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 488 RUSSIA recruiting districts. Young men who belong to the so-called liberal professions, and have received a certain degree of education, have the duration of their service in the active array restricted to six months, 18 months, three years, or four years, according to the degree they have attained ; there are also volunteer engagements of three months, six months, and two years, as in France, equally in accordance with the educational privileges of the young men. But a nine years' reserve service is ob- ligatory upon all such men. The infantry and the cavalry of the army, now (1875) in course of reorganization, are to have for their mili- tary unit the division, composed of four regi- ments; the artillery, riflemen, and engineers are to be formed into brigades. Twelve regi- ments d'elite and a brigade of riflemen will still form the corps of imperial guards sta- tioned at St. Petersburg, while the remaining 45 divisions of infantry are to be formed into 15 corps, each consisting of three divisions of infantry, one of cavalry, and a number of Cossacks, artillery, and engineers. Each divi- sion of infantry consists of two brigades, each brigade of two regiments of three battalions each, each battalion of four companies, and each company of 250 men. Each division of cavalry is to consist of two brigades, each brigade of three regiments, and each regiment of four squadrons of 250 horses. The cavalry brigade consists of a regiment of dragoons, a regiment of lancers, and a regiment of hussars. A brigade of artillery consists of six batteries of eight guns each. Of these batteries, three are of nine-inch guns, two of four-inch guns, and one of mitrailleuses. The whole regular army will thus consist of 192 regiments of infantry, 56 regiments of cavalry, and 2,256 guns, besides seven brigades of riflemen (one of the guards). The engineer corps is com- posed of six brigades of sappers and six half battalions of pontoniers. The Cossacks are di- vided into regiments of 10 sotnias of 100 men each ; they now comprise 153 mounted regi- ments, with 87 battalions on foot, and 28 bat- teries. The number of these troops can bo increased ad libitum at any time, as all the Cossacks are liable to life-long service. The army is now (1875) estimated at 750,000 ; but the whole military force of Russia in case of war can be brought to 1,500,000, with 300,- 000 horses, half of which is designed to be used for offensive operations, and the other half for defensive only. The Russian navy is commanded by 81 admirals and 2,990 officers of all ranks, and contains 25,500 sailors and marines. The fleet consists of 225 steam ves- sels, with 521 guns, of a total tonnage of 172,- 501 and total horse power of 31,978, distrib- uted as follows : Baltic fleet, 27 ironclads with 200 guns, 40 steamships with 170 guns, and 70 transports ; Black sea fleet, 2 ironclads with 8 guns, 25 steamships with 45 guns, and 4 transports; Caspian fleet, 11 steamships with 45 guns, and 9 transports. There are also 37 steamers with 53 guns, of a tonnage of 2,424 and a horse power of 2,250, scattered in the sea of Aral and on the Pacific and Arctic coasts. The administration of the navy is in the hands of the minister of marine, assisted by an admiralty council, but the supreme com- mand of the fleet is vested in the grand ad- miral, now the grand duke Constantino, broth- er of the czar. The great naval stations are Cronstadt in the gulf of Finland and Sebas- topol on the Black sea. The great navy yards are those of St. Petersburg at the mouth of the Neva, and Nikolayov in the Black sea. The ancient history of Russia is involved in great obscurity. (For an account of theories concerning the name Rus in its earliest con- nections, see JAPHETH.) The Greek and Ro- man writers mention the Scythians and the Sarmatians as the inhabitants of the vast and unknown regions of the north, especially of the country between the Don and the Dnie- per, a description of which is given by Hero- dotus. Strabo and Tacitus say that the Roxo- lani, a Scythian tribe, which according to the testimony of the later writer Spartianus was ruled by kings, lived on the Don. The Greeks entered into commercial relations with them, and established some colonies in their terri- tory. During the migration of nations in the 4th and the following centuries, Russia wit- nessed the movements of hordes of Goths, Alans, Huns, Avars, Bulgarians, and others. Soon after the name of the Slavs appears for the first time, a race, according to the gen- eral opinion of historians, identical with the Sarmatians, and believed to have extended northward as far as the upper Volga. The Slavs found scattered Finnish tribes dwelling in these territories, and drove them higher north toward Finland and the region of the Arctic sea. Such of these people as did not remove became amalgamated with the inva- ders, and gave their descendants that indiffer- ent color of hair and sallow complexion which most Russians of our day possess. Thus the people now known as Russians are a compound product of the various Slavic tribes, of many Scythic tribes, especially tlie Tartars, who in the middle ages oppressed Russia for centuries, and of Finns. (See SLAVIC RACE AND LAN- GUAGES.) The Slavs founded the towns of Novgorod and Kiev, both of which became the capitals of independent Slavic principal- ities. After a history of about 100 years, of which nothing is known, the principality of Novgorod, of unknown extent, and surrounded by a number of tribes of Finns of the Tchudio branch, appears struggling against the invasion of the Varangians (called by the Slavs Rus), a tribe of Northmen, who succeeded in making both the Slavs and Finns tributary. For a time the Slavs threw off the yoke of the Va- rangians, but sinking into anarchy and feeling themselves unable to cope with internal and external foes, they, together with some of the neighboring Finnish tribes, invited Rurik, the