Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/120

Rh 102 K U S S I A [HISTORY. description has already been given (see POLAND, vol. xix. p. 298). Paske witch took Warsaw in 1831. The cholera which was then raging had already carried off Diebitsch and the grand-duke Constantino. Poland was now entirely at the mercy of Nicholas. The constitution which had been granted by Alexander was annulled ; there were to be no more diets ; and for the ancient palatinates, familiar to the historical student, were substituted the governments of Warsaw, Radom, Lublin, Plock, and Modlin. The university of Vilna, rendered celebrated by Mickiewicz and Lelewel, was suppressed. By another treaty with Turkey, that of Unkiar-Skelessi (1833), Russia acquired additional rights to meddle with the internal politics of that country. Soon after the revolution of 1848, the emperor Nicholas, who became even more reactionary in consequence of the disturbed state of Europe, answered the appeal of the emperor Francis Joseph, and sent an army under Paskewitch to suppress the Hungarian revolt. After the capitulation of Gbrgei in 1849, the war was at an end, and the Magyars cruelly expiated their attempts to procure constitutional government. In 1853 broke out the Crimean War. The emperor was anxious to distribute the possessions of the "sick man," but found enemies instead of allies in England and France. The chief events of this memorable struggle were the battles of the Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, and Tchernaya, and the siege of Sebastopol; this had been skilfully fortified by Todleben, who appears to have been the only man of genius who came to the front on either side during the war. In 1 855 the Russians destroyed the southern side of the city, and retreated to the northern. In the same year, on March 14th, died the emperor Nicholas, after a short illness. Finding all his plans frustrated he had grown weary of life, and rashly exposed himself to the severe temperature of the northern spring. Alexander He was succeeded by his son Alexander II. (1855-1881), II. at the age of thirty-seven. One of the first objects of the new czar was to put an end to the war, and the treaty of Paris was signed in 1856, by which Russia consented to keep no vessels of war in the Black Sea, and to give up her protectorate of the Eastern Christians; the former, it must be added, she has recently recovered. A portion of Russian Bessarabia was also cut off and added to the Danubian principalities, which were shortly to be united under the name of Roumania. This was afterwards given back to Russia by the treaty of Berlin. Sebastopol also has been rebuilt, so that it is difficult to see what the practical results of the Crimean War were, in spite of the vast bloodshed and expenditure of treasure which attended it. The next important measure was the emanci- pation of the serfs in 1861. This great reform had long been meditated by Nicholas, but he was unable to ac- complish it, and left it to be carried out by his son. The landlords, on receiving an indemnity, now released the serfs from their seigniorial rights, and the village commune became the actual property of the serf. This great revolution was not, however, carried out without great difficulty. The Polish insurrection of 1863 has already been described, as well as its fatal effects upon that part of Poland which had been incorporated with Russia. On the other hand Finland has seen her privileges confirmed. Among important foreign events of this reign must be mentioned the capture of Schamyl in 1859 by Prince Bariatinski, and the pacification of the Caucasus ; many of the Circassians, unable to endure the peaceful life of cultivators of the soil under the new regime, migrated to Turkey, where they have formed one of the most turbulent elements of the population. Turkestan also has been gradually subjugated. In 1865 the city of Tashkend was taken, and in 1867 Alexander II. created the government of Turkestan. In 1858 General Muravieff signed a treaty with the Chinese, by which Russia acquired all the left bank of the river Amur. A new port has been created in Eastern Asia (Vladivostok), which promises to be a great centre of trade. In 1877 Russia came to the assistance of the Slavonic Christians against the Turks. After the terrible siege of Plevna, nothing stood between them and the gates of Constantinople. In 1878 the treaty of San Stefano was signed, by which Roumania became independent, Servia was enlarged, and a free Bulgaria, but under Turkish suzerainty, was created. But these arrangements were subsequently modified by the treaty of Berlin. Russia got back the portion of Bessarabia which she had lost, and advanced her Caucasian frontier. The new province of Bulgaria was cut into two, the southern portion being entitled Eastern Roumelia, with a Christian governor, to be appointed by the Porte, and self-govern- ment. Austria acquired a protectorate over Bosnia and Herzegovina. The latter part of the reign of Alexander II. was a period of great internal commotion, on account of the spread of Nihilism, and the attempts upon the emperor's life, which unfortunately were at last successful. In the cities in which his despotic father had walked about fearless, without a single attendant, the mild and amiable Alexander was in daily peril of his life. On April 16, 1866, Karakozoff shot at the emperor at St Petersburg; in the following year another attempt was made by a Pole, Berezowski, while Alexander was at Paris on a visit to Napoleon III.; on April 14, 1879, Solovioff shot at him. The same year saw the attempt to blow up the Winter Palace and to wreck the train by which the czar was travelling from Moscow to St Petersburg. A similar conspiracy in 1881 (March 13) was successful. Five of the conspirators, including a woman, Sophia Perovskaia, were publicly executed. Thus terminated the reign of Alexander II., which had lasted nearly twenty-six years. He died leaving Russia exhausted by foreign wars and honeycombed by plots. His wife and eldest son Nicholas had predeceased him, the latter at Nice. He was succeeded by his second Alexani son Alexander, born in 1845, whose reign has been char- HI. acterized by conspiracies and constant deportations of suspected persons. It was long before he ventured to be crowned in his ancient capital of Moscow (1883), and the chief event since then has been the disturbed relations with England, which for a time threatened war. (w. R. M.) PART V. RUSSIAN LITERATURE. To get a clear idea of Russian literature, it will be most convenient for us to divide it into oral and written. The first of these sections includes the interesting bilini, or Bilinl. " tales of old time," as the word may be translated, which have come down to us in great numbers, as they have been sung by wandering minstrels all over the country. The scholars who during the. last forty years have given their attention to these compositions have made the following division of them into cycles : (1) that of the older heroes; (2) that of Vladimir, prince of Kieff; (3) that of Novgorod ; (4) that of Moscow ; (5) that of the Cos- sacks ; (6) that of Peter the Great; (7) the modern period. These poems, if they may be so styled, are not in rhyme ; the ear is satisfied with a certain cadence which is observed throughout. For a long time they were neglected, and the collection of them only began at the commencement of the present century. The style of Russian literature which prevailed from the time of Lomonosoff was wholly based upon the French or pseudo- classical school. It was, therefore, hardly likely that these peasant songs would attract attention. But when the gospel of romanticism was preached and the History of Karamzin appeared, which presented to the Russians a