Charitable Institutions are for the most part supported by government; and although their number is increasing annually, the scarcity of large national institutions—especially public hospitals—is painfully felt. Medical assistance can only be obtained in the prov inces with the greatest difficulty, owing to the distances of the towns and the sparseness of the population. The foundling hospitals of St. Petersburg and Moscow receive annually about 15,000 abandoned infants and orphans.
Public Roads, Railways, and Canals.—Good roads and ready means of communica tion area_great want in Russia, where the distances are so great, and the population so scanty, To keep the roads in repair is a work of the greatest difficulty here, for two reasons—the first, a difficulty in concentrating a sufficient amount of labor where the laborers are so few and so widely dispersed; and the other, the melting of the snows and overflowing of the rivers in spring. During four or five months of the year the soil is thickly covered with snow, which, when it becomes hardened by the frost, offers an excellent, an easy, and a universal means of transit. On the return of mild weather, the snow melting, sinks into and softens the earth, which is also overflowed by the rivers. The roads being thus flooded arc rendered almost wholly impassable for traffic till the soil dries. In autumn the usual rains fall, and the earth is again soaked, so that the time for easy communication during the summer is very short. In 1856 only 784 in. of railway had been opened, though a large extent was being constructed; but in Jan., 1877, the mileage in operation had risen to 13,000, while upward of 1300 in. were being constructed. Several of the chief cities of the empire are connected by means of macadamized causeways, which are now generally kept in good repair. The other towns are connected by ordinary track-roads, which are generally impracticable in spring and autumn. Owing to the generally bad character of the surface, and to the abundance of the rivers which traverse it, the water-communications of this empire are very impor tant as commercial highways, though the vast transit-trade of the country is not con fined to them alone. The transport of merchandise across the broad expanse of the empire is much facilitated by canals, which have here become an important and a peen'.
far institution. The four seas surrounding European Russia are connected by canals: 1. The Caspian is connected with the White sea by the canal of the Prince of Wirtem berg, between the river Scheksna, an affluent of the Volga, and the upper waters of the northern Dwina. 2. The Caspian and Baltic are connected by three systems of canals. See VOLGA. 3. The Black sea is connected with the Baltic by three lines of canals— those of Beresina, Oginsky and Dnieper, and Bug, between the affluents of the Dnieper and those of the western Dwina, Niemen and Vistula.
Postal Service.—This service was inaugurated in 1664. In 1875 there were forwarded 63,244,156 letters, 1,419,094 post-cards, 42,776,220 newspapers and stamped periodicals, and other packets, amounting in all to 121,517,735. The number of offices was 3,678 in 1877.
Electric Telegraph.—Notwithstanding the immense extent of the surface of Russia, and the distance from each other of its principal towns, these are now nearly all united by lines of electric telegraph. In Jan., 1875, upward of 40,000 m. of telegraphs had been laid by the Russian government, and 13,000 m. by private companies. In the end of Nov., 1871, the telegraph line through Siberia, connecting St. Petersburg with China
and Japan, was finished, and a telegram forwarded from Nagasaki to the Russian cap ital. In 1874 there were sent 2,920,071 telegraphic messages to places within Russia, 365,000 to places abroad, and 209,194 official dispatches.
Population.—The population of the empire is spread with great irregularity over the surface. In European Russia its average is less than 37 per Eng. sq.m.; in the Caucasus, more than 2S; in Siberia, *; in Poland, 112; and in Finland, 14 per Eng. sq. mile. These figures, however, cannot be taken as a correct illustration of the actual distribution of the masses over the enormous surface of the country; for, upon compari son, the degree of the density of the population of European Russia is found to vary greatly in the different governments. The government of Moscow contains 166 inhabit ants per Eng. sq.m.; while that of Archangel contains The central and s.w. governments of this part of the empire are the most densely peopled. The town resi dents are 9i per cent of the whole population of European Russia; 7+ per cent of that of the Caucasus; and 5 per cent of that of Siberia. Russian society is divided into five classes, and of these the nobility forms 1.49 per cent; the clergy (including their fami lies) 1.01 per cent; the burgesses (tiers eta° 8.60, the peasants, 82.55; and the military, 6.35 per cent. irrespective.Of Asiatic and American Russia, we find that in Europe this empire comprises a greater variety of races than any other European state. It is not, however, like Austria, a composite community, speaking various idioms, and having different physical characteristics and political interests. In European Russia the pre dominant race is the Slavonian, and the Russian " element" and language prevail almost universally. The 50,500,000 Russians who inhabit Europe are divisible into-1. Great Russians (33,935,000), inhabiting central Russia. 2. Little Russians (12,015,000), located in the s.w. To the latter may be added the Cossacks (1,600,000), who are spread along tile rivers Don, Kouhan, Terek, Ural, Tobol, the lake of Baikal, and the Amur. 3. White Russians (2,950,000), in the western provinces. The other Slavonic races are Poles (4,640.000), in the kingdom of Poland, and partly in the w. provinces (where they form only 101 per cent of the population); Servians and Bulgarians in Bessarabia and New Russia. The Finnish race (3,800,000), which occupies, under different names, the n. and n.e. of European Russia, and the n.w. of Siberia, has in great part adopted Rus sian language and manners. The Lithuanians and Letts (2,460.000) dwell mostly between the Niemen and Dwina. The Turkish Tartarian race (5,700,000), in the s.e., and partly in Siberia, comprises Tcluivashes, Tartars of Kazan, Kirghiz, etc. The Mongols (376,000), comprising Kalmuck-s and other races in the s.e. of European Russia and in the e. of Siberia. Besides these races there are Romains and Wallachs (770,000), in Bessarabia and New Russia; Persians, Kurds, Armenians, etc. (460,000), near the Caspian sea; Ger mans (920,000), distributed over the whole empire, but found in the greatest numbers in the Baltic provinces; Swedes (200.000), in Finland; Greeks (52,000), in the Bohe mians—i.e., Gypsies (50,000)—chiefly in Bessarabia; Jews (2.014,000), mostly in Poland and the w. provinces; Caucasians (1,830,000), Samoieds in the n. of Russia, and many other tribes in e. Siberia and Russian America.