CONVENT OF SOLOVETSK IN THE FROZEN SEA.

RUSSIAN INFANTRY ON EASTERN STEPPE ESCORTED BY KOZAKS AND KIRGHIZ.

FREE RUSSIA.

BY
WILLIAM HEPWORTH DIXON.

AUTHOR OF
"FREE AMERICA." "HER MAJESTY'S TOWER." &c.

NEW YORK

HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS.
FRANKLIN SQUARE.

1870.

PREFACE.

Svobodnaya Rossia—Free Russia—is a word on every lipin that great country; at once the Name and Hope of thenew empire born of the Crimean war. In past times Russiawas free, even as Germany and France were free. Shefell before Asiatic hordes; and the Tartar system lasted, inspirit, if not in form, until the war; but since that conflictended, the old Russia has been born again. This new country—hopingto be pacific, meaning to be Free—is what Ihave tried to paint.

My journeys, just completed, carried me from the PolarSea to the Ural Mountains, from the mouth of the Vistulato the Straits of Yeni Kale, including visits to the fourholy shrines of Solovetsk, Pechersk, St. George, and Troitsa.My object being to paint the Living People, I have muchto say about pilgrims, monks, and parish priests; aboutvillage justice, and patriarchal life; about beggars, tramps,and sectaries; about Kozaks, Kalmuks, and Kirghiz; aboutworkmen's artels, burgher rights, and the division of land;about students' revolts and soldiers' grievances; in short,about the Human Forces which underlie and shape theexternal politics of our time.

Two journeys made in previous years have helped me tojudge the reforms which are opening out the Japan-likeempire of Nicolas into the Free Russia of the reigningprince.

CONTENTS.