Page:EB1922 - Volume 30.djvu/877

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DENIS—DENMARK
827

dependent Kuban republic in the south-west. On the contrary, the Separatists, though forced for a time to conceal their aspira- tions, were embittered, and resolved to wreck the combination with the Volunteers.

In the meantime the resistance of the Reds stiffened in proportion as the Whites lost the sympathy of the people. Soviet propagandists had no difficulty in rousing the apprehension of the Great Russian peasants against the advance of the " squires "; officers of the Red army became less keen to desert when they ascertained that they would be treated as suspects by Denikin's lieutenants. The relentless discipline re-introduced by Trotsky in the Red army was backed by the action of select bodies of privileged troops international contingents of Letts, Chinese, Magyars, etc., picked Communist battalions, large bodies of cavalry trained for rapid marches and sudden concentrations against weak points of the line. In the beginning of Nov. Bu- denny's cavalry corps broke through the White lines at Kupyansk and threatened to cut off the Volunteer army from its base on the Don. The line rolled back and a general retreat set in. Denikin tried to stem the back flow by appointing Wrangel to command the Volunteer army in the place of Mayevsky, who had been indulging in reckless debauchery in Kharkov. But Wrangel was not a magician who could mend the consequences of errors which he had detected and criticized from the beginning. Town after town fell, and there was no hope of support from the Poles, who were by no means inclined to fight for the restoration of Russia. A British political mission headed by Sir Halford Mackinder, M.P., was more concerned with promoting the interests of Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan than in taking up the cause of Russian centralization. In these dire straits Denikin resolved to abandon his former policy in regard to the Cossacks, and summoned a central " Krug " (circle) of the Cossack armies Don Kuban, Terek, Astrakhan with the object of starting a new Government on federal lines. It was agreed that there should be a Legislative Assembly of the Federation, and that Denikin should act only as Chief of the Executive and Commander-in- Chief. Even this surrender did not help. After a last success of the Volunteer army, which retook Rostov (Feb. 8), the final catastrophe came through a defection of Kuban Cossacks on the right flank, of which Budenny's cavalry took full advantage. Rostov and Ekaterinodar had to be abandoned. Crowds of refugees gathered in Novorossisk in the first months of 1920; spotted typhus raged among them. The remnants of the Black Sea fleet and foreign ships carried loads of these wretched people to the Prinkipo Is. and to Lemnos, and Denikin himself left for Constantinople.

By way of an epilogue to the drama of discord which had embit- tered the minds and paralyzed the efforts of the Whites, Denikin's Chief of the Staff, Gen. Romanovsky, was murdered by two officers of the Volunteer army on the steps of the Russian embassy in Constantinople. He was a quiet, industrious man, who had come to recognize that there was no Conservative class in Russia capable of serving as a basis for government. He was therefore in favour of a closer alliance with the Moderate Socialists. This was an unpardon- able heresy from the point of view of the Rights, and it was from this side that the shot came which put an end to the life of Denikin's trusty assistant. (P. Vl.)

DENIS, MAURICE (1870- ), French painter, was born at Granville, Manche, in 1870. He studied at Julian's Academy and at the ficole des Beaux-Arts. As a student he came under the influence of Paul Serusier, one of Gauguin's associates at Pont Aven, and became a prominent member of the symboliste group which included also P. Bonnard, K. X. Roussel and E. Vuillard. Inspired mainly by Cezanne and Gauguin, the symbolistes represented a reaction against impressionism, in favour of synthesis and the use of form and colour to express subjective states of mind. Denis was also associated with the Rose Croix group which aimed at substituting an idealist decorative art for the realism of the day. To these influences was added that of Italian quattrocento art, as the result of a visit to Italy in 1894. Denis early turned his art to religious purposes, but classical mythology has also frequently provided him with subjects. His most im- portant work is his mural decorations, which include decorations for the chapels of the church of Vesinet (1899-1903); " L'Histoire de Psyche," five panels for M. Morosoff, Moscow (1908); " L'age d'or," five panels for a staircase of the Prince de Wag- ram (1912); a frieze for the cupola of the Theatre des Champs Elysees illustrating in four panels the history of music (1912); decorations and stained glass for the church of St. Paul, Geneva (1917-8); and a decoration for La Chapelle du Souvenir in the church of Gagny (1920). All these works show the influence of quattrocento Italy in the linear character of the design, and the preference for spare, stiff, angular forms, which connect Denis with Puvis de Chavannes. His colour, however, is much more vivid than that painter's, and shows an impressionist palette and method of handling. An artist of great fecundity, Denis has also produced many easel pictures including a " Hom- mage a Cezanne " (1901), somewhat in the manner of that painter; a portrait of Degas; and a long series of religious subjects typified by " La Meilleure Part " (1920). He has also illustrated among other books, Paul Verlaine's Sagexse (1891- 1910), The Imitation of Christ (1903), and La Vita Nucva (1908). His frequent contributions on art to the reviews were republished in 1912 in ThSorie i8po-ipio, which contains much interesting comment on modern art. Denis has chiefly exhibited at the Societe Nationale, of which he became full member in 1902, at the Salon des Independents, and at the Salon d'Automne. He is represented in the Luxembourg, Paris. In 1910 he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.


DENMARK (see 8.23). Since the incorporation of North Slesvig (1,496 sq. m.), returned to Denmark in 1920 according to the Treaty of Versailles, the area of Denmark proper is 16,958 sq. miles. About 75% of the area is occupied by cultivated land, about 10% by woods and plantations, while the rest, 15%, is either uncultivated or is used as gardens, building lots, roads, etc. Besides, the Faeroes (540 sq. m.) and Greenland (a little more than 770,000 sq. m.) belong to Denmark.

Population. Since the incorporation of North Slesvig Den- mark proper has something over 3,200,000 inhabitants, of whom about 150,000 live in North Slesvig. The Faeroes have 20,000 and Greenland about 13,000 inhabitants. In Denmark proper, apart from Slesvig, the density of pop. is 195 per sq. m. (325 per sq. m. on the islands, 127 in Jutland). One-fifth of the pop. lives in the capital, about another fifth in the provincial towns and about three- fifths in the country. The average death-rate in the years 1910-9 was about 13 per thousand, the average birth-rate 25 per thousand. Before the World War the overseas emigration was some 7,000 persons a year. In war-time it fell off, in 1918 to 800, rising again to 3,300 in 1919. The yearly increase of pop. is a little more than I %, the average percentage of the years 1910-9 being i-n. On the basis of the statistics of the years 1911-5, the average duration of life has been calculated at 56-2 years for men and 59-3 years for women, while 75 years earlier the figures were 40-9 and 43-5.

Communications. The total length of roads in 1919 was about 28,000 m., some 4,300 m. being main roads. There were in 1921 about 2,700 m. of railways (Slesvig excepted), of which one-half was under State administration. Motor-cars numbered about 18,000, including about 2,300 taxis and omnibuses, 3,800 commercial ve- hicles and 12,000 motor-cycles.

Occupations. In 1911 36% of the population were engaged in agriculture (horticulture, forestry and fishing included), about 27 % in industry and manufactures and about 17 % in commerce and transport. The remaining 20 % included those occupied in different trades or in non-productive work, domestic servants, independent persons and those supported by the State. In 1901 some 40 % of the population lived by agriculture and 14% by trade, transport, etc. Since 1911 this movement from agriculture towards other occupa- tions has been on the increase.

Legislation. In Sept. 1917 a joint-stock companies Act at last was passed, introducing directors' liability, public registration, protection of the rights of the minority, and public accounts.

Agriculture. By a law of 1919 land held as feoff or by entail, large estates formerly undivided in succession (Lehn), was made freehold property. Owners must deliver to the Treasury part of the capital value of the estate and on compensation hand over to the State one-third of the fields for small holdings. In the same year it was decreed that property still held on lease should become free- hold. This legislation, especially the Acts of 1919, concerning the parcelling-out of lands previously in the possession of the State and of entailed property passing into free possession, was a continuation of the movement, begun by the Cottars' Allotment Act of 1899, towards establishing a number of independent small holdings; in 1899 the idea was two acres and a cow; now .legislation aims at 20 ac. ; from 1899-1919 some 10,000 new small holdings had been established, the State holding the secondary mortgages.