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PROVINCE OR

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 874 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PROVINCE OR See also:GOVERNMENT See also:European See also:Russia See also:Archangel See also:Livonia See also:Saratov See also:Astrakhan See also:Minsk See also:Simbirsk See also:Bessarabia See also:Mogilev See also:Smolensk See also:Chernigov See also:Moscow See also:Tambov See also:Courland Nizhniy-See also:Novgorod See also:Taurida See also:Don See also:Cossacks' territory Novgorod See also:Tula See also:Ekaterinoslav See also:Olonets See also:Tver See also:Esthonia See also:Orel See also:Ufa See also:Grodno See also:Orenburg See also:Vilna See also:Kaluga See also:Penza See also:Vitebsk Kazan See also:Perm See also:Vladimir See also:Kiev See also:Podolia See also:Volhynia See also:Kostroma See also:Poltava See also:Vologda See also:Kovno See also:Pskov See also:Voronezh See also:Kursk See also:Ryazan See also:Vyatka See also:Kharkov St See also:Petersburg See also:Yaroslavl See also:Kherson See also:Samara See also:Poland See also:Kalisz See also:Piotrkow See also:Siedlce See also:Kielce See also:Plock See also:Suwalki See also:Lomza See also:Radom See also:Warsaw See also:Lublin See also:Grand-Duchy of See also:Finland See also:Abo-See also:Bjorneborg St See also:Michel See also:Viborg See also:Kuopio See also:Tavastehus See also:Vasa Nyland See also:Uleaborg See also:Caucasia See also:Kuban See also:Stavropol See also:Terek See also:Baku Elizavetpol See also:Kutais See also:Black See also:Sea territory See also:Erivan See also:Tiflis with Zaka- Dahestan See also:Kars taly Russia in See also:Asia See also:Akmolinsk See also:Semipalatinsk The See also:Steppes 1 See also:Turgai See also:Uralsk See also:Samarkand Transcaspia Western See also:Siberia—) See also:Tobolsk j See also:Tomsk Eastern Siberia See also:Irkutsk See also:Yakutsk See also:Transbaikalia See also:Yeniseisk See also:Amur Region Amur Maritime Province See also:Sakhalin It has been found, from a comparison of the densities of See also:population of the various provinces in 1859 with the See also:distribution in 1897, that the centre of See also:density has distinctly moved S., towards the shores of the Black Sea, and W., the greatest increase having taken See also:place in the E. See also:Polish and in the Lithuanian provinces, along the S.W. border, in the See also:prairie See also:belt beside the Black Sea, and in Orenburg. N. Caucasia and S.W. Siberia likewise show a considerable increase. The See also:census of 1897 revealed in several provinces a remarkably See also:low proportion of men to See also:women. This was owing to the fact that large See also:numbers of the men engaged in agricultural pursuits during the summer temporarily move every See also:year into the large See also:industrial centres for the See also:winter. Consequently there were only 87.4 and 89.8 women to every too men in the governments of St Petersburg and Taurida respectively, but as many as 133.8 in Yaroslavl, 119 in Tver and 117 in Kostroma. The See also:average number of women to every too men in the See also:Russian governments proper was 102.9; in Poland, 98.6; in Finland, See also:Io2.2; in Caucasia, 88.9; in Siberia, 93'7; and in See also:Turkestan and Transcaspia, 83•o. Turkestan See also:Ferghana Syr-darya The effects of See also:emigration and See also:immigration cannot be estimated with accuracy, because only those who See also:cross the frontier with pass-ports are taken See also:account of. The See also:statistics of these show that there was during the See also:thirty-two years, 1856–88, an excess of emigration over immigration of 1,146,052 in the See also:case of Russians, and a surplus of immigration of 2,304,717 foreigners. On the other See also:hand, in the six years, 1892-97, the excess of Russian emigration over immigration was 207,353, as compared with an excess of See also:foreign immigration over emigration of only 136,740.

During the years 1900–4 inclusive the See also:

total emigrants from Russia numbered 2,358,539, of whom 1,144,246 were Russians; while the immigrants numbered 2,333,053, of whom 1,432,057 were foreigners. It is also known that the number of Russian immigrants into the See also:United States in 1891–1902 was 742,869, as compared with 313,469 in 1873-90, or a grand total since 1873 of 1,056,338. By far the greater See also:part of these were See also:Jews. The emigration to Siberia varies much from year to year. It was 26,129 in 1888, and 6o,000 in 1898. During the two following years it amounted to an average of over 160,000, but in the years 1901–3 to an average of 84,638 per annum. Altogether some 800,000 peasants are estimated to have settled in Siberia during the See also:period 1886–96, but during the years 1893–1905 no less than four millions in all. There is also some emigration from central Russia to the S. Urals, as well as to some of the See also:steppe governments. Within the See also:empire a very See also:great diversity of nationalities is See also:coin-prised, due to the amalgamation or absorption by the Slav See also:race of a variety of Ural-Altaic See also:stocks, of Turko-See also:Tatars, Turko-See also:Mongols and various Caucasian races. In some cases their ethnical relations have not yet been completely determined. According to the results obtained by the census See also:committee of 1897, working on a linguistic basis, the distribution of races was as given in the table opposite : Taken as a whole, only 13% of the population of Russia 1'ved in towns in 1897, but in the years 1857–60 less than io% was See also:urban.

Cities. In Russia proper less than 2 % emigrated from the villages to the towns during the See also:

forty years ending 1897. The following table shows the urban population in the various divisions of the empire in 1897: Urban Percentage Population. of Total. European Russia . 12,027,038 12.8 Poland 2,055,892 21.7 Finland 281,216 II•o Caucasia r,olo,6i5 10.9 Siberia 473,796 9'3 Central Asia 936,655 12.0 Russian Empire 16,785,212 13.0 . i There e were in European Russia and Poland only twelve cities with more than See also:ioo,000 inhabitants in 1884; in 1900 there were sixteen, namely, St Petersburg, Moscow, Warsaw, See also:Odessa, See also:Lodz, See also:Riga, Kiev, Kharkov, Vilna, Saratov, Kazan, Ekaterinoslav, Rostov-on-the Don, Astrakhan, Tula and See also:Kishinev. In other parts of the empire there were four cities each having over roo,000 Inhabitants in that year, namely, Baku, Tiflis, See also:Tashkent and See also:Helsingfors. While only three of these are in See also:middle Russia (Moscow, Tula and Kazan), eight are in S. Russia. There are thirty-four cities in European Russia and Poland, and forty in the entire empire, with from 50,000 to Ioo,000 inhabitants each. The rural population live for the most part in villages, not as a See also:rule scattered about the See also:country. In the inclement regions of the N. and in the N. parts of the See also:forest See also:zone the villages are very small.

They are larger, but still small, in See also:

White Russia, Lithuania and the region of the lakes; but in the steppe governments they are very appreciably bigger, some of the Cossack stanitsas or settlements exceeding 20.000, and many of them numbering more than io,000 inhabitants each. The houses are generally built of See also:wood and See also:wear a poverty-stricken aspect. Owing to the great risks from See also:fire the villages usually See also:cover a large See also:area of ground, and the houses are scattered and straggling. The mortality in most towns is so great that during the last ten years of the 19th See also:century, in a very great number of cities, the deaths exceeded the births by I to 4 in the thousand. (P. A. K.; J. T. BE.) Government and See also:Administration.—Russia was described in the Almanach de See also:Gotha for 1910 as " a constitutional See also:monarchy under an autocratic See also:tsar." This obvious See also:contradiction in terms well illustrates the difficulty of defining in a single See also:formula the See also:system, essentially transitional and meanwhile sui generic, established in the Russian empire since See also:October 1905.. Before this date the fundamental See also:laws of Russia described the See also:power of the See also:emperor as " autocratic and unlimited." The imperial See also:style is still " Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias" ; but in the fundamental laws as remodelled between the imperial manifesto of 17/30 October and the opening of the first Duma 1 See A. Aitoff, Peuples et langages de la P.ussie (See also:Paris, 1906), based on the See also:report of the Russian Census Committee of 1897.on the 27th of See also:April 1906, while the name and principle of See also:autocracy was jealously preserved, the word " unlimited " vanished. Not that the regime in Russia had become in any true sense constitutional, far less See also:parliamentary; but the " unlimited autocracy " had given place to a " self-limited autocracy," whether permanently so limited, or only at the discretion of the autocrat, remaining a subject of heated controversy between conflicting parties in the See also:state?

Provisionally, then, the Russian governmental system may perhaps be best defined—as M. See also:

Chasles suggests3—as " a limited monarchy under an autocratic emperor." At the See also:head of the government is the emperor,' `whose power is limited only by the provisions of the fundamental laws of the empire. Of these some are See also:ancient and undis- The puted: the empire may not be partitioned, but emperor. descends entire in See also:order of See also:primogeniture, and by preference to the male See also:heir; the emperor and his See also:consort must belong to the Eastern Orthodox See also:Church; the emperor can wear no See also:crown that entails See also:residence abroad. By the manifesto of the 17/30th of October 1905 the emperor voluntarily limited his legislative power by decreeing that no measure was to become See also:law without the consent of the Imperial Duma, a freely elected See also:national See also:assembly. By the law of the loth of See also:February 1906 the See also:Council of the Empire was associated with the Duma as a legislative Upper See also:House; and from this See also:time the legislative power has been exercised normally by the emperor only in See also:concert with the two See also:chambers. The Council of the Empire, or Imperial Council (Gosudarstvenniy Sovyet), as reconstituted for this purpose, consists of 196 members, of whom 98 are nominated by the emperor, The while 98 are elective. The ministers, also nominated, council are ex officio members. Of the elected members of the 3 are returned by the " black " See also:clergy (the monks), Empire. 3 by the " white " clergy (seculars),5 18 by the corporations of nobles, 6 by the See also:academy of sciences and the See also:universities, 6 by the chambers of See also:commerce, 6 by the industrial See also:councils, 34 by the governments having zemstvos, 16 by those having no zemstvos, and 6 by Poland. As a legislative See also:body the See also:powers of the Council are co-See also:ordinate with those of the Duma; in practice, however, it has seldom if ever initiated legislation .6 The Duma of the Empire or Imperial Duma (Gosudarstvennaya Duma), which forms the See also:Lower House of the Russian See also:parliament, consists (since the See also:ukaz of the 2nd of See also:June 1907) of 442 members, elected by an exceedingly complicated The Dum& See also:process, so manipulated as to secure an overwhelming preponderance for the wealthy, and especially the landed classes, and also for the representatives of the Russian as opposed to the subject peoples. Each province of the empire, except the now disfranchised steppes of Central Asia,' returns a certain of members fixed in each case b Electoral proportion ( Y system. law in such a way as to give a preponderance to the Russian See also:element), in addition to those returned by certain of 2 M.

Stolypin defended the ukaz of the 2nd of June 1907, which in See also:

flat contradiction of the provisions of the fundamental laws altered the electoral law without the consent of the legislature, on the ground that what the autocrat had granted the autocrat could take away. The members of the Opposition, on the other hand, quoting See also:Art. 84 of the fundamental laws (" The empire is governed on the immutable basis of laws issued according to the established order "), argued that the emperorhimself could only See also:act within the limits of the order established by those laws. It is noteworthy that even the third Duma in its address to the See also:throne, if it avoided the tabooed word " Constitution," avoided also all mention of autocracy. 3 Le See also:Parlement russe, p. 151. Imperator is the See also:official style. The Russian See also:translation is Gosudar. Popularly, however, the emperor is known by his old Russian See also:title of tsar (q.v.). 5 This is the first time since See also:Peter the Great that the clergy have been given a See also:voice in See also:secular affairs in Russia. 6 The number of the council was formerly not fixed, and there are still honorary councillors who have no right to sit. Thus in 1910 the honorary See also:president of the council was the grand-See also:duke See also:Michael Nicolaievich, the actual president M.

G. Akimov. The judicial and administrative See also:

work of the old council was in 19011 assigned to sepa_ate committees. 7 These returned 23 members in the first and second See also:Dumas. 74 RUSSIA [GOVERNMENT Russia in Poland. Caucasia. Siberia. Central Finland. Totals.' See also:Europe. Asia. Great Russians . 48,558,721 267,160 1,829,793 4,423,803 587,992 5,939 55,673,408 Slays Little Russians .

20,414,866 335,337 1,305,463 223,274 IoI,61 I 22,380,551 White Russians 5,823,383 29,347 19,642 12+346 829 5,885,547 Poles 1,109,934 6,755,503 25,117 29,177 I1,576 7,931,307 Other Slays2. 213,268 7,365 3,855' 182 189 •• 224,859 1,345,160 305,322 5,121 1,877 I,042 .. 1,658+532 See also:

Lithuanians{Lithuanians3 1,422,021 5,064 1,511 6,714 627 1,435,937 Letts Rumanians . I,121,669 5,223 7,232 .. .. 1,134,124 Latin and Germans 1,312,188 407,274 56,729 5,424 8,874 1,925 1,790,489 See also:Teutonic Greeks 86,626 .. 100,299 . . .. ..

End of Article: PROVINCE OR

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