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 484: RUSSIA Lesghians, Georgians or Grusians, and Mingre- lians are the most prominent. 7. The Per- sians and Armenians are represented in Trans- caucasia. The Jews are most numerous in Po- land and West Russia. Formerly they were not allowed to live in Great Russia, from which they had been expelled in the llth century; and even now they are admitted there and in some other parts only under various restric- tions, and nowhere in the empire do they enjoy full rights of citizenship. Greeks are especial- ly found in Odessa and some other large cities. As to social position, the population is divided into three classes with hereditary rights, the nobles, the inhabitants of towns, and the coun- try people. Peter thp Great abolished the dig- nity and official privileges of the boyars (see BOTAK), and since then the nobility have lost their prerogatives as a caste, and the offices of the empire are accessible to all. In 1722 he established a regulation of class (tchiri), which is still in force, concerning the rank of the officers of state, dividing them into fourteen classes, the first eight of which have heredi- tary nobility conferred on them, while the members of the other six obtain only a per- sonal nobility. In 1872, according to Lind- heim (Die wirthchnftlichen Verhdltnitse de* Rustiichen Reiches, 1873), there were 591,266 noblemen of hereditary and 827,764 of per- sonal rank. The legal relations of the inhabi- tants of the towns were reorganized by a ukase in June, 1870. The citizens of a town elect a magistrate or town council (duma), which in turn elects a committee (uprava) and the may- or. In smaller towns no committee is elect- ed, but its functions are performed by the mayor. The aggregate population of the towns amounted in 1872 to 6,907,071. The bulk of the population consists of the peasants, num- bering about 56,300,000. Before the act of emancipation, they were divided into three classes, viz., free peasants, peasants under the special administration of the crown, and serfs. The first class included the odnodvortzi or free- holders, who until 1845 formed a subdivision of the country nobility, but were transferred to the class of peasants when, by order of the emperor, the titles of nobles were examined. The second class comprised the crown peas- ants, holders of land by socage, some 16,000,- 000; the domain peasants; the peasants be- stowed on nobles and merchants in some man- ufacturing districts, on condition that they should return to the crown in case the manu- factories were closed ; and the exiles in Sibe- ria. The serfs numbered about 22,000,000, and belonged partly to the crown and partly to the nobles. Russian serfdom dates from the beginning of the 17th century, when the field laborers were gradually deprived of the right to move at will from master to master. They were attached to the soil, which they could not leave without the consent of the master ; the latter, on the other hand, not having the right to dispose of the serfs with- out the land. In the spring of 1861 an im- perial manifesto, dated Feb. 19 0. S. (March 3), providing for the emancipation of the serfs, was read in all the churches of the empire. The great majority of the inhabitants be- long to the Russian church, which in doctrine entirely agrees with the other branches of the Greek church, while in administration it is distinct. Since the times of Peter the Great it has been governed by a u holy synod," which is one of the supreme boards of the empire. It is dependent on the emperor in questions of administration, but not of dogma or of rites. The bishops composing the holy synod reside partly in St. Petersburg and partly in their dioceses. The church is divided into 52 archi- episcopal dioceses or eparchies. The church in 1870 had 62 archbishops and bishops, 385 monasteries with 5,750 monks, 154 nunneries with 3,226 nuns, 1,334 arch priests, 40,852 priests, 11,852 deacons, and 70,280 clerks, who discharge the duties of readers, chanters, sa- cristans, beadles, and singers. The total num- ber of churches was 33,100, including 59 cathe- drals. The four ecclesiastical academies at St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, and Kazan have of late been reorganized; in 1872 they numbered 106 professors and 410 students, and there were also 51 theological seminaries with 15,585 stu- dents. The lower clergy are mostly poor and ignorant, but the government of the present emperor has made better provisions for their theological education, and established a central relief fund for raising their salaries, the mini- mum of which was fixed in 1869 at 300 ru- bles. The church service is performed in the Old Slavic language, which the mass of the people do not understand at all. The liturgy contains, besides the prayers common to all the liturgies of the Greek church, special pray- ers for every separate member of the imperi- al family. Sermoas were formerly a rare ex- ception at divine service; but recently, owing to the better education of a portion of the clergy, the movement for making the sermon a part of the service is gaining ground. Every member of the Greek church is obliged to take the sacrament once a year. The estab- lished church has some special privileges, as the ringing of the larger bells, public proces- sions, &c. None of its members are allowed to secede to another denomination, and all children born of mixed marriages are claimed for it. All foreign princesses marrying into the imperial family must likewise embrace the national religion. In other respects Catholics and Protestants enjoy equal civil rights with members of the established church, and are equally admissible to the highest offices of the empire; while unconverted Tartars are ad- mitted to military offices. The political sepa- ration of the Russian church from the main body of the Greek church took place after the flight of the Greek patriarch from Constanti- nople to Moscow in the 16th century. Arch- bishop Isidore of Kiev and Moscow in 1439