Congress in July, 1918. According to the terms of this constitution Russia is a republic of Soviets of workers, soldiers, and peasant delegates, and the central and local authority is vested in these Soviets. Private property in land is abolished, all land being common property of the people. The state owns all factories, mines, railways, and other means of production and transport. The highest authority in the state is the All-Russian Congress of Soviets, which consists of representatives of town Soviets, on the basis of one delegate for each 25,000 electors, and a provincial council of Soviets on a basis of one delegate for each 125,000 inhabitants. The Congress elects the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, consisting of not more than 200 members, which constitutes a supreme legislative, administrative, and controlling body of the republic. This executive committee also forms a Council of People's Commissioners, for the general administration of the affairs of the republic, consisting of commissariats of foreign affairs, war, navy, interior, justice, labor, social relief, public instruction, posts and telegraphs, nationalities, finance, transportation and communications, agriculture, commercial industry, food supply, state control, a supreme economic council, and public health. The franchise is nominally enjoyed by all citizens over 18 years of age who earn their livelihood by productive labor and by soldiers, sailors, and the Soviet Army and Navy.
Religion.—The Soviet Government disestablished the church and appropriated all its property. All religions, however, may be freely professed in the empire.
Education.—In December, 1917, the Soviet Government secularized all schools and educational institutions. Several new universities were established under the Bolshevist Government. Elementary education is poorly developed.
People.—The population of Russia up to 1914 was increasing faster than that of any other European nation, Great Britain, perhaps, excepted. As regards language (and so far also race) the peoples of Russia were comprised under the two great divisions of Aryans and Mongolians; the former include Slavonians, Germans, and Greeks, the latter the Finnish and Tartar races. The Slavonians formed about 75,000,000 of the population. The Turco-Tartars counted about 10,000,000. The political divisions of the Russian people comprised numerous grades of nobility, which were partly hereditary and partly acquired by military and civil service, especially the former, military rank being most highly prized in Russia. The clergy, both regular and secular, formed a separate privileged order. Previous to the year 1861 the mass of the people were serfs subject to the proprietors of the soil. The Emperors Alexander and Nicholas took some initial steps toward the emancipation of this class; but a bold and complete scheme of emancipation was begun and carried out by Alexander II. in 1861.
Language.—A number of languages and a vast variety of dialects are spoken, but the Russian is the vernacular of at least four-fifths of the inhabitants, the literary and official languages being specifically the “Great Russian,” or that belonging to Central Russia surrounding Moscow. It has an alphabet of 37 letters, a written and printed character of a peculiar form, and a pronunciation which it is hardly possible for any but natives to master.
History.— The origin of the Russian empire is involved in much obscurity, but it is usually regarded as having been founded by Rurik, a Scandinavian (Varangian), about 862, his dominions and those of his immediate successors comprising Novgorod, Kieff, and the surrounding country. Vladimir the Great (960-1015), the Charlemagne of Russia, introduced Christianity and founded several cities and schools. For more than two centuries Russia continued subject to the Tartars, while on its opposite frontier it was exposed to the attacks of the Poles and Teutonic knights, but in 1481 the Tartars were finally expelled under Ivan the Great (1462-1505). Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584) did much to extend and consolidate the Russian territory, and in particular began the conquest of Siberia, which was completed in 1699. In 1613 the house of Romanoff, whence the late Czar Nicholas was descended, was raised to the throne, and from this period the empire gained greater strength and consistency. But Russia's real greatness may be said to date from the accession of Peter the Great in 1689, who first secured for the country the attention of the more civilized nations of Europe. From then on the growth of the empire was continuous. The three partitions of Poland took place under Catherine II. in 1772, 1793, and 1795. Russia acquired nearly two-thirds of this once powerful state. By the peace of Kutchuk-Kainarji in 1774, the Turks gave up Azof, part of the Crimea (the other part was taken possession of in 1783), and Kabardah; and by the peace of Jassy in 1792, Oczakov. The peace of Frederickshaven, 1809, robbed Sweden of the whole of Finland, which now passed to Russia; the peace of Bucharest, 1812, took Bes-
