BALTIC PROVINCES. A term compre hending three Russian governments bordering on the Baltic—viz. Courland, Livonia, and Estho nia (Slap: Russia, C 3). Area. 36,560 square miles. Population, in 1897, 2,387,000. The great bulk of the population consists of Letts and Esths, the former akin to the Lithuanians, the latter a Finnish race. The higher classes, nobility and burghers, are Germans, who con stitute about seven and a half per cent. of the total population of the three governments. The number of Russians is still insignificant. The Knights, Swordbearers, and Teutonic Knights subjugated the Letts in the Thirteenth Century, planting German civilization and Christianity with fire and sword. The inhabitants are nearly all Protestants.: Although the soil is not very fertile, agriculture is in a flourishing condition, owing to the improved methods of cultivation and a generally higher intelligence of the peo ple. Commerce and manufactures are also highly developed, favored as they are by the proximity of the Baltic. For further details, see articles on the separate governments.
The Baltic Provinces once belonged to Sweden, except Courland, which was a dependency of Poland. The Swedish provinces came into the possession of Russia in the beginning of the Eighteenth Century through the conquests of Peter the Great, and Courland was acquired in 1795. Peter the Great conceded to the provinces
their own administration and guaranteed the in habitants freedom of conscience. These rights were confirmed anew in 1856, but in spite of this a systematic attempt has been made by the Russian Government, especially since 1880. to assimilate the provinces with the rest of the Empire. The Greek Church has endeavored to proselytize the people, the Russian language has been substi tuted for the German in the schools and courts, and the press has been subjected to censorship. These measures have aroused great discontent in the Baltic Provinces; not so much, however, among the masses of the people as among the German nobility, who, though constituting but a small fraction of the population, exercise great power over the peasantry. The attitude of the Russian Government toward the German prov inces is dictated by the general policy of Russi fication which has been followed in the case of the Jews and of Finland (q.v.).