the state caused profound irritation among the Russian Armenians. Among incidents of domestic concern might be noted the promotion of Witte from the ministry of finance to the presidency of the committee of ministers; also the expulsion of the Times correspondent from St. Petersburg on the ground that his correspondence was systematically hostile to Russia.

In the Far East, the policy in Manchuria caused more or less friction with the United States and England, and strained seriously the relations with Japan. Seven demands were presented at Peking in April as the conditions for carrying out the evacuation of Manchuria agreed upon the previous year. These demands violated the principle of the " Open Door," which Russia had declared she would regard in Manchuria. Other measures showed an aggressiveness which occasioned much alarm for the peace of the Orient. Coast fortifications were hurried on, and additional troops forwarded to the stations of the Manchuria railroad. In Korea an attempt was made to establish a settlement at the harbor of Yongam-po, and a telegraph line was laid in Korean territory. The Amur province, together with the Kwantung district, was erected into a special vice-royalty and Vice-admiral Alexiev was appointed the first Russian " Viceroy of the Far East," with supreme civil and military authority. The situation was becoming very critical indeed.

Japan considered her interests threatened, and assuming that the ultimate aim of Russian policy was really hostile to her own claims, endeavored to effect an understanding with the Russian Government. Mistaking perhaps the seriousness of the Japanese intentions, and underrating the effectiveness of the Japanese army and navy and the patriotic fervor of all classes in Japan, feeling perhaps, also, the affront of receiving categorical demands from a power she considered so much her inferior, Russia showed no disposition to come to any agreement. Japan insisted that Russia should fulfill the terms of the convention calling for the evacuation of Manchuria, and that she should abandon all further aggressive movement in Korea. The answers of the Russian Government were evasive, and at the end of the year the decision as to peace or war was hanging in the balance.

Meanwhile in the Balkan peninsula, Russia, in conjunction with Austria, was engaged in an effort to pacify Macedonia. As early as February a scheme of reform, which included the appointment of an inspector-general to prevent abuses by officials, was pressed upon the sultan and by him accepted. At the same time the Balkan states were warned that they could expect no aid whatever in any attempt by means of revolutionary methods to alter the situation in the peninsula. In the autumn the tsar visited the Emperor of Austria, the President of the French Republic, and the German Emperor. In the case of the Austrian visit, the tsar took occasion to concert plans for the further reform of Macedonia. A projected visit to the King of Italy had to be postponed through fear of an anti-Russian demonstration on the part of the socialists.

The year 1904 saw the outbreak of the war with Japan, and the hastening of the political crisis. The zemstvos had no thought of discontinuing their agitation for an extension of their powers in the direction of a national representation. The war with Japan intensified the prevailing discontent. The war failed to gain popular approval, and according to the popular view had its origin in a policy " conceived solely in the interest of a small number of the privileged minority to the detriment of the vast majority of the Russian people." Very few Russians, outside those of the official class, attempted to justify Russia's position in the struggle, while revolutionists and reformers were not sorry to see the government embarrassed by the defeats sustained as the campaign progressed. To gather information of the revolutionary movement, the letters of privates in the army, especially of Jews, were intercepted to see if they contained treasonable matter. It certainly added to the discontent that the repression of liberal opinion was intrusted to the late Von Plehve, minister of the interior, a man whose career and methods have been universally reprobated. More relief than horror was felt when the news came on July 28 that he had been assassinated. The birth of the tsarevitch on August 12 served to lessen the general gloom from the war. It was hoped that the tsar might embrace the opportunity to begin a more liberal regime. The appointment of Prince Sviatopolk-Mirski to succeed Von Plehve seemed a step in this direction. Prince Sviatopolk-Mirski had acquired popularity from his liberal rule as governor at Vilna. His first acts were favorable to the general movement carried on by the zemstvos. Although strongly opposed by the autocratic clique of Pobiedonostsev and the grand dukes, he summoned a convention of zemstvo delegates to discuss reform. The tsar so far yielded as to issue an imperial ukase involving among other things a reform in judicial procedure, and a system of state insurance for workmen. The movement for representative government, however, still continued. On June 17 the Governor of Finland, like Von Plehve, fell a victim at the hands of a revolutionary assassin. Secret rifle clubs were formed with the avowed purpose of instigating an armed uprising, but the outbreak was not to come during the current year.

Meanwhile the interest of the world was centered on the events in the Far East. In anticipation of a conflict troops had been hurried to Manchuria, and the Pacific squadron strengthened. Nevertheless the outbreak of the war on February 8 came as a surprise to the Russian Government. On January 13 the Japanese Government made a last appeal for a settlement. Having received no reply to this note within the expected time, the Japanese minister withdrew from St. Petersburg. Without delay, and without any declaration of war, Japan resorted to arms. A fleet appeared off the harbor of Chemulpo, in which the Russian ships Korietz  and Variag  lay at anchor. On February g the two vessels were sunk. On February 8 Admiral Togo's fleet proceeded to Port Arthur, and, still without declaration of war, surprised and disabled many of the Russian ironclads. Japan had profited by the obvious opportunity of taking her opponents unprepared. While the Japanese were trying to block the harbor at Port Arthur, the Russian Pacific squadron was losing its ships one by one. The admiral's flagship, the Peteropavlovsk, with Admiral Makarov on board, fell foul of a mine and was blown up. Among the dead was the artist Vereshchagin, who had gone to the front expecting to put some of the war scenes on canvas. With the line of communication safe, Japanese troops were poured into Korea and marched from Chemulpo to the bank of the Yalu. By the end of April the left bank of the river was occupied, but no further advance had been possible on account of the spring thaws.

The Japanese Twelfth Division crossed the Yalu on April 28, and on the night of the 30th the rest of Kuroki's army effected a crossing and attacked Chin-lien-cheng, protected by a heavy artillery fire from the Wiju heights on the left bank, which had silenced the Russian guns. Driven back, the Russians made a stand at Feng-hwang-cheng, but were forced to withdraw and leave open the road to Liao-yang. The entrance to the harbor at Port Arthur had meanwhile been blocked, and on May 5 and 6 General Oku's army landed at Taku-shan. Kin-chow, situated on the neck separating Port Arthur from the mainland, was captured after eight days' fighting, and the Russians were forced back toward Port Arthur. Leaving General Nogi to advance with the Third Army on Port Arthur, General Oku followed the line of railroad northward and on June 14-16 defeated a force under General Stakelberg which had been sent to restore communications with Port Arthur. In the meantime General Kuroki had remained at Feng-hwang-cheng. On June 26-27 the capture of the Mo-tien-ling and Ta-ling passes gave him command of the road to Liao-yang and also of a by-road to Mukden, thus threatening General Kuropatkin's line of commun-ications. The importance of the Mo-tien-ling Pass led to an attempt to recapture it on July 17, by General Keller ,The Russians, however, were repulsed with heavy loss. During July General Oku's forces were steadily advancing along the line of the railroad toward Liao-yang. An attempted diversion on the part of the Russian ships at Vladivostok proved of some annoyance to Japanese shipping as well as to neutral vessels. General Nogi had in the meantime been steadily pressing on Port Arthur. When at last he was able to command the harbor from the mainland the Russian fleet was forced to leave. They were encountered by Admiral Togo on August 1O, and generally disabled and scattered, only a few returning to the harbor. The Vladivostok squadron on its way to effect a junction with them was met by Admiral Kamimura and severely crippled.

Japan was now free to land more troops, which she speedily did at Dalny and Newchwang. Kuroki had hoped to have General Nogi's army with him in the attack on Liao-yang. But the assault on Port Arthur, August 19-24, which was expected to be decisive, proved unsuccessful, and Nogi was forced to remain. Kuroki, nevertheless, advanced in three divisions on Liao-yang. Fighting began on August 25, but the general attack was kept off until September 1, when after great loss the Japanese seized the Shushan Hills in front of the city and entered it September 4. The Russians retired safely toward Mukden.

At last, on October 2, General Kuropatkin announced that he was ready to advance to the relief of Port Arthur. Impartial critics of the war were forced to admit that the obvious advantages of the situation, at the start, lay with Japan. Kuropatkin was thousands of miles away from his base of supplies, and these could only be forwarded by a single-track railroad, constructed for light traffic, and for a large part of the way on a temporary roadbed. After all these months of cautious delay, it was expected that the commander in chief would be in a position to redeem the situation. The Japanese armies were drawn up at a distance of twenty miles from Mukden. The Russians advanced to the attack, and the fighting lasted from October g to 19 The Japanese suffered many reverses during the engagements, notably the loss of Mount Putilov. But in the end the Russians withdrew to their base at Mukden, and the attempt to relieve Port Arthur had to be abandoned. In the meantime, the situation at Port Arthur was daily becoming more critical. General Nogi succeeded in gaining several commanding positions, notably on September 19-23. It was not until December 1, however, that 203 Meter Hill was captured after an assault lasting seven days. With this position in the hands of the Japanese, the ships remaining in the harbor were helpless. Port Arthur surrendered on January 1, 1905. The defense had at all times been spoken of as heroic.

Relieved from Port Arthur, General Nogi left for Mukden to join the rest of the Japanese forces. The Russians held the line of the Sha River before Mukden. It was not till February 20 that a general engagement was brought on. Desperate fighting lasted until March 9, when after having had both wings beaten back the Russians began their retreat to Tieling. Kuropatkin conducted the retreat most skillfully. He planned to make another stand at Harbin. This he was able to do, despite the fact that the Japanese cut the railroad between Tieling and Harbin, and harassed the Russian movements. At this point in the campaign Kuropatkin was removed from his command, his place being taken by General Linevitch.

In the meantime great preparations had been made by the Russian Government to send the powerful Baltic fleet to the scene of hostilities. It was expected that Admiral Rozhestvenski could redeem the naval situation in the Sea of Japan. From the beginning the expedition was ill-starred. An overexcited suspicion of Japanese attempts to intercept the fleet on its passage out led to a most deplorable blunder on the Dogger Bank off the English coast. Imagining some British steam trawlers to be Japanese torpedo boats, the Russians opened fire, damaging the ships and inflicting serious loss of life. Without attempting to verify their suspicions, the fleet steamed on, leaving the helpless ships to their fate. In England popular indignation was profound, and for a few days it seemed that an amicable settlement of the difficulty might not be possible. Orders were given for two squadrons of the fleet to be ready for action; but with much forbearance and good tact the English Government effected a settlement. The North Sea Commission, which met to hear evidence on the incident, declared the Russian fleet to be at fault, though without in any way compromising the official standing of the admiral in command, and Russia paid an indemnity. Complications again arose when, despite Japanese protests, the fleet coaled within French waters in Indo-China. Finally, toward the end of May, Admiral Rozhestvenski brought his fleet into the China Sea, and it was known that an engagement was imminent. The world was not long in suspense over the news of the battle, but it was hardly prepared for the complete annihilation of the Russian squadron. Admiral Togo met the enemy in what is known as the naval battle of the Sea of Japan, off the coast of the Okino and Orleung Islands, on May 27 and 28. Out of twenty large Russian vessels, only five escaped, the rest being sunk or captured, together with many torpedo boats and destroyers. The Japanese losses were slight. The victory is partly explained by the superior range of the Japanese guns, and the excellent marksmanship of the Japanese gunners. On the Russian side there seems to have been lack of cooperation, and much inefficient work on the part of the crews.

In July expeditions were landed by the Japanese in Siberia and the Island of Sakhalin. The plan was to seize the island and to cut off the communications with Vladivostok. In Manchuria, Marshal Oyama had almost surrounded General Linevitch, and there were prospects of a battle which promised to surpass even that of Mukden, when the declaration of peace intervened.

Soon after the battle of the Sea of Japan the President of the United States took a step which solved the difficulty of bringing about negotiations between the two combatants. Friendly invitations were sent to Russia and Japan for a conference to be held in the United States. Both governments embraced the opportunity, and Portsmouth, in New Hampshire, was chosen as the seat of the conference. Russia was represented by Count Serge Witte, and Japan by Baron Komura. The negotiations, which began on August 9, seemed at first to give small hope of an agreement, as the Japanese terms appeared excessive. Russia categorically re fused to consider the question of indemnity, upon which Japan was insistent. For a few days the conference seemed on the point of breaking up. Finally Japan, quite as anxious as Russia to bring the war to an end, and yielding, it is thought, to the friendly suggestion of President Roosevelt, withdrew the demand for indemnity, and accepted substantial concessions in the Island of Sakhalin. The terms of peace were agreed upon August 29, 1905.

Diplomatically, the negotiations were considered more or less of a triumph for Russia, yet popular opinion in both countries vented itself in strong disapproval. In Tokyo the mob resorted to violence, and a somewhat bitter feeling was entertained toward the United States as being in part responsible for the modification of Japan's claims. Both governments, however, ratified the treaty, and this brought the war to an end.

Meanwhile, in Russia itself the government was giving way before the revolutionary movement. In January crowds of workingmen attempted to march to the palace in St. Petersburg to present a petition to the tsar. Probably violence was not intended. Many of the lower classes held to the theory that the tsar, whom they affectionately style the " Little Father," was really in sympathy with their suffering, but that he was prevented by a coterie of bureaucratic officials from knowing the true state of their grievances. It is impossible to describe the horror which ensued. Be fore the procession reached the palace it was fired upon by the troops and dispersed. This "bath of blood " merely intensified the revolutionary movement. On February 17 the Grand Duke Sergius was killed in Moscow by a bomb. The next day the minister of the interior was ordered to draw up a scheme of reforms. Strikes were everywhere prevalent in Poland, Finland, and in all the large cities. Finally the tsar issued a rescript calling for an elective Russian assembly. In choosing a descriptive term for this new body care was taken to fall back upon the old Russian word duma, with its implication of a consultative body, with no legislative authority. The granting of the duma appeased the people for a while till the killing of a workman in Warsaw precipitated a general strike throughout Russia and Poland. In Odessa the revolting populace seized the town, and a warship in the harbor fell into the hands of its own mutinied crew. The outbreak was suppressed, but the quiet which followed proved only a lull in the storm. In June a zemstvo congress met in Moscow and agreed to accept the tsar's offer of an advisory as the best means of securing eventually a parliamentary assembly.

Nevertheless the strike continued. Moscow and St. Peters burg were soon cut off from communication, famine threatened, and disorder everywhere prevailed. The people stopped work in order to force reform and at length the tsar offered more ample concessions. On October 31, 1905, an imperial manifesto was issued granting a more or less constitutional government, appointing Witte premier, extending the suffrage and removing some of the restrictions upon the press and the right of speech. But the political strike continued with rioting unchecked at Warsaw, Odessa, and Kazan. At Rostov, Kherson, Kishinev, Kiev, and other towns it resulted in anti-Semitic outrages in which the number of Hebrew victims mounted up into the thousands. Finland was quieted by what amounted virtually to a restoration of the original constitution. But throughout the empire the unsparing regime of General Trepov, whom the tsar had made virtual military dictator, was loudly denounced and on November g he was relieved of his duties.

The vigorous exercise of martial law in Poland kept the rioting under control. Disaffection broke out even in the Black Sea fleet and at Sebastopol among the imperial troops, who were constantly being harangued by the revolutionists not to take part against their brethren, the common people. In Moscow the strike assumed the proportions almost of civil war, the rioters being shot down mercilessly by the soldiers of the tsar. At length the strike was declared ended but the workers were called upon to organize themselves in the meanwhile for a last general encounter with " bloody monarchy now in its last days."

The approaching meeting of the duma, and the election of representatives helped to quiet the storm. The result was an overwhelming victory for the constitutional democratic party. Count Witte, as premier, had difficulty in organizing a cabinet, and at length resigned, Count Goremkin succeeding. The work of the duma was undertaken and continued with enthusiasm, but on July 23, 1906, it was called to a halt by an imperial manifesto declaring the body dissolved.

The resignation of Count Goremkin followed, and Stolypin immediately assumed his place at the head of affairs. The tsar's ukase commented on the duma as having failed in the matter of " productive legislation " and bitterly rebuked the body for interference with those " Fundamental Laws which can only be modified by the imperial will." According to General Von Schwanenbach, the imperial controller, the dissolution of the duma did not represent a step in retrogression to irresponsible absolutism. Von Schwanenbach declared that the principle of popular representation was firmly established with the tsar, but criticised the duma as having been elected under abnormal conditions and not truly representative of the sentiment of the people.

The duma, thus outlawed, in turn issued its manifesto from Viborg, Finland, whither its members had adjourned, enumerating the reforms attempted and closing with a strong appeal to the people to resist the orders of the government and to refuse to contribute taxes so long as they should have no representation. The tsar had promised to convoke a new duma after seven months. The danger of such an interim was emphasized. It was claimed that it would be in fact a return to absolutism and might prove sufficient respite for the permanent establishment of a reactionary government. The terms of the Viborg Manifesto were direct and unmistakable, and three conservative members, Prince Lvov, Count Heyden, and Dr. Stakhovich, refused to affix their signatures and warned the Russian people against violent resistance to the government of the country.

The closing of the duma was followed by terrorist actions directed chiefly against officials, but including prominent men of affairs, and, lastly, the soldiery and police. The number of assassinations was appalling. On August 25 an attempt was made on the prime minister himself, during a reception at his villa. The premier escaped, but the death of thirty other persons resulted and many were seriously injured.

Stolypin has declared his policy to be one of " strong-handed reform " and not reactionary, although it is insisted that a number of cautionary and restraining measures will be indispensible. Meanwhile normal administration has not yet been restored, so that martial law and what the Russian officials call extraordinary and reinforced protection exists throughout almost the whole of the eighty-seven provinces. Stolypin is admitted to be an able administrator, with some touch of liberalism, so that it remains an open question whether the victory rests wholly with the reactionist party, as the dissolution of the duma seemed to indicate. General Trepov, in whom was generally recognized the reactionary power behind the throne, an(l who was probably the "best hated man in Russia," died at his home in September, 1906. At least six attempts to assassinate Trepov are known, but his death is officially reported to have been natural. It was considered significant that the tsar was not present at the funeral of his faithful servant, but the post of commandant of the palace was immediately filled by General Dediulin, a subordinate, who may be expected to reflect the training of his predecessor.

Late in August an imperial ukase provided for agrarian relief. Already Stolypin had promised an end to Semitic massacres in Russia, with promises, also, of speedy legislation for the alleviation of the Jewish people and the guaranty of religious liberty in general. But at Siedlice, in Russian Poland, one of the most terrible of all massacres of terrorists and Jews took place on September 8 and 9. The radicals predict a revolution as inevitable after the harvest, when the tax-gatherers make their rounds and the peasants, destitute and with nothing to do, will be ripe for violent measures.

The history of Russia since the Russo-Japanese war has been one of constant struggle between the Liberal and Conservative elements. Some excellent measures have been passed, but others have been defeated. On October 29, 1906, the tsar signed an ukase which removed the exacting restrictions which had laid so heavily upon the Old Believers; but in November of the same year, the senate disfranchised thousands of city and railroad employees, so that the good effected by one, was more than offset by the injustice of the other. One of the effects of the unrest felt all over the empire, was the killing of General Pavlov at St. Petersburg, on January 9, 1907.

The elections in the spring of 1907, resulted in the defeat of M. Kovalevski and Count Heyden, but indicated a majority for the opposition in the new duma. When the latter was opened, on March 5, of this year, the people of St. Petersburg indicated their displeasure by a revolutionary demonstration that was put down with some difficulty. However, the work of the duma was carried on, and the opposition elected five secretaries. A surprise was given Russia in Premier Stolypin's declaration of the policy of this duma, for it was the most liberal ever put before the people of the empire.

While internal matters were receiving due attention at home, Russia was carrying out her agreement with regard to Manchuria, and on March 22, 1907, the last battalion of Russian troops left that province, and the Russian evacuation was complete.

Dissatisfaction was being felt with the governor general of Moscow, and on May 13th, the Constitutional Democrats passed a resolution advising the trial of him because of his so-called illegal action in putting to death five men. Other measures were brought up, and discussed in the duma, among them being the bill for the abolition of trial by drum-head court martial, but this latter was defeated by the upper house. On July 17th, one hundred and sixty nine members of the first duma who drew up the Viborg manifesto, were arraigned for trial. While all this was taking place, on August 20th, the preliminary elections were held, and the Liberals scored a victory. This third duma was opened at St. Petersburg, November 14th, and one of its first actions was to decree that the title of autocrat was no longer tenable within the Russian state. In December of this same year, all of the Social Democrats held responsible for the dissolution of the second duma, were severely punished. A number of them were sent into exile to Siberia. It is pleasant to note in the midst of all these political disturbances, that Secretary Taft was received by the tsar, and his visit made a break in the over-heated atmosphere.

The new year was opened by the arrest of nineteen charged with conspiracy against the person and safety of the Dowager Empress, and about the same time all of the members of the executive committee of the Popular Socialist party were indicted upon the charge of conspiring to overthrow the government.

Before the close of January, 1908, the tsar signed the imperial ukase sanctioning a Russian internal loan of $83,000,000 at four per cent. On February 26th, the tsar received three hundred and twenty members of the duma and urged upon them the necessity of passing measures for agrarian reforms, but his advice received but scant attention. In April, the government dissolved the Finnish Diet because of the sympathy it had expressed with the terrorists.

The Baltic and North Sea conventions which were of so much importance to both Russia and Germany, were signed on April 23rd at both St. Petersburg and Berlin. All this time the government was constantly struggling against a repetition of the terrorism which had wroughb so much disaster, and on September 15th, eighty-five persons were arrested, charged with an attempt to re open a campaign of this nature. During December, the council of the Russian empire approved of the loan of $22$,000,000, which placed the finances of the country upon a better basis.

The opening month of 1909, found Russian affairs in a better condition, but February 7th, General Fredericks, former governor of Nijni Novgorod, Russia, was convicted of the charges made against him of being concerned in the extensive grain frauds, and dismissed from the government service. Once more, the Finnish diet incurred the displeasure of the Russian duma, and was dissolved, February 22nd. During this same month, Russia, together with the other countries concerned seriously considered the Balkan situation, and on March 22nd, the government joined with Great Britain in formally demanding of the Shah of Persia that the terrible outrages committed by his troops be stopped, with the further sending of three gunboats to Astrabad to protect the inhabitants against the possibility of massacre. On May 11th, China and Russia signed an agreement of considerable importance which involved the government in Manchurian railroad zone territory.

On August 2nd, the tsar visited England, and in October he went to Italy, the first visit he ever paid to that country. In the meanwhile the duma took up a bill for the consolidation of the small holdings of Russian peasants. Considerable trouble was experienced the fall of this year with Finland, the diet refusing to pass the bill providing for the country's annual contribution to the Russian military budget. During November, the duma tried to restrict the powers of the police, and in December, the minister of justice was severely censured because he issued an order forbidding lawyers to visit their clients in the prisons. In that same month, the duma, refused through its committee on national defense, to grant credit for the building of new battleships,

For some time there was trouble between China and Russia, regarding the Manchurian railroads. So strong did this difficulty become, that the United States proposed to Russia that the latter sell the railroads to China, and have them governed by an inter national syndicate. This proposition has provoked much discussion, not only between Russia and the countries immediately involved, but with Great Britain and France and Germany. Japan and Russia will not agree to this plan, but as all the powers appear to be interested, some satisfactory arrangements should be effected by means of which these important railroads will be freed from the complications which arise from oriental and occidental ownership.

The third duma sat from November 1, 1907, to June 21, 1912, and the fourth was elected in September, 1912. The power of the duma extends to all questions relating to new laws and the changing of old laws now in effect, to all budgets, to the construction of state railroads, and to such matters as are submitted to it by imperial decree. The council and the duma have equal legislative powers, both being able to initiate measures. Both houses have to pass all bills before they receive imperial consent. The third duma accomplished no reform worth mentioning. The principal business accomplished was legislation that destroyed the last vestige of Finland's Constitution and placed that country under the direct rule of Russia.

The result of the election to the fourth duma in September, 1912, was the return of the progressive parties. The most important legislation of the year was the Navy Bill providing for an expenditure of $215,000,000 during the five years of 1 912 1917.  In addition extensive harbor improvements are to be under taken at Kronstadt, Sveaborg, and Vladivostok, while a new naval base is to be established at Reval, entailing an expenditure of over $35,000,000.  The revenues of 1911 exceeded the expenditures by $115,000,000, but in 1912 there was a deficit of nearly $60,000,000, not counting the extraordinary expenses of the naval programme. The estimated deficit of 1913 will be about $16,000,000.  In October, 1912, the little tsarevitch met with an accident for which rumor gave many causes. It also became known that the heir to the Russian throne suffers from some blood disease that may imperil the succession. On February 6, 1913, the Council of the Russian Empire rejected the Duma Bill admitting women to the practice of law.