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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 Small capitals have been
replaced by full capitals.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 the four holy shrines of Solovetsk, Pechersk, St.
George, and Troitsa. My object being to paint the Living People, I
have much to say about pilgrims, monks, and parish priests; about
village justice, and patriarchal life; about beggars, tramps, and
sectaries; about Kozaks, Kalmuks, and Kirghiz; about workmen'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 the external politics of our time.

Two journeys made in previous years have helped me to judge the
reforms which are opening out the Japan-like empire of Nicolas into
the Free Russia of the reigning prince.

 _February