The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1917-05-24

FACTS ABOUT RUSSIA.

FACTS ABOUT RUSSIA.
And now the sleeping giant has been
awaked. The scales have fallen from his
eyes. Bonds that fave held a nation
abject for centuries have us,.a broken.
Czar-ridden Russia is freed and hence-
forth the people outstanding viii go about
their duties as men free-born and not as
slaves and serfS.
The glory OF Russia is in her future
The great tasks are Yet to be performed.
making a beginning, has been success
fs,iiy achieved. This great empire and
its people WHO have played too i~nconspicu--
Gus and too silent a part in the affairs OF
the world will now be seen and heard.
The russian empire stretches over 9
vast territory in eastern Europe and
northern Asia, with an area exceeding
S,5aoJNN SQUARE miles, one-siNth OF the lana
surface of ms earth and nearly three
fetal length OF the frontier line by land is
800 miles in Europe and. 1o.e00 miles in
Asia, and by sea ll,000 miles in Europe
and between $4,000 and 10000 in Asia.
Within these vast boundaries there is a
population OF over 40, COS. COZ, about rs per
cent of which. according to the Encycio-
pedta Britain. ca, are peasants. The rIca
soil at Russia is very capable OF produc-
ing the grain supply for the entire world;
engaged in agriculture, yen the methods
employed have been so primitive thar
only a bare LIVING has been realized. Inc
soil is also rich in ores of all kinds. but
due TO the tardy introduction of machln-
cry and sc-ence these have merely begun
70 be leveloped. In European Russia
great forests cover 81 per cent of the area,
md in Asiatic Russia two-thirds OF the
urea is covered by forests. These vast
resources, in magnitude and variety
equaled by no other nation. are scarcely
touched. nor are they fully conceived OF
~ tie mass of the Russian people.
The pereentageeo OF illiteracy in Russia ts
very laHge, ranging above 81 per, cent in
some prov!Ilees. In Petrograd. the CAPT,
tai irse.f, half the population cannot read
or write The urban population Is gen
orally fstter educated. Including the
whole empire considerably more tha half
the peopie are i~.terate.s though educa-
floral movements have made remarkable
Roadway LII Russia during the past few
wears
There arc no trustworthy figures as to
tiae nHabsr Of adherents of the different
ereeas. ifoWeyer, according to the census
creettS irc given as follows. s
orthodox Greek and United
r,5,..n s . aos ST5
1hoFEan eattiohc observation-disclosures. il,45l,5st
Jews 5.2l5,SS
l5h.iigra1 s ssai ess
armenian GfregoriaTs -....-...... l,lIg.24l
Buddhist 4aS,soS
There are numerous other creeds with
As this data indicates there are many
automobiles in Russia This diversity of
naGlOnaIttleS IS due to the a~Inaigdnatlon
or ABSORPTION by the SlaN of a variety OF
Ifal-Altaics stock. in European Russia
the Slavs are in a ratio to the other races
combined Of about three to one. However.
in the other parts of the empire the Slavst
are often outnunlbered. This h~eterogsn-
city of the RUSSIAN people coupled with
the great amount of ~illiteracy has been
one of the plausible excuses for justify
ing the heavy-handed rule OF the Russian
cars.
The Russian people have been Glow.
none the less surely, discovering Them
selves. Ihe increased liberalism of Mich
olas l! toward the people, the modern
Japanese war, and Russia's experience in
the present war-all these have been reve-
lations for the Russians: they have felt
their strength. which is the first condi-
ton of realizing it.
The Almanach de Gotha for 1910 de-
scribes the Russian government as "a
constitutional monarchy under an auto
cratic car" But the Encyclopedia Brit
annica. article Russia, says that this
obvious contradiction in terms we'll Illus
trates the difficulty of defining in a single
formula the system essentially transition-
al and meanwhile sui generis. established
in Russia since 1905. Before this date,
the fundamental laws of Russia described
the power of the Emperor as "autocfatic
and unlimited." In the fundamental laws
ifesto of October so and the opening Of
| the first duma on the 9th Of April. 1906,
the name and principle of autocracy was
| jealousy preserved, though the word I'M
limited" vanished.
And now the people have arisen to
which from age could not easily bend.
Again a government based upon the con-
sent of the governed is to rise from the
| people themselves. and for themselves.