Russia | Page 4

the Sect--A False Prophet--Utilitarian Christianity--Classification of the Fantastic Sects--The "Khlysti"-- Policy of the Government towards Sectarianism--Two Kinds of Heresy--Probable Future of the Heretical Sects--Political Disaffection.


CHAPTER XVIII
THE DISSENTERS
Dissenters not to be Confounded with Heretics--Extreme Importance Attached to Ritual Observances--The Raskol, or Great Schism in the Seventeenth Century--Antichrist Appears!--Policy of Peter the Great and Catherine II.--Present Ingenious Method of Securing Religious Toleration--Internal Development of the Raskol--Schism among the Schismatics--The Old Ritualists--The Priestless People--Cooling of the Fanatical Enthusiasm and Formation of New Sects--Recent Policy of the Government towards the Sectarians--Numerical Force and Political Significance of Sectarianism.


CHAPTER XIX
CHURCH AND STATE
The Russian Orthodox Church--Russia Outside of the Mediaeval Papal Commonwealth--Influence of the Greek Church--Ecclesiastical History of Russia--Relations between Church and State--Eastern Orthodoxy and the Russian National Church--The Synod--Ecclesiastical Grumbling--Local Ecclesiastical Administration--The Black Clergy and the Monasteries--The Character of the Eastern Church Reflected in the History of Religious Art--Practical Consequences--The Union Scheme.


CHAPTER XX
THE NOBLESSE
The Nobles In Early Times--The Mongol Domination--The Tsardom of Muscovy--Family Dignity--Reforms of Peter the Great--The Nobles Adopt West-European Conceptions--Abolition of Obligatory Service-- Influence of Catherine II.--The Russian Dvoryanstvo Compared with the French Noblesse and the English Aristocracy--Russian Titles-- Probable Future of the Russian Noblesse.


CHAPTER XXI
LANDED PROPRIETORS OF THE OLD SCHOOL
Russian Hospitality--A Country-House--Its Owner Described--His Life, Past and Present--Winter Evenings--Books---Connection with the Outer World--The Crimean War and the Emancipation--A Drunken, Dissolute Proprietor--An Old General and his Wife--"Name Days"--A Legendary Monster--A Retired Judge--A Clever Scribe--Social Leniency--Cause of Demoralisation.


CHAPTER XXII
PROPRIETORS OF THE MODERN SCHOOL
A Russian Petit Maitre--His House and Surroundings--Abortive Attempts to Improve Agriculture and the Condition of the Serfs--A Comparison--A 'Liberal" Tchinovnik--His Idea of Progress--A Justice of the Peace--His Opinion of Russian Literature, Tchinovniks, and Petits Maitres--His Supposed and Real Character--An Extreme Radical--Disorders in the Universities--Administrative Procedure-- Russia's Capacity for Accomplishing Political and Social Evolutions--A Court Dignitary in his Country House.


CHAPTER XXIII
SOCIAL CLASSES
Do Social Classes or Castes Exist in Russia?--Well-marked Social Types--Classes Recognised by the Legislation and the Official Statistics--Origin and Gradual Formation of these Classes-- Peculiarity in the Historical Development of Russia--Political Life and Political Parties.


CHAPTER XXIV
THE IMPERIAL ADMINISTRATION AND THE OFFICIALS
The Officials in Norgorod Assist Me in My Studies--The Modern Imperial Administration Created by Peter the Great, and Developed by his Successors--A Slavophil's View of the Administration--The Administration Briefly Described--The Tchinovniks, or Officials-- Official Titles, and Their Real Significance--What the Administration Has Done for Russia in the Past--Its Character Determined by the Peculiar Relation between the Government and the People--Its Radical Vices--Bureaucratic Remedies--Complicated Formal Procedure--The Gendarmerie: My Personal Relations with this Branch of the Administration; Arrest and Release--A Strong, Healthy Public Opinion the Only Effectual Remedy for Bad Administration.


CHAPTER XXV
MOSCOW AND THE SLAVOPHILS
Two Ancient Cities--Kief Not a Good Point for Studying Old Russian National Life--Great Russians and Little Russians--Moscow--Easter Eve in the Kremlin--Curious Custom--Anecdote of the Emperor Nicholas--Domiciliary Visits of the Iberian Madonna--The Streets of Moscow--Recent Changes in the Character of the City--Vulgar Conception of the Slavophils--Opinion Founded on Personal Acquaintance--Slavophil Sentiment a Century Ago--Origin and Development of the Slavophil Doctrine--Slavophilism Essentially Muscovite--The Panslavist Element--The Slavophils and the Emancipation.


CHAPTER XXVI
ST. PETERSBURG AND EUROPEAN INFLUENCE
St. Petersburg and Berlin--Big Houses--The "Lions"--Peter the Great--His Aims and Policy--The German Regime--Nationalist Reaction--French Influence--Consequent Intellectual Sterility-- Influence of the Sentimental School--Hostility to Foreign Influences--A New Period of Literary Importation--Secret Societies-- The Catastrophe--The Age of Nicholas--A Terrible War on Parnassus-- Decline of Romanticism and Transcendentalism--Gogol--The Revolutionary Agitation of 1848--New Reaction--Conclusion.


CHAPTER XXVII
THE CRIMEAN WAR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
The Emperor Nicholas and his System--The Men with Aspirations and the Apathetically Contented--National Humiliation--Popular Discontent and the Manuscript Literature--Death of Nicholas-- Alexander II.--New Spirit--Reform Enthusiasm--Change in the Periodical Literature--The Kolokol--The Conservatives--The Tchinovniks--First Specific Proposals--Joint-Stock Companies--The Serf Question Comes to the Front.


CHAPTER XXVIII
THE SERFS
The Rural Population in Ancient Times--The Peasantry in the Eighteenth Century--How Was This Change Effected?--The Common Explanation Inaccurate--Serfage the Result of Permanent Economic and Political Causes--Origin of the Adscriptio Glebae--Its Consequences--Serf Insurrection--Turning-point in the History of Serfage--Serfage in Russia and in Western Europe--State Peasants-- Numbers and Geographical Distribution of the Serf Population--Serf Dues--Legal and Actual Power of the Proprietors--The Serfs' Means of Defence--Fugitives--Domestic Serfs--Strange Advertisements in the Moscow Gazette--Moral Influence of Serfage.


CHAPTER XXIX
THE EMANCIPATION OF THE SERFS
The Question Raised--Chief Committee--The Nobles of the Lithuanian Provinces--The Tsar's Broad Hint to the Noblesse--Enthusiasm in the Press--The Proprietors--Political Aspirations--No Opposition--The Government--Public Opinion--Fear of the Proletariat--The Provincial Committees--The Elaboration Commission--The Question Ripens-- Provincial Deputies--Discontent and Demonstrations--The Manifesto-- Fundamental Principles of the Law--Illusions and Disappointment of the Serfs--Arbiters of the Peace--A Characteristic Incident-- Redemption--Who Effected the Emancipation?


CHAPTER XXX
THE LANDED PROPRIETORS SINCE THE EMANCIPATION
Two Opposite Opinions--Difficulties of Investigation--The Problem Simplified--Direct and Indirect Compensation--The Direct Compensation Inadequate--What the Proprietors Have Done with the Remainder of Their Estates--Immediate Moral Effect of the Abolition of Serfage--The Economic Problem--The Ideal Solution and the Difficulty of Realising It--More Primitive Arrangements--The Northern Agricultural Zone--The Black-earth Zone--The Labour Difficulty--The Impoverishment of the Noblesse Not a New Phenomenon--Mortgaging of Estates--Gradual Expropriation of the Noblesse-Rapid Increase in the