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 The eastern extremity of Vasilyevskiy Island is the centre of commercial activity; the stock exchange is situated there as well as the quays and storehouses. The remainder of the island is occupied chiefly by scientific and educational institutions—the academy of science, with a small observatory, the university, the philological institute, the academy of the first corps of cadets, the academy of arts, the marine academy, the mining institute and the central physical observatory, all facing the Neva. Petersburg Island contains the fortress of St Peter and St Paul (1703–1740), opposite the Winter Palace; but the fortress is now a state prison. A cathedral which stands within its walls is the burial-place of the emperors and the imperial family. The mint and an artillery museum are also situated within the fortress. The remainder of the island is meanly built, and is the refuge of the poorer officials (chinovniks) and of the intellectual proletariat. Its northern part, separated from the main island by a narrow channel, bears the name of Apothecaries' Island, and is occupied by a botanical garden of great scientific value and several fine private gardens and parks. Krestovskiy, Elagin and Kamennyi Islands, as also the opposite (right) bank of the Great Nevka (one of the branches of the Neva) are occupied by public gardens, parks and summer residences. The mainland on the right bank of the Neva above its delta is known as the Viborg Side, and is connected with the main city by the Liteinyi, bridge, closely adjoining which are the buildings of the military academy of medicine and spacious hospitals. The small streets (many of them unpaved), with numerous wooden houses, are inhabited by students and workmen; farther north are great textile and iron factories. Vast orchards and the yards of the artillery laboratory stretch north-eastwards, while the railway and the high road to Finland, running north, lead to the park of the Forestry Institute. The two villages of Okhta, on the right bank, are suburbs; higher up, on the left bank, are several factories (Alexandrovsk) which formerly belonged to the crown. The true boundary of St Petersburg on the south is the Obvodnyi Canal, running parallel to the three canals already mentioned and forming a sort of base to the Neva peninsula; but numerous orchards, cemeteries and factories, and even unoccupied spaces, are included within the city boundaries in that direction, though they are being rapidly covered with buildings. Except in a few principal streets, which are paved with wood or asphalt, the pavement is usually of granite setts. There are two government dockyards, the most important of which is the new admiralty yard in the centre of the city. At this yard there are three building slips and a large experimental basin, some 400 ft. in length, for trials with models of vessels. The Galerny Island yard is a little lower down the river, and is devoted entirely to construction. There are two building slips for large vessels, besides numerous workshops, storehouses and so forth. The Baltic Yard is near the mouth of the Neva, and was taken over by the ministry of marine in 1894. Since that time the establishment has been enlarged, and a new stone building slip, 520 ft. in length, completely housed in, has been finished.

Population.—The population of St Petersburg proper at the censuses specified was as follows:—

A further increase was revealed by the municipal census of 1900, when the population of the city was 1,248,739, having thus increased 30.9% in ten years. In 1905 the total population was estimated to number 1,429,000. The population of the suburbs was 134,710 in 1897, and 190,635 in 1900. Including its suburbs, St Petersburg is the fifth city of Europe in point of size, coming after London, Paris, Berlin and Vienna. The large proportion of men in its population is due to the fact that great numbers come from other parts of Russia to work during the winter in the textile factories, and during the summer at unloading the boats. Russians numbered 828,354 in 1897, or 73.1% of the population; Germans 43,798, or 3.9%; Poles 22,307, or 1.9%; Finns, 16,731, or 1.5%; and Jews 10,353, or 0.9%. The various religions are represented by 84.9% Orthodox Greeks, 9.9 Protestants and 3.3 Roman Catholics. The proportion of illegitimate children is ten times higher than in the rest of Russia, namely 250 to 286 per thousand births. It is thus nearly the same as in Paris, but lower than in Moscow (292 per thousand) and Vienna (349 per thousand). The mortality varies very much in different parts of the city—from 12 per thousand in the best situated, the admiralty quarter, to 16 in other central parts, and 25 and 27 in the outlying quarters. The mortality has, however, notably decreased, as it averaged 36 per thousand in the years 1870 to 1874, and only 27 from 1886 to 1895, and 24 in 1897. Infectious diseases, i.e. tuberculosis, diphtheria, inflammation of the lungs, typhoid, scarlet fever and measles, are the cause of 37 to 38% of all deaths. The high mortality in certain quarters is largely due to overcrowding and bad water.

An interesting feature of the Russian capital is the very high proportion of people living on their own earnings or income (“independent”) as compared with those who live on the earnings or income of someone else (“dependent”). Only a few industrial establishments employ more than twenty workmen, the average being less than ten and the figure seldom falling below five. The large factories are beyond the limits of St Petersburg. Although 36% of the population above six years old are unable to read, the workmen are amongst the most intelligent classes in Russia.

Education, Science and Art.—Notwithstanding the hardships and prosecutions to which it is periodically subjected, the university (nearly 4000 students) exercises a pronounced influence on the life of St Petersburg. The medical faculty forms a separate academy, under military jurisdiction, with about 1500 students. There are, moreover, a philological institute, a technological institute, a forestry academy, an engineering academy, two theological academies (Orthodox Greek and Roman Catholic), an academy of arts, five military academies and a high school of law. Higher instruction for women is provided by a medical academy, a free university, four other institutions for higher education, and a school of agriculture. The scientific institutions include an academy of sciences, opened in 1726, which has rendered immense service in the exploration of Russia. The oft-repeated reproach that it keeps its doors shut to Russian savants, while opening them too widely to German ones, is not without foundation. The Pulkovo astronomical observatory, the chief physical (meteorological) observatory (with branches throughout Russia and Siberia), the astronomical observatory at Vilna, the astronomical and magnetical observatory at Peking, and the botanical garden, are all attached to the academy of sciences. The Society of Naturalists and the Physical and Chemical Society have issued most valuable publications. The geological committee is ably pushing forward the geological survey of the country; the Mineralogical Society was founded in 1817. The Geographical Society, with branch societies for West and East Siberia, Caucasus, Orenburg, the north-western and south-western provinces of European Russia, is well known for its valuable work, as is also the Entomological Society. There are four medical societies, and an archaeological society (since 1846), an historical society, an economical society, gardening, forestry, technical and navigation societies. The conservatory of music, with a new building (1891–1896), gives superior musical instruction. The Musical Society is worthy of notice. Art, on the other hand, has not freed itself from the old scholastic methods at the academy. Several independent artistic societies seek to remedy this drawback, and are the true cradle of the Russian genre painters.

The imperial public library contains valuable collections of books (1,000,000) and MSS. The library of the academy of sciences contains more than 500,000 volumes, 13,000 MSS., rich collections of works on oriental languages, and valuable collections of periodical publications from scientific societies throughout the world. The museums of the Russian capital occupy a prominent place among those of Europe. That of the Academy of Sciences, of the Navy, of Industrial Art (1896), of the Mineralogical Society, of the Academy of Arts, the Asiatic museum, the Suvorov museum (1901), with pictures by Vereshchagin, the Zoological museum and several others are of great scientific value. The Hermitage Art Gallery contains a first-rate collection of the Flemish school, some pictures of the Russian school, good specimens of the Italian, Spanish and old French schools, invaluable treasures of Greek and Scythian antiquities, and a good collection of 200,000 engravings. Old Christian and old Russian arts are well represented in the museums of the Academy of Arts. The New Michael Palace was in 1895–1898