The

The reigning family of Russia descend, in the female line, from Michael Romanof, elected Tsar in 1613, after the extinction of the House of Rurik; and in the male line from the Duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp, born in 1700, scion of a younger branch of the princely family of Oldenburg. union of his daughter Anne with Duke Karl Friedrich of Holstein-Gottorp formed part of the great reform projects of Peter I., intended to bring Russia into closer contact with the Western States of Europe. Peter I. was succeeded by his second wife, Catherine, the daughter of a Livonian peasant, and she by Peter II., the grandson of Peter, with whom the male line of the Romanofs terminated, in the year 1730. The reign of the next three sovereigns of Russia, Anne, Ivan VI., and Elizabeth, of the female line of Romanof, formed a transition period, which came to an end with the accession of Peter III., of the house of Holstein-Gottorp. All the subsequent emperors, without exception, connected themselves by marriage with German families. The wife and successor of Peter III., Catherine II., daughter of the Prince of Anhalt Zerbst, general in the Prussian army, left the crown to her only son, Paul, who became the father of two emperors, Alexander I. and Nicholas, and the grandfather of a third, Alexander II. All these sovereigns married German princesses, creating intimate family alliances, among others, with the reigning houses of Württemberg, Baden, and Prussia.

The Emperor is in possession of the revenue from the Crown domains, consisting of more than a million of square miles of cultivated land and forests, besides gold and other mines in Siberia, and producing a vast revenue, the actual amount of which is, however, unknown, as no reference to the subject is made in the budgets or finance accounts, the Crown domains being considered the private property of the imperial family.

The following have been the Tsars and Emperors of Russia, from the time of election of Michael Romanof. Tsar Peter I. was the first ruler who adopted, in the year 1721, the title of Emperor.

The government of Russia is an absolute hereditary monarchy. The whole legislative, executive, and judicial power is united in the emperor, whose will alone is law. There are, however, certain

rules of government which the sovereigns of the present reigning house have acknowledged as binding. The chief of these is the law of succession to the throne, which, according to a decree of

the Emperor Paul, of the year 1797, is to be that of regular descent, by the right of primogeniture, with preference of male over female heirs. This decree annulled a previous one, issued by Peter I., February 5, 1722, which ordered each sovereign to select his successor to the throne from among the members of the imperial family, irrespective of the claims of primogeniture. Another fundamental law of the realm proclaimed by Peter I. is that every sovereign of Russia, with his consort and children, must be a member of the orthodox Greek Church. The princes and princesses of the imperial house, according to a decree of Alexander I., must obtain the consent of the emperor to any marriage they may contract; otherwise the issue of such union cannot inherit the throne. By an ancient law of Russia, the heir-apparent is held to be of age at the end of the sixteenth year, and the other members of the reigning family with the completed twentieth year.

The administration of the Empire is entrusted to four great boards, or councils, possessing separate functions. The first of these boards is the Council of the State, established by Alexander I. in the year 1801, and reorganised by the imperial ukase of May 20, 1901. It consists of a president nominated every year by the Emperor, and an unlimited number of members appointed by him. The Council is divided into four departments, namely, Legislation, Civil and Church Administration, State's Economy and Industry, Sciences and Commerce. The fourth section was established on January 5, 1900. Each department has its own president, and a separate sphere of duties; but there are collective meetings of the four sections. The chief function of the Council of the Empire is that of examining into the projects of laws which are brought before it by the ministers, who have a seat ex officio, and of discussing the budget and all the expenditures to be made during the year. But the Council has no power of proposing alterations and modifications of the laws of the realm; it is, properly speaking, a consultative institution in matters of legislation. A special committee is entrusted with the discussion of the requests addressed to the emperor against the decisions of the Senate.

The second of the great colleges or boards of government is the Ruling Senate or Pravitelstvuyushchiy Senat,' established by Peter I. in the year 1711. The functions of the Senate are partly of a deliberative and partly of an executive character, To be valid a law must be promulgated by the Senate. It is also the high court of justice for the Empire. The Senate is divided into six departments or sections, which all sit at St. Petersburg,

two of them being Courts of Cassation. Each department is authorised to decide in the last resort upon certain descriptions of cases. The senators are mostly persons of high rank, or who fill high stations; but a lawyer of eminence presides over each department, who represents the emperor, and without whose signature its decisions would have no force. In the plenum, or general meeting of several sections, the Minister of Justice takes the chair. Besides its superintendence over the courts of law, the Senate examines into the state of the general administration of the Empire, and has power to make remonstrances to the emperor. A special department consisting of six members is entrusted with judgments in political offences, and another (six members) with disciplinary judgments against officials of the

crown.

All

The third college, established by Peter I. in the year 1721, is the Holy Synod, and to it is committed the superintendence of the religious affairs of the Empire. It is composed of the three metropolitans (St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kiev), the archbishop of Georgia (Caucasus), and several bishops sitting in turn. its decisions run in the emperor's name, and have no force till approved by him. The President of the Holy Synod is the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, Antonius. The General Procurator, Actual Privy Councillor C. P. Pobyedonostseff.

The fourth board of government is the Committee of Ministers. It consists of all the ministers, who are―

1. The Minister of the Imperial House and Imperial Domains.—General W. Freedericksz, aide-de-camp of the Emperor; appointed 1898.

2. The Minister of Foreign Affairs.-Actual Privy Councillor Count Lamsdorf, appointed 1901.

3. The Minister of War.-General Sakharoff (acting), appointed February,

1904.

4. The Minister of the Navy.-Grand Duke Alexis Alexandrovich, chief of the Navy; Vice-Admiral Avellan, Gerant of the Ministry, with all the prerogatives of a Minister, appointed 1903.

5. The Minister of the Interior.-Actual State Councillor Bulyghin (acting), appointed February 3, 1905.

6. The Minister of Public Instruction.-General-Lieutenant Glazoff (acting), appointed August 1 (14), 1904.

7. The Minister of Finance.-Privy Councillor Kokovtsoff (acting), appointed February, 1904.

8. The Minister of Justice.-Privy Councillor Manukhin (acting), appointed February 3, 1905.

9. The Minister of Agriculture and State Domains.—Actual Privy Coun cillor Yermoloff, appointed 1893.

10. The Minister of Public Works and Railways.-Actual Privy Councillor, Prince Khilkoff, appointed January, 1895.

11. The General Director (with all the prerogatives of a Minister) of Commercial Navigation and Ports.-H.I.H. Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich, appointed November 7 (November 20), 1902.

12. The Department of General Control.-General Lobko, appointed Controller-General, November, 1899.

13. The Procurator-General of the Holy Synod.-Actual Privy Councillor Pobyedonostseff.

14. Minister and State Secretary for Finland.-Huntsman of the Imperial Court Linder, appointed 1904.

Besides the Ministers, five Grand Dukes, the presidents of the four departments of the Council of the State, and any other functionaries, form part of the Committee, of which Actual Privy Councillor Witte is President. Most of the above heads of departments have assistant ministers who supply their place on certain occasions. They all communicate directly with the sovereign.

The emperor has two Private Cabinets, one of which is occupied with charitable affairs, and the other is devoted to public instruction of girls and to the administration of the institutions established by the late Empress Maria, mother of the Emperor Nicholas I. Besides, there is the Imperial HeadQuarters (Glavnaya Kvartira), and a Cabinet, which is entrusted also with the reception of petitions presented to the emperor, formerly received by a special Court of Requests (abolished in 1884). According to a law of May 19, 1888, a special Imperial Cabinet having three sections (Economy, Mines and Manufactures, and Legislation) has been created, instead of the same departments in the Ministry of Imperial Household.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

The Empire is divided into governments or provinces (oblast), and districts (uyezd or okrug). There are 78 governments (49 in European Russia proper, 10 in Poland, 8 in Finland, 7 in Caucasus, 4 in Siberia); 20 provinces (1 in European Russia, 5 in Caucasus, 9 in Central Asia, 4 in Siberia, 1 in China, the Kwang-Tung Province, created August 1899), and 1 section (otdyel)—the island of Sakhalin. Some of the governments or provinces are united into general governments, which are now those of St. Petersburg, Finland, Poland, Vilna, Kiev, Caucasus, Turkestan, Stepnoye (of the Steppes), Irkutsk, and of the Amur. At the head of each general government is a governor-general, the representative of the emperor, who as such has the supreme control and direction of all affairs, whether civil or military. In Siberia the governorsgeneral are each assisted by a council, which has a deliberative voice. A civil governor assisted by a council of regency, to which all measures must be submitted, is established in each government, and a military governor in seventeen provinces, one town (Kronstadt) and the island of Sakhalin. A vicegovernor is appointed to fill the place of the civil governor when the latter is absent or unwell. There is also, in each government, a council of control under the presidency of a special officer, depending directly on the Department of Control. Each government is divided into from 5 to 15 districts (815 in all Russian Empire), having each several administrative institutions. The townships (gradonachalstvo) of St. Petersburg, Moscow (since January 1, 1905), Odessa, Kerch, Nikolayev and Rostov-on-Don, are administered by

hors (gradonachalnik); Cronstadt is under a separate military ean Russia the government of the parish, in so far as the lands try are concerned, and part of the local administration, is ene people. For this purpose the whole country is divided into ns (volosts among the Russian population, gminas in Poland, ossack Lauds, ulus in territories peopled by natives, &c.), which over by an elder (volostnoï starshina in the volosts), elected at assemblies, which are composed of the delegates of the village in the proportion of one man to every ten houses. The village elect an elder (starosta) or executive officer of a commune, and ollector. All these officers are elected at communal assemblies ch means both 'the village' and 'the world') by the peasants, ong themselves. The communal assemblies are constituted by seholders in the village, who discuss and decide all communal se communal assemblies are held as business requires. The nblies decide the same class of affairs as do the communal but concerning each its respective canton. The peasants have institutions of their own, which are submitted also to special peasants' affairs,' instituted in each government. In Poland

is replaced by the 'Gmina,' the assemblies of which are of all landholders-nobility included, the clergy and the police ho have each but one voice, whatever the area of land possessed. ' has, however, less autonomy than the 'Volost,' being subject he 'Chief of the District.'

inistration of the economical affairs of the district and province extent, in the hands of zemstvos, or the district and provincial law of January 1, 1864), composed of representatives elected by ry, the householders in the towns, and the landed proprietors. tive power is entrusted to provincial and district' Upravas.' The the nobility of the district, or of the province, presides ex officio stvos of the district, or of the province, and, in his default, the the local tribunal presides. Important modifications, increasing of noble landowners in the affairs of the zemstvos, suppressing peasants to elect deputies to the zemstvo (they present candidates i the governor of province name a deputy), reducing the numbers tatives, and limiting their powers, were introduced by the law of 90.

ns and cities have municipal institutions of their own, organised he same principles as the zemstvos (law of June 16, 1870). All rs are divided into three classes, each of which represents an equal real property, and each class elects an equal number of representae Dumas; the latter elect their executive the Uprava. The new e 11, 1892, reduces the powers of the Municipal Government it almost entirely under the Governors nominated by the Emperor. unicipal institutions, with still more limited powers, were introeveral towns of Siberia, and in 1895 in Caucasia. The instituzemstvo are in force in 34 provinces (361 districts) of European

1.-The Grand-duchy of Finland, ceded to the Emperor of Russia ty of Fredrikshamn, September 17, 1809, has preserved, by

1 For further details on Finland see end of Russia.