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Transcriber's Note.

Apparent typographical errors have been corrected. The inconsistent
use of hyphens has been retained.

Italics are indicated by _underscores_. Small capitals have been
replaced by full capitals.




[Illustration: CONVENT OF SOLOVETSK IN THE FROZEN SEA.]


[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration]

 _NEW YORK_:

 HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS.
 FRANKLIN SQUARE.

 1870.




PREFACE.


_Svobodnaya_ Rossia--_Free_ Russia--is a word on every lip in that
great country; at once the Name and Hope of the new empire born of the
Crimean war. In past times Russia was free, even as Germany and France
were free. She fell before Asiatic hordes; and the Tartar system
lasted, in spirit, if not in form, until the war; but since that
conflict ended, the old Russia has been born again. This new
country--hoping to be pacific, meaning to be Free--is what I have
tried to paint.

My journeys, just completed, carried me from the Polar Sea to the Ural
Mountains, from the mouth of the Vistula to the Straits of Yeni Kale,
including visits to