2

batteries and 19 Cossack batteries. Out of 511 batteries there are: 322 light, 96 heavy, 31 mortar; 14 mountain, and 48 horse artillery. The first and second reserve field ammunition columns (expanding in war) consist, in peace, of 52 parks for the 52 divisions of the active army; 7 parks for the 5 divisions of the guard, the Finland and the Caucasian rifle brigades; 2 East Siberian parks; 8 mortar parks; and 1 cadre for transport column for troops in Trans-Caspia. The third ammunition reserve column consists of 91 local parks. The reserve field artillery consists of 7 reserve brigades of 40 batteries, 1 reserve cadre battery, and 2 Siberian batteries. Total: 43 batteries. On mobilisation these 43 batteries expand into 172. The field communication columns consist of 8 parks, which expand in war into 18 reserve artillery park brigades, attached 18 reserve divisions; 12 parks attached to 12 reserve divisions in European Russia; and reserve mountain parks, attached to 2 reserve divisions in the Caucasus. Depôt artillery has permanent peace cadres of 3 depôt brigades, each of 3 batteries (expanding into 12 batteries); 3 depôt batteries (expanding into 12); 1 guard battery, and 1 Caucasian battery (expanding respectively into 3 guard batteries, and 4 Caucasian); and 1 horse artillery depôt battery. Imperial militia field artillery will consist of 80 batteries combined into 40 regiments, each of 2 batteries, attached to the 40 divisions of the militia infantry. The foot artillery consists of 57 fortress battalions; 4 siege battalions; 9 fortress artillery companies; and 5 sortie batteries. The imperial militia foot artillery will consist of 10 battalions in war. The engineers consist of: 29 sapper battalions (of these: 1 guard, 1 grenadier, 2 Caucasian, 1 Turkestan, 1 Trans-Caspian, 2 Siberian), 8 pontoon battalions, 7 of field park engineers, 7 battalions of railway troops, 2 engineers siege parks, 2 sapper companies, 2 river mine companies, and an instructional balloon park. Each sapper battalion has 3 sapper and 1 telegraph company (the guard have 4 sapper companies and 1 telegraph). Each pontoon battalion has 2 companies. Reserve engineers consist of 2 reserve sapper battalions. The fortress engineers are 12 fortress sapper companies; 11 submarine mining companies; 6 fortress balloon detachments; 7 fortress telegraph detachments. The depôt engineers form on mobilisation 4 depôt sapper battalions and a depôt technical battalion. The imperial militia engineers will consist, on mobilisation, of 20 militia sapper companies in 5 battalions.

The frontier guard, stationed on the frontier, are in 31 brigades and 2 detachments, in all about 35,000 men. In addition to these components of the Russian army there are field gendarmerie (7 cadres kept up in peace), field post service, Caucasian native militia, the Palace grenadier company, corps of military topographers, veterinary service, sanitary divisions (attached to the infantry divisions), train (6 battalions), reserve horse depôts, &c.

The infantry and rifles are armed with the new small-bore rifle (3 lines), with a magazine of five cartridges; the dragoons have a similar rifle taking the same cartridges. The active field and mountain artillery have steel breechloaders of four patterns: heavy, with an extreme range of 4,150 yards; light, range 4,480 yards; light (pattern of 1892), range 4,480 yards; and mountain, range 4,700 yards. The wedge gun of the regular horse artillery takes the same ammunition as that of the light batteries. The mortar used for shell and shrapnel have a maximum range of 3,600 yards.

The following table shows, approximately, the peace and war strength of various units in the different arms :

The lowest estimate which can be made of the peace strength of the Russian army puts the number of officers at 42,000, and of the rank and file more than 1,000,000 men; the total number about 1,100,000. In war the total strength is approximately 75,000 officers and 4,500,000 men; total, 4,600,000 men, with 562,000 horses.

III. NAVY.

The Russian Navy is subject to special conditions such as do not affect the navies of other Powers. Owing to the geographical situation of the Empire, and the widely separated seas which wash its coasts, Russia is obliged to maintain four distinct fleets or flotillas, each with its own organization. Of these the most important in regard to Western relations is the Baltic Fleet. Owing to the drafts made upon it for foreign service, it is by no means powerful. There is no immediate prospect of its increasing, owing to the calls made on it to reinforce the Siberian fleet. The chief base of the Baltic Fleet is Kronstadt, which is heavily fortified, as are Dünamünde, Wiborg, Sweaborg, and other Baltic ports. The Gulf of Finland is usually blocked by ice from November to April, whereby the operations of the fleet are impeded, but a new ice-free port at Libau, in Courland, has now been made ready for the fleet. It is further in contemplation to establish a naval port on the Arctic coast of Russian Lapland, which is free from ice throughout the year, and thus to open up the possibility of creating a naval force with free access to the Atlantic Ocean, but the advantages of this would be very slight, since such a force would be too distant from any scene of operations to effect much. Considerable progress has lately been made in the construction of ice-breaking vessels, and Kronstadt can no longer be considered ice-bound.

In the Black Sea, Sevastopol, headquarters of the Euxine fleet, has been strongly fortified; Nikolaiev, Kinburn, and Ochako have received important defensive works; Kertch and Yenikale have been made very strong, and Azov, Poti, and Batum have been strengthened. There is a flotilla also in the Caspian Sea, which ensures the communications of the Trans-Caspian railway between Baku and Krasnovodsk, and would have its purpose in operations against Persia.

State dockyards are at Nevsky, New Admiralty and Galernyi Ostrov, St. Petersburg; Kronstadt, Libau, Revel, Sevastopol, Nikolaiev, and Vladivostok. Semi-private yards exist at the Baltic works, St. Petersburg; Izhra, Abo, and Nikolaiev.

In the war with Japan disaster befell the Russian fleet. Damaged in the torpedo attack of February 8-9, it issued out later only to lose the Petropavlovsk with Admiral Makaroff on board. In August it again issued from Port Arthur, and after a naval battle retreated again to its base, less its best battleship, the Tsessarevitch, interned at Kiao Chau, and three cruisers. Captain Wiren, of the Bayan, who alone had earned distinction on the Russian side in the war, was then made Admiral, but with a battered fleet and crews used by General Stoessel to man forts, he could accomplish nothing. In December the Japanese guns reached the warships, which were all destroyed by this fire, or by the Russians when the surrender took place.

The chief of the Russian Navy is the General Admiral, Commander-inChief. There are 10 admirals, 28 vice- and 37 rear-admirals, 102 captains, 252 commanders, 1,542 (including staff-commanders and subalterns of marine artillery) junior officers, 503 engineers, 702 medical and civil officers, and 162 naval-yard officers. There are 20 equipages' in the Baltic, a half equipage at Revel, and a company at Sveaborg, an equipage of the Imperial Guard at St. Petersburg, 10 equipages in the Black Sea, one at Baku, one at Vladivostok, each including the complements of one battleship and of a number of smaller vessels. There is also a training school for gunners and a torpedo school, a naval cadets' training squadron of full-rigged cruisers and sloops, and a divers' school hulk. The total number of officers and men is about 60,000.

The following is a statement of the strength of the Russian Fleet, including ships building and provided for, but excluding training ships, transports, and non-effective vessels, on February 1, 1905 :

There are also some old monitors of no fighting value, two armoured gunboats, and over a hundred torpedo boats of no value for modern warfare.

The Caspian flotilla, which is not included in the above statement, consist of a few small gunboats and steamships, but on the part of Persia has practically nothing opposed to it.

The tables which follow of the Russian armour-clad fleet and principal cruisers are arranged in chronological order. Ships in italics are not yet completed, or are interned till the end of the war. These latter are also marked (i).

BATTLE FLEET ON JANUARY 1, 1905.