same name, stands at the confluence of the Niemen with the Viliya, 550
m. S.W. of St Petersburg by rail, and 55 m. from the Prussian frontier.
Pop. (1863), 23,937; (1903), 73,743, nearly one-half being Jews. It
consists of a cramped Old Town and a New Town stretching up the side of
the Niemen. It is a first-class fortress, being surrounded at a mean
distance of 2½ m. by a girdle of forts, eleven in number. The town lies
for the most part in the fork and is guarded by three forts in the
direction of Vilna, one covers the Vilna bridge, while the southern
approaches are protected by seven. Kovno commands and bars the railway
Vilna-Eydtkuhnen. Its factories produce nails, wire-work and other metal
goods, mead and bone-meal. It is an important entrepôt for timber,
cereals, flax, flour, spirits, bone-meal, fish, coal and building-stone
passing from and to Prussia. The city possesses some 15th-century
churches. It was founded in the 11th century; and from 1384 to 1398
belonged to the Teutonic Knights. Tsar Alexis of Russia plundered and
burnt it in 1655. Here the Russians defeated the Poles on the 26th of
June 1831.
KOVROV, a town of Russia, in the government of Vladimir, 40 m. N.E. of
the city of Vladimir by the railway from Moscow to Nizhniy-Novgorod, and
on the Klyazma River. It has railway-carriage works, cotton mills, steam
flour mills, tallow works and quarries of limestone, and carries on an
active trade in the export of wooden wares and in the import of grain,
salt and fish, brought from the Volga governments. Pop. (1890), 6600;
(1900), 16,806.
KOWTOW, or KOTOU, the Chinese ceremonial act of prostration as a sign of
homage, submission, or worship. The word is formed from _ko_, knock, and
_tou_, head. To the emperor, the "kowtow" is performed by kneeling three
times, each act accompanied by touching the ground with the forehead.
KOZLOV, a town of Russia, in the government of Tambov, on the Lyesnoi
Voronezh River, 45 m. W.N.W. of the city of Tambov by rail. Pop. (1900),
41,555. Kozlov had its origin in a small monastery, founded in the
forest in 1627; nine years later, an earthwork was raised close by, for
the protection of the Russian frontier against the Tatars. Situated in a
very fertile country, on the highway to Astrakhan and at the head of
water communication with the Don, the town soon became a centre of
trade; as the junction of the railways leading to the Sea of Azov, to
Tsaritsyn on the lower Volga, to Saratov and to Orel, its importance has
recently been still further increased. Its export of cattle, grain,
meat, eggs (22,000,000), tallow, hides, &c., is steadily growing, and it
possesses factories, flour mills, tallow works, distilleries, tanneries
and glue works.
KRAAL, also spelt _craal_, _kraul_, &c. (South African Dutch, derived
possibly from a native African word, but probably from the Spanish
_corral_, Portuguese _curral_, an enclosure for horses, cattle and the
like), in South and Central Africa, a native village surrounded by a
palisade, mud wall or other fencing roughly circular in form; by
transference, the community living within the enclosure. Folds for
animals and enclosures made specially for defensive purposes are also
called kraals.
KRAFFT (or KRAFT), ADAM (c. 1455-1507), German sculptor, of the
Nuremberg school, was born, probably at Nuremberg, about the middle of
the 15th century, and died, some say in the hospital, at Schwabach,
about 1507. He seems to have emerged as sculptor about 1490, the date of
the seven reliefs of scenes from the life of Christ, which, like almost
every other specimen of his work, are at Nuremberg. The date of his last
work, an Entombment, with fifteen life-size figures, in the Holzschuher
chapel of the St John's cemetery, is 1507. Besides these, Krafft's chief
works are several monumental reliefs in the various churches of
Nuremberg; he produced the great Schreyer monument (1492) for St
Sebald's at Nuremberg, a skilful though mannered piece of sculpture
opposite the Rathaus, with realistic figures in the costume of the time,
carved in a way more suited to wood than stone, and too pictorial in
effect; Christ bearing the Cross, above the altar of the same church;
and various works made for public and private buildings, as the relief
over the door of the Wagehaus, a St George and the Dragon, several
Madonnas, and some purely decorative pieces, as coats of arms. His
masterpiece is perhaps the magnificent tabernacle, 62 ft. high, in the
church of St Laurence (1493-1500). He also made the great tabernacle for
the Host, 80 ft. high, covered with statuettes, in Ulm Cathedral, and
the very spirited "Stations of the Cross" on the road to the Nuremberg
cemetery.
See _Adam Krafft und seine Schule_, by Friedrich Wanderer (1869);
_Adam Krafft und die Künstler seiner Zeit_, by Berthold Daun (1897);
Albert Gümbel in _Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft_, Bd. xxv. Heft 5,
1902.
KRAGUYEVATS (also written KRAGUIEVATZ and KRAGUJEVAC), the capital of
the Kraguyevats department of Servia; situated 59 m. S.S.W. of Belgrade,
in a valley of the Shumadia, or "forest-land," and on the Lepenitsa, a
small stream flowing north-east to join the Morava. On the opposite bank
stands the picturesque hamlet of Obilichevo, with a large powder
factory. Kraguyevats itself is the main arsenal of Servia, and
possesses an iron-foundry and a steam flour-mill. It is the seat of the
district prefecture, of a tribunal, of a fine library, and of a large
garrison. It boasts the finest college building and the finest modern
cathedral (in Byzantine style) in Servia. In the first years of Servia's
autonomy under Prince Milosh, it was the residence of the prince and the
seat of government (1818-1839). Even later, between 1868 and 1880, the
national assembly (_Narodna Skupshtina_) usually met there. In 1885 it
was connected by a branch line (Kraguyevats-Lapovo) with the principal
railway (Belgrade-Nish), and thenceforward the prosperity of the town
steadily increased. Pop. (1900), 14,160.
KRAKATOA (KRAKATAO, KRAKATAU), a small volcanic island in Sunda Strait,
between the islands of Java and Sumatra, celebrated for its eruption in
1883, one of the most stupendous ever recorded. At some early period a
large volcano rose in the centre of the tract where the Sunda Strait now
runs. Long before any European had visited these waters an explosion
took place by which the mountain was so completely blown away that only
the outer portions of its base were left as a broken ring of islands.
Subsequent eruptions gradually built up a new series of small cones
within the great crater ring. Of these the most important rose to a
height of 2623 ft. above the sea and formed the peak of the volcanic
island of Krakatoa. But compared with the great neighbouring volcanoes
of Java and Sumatra, the islets of the Sunda Strait were comparatively
unknown. Krakatoa was uninhabited, and no satisfactory map or chart of
it had been made. In 1680 it appears to have been in eruption, when
great earthquakes took place and large quantities of pumice were
ejected. But the effects of this disturbance had been so concealed by
the subsequent spread of tropical vegetation that the very occurrence of
the eruption had sometimes been called in question. At last, about 1877,
earthquakes began to occur frequently in the Sunda Strait and continued
for the next few years. In 1883 the manifestations of subterranean
commotion became more decided, for in May Krakatoa broke out in
eruption. For some time the efforts of the volcano appear to have
consisted mainly in the discharge of pumice and dust, with the usual
accompaniment of detonations and earthquakes. But on the 26th of August
a succession of paroxysmal explosions began which lasted till the
morning of the 28th. The four most violent took place on the morning of
the 27th. The whole of the northern and lower portion of the island of
Krakatoa, lying within the original crater ring of prehistoric times,
was blown away; the northern part of the cone of Rakata almost entirely
disappeared, leaving a vertical cliff which laid bare the inner
structure of that volcano. Instead of the volcanic island which had
previously existed, and rose from 300 to 1400 ft. above the sea, there
was now left a submarine cavity, the bottom of which was here and there
more than 1000 ft. below the sea-level. This prodigious evisceration was
the result of successive violent explosions of the superheated vapour
absorbed in the molten magma within the crust of the earth. The vigour
and repetition of these explosions, it has been suggested, may have been
caused by sudden inrushes of the water of the ocean as the throat of the
volcano was cleared and the crater ring was lowered and ruptured. The
access of large bodies of cold water to the top of the column of molten
lava would probably give rise at once to some minor explosions, and then
to a chilling of the surface of the lava and a consequent temporary
diminution or even cessation of the volcanic eructations. But until the
pent-up water-vapour in the lava below had found relief it would only
gather strength until it was able to burst through the chilled crust and
overlying water, and to hurl a vast mass of cooled lava, pumice and dust
into the air.
The amount of material discharged during the two days of paroxysmal
energy was enormous, though there are no satisfactory data for even
approximately estimating it. A large cavity was formed where the island
had previously stood, and the sea-bottom around this crater was covered
with a wide and thick sheet of fragmentary materials. Some of the
surrounding islands received such a thick accumulation of ejected stones
and dust as to bury their forests and greatly to increase the area of
the land. So much was the sea filled up that a number of new islands
rose above its level. But a vast body of the fine dust was carried far
and wide by aerial currents, while the floating pumice was transported
for many hundreds of miles on the surface of the ocean. At Batavia, 100
m. from the centre of eruption, the sky was darkened by the quantity of
ashes borne across it, and lamps had to be used in the houses at midday.
The darkness even reached as far as Bandong, a distance of nearly 150
miles. It was computed that the column of stones, dust and ashes
projected from the volcano shot up into the air for a height of 17 m. or
more. The finer particles coming into the higher layers of the
atmosphere were diffused over a large part of the surface of the earth,
and showed their presence by the brilliant sunset glows to which they
gave rise. Within the tropics they were at first borne along by
air-currents at an estimated rate of about 73 m. an hour from east to
west, until within a period of six weeks they were diffused over nearly
the whole space between the latitudes 30° N. and 45° S. Eventually they
spread northwards and southwards and were carried over North and South
America, Europe, Asia, South Africa and Australasia. In the Old World
they spread from the north of Scandinavia to the Cape of Good Hope.
Another remarkable result of this eruption was the world-wide
disturbance of the atmosphere. The culminating paroxysm on the morning
of the 27th of August gave rise to an atmospheric wave or oscillation,
which, travelling outwards from the volcano as a centre, became a great
circle at 180° from its point of origin, whence it continued travelling
onwards and contracting till it reached a node at the antipodes to
Krakatoa. It was then reflected or reproduced, travelling backwards
again to the volcano, whence it once more returned in its original
direction. "In this manner its repetition was observed not fewer than
seven times at many of the stations, four passages having been those of
the wave travelling from Krakatoa, and three those of the wave
travelling from its antipodes, subsequently to which its traces were
lost" (Sir R. Strachey).
The actual sounds of the volcanic explosions were heard over a vast
area, especially towards the west. Thus they were noticed at Rodriguez,
nearly 3000 English miles away, at Bangkok (1413 m.), in the Philippine
Islands (about 1450 m.), in Ceylon (2058 m.) and in West and South
Australia (from 1300 to 2250 m.). On no other occasion have sound-waves
ever been perceived at anything like the extreme distances to which the
detonations of Krakatoa reached.
Not less manifest and far more serious were the effects of the
successive explosions of the volcano upon the waters of the ocean. A
succession of waves was generated which appear to have been of two
kinds, long waves with periods of more than an hour, and shorter but
higher waves, with irregular and much briefer intervals. The greatest
disturbance, probably resulting from a combination of both kinds of
waves, reached a height of about 50 ft. The destruction caused by the
rush of such a body of sea-water along the coasts and low islands was
enormous. All vessels lying in harbour or near the shore were stranded,
the towns, villages and settlements close to the sea were either at
once, or by successive inundations, entirely destroyed, and more than
36,000 human beings perished. The sea-waves travelled to vast distances
from the centre of propagation. The long wave reached Cape Horn (7818
geographical miles) and possibly the English Channel (11,040 m.). The
shorter waves reached Ceylon and perhaps Mauritius (2900 m.).
See R. D. M. Verbeek, _Krakatau_ (Batavia, 1886); "The Eruption of
Krakatoa and Subsequent Phenomena," _Report of the Krakatoa Committee
of the Royal Society_ (London, 1888).
KRAKEN, in Norwegian folk-lore, a sea-monster, believed to haunt the
coasts of Norway. It was described in 1752 by the Norwegian bishop
Pontoppidan as having a back about a mile and a half round and a body
which showed above the sea like an island, and its arms were long enough
to enclose the largest ship. The further assertion that the kraken
darkened the water around it by an excretion suggests that the myth was
based on the appearance of some gigantic cuttle-fish.
See J. Gibson, _Monsters of the Sea_ (1887); A. S. Packard, "Colossal
Cuttle-fishes," _American Naturalist_ (Salem, 1873), vol. vii.; A. E.
Verrill, "The Colossal Cephalopods of the Western Atlantic," in
_American Naturalist_ (Salem, 1875), vol. ix.; and "Gigantic Squids,"
in _Trans. of Connecticut Academy_ (1879), vol. v.
KRALYEVO (sometimes written KRALJEVO or KRALIEVO), a city of Servia, and
capital of a department bearing the same name. Kralyevo is built beside
the river Ibar, 4 m. W. of its confluence with the Servian Morava; and
in the midst of an upland valley, between the Kotlenik Mountains, on the
north, and the Stolovi Mountains, on the south. Formerly known as
Karanovats, Kralyevo received its present name, signifying "the King's
Town," from King Milan (1868-1889), who also made it a bishopric,
instead of Chachak, 22 m. W. by N. Kralyevo is a garrison town, with a
prefecture, court of first instance, and an agricultural school. But by
far its most interesting feature is the Coronation church belonging to
Jicha monastery. Here six or seven kings are said to have been crowned.
The church is Byzantine in style, and has been partially restored; but
the main tower dates from the year 1210, when it was founded by St Sava,
the patron saint of Servia. Pop. (1900), about 3600.
The famous monastery of Studenitsa, 24 m. S. by W. of Kralyevo, stands
high up among the south-western mountains, overlooking the Studenitsa, a
tributary of the Ibar. It consists of a group of old-fashioned timber
and plaster buildings, a tall belfry, and a diminutive church of white
marble, founded in 1190 by King Stephen Nemanya, who himself turned monk
and was canonized as St Simeon. The carvings round the north, south and
west doors have been partially defaced by the Turks. The inner walls are
decorated with Byzantine frescoes, among which only a painting of the
Last Supper, and the portraits of five saints, remain unrestored. The
dome and narthex are modern additions. Besides the silver shrine of St
Simeon, many gold and silver ornaments, church vessels and old
manuscripts, there are a set of vestments and a reliquary, believed by
the monks to have been the property of St Sava.
KRANTZ (or CRANTZ), ALBERT (c. 1450-1517), German historian, was a
native of Hamburg. He studied law, theology and history at Rostock and
Cologne, and after travelling through western and southern Europe was
appointed professor, first of philosophy and subsequently of theology,
in the university of Rostock, of which he was rector in 1482. In 1493 he
returned to Hamburg as theological lecturer, canon and prebendary in the
cathedral. By the senate of Hamburg he was employed on more than one
diplomatic mission abroad, and in 1500 he was chosen by the king of
Denmark and the duke of Holstein as arbiter in their dispute regarding
the province of Dithmarschen. As dean of the cathedral chapter, to which
office he was appointed in 1508, Krantz applied himself with zeal to the
reform of ecclesiastical abuses, but, though opposed to various
corruptions connected with church discipline, he had little sympathy
with the drastic measures of Wycliffe or Huss. With Luther's protest
against the abuse of Indulgences he was in general sympathy, but with
the reformer's later attitude he could not agree. When, on his
death-bed, he heard of the ninety-five theses, he is said, on good
authority, to have exclaimed: "Brother, Brother, go into thy cell and
say, God have mercy upon me!" Krantz died on the 7th of December 1517.
Krantz was the author of a number of historical works which for the
period when they were written are characterized by exceptional
impartiality and research. The principal of these are _Chronica
regnorum aquilonarium Daniae, Sueciae, et Norvagiae_ (Strassburg,
1546); _Vandalia, sive Historia de Vandalorum vera origine_, &c.
(Cologne, 1518); _Saxonia_ (1520); and _Metropolis, sive Historia de
ecclesiis sub Carolo Magno in Saxonia_ (Basel, 1548). See life by N.
Wilckens (Hamburg, 1722).
KRASNOVODSK, a seaport of Russian Transcaspia, on the N. shore of
Balkhan or Krasnovodsk Bay, on the S. side of the Caspian Sea, opposite
to Baku, and at 69 ft. below sea-level. Pop. (1897), 6359. It is
defended by a fort. Here begins the Transcaspian railway to Merv and
Bokhara. There is a fishing industry, and salt and sulphur are
obtained. Krasnovodsk, which is the capital of the Transcaspian
province, was founded in 1869.
KRASNOYARSK, a town of Eastern Siberia, capital of the government of
Yeniseisk, on the left bank of the Yenisei River, at its confluence with
the Kacha, and on the highway from Moscow to Irkutsk, 670 m. by rail
N.W. from the latter. Pop. (1900), 33,337. It has a municipal museum and
a railway technical school. It was founded by Cossacks in 1628, and
during the early years of its existence it was more than once besieged
by the Tatars and the Kirghiz. Its commercial importance depends
entirely upon the gold-washings of the Yeniseisk district. Brick-making,
soap-boiling, tanning and iron-founding are carried on. The climate is
very cold, but dry. The Yenisei River is frozen here for 160 days in the
year.
KRASZEWSKI, JOSEPH IGNATIUS (1812-1887), Polish novelist and
miscellaneous writer, was born at Warsaw on the 28th of July 1812, of an
aristocratic family. He showed a precocious talent for authorship,
beginning his literary career with a volume of sketches from society as
early as 1829, and for more than half a century scarcely ever
intermitting his literary production, except during a period of
imprisonment upon a charge of complicity in the insurrection of 1831. He
narrowly escaped being sent to Siberia, but, rescued by the intercession
of powerful friends, he settled upon his landed property near Grodno,
and devoted himself to literature with such industry that a mere
selection from his fiction alone, reprinted at Lemberg from 1871 to
1875, occupies 102 volumes. He was thus the most conspicuous literary
figure of his day in Poland. His extreme fertility was suggestive of
haste and carelessness, but he declared that the contrivance of his plot
gave him three times as much trouble as the composition of his novel.
Apart from his gifts as a story-teller, he did not possess extraordinary
mental powers; the "profound thoughts" culled from his writings by his
admiring biographer Bohdanowicz are for the most part mere truisms. His
copious invention is nevertheless combined with real truth to nature,
especially evinced in the beautiful little story of _Jermola the Potter_
(1857), from which George Eliot appears to have derived the idea of
_Silas Marner_, though she can only have known it at second hand.
Compared with the exquisite art of _Silas Marner_, _Jermola_ appears
rude and unskilful, but it is not on this account the less touching in
its fidelity to the tenderest elements of human nature. Kraszewski's
literary activity falls into two well-marked epochs, the earlier when,
residing upon his estate, he produced romances like _Jermola_, _Ulana_
(1843), _Kordecki_ (1852), devoid of any special tendency, and that
after 1863, when the suspicions of the Russian government compelled him
to settle in Dresden. To this period belong several political novels
published under the pseudonym of _Boleslawita_, historical fictions such
as _Countess Cosel_, and the "culture" romances _Morituri_ (1874-1875)
and _Resurrecturi_ (1876), by which he is perhaps best known out of his
own country. In 1884 he was accused of plotting against the German
government and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment in a fortress, but
was released in 1886, and withdrew to Geneva, where he died on the 19th
of March 1887. His remains were brought to Poland and interred at
Cracow. Kraszewski was also a poet and dramatist; his most celebrated
poem is his epic _Anafielas_ (3 vols., 1840-1843) on the history of
Lithuania. He was indefatigable as literary critic, editor and
translator, wrote several historical works, and was conspicuous as a
restorer of the study of national archaeology in Poland. Among his most
valuable works were _Litwa_ (Warsaw, 2 vols., 1847-1850), a collection
of Lithuanian antiquities; and an aesthetic history of Poland (Posen, 3
vols., 1873-1875). (R. G.)
KRAUSE, KARL CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH (1781-1832), German philosopher, was
born at Eisenberg on the 4th of May 1781, and died at Munich on the 27th
of September 1832. Educated at first at Eisenberg, he proceeded to Jena,
where he studied philosophy under Hegel and Fichte and became
_privatdozent_ in 1802. In the same year, with characteristic
imprudence, he married a wife without dowry. Two years after, lack of
pupils compelled him to move to Rudolstadt and later to Dresden, where
he gave lessons in music. In 1805 his ideal of a universal world-society
led him to join the Freemasons, whose principles seemed to tend in the
direction he desired. He published two books on Freemasonry, _Die drei
ältesten Kunsturkunden der Freimaurerbrüderschaft_ and _Höhere
Vergeistigung der echt überlieferten Grundsymbole der Freimaurerei_, but
his opinions drew upon him the opposition of the Masons. He lived for a
time in Berlin and became a _privatdozent_, but was unable to obtain a
professorship. He therefore proceeded to Göttingen and afterwards to
Munich, where he died of apoplexy at the very moment when the influence
of Franz von Baader had at last obtained a position for him.
One of the so-called "Philosophers of Identity," Krause endeavoured to
reconcile the ideas of a God known by Faith or Conscience and the world
as known to sense. God, intuitively known by Conscience, is not a
personality (which implies limitations), but an all-inclusive essence
(_Wesen_), which contains the Universe within itself. This system he
called _Panentheism_, a combination of Theism and Pantheism. His theory
of the world and of humanity is universal and idealistic. The world
itself and mankind, its highest component, constitute an organism
(_Gliedbau_), and the universe is therefore a divine organism
(_Wesengliedbau_). The process of development is the formation of higher
unities, and the last stage is the identification of the world with God.
The form which this development takes, according to Krause, is Right or
the Perfect Law. Right is not the sum of the conditions of external
liberty but of absolute liberty, and embraces all the existence of
nature, reason and humanity. It is the mode, or rationale, of all
progress from the lower to the highest unity or identification. By its
operation the reality of nature and reason rises into the reality of
humanity. God is the reality which transcends and includes both nature
and humanity. Right is, therefore, at once the dynamic and the safeguard
of progress. Ideal society results from the widening of the organic
operation of this principle from the individual man to small groups of
men, and finally to mankind as a whole. The differences disappear as the
inherent identity of structure predominates in an ever-increasing
degree, and in the final unity Man is merged in God.
The comparatively small area of Krause's influence was due partly to the
overshadowing brilliance of Hegel, and partly to two intrinsic defects.
The spirit of his thought is mystical and by no means easy to follow,
and this difficulty is accentuated, even to German readers, by the use
of artificial terminology. He makes use of germanized foreign terms
which are unintelligible to the ordinary man. His principal works are
(beside those quoted above): _Entwurf des Systems der Philosophie_
(1804); _System der Sittenlehre_ (1810); _Das Urbild der Menschheit_
(1811); and _Vorlesungen über das System der Philosophie_ (1828). He
left behind him at his death a mass of unpublished notes, part of which
has been collected and published by his disciples, H. Ahrens
(1808-1874), Leonhardi, Tiberghien and others.
See H. S. Lindemann, _Uebersichtliche Darstellung des Lebens ...
Krauses_ (1839); P. Hohlfeld, _Die Krausesche Philosophie_ (1879); A.
Procksch, _Krause, ein Lebensbild nach seinen Briefen_ (1880); R.
Eucken, _Zur Erinnerung an Krause_ (1881); B. Martin, _Krauses Leben
und Bedeutung_ (1881), and Histories of Philosophy by Zeller,
Windelband and Höffding.
KRAWANG, a residency of the island of Java, Dutch East Indies, bounded
E. and S. by Charibon and the Preanger, W. by Batavia, and N. by the
Java Sea, and comprising a few insignificant islands. The natives are
Sundanese, but contain a large admixture of Middle Javanese and
Bantamers in the north, where they established colonies in the 17th
century. Like the residency of Batavia, the northern half of Krawang is
flat and occasionally marshy, while the southern half is mountainous and
volcanic. Warm and cold mineral, salt and sulphur springs occur in the
hills. Salt is extracted by the government, though in smaller quantities
now than formerly. The principal products are rice, coffee, sugar,
vanilla, indigo and nutmeg. Fishing is practised along the coast and
forest culture in the hills, while the industries also include the
manufacture of coarse linen, sacks and leather tanning. Gold and silver
were formerly thought to be hidden in the Parang mountain in the
Gandasoli district south-west of Purwakarta, and mining was begun by the
Dutch East India Company in 1722. The largest part of the residency
consists of private lands, and only the Purwakarta and Krawang divisions
forming the middle and north-west sections come directly under
government control. The remainder of the residency is divided between
the Pamanukan-Chiasem lands occupying the whole eastern half of the
residency and the Tegalwaru lands in the south-western corner. The
former is owned by a company and forms the largest estate in Java. The
Tegalwaru is chiefly owned by Chinese proprietors. Purwakarta is the
capital of the residency. Subang and Pamanukan both lie at the junction
of several roads near the borders of Cheribon and are the chief centres
of activity in the east of the residency.
KRAY VON KRAJOVA, PAUL, FREIHERR (1735-1804), Austrian soldier. Entering
the Austrian army at the age of nineteen, he arrived somewhat rapidly at
the grade of major, but it was many years before he had any opportunity
of distinguishing himself. In 1784 he suppressed a rising in
Transylvania, and in the Turkish wars he took an active part at Porczeny
and the Vulcan Pass. Made major-general in 1790, three years later he
commanded the advanced guard of the Allies operating in France. He
distinguished himself at Famars, Charleroi, Fleurus, Weissenberg, and
indeed at almost every encounter with the troops of the French Republic.
In the celebrated campaign of 1796 on the Rhine and Danube he did
conspicuous service as a corps commander. At Wetzlar he defeated Kléber,
and at Amberg and Würzburg he was largely responsible for the victory of
the archduke Charles. In the following year he was less successful,
being twice defeated on the Lahn and the Main. Kray commanded in Italy
in 1799, and reconquered from the French the plain of Lombardy. For his
victories of Verona, Mantua, Legnago and Magnano he was promoted
_Feldzeugmeister_, and he ended the campaign by further victories at
Novi and Fossano. Next year he commanded on the Rhine against Moreau.
(For the events of this memorable campaign see FRENCH REVOLUTIONARY
WARS.) As a consequence of the defeats he underwent at Biberach,
Messkirch, &c., Kray was driven into Ulm, but by a skilful march round
Moreau's flank succeeded in escaping to Bohemia. He was relieved of his
command by the Austrian government, and passed his remaining years in
retirement. He died in 1804. Kray was one of the best representatives of
the old Austrian army. Tied to an obsolete system and unable from habit
to realize the changed conditions of warfare, he failed, but his enemies
held him in the highest respect as a brave, skilful and chivalrous
opponent. It was he who at Altenkirchen cared for the dying Marceau, and
the white uniforms of Kray and his staff mingled with the blue of the
French in the funeral procession of the young general of the Republic.
KREMENCHUG, a town of south-west Russia, in the government of Poltava,
on the left bank of the Dnieper (which periodically overflows its
banks), 73 m. S.W. of the city of Poltava, on the Kharkov-Nikolayev
railway. Pop. (1887), 31,000; (1897, with Kryukov suburb), 58,648. The
most notable public buildings are the cathedral (built in 1808), the
arsenal and the town-hall. The town is supposed to have been founded in
1571. From its situation at the southern terminus of the navigable
course of the Dnieper, and on the highway from Moscow to Odessa, it
early acquired great commercial importance, and by 1655 it was a wealthy
town. From 1765 to 1789 it was the capital of "New Russia." It has a
suburb, Kryukov, on the right bank of the Dnieper, united with the town
by a railway bridge. Nearly all commercial transactions in salt with
White Russia are effected at Kremenchug. The town is also the centre of
the tallow trade with Warsaw; considerable quantities of timber are
floated down to this place. Nearly all the trade in the brandy
manufactured in the government of Kharkov, and destined for the
governments of Ekaterinoslav and Taurida, is concentrated here, as also
is the trade in linseed between the districts situated on the left
affluents of the Dnieper and the southern ports. Other articles of
commerce are rye, rye-flour, wheat, oats and buckwheat, which are sent
partly up the Dnieper to Pinsk, partly by land to Odessa and Berislav,
but principally to Ekaterinoslav, on light boats floated down during the
spring floods. The Dnieper is crossed at Kremenchug by a tubular bridge
1081 yds. long; there is also a bridge of boats. The manufactures
consist of carriages, agricultural machinery, tobacco, steam
flour-mills, steam saw-mills and forges.
KREMENETS (Polish, _Krzemieniec_), a town of south-west Russia, in the
government of Volhynia, 130 m. W. of Zhitomir, and 25 m. E. of Brody
railway station (Austrian Galicia). Pop. (1900), 16,534. It is situated
in a gorge of the Kremenets Hills. The Jews, who are numerous, carry on
a brisk trade in tobacco and grain exported to Galicia and Odessa. The
picturesque ruins of an old castle on a crag close by the town are
usually known as the castle of Queen Bona, i.e. Bona Sforza (wife of
Sigismund I. of Poland); it was built, however, in the 8th or 9th
century. The Mongols vainly besieged it in 1241 and 1255. From that time
Kremenets was under the dominion alternately of Lithuania and Poland,
till 1648, when it was taken by the Zaporogian Cossacks. From 1805 to
1832 its Polish lyceum was the centre of superior instruction for the
western provinces of Little Russia; but after the Polish insurrection of
1831 the lyceum was transferred to Kiev, and is now the university of
that town.
KREMS, a town of Austria, in lower Austria, 40 m. W.N.W. of Vienna by
rail. Pop. (1900), 12,657. It is situated at the confluence of the Krems
with the Danube. The manufactures comprise steel goods, mustard and
vinegar, and a special kind of white lead (_Kremser Weiss_) is prepared
from deposits in the neighbourhood. The trade is mainly in these
products and in wine and saffron. The Danube harbour of Krems is at the
adjoining town of Stein (pop., 4299).
KREMSIER, (Czech, _Kromeríz_), a town of Austria, in Moravia, 37 m. E.
by N. of Brünn by rail. Pop. (1900), 13,991, mostly Czech. It is
situated on the March, in the fertile region of the Hanna, and not far
from the confluence of these two rivers. It is the summer residence of
the bishop of Olmütz, whose palace, surrounded by a fine park and
gardens, and containing a picture gallery, library and various
collections, forms the chief object of interest. Its industries include
the manufacture of machinery and iron-founding, brewing and
corn-milling, and there is a considerable trade in corn, cattle, fruit
and manufactures. In 1131 Kremsier was the seat of a bishopric. It
suffered considerably during the Hussite war; and in 1643 it was taken
and burned by the Swedes. After the rising of 1848 the Austrian
parliament met in the palace at Kremsier from November 1848 till March
1849. In August 1885 a meeting took place here between the Austrian and
the Russian emperors.
KREUTZER, KONRADIN (1780-1849), German musical composer, was born on the
22nd of November 1780 in Messkirch in Baden, and died on the 14th of
December 1849 in Riga. He owes his fame almost exclusively to one opera,
_Das Nachtlager von Granada_ (1834), which kept the stage for half a
century in spite of the changes in musical taste. It was written in the
style of Weber, and is remarkable especially for its flow of genuine
melody and depth of feeling. The same qualities are found in Kreutzer's
part-songs for men's voices, which at one time were extremely popular in
Germany, and are still listened to with pleasure. Amongst these "Der Tag
des Herrn" ("The Lord's Day") may be named as the most excellent.
Kreutzer was a prolific composer, and wrote a number of operas for the
theatre at Vienna, which have disappeared from the stage and are not
likely to be revived. He was from 1812 to 1816 Kapellmeister to the king
of Württemberg, and in 1840 became conductor of the opera at Cologne.
His daughter, Cecilia Kreutzer, was a singer of some renown.
KREUTZER, RUDOLPH (1766-1831), French violinist, of German extraction,
was born at Versailles, his father being a musician in the royal chapel.
Rudolph gradually became famous as a violinist, playing with great
success at various continental capitals. It was to him that in 1803
Beethoven dedicated his famous violin sonata (_op._ 47) known as the
"Kreutzer." Apart, however, from his fame as a violinist, Kreutzer was
also a prolific composer; he wrote twenty-nine operas, many of which
were successfully produced, besides nineteen violin concertos and
chamber music. He died at Geneva in 1831.
KREUZBURG, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Silesia, on
the Stober, 24 m. N.N.E. of Oppeln. Pop. (1905), 10,919. It has an
Evangelical and a Roman Catholic church, a gymnasium and a teacher's
seminary. Here are flour-mills, distilleries, iron-works, breweries, and
manufactories of sugar and of machinery. Kreuzburg, which became a town
in 1252, was the birthplace of the novelist Gustav Freytag.
KREUZNACH (_Creuznach_), a town and watering-place of Germany, in the
Prussian Rhine province, situated on the Nahe, a tributary of the Rhine,
9 m. by rail S. of Bingerbrück. Pop. (1900), 21,321. It consists of the
old town on the right bank of the river, the new town on the left, and
the Bade Insel (bath island), connected by a fine stone bridge. The town
has two Evangelical and three Roman Catholic churches, a gymnasium, a
commercial school and a hospital. There is a collection of Roman and
medieval antiquities, among which is preserved a fine Roman mosaic
discovered in 1893. On the Bade Insel is the Kurhaus (1872) and also the
chief spring, the Elisabethquelle, impregnated with iodine and bromine,
and prescribed for scrofulous, bronchial and rheumatic disorders. The
chief industries are marble-polishing and the manufacture of leather,
glass and tobacco. Vines are cultivated on the neighbouring hills, and
there is a trade in wine and corn.
The earliest mention of the springs of Kreuznach occurs in 1478, but it
was only in the early part of the 19th century that Dr Prieger, to whom
there is a statue in the town, brought them into prominence. Now the
annual number of visitors amounts to several thousands. Kreuznach was
evidently a Roman town, as the ruins of a Roman fortification, the
Heidenmauer, and various antiquities have been found in its immediate
neighbourhood. In the 9th century it was known as Cruciniacum, and it
had a palace of the Carolingian kings. In 1065 the emperor Henry IV.
presented it to the bishopric of Spires; in the 13th century it obtained
civic privileges and passed to the counts of Sponheim; in 1416 it became
part of the Palatinate. The town was ceded to Prussia in 1814. In 1689
the French reduced the strong castle of Kauzenberg to the ruin which now
stands on a hill above Kreuznach.
See Schneegans, _Historisch-topographische Beschreibung Kreuznachs und
seiner Umgebung_ (7th ed., 1904); Engelmann, _Kreuznach und seine
Heilquellen_ (8th ed., 1890); and Stabel, _Das Solbad Kreuznach für
Ärzte dargestellt_ (Kreuznach, 1887).
KRIEGSPIEL (KRIEGSSPIEL), the original German name, still used to some
extent in England, for the War Game (q.v.).
KRIEMHILD (_Grîmhild_), the heroine of the Nibelungenlied and wife of
the hero Siegfried. The name (from O. H. Ger. _grîma_, a mask or helm,
and _hiltja_ or _hilta_, war) means "the masked warrior woman," and has
been taken to prove her to have been originally a mythical, daemonic
figure, an impersonation of the powers of darkness and of death. In the
north, indeed, the name _Grimhildr_ continued to have a purely mythical
character and to be applied only to daemonic beings; but in Germany, the
original home of the Nibelungen myth, it certainly lost all trace of
this significance, and in the _Nibelungenlied_ Kriemhild is no more than
a beautiful princess, the daughter of King Dancrât and Queen Uote, and
sister of the Burgundian kings Gunther, Giselhêr and Gêrnôt, the masters
of the Nibelungen hoard. As she appears in the Nibelungen legend,
however, Kriemhild would seem to have an historical origin, as the wife
of Attila, king of the Huns, as well as sister of the Nibelung kings.
According to Jordanes (c. 49), who takes his information from the
contemporary and trustworthy account of Priscus, Attila died of a
violent hemorrhage at night, as he lay beside a girl named Ildico (i.e.
O. H. Ger. Hildikô). The story got abroad that he had perished by the
hand of a woman in revenge for her relations slain by him; according to
some (e.g. Saxo Poeta and the Quedlinburg chronicle) it was her father
whom she revenged; but when the treacherous overthrow of the Burgundians
by Attila had become a theme for epic poets, she figured as a Burgundian
princess, and her act as done in revenge for her brothers. Now the name
Hildikô is the diminutive of Hilda or Hild, which again--in accordance
with a custom common enough--may have been used as an abbreviation of
Grîmhild (cf. _Hildr_ for _Brynhildr_). It has been suggested (Symons,
_Heldensage_, p. 55) that when the legend of the overthrow of the
Burgundians, which took place in 437, became attached to that of the
death of Attila (453), Hild, the supposed sister of the Burgundian
kings, was identified with the daemonic Grîmhild, the sister of the
mythical Nibelung brothers, and thus helped the process by which the
Nibelung myth became fused with the historical story of the fall of the
Burgundian kingdom. The older story, according to which Grîmhild slays
her husband Attila in revenge for her brothers, is preserved in the
Norse tradition, though Grîmhild's part is played by Gudrun, a change
probably due to the fact, mentioned above, that the name Grîmhild still
retained in the north its sinister significance. The name of Grîmhild is
transferred to Gudrun's mother, the "wise wife," a semi-daemonic figure,
who brews the potion that makes Sigurd forget his love for Brunhild and
his plighted troth. In the _Nibelungenlied_, however, the primitive
supremacy of the blood-tie has given place to the more modern idea of
the supremacy of the passion of love, and Kriemhild marries Attila
(Etzel) in order to compass the death of her brothers, in revenge for
the murder of Siegfried. Theodor Abeling, who is disposed to reject or
minimize the mythical origins, further suggests a confusion of the story
of Attila's wife Ildico with that of the murder of Sigimund the
Burgundian by the sons of Chrothildis, wife of Clovis. (See
NIBELUNGENLIED.)
See B. Symons, _Germanische Heldensage_ (Strassburg, 1905); F. Zarnke,
_Das Nibelungenlied_, p. ii. (Leipzig, 1875); T. Abeling, _Einleitung
in das Nibelungenlied_ (Freiburg-im-Breisgau, 1909). (W. A. P.)
KRILOFF (or KRUILOV), IVAN ANDREEVICH (1768-1844), the great national
fabulist of Russia, was born on the 14th of February 1768, at Moscow,
but his early years were spent at Orenburg and Tver. His father, a
distinguished military officer, died in 1779; and young Kriloff was left
with no richer patrimony than a chest of old books, to be brought up by
the exertions of a heroic mother. In the course of a few years his
mother removed to St Petersburg, in the hope of securing a government
pension; and there Kriloff obtained a post in the civil service, but he
gave it up immediately after his mother's death in 1788. Already in 1783
he had sold to a bookseller a comedy of his own composition, and by this
means had procured for himself the works of Molière, Racine, Boileau;
and now, probably under the influence of these writers, he produced
_Philomela_ and _Cleopatra_, which gave him access to the dramatic
circle of Knyazhin. Several attempts he made to start a literary
magazine met with little success; but, together with his plays, they
served to make the author known in society. For about four years
(1797-1801) Kriloff lived at the country seats of Prince Sergius
Galitzin, and when the prince was appointed military governor of Livonia
he accompanied him as official secretary. Of the years which follow his
resignation of this post little is known, the common opinion being that
he wandered from town to town under the influence of a passion for
card-playing. Before long he found his place as a fabulist, the first
collection of his _Fables_, 23 in number, appearing in 1809. From 1812
to 1841 he held a congenial appointment in the Imperial Public
Library--first as assistant, and then as head of the Russian books
department. He died on the 21st of November 1844. His statue in the
Summer Garden is one of the finest monuments in St Petersburg.
Honours were showered upon Kriloff while he yet lived: the Academy of
Sciences admitted him a member in 1811, and bestowed upon him its gold
medal; in 1838 a great festival was held under imperial sanction to
celebrate the jubilee of his first appearance as an author; and the
emperor assigned him a handsome pension. Before his death about 77,000
copies of his Fables had found sale in Russia; and his wisdom and humour
had become the common possession of the many. He was at once poet and
sage. His fables for the most part struck root in some actual event, and
they told at once by their grip and by their beauty. Though he began as
a translator and imitator he soon showed himself a master of invention,
who found abundant material in the life of his native land. To the
Russian ear his verse is of matchless quality; while word and phrase are
direct, simple and eminently idiomatic, colour and cadence vary with the
theme.
A collected edition of Kriloff's works appeared at St Petersburg,
1844. Of the numerous editions of his _Fables_, which have been often
translated, may be mentioned that illustrated by Trutovski, 1872. The
author's life has been written in Russian by Pletneff, by Lebanoff and
by Grot, _Liter, zhizn Kruilova_. "Materials" for his life are
published in vol. vi. of the _Sbornik Statei_ of the literary
department of the Academy of Sciences. W. R. S. Ralston prefixed an
excellent sketch to his English prose version of the _Fables_ (1868;
2nd ed. 1871). Another translation, by T. H. Harrison, appeared in
1883.
KRISHNA (the Dark One), an incarnation of Vishnu, or rather the form in
which Vishnu himself is the most popular object of worship throughout
northern India. In origin, Krishna, like Rama, was undoubtedly a deified
hero of the Kshatriya caste. In the older framework of the _Mahabharata_
he appears as a great chieftain and ally of the Pandava brothers; and it
is only in the interpolated episode of the _Bhagavad-gita_ that he is
identified with Vishnu and becomes the revealer of the doctrine of
_bhakti_ or religious devotion. Of still later date are the popular
developments of the modern cult of Krishna associated with Radha, as
found in the _Vishnu Purana_. Here he is represented as the son of a
king saved from a slaughter of the innocents, brought up by a cowherd,
sporting with the milkmaids, and performing miraculous feats in his
childhood. The scene is laid in the neighbourhood of Muttra, on the
right bank of the Jumna, where the whole country to the present day is
holy ground. Another place associated with incidents of his later life
is Dwarka, the westernmost point in the peninsula of Kathiawar. The two
most famous preachers of Krishna-worship and founders of sects in his
honour were Vallabha and Chaitanya, both born towards the close of the
15th century. The followers of the former are now found chiefly in
Rajputana and Gujarat. They are known as Vallabhacharyas, and their
_gosains_ or high priests as maharajas, to whom semi-divine honours are
paid. The licentious practices of this sect were exposed in a lawsuit
before the high court at Bombay in 1862. Chaitanya was the Vaishnav
reformer of Bengal, with his home at Nadiya. A third influential
Krishna-preacher of the 19th century was Swami Narayan, who was
encountered by Bishop Heber in Gujarat, where his followers at this day
are numerous and wealthy. Among the names of Krishna are _Gopal_, the
cowherd; _Gopinath_, the lord of the milkmaids; and _Mathuranath_, the
lord of Muttra. His legitimate consort was Rukmini, daughter of the king
of Berar; but Radha is always associated with him in his temples. (See
HINDUISM.)
KRISHNAGAR, a town of British India, headquarters of Nadia district in
Bengal, situated on the left bank of the river Jalangi and connected
with Ranaghat, on the Eastern Bengal railway, by a light railway. Pop.
(1901), 24,547. It is the residence of the raja of Nadia and contains a
government college. Coloured clay figures are manufactured.
KRISTIANSTAD (CHRISTIANSTAD), a port of Sweden, chief town of the
district (_län_) of Kristianstad, on a peninsula in Lake Sjövik, an
expansion of the river Helge, 10 m. from the Baltic. Pop. (1900),
10,318. Its harbour, custom-house, &c., are at Åhus at the mouth of the
river. It is among the first twelve manufacturing towns of Sweden as
regards value of output, having engineering works, flour-mills,
distilleries, weaving mills and sugar factories. Granite and wood-pulp
are exported, and coal and grain imported. The town is the seat of the
court of appeal for the provinces of Skane and Blekinge. It was founded
and fortified in 1614 by Christian IV. of Denmark, who built the fine
ornate church. The town was ceded to Sweden in 1658, retaken by
Christian V. in 1676, and again acquired by Sweden in 1678.
KRIVOY ROG, a town of south Russia, in the government of Kherson, on the
Ingulets River, near the station of the same name on the Ekaterinoslav
railway, 113 m. S.W. of the city of Ekaterinoslav. Pop. (1900), about
10,000. It is the centre of a district very rich in minerals, obtained
from a narrow stretch of crystalline schists underlying the Tertiary
deposits. Iron ores (60 to 70% of iron), copper ores, colours, brown
coal, graphite, slate, and lithographic stone are obtained--nearly
2,000,000 tons of iron ore annually.
KROCHMAL, NAHMAN (1785-1840), Jewish scholar, was born at Brody in
Galicia in 1785. He was one of the pioneers in the revival of Jewish
learning which followed on the age of Moses Mendelssohn. His chief work
was the _Moreh Nebuche hazeman_ ("Guide for the Perplexed of the Age"),
a title imitated from that of the 12th-century "Guide for the Perplexed"
of Maimonides (q.v.). This book was not published till after the
author's death, when it was edited by Zunz (1851). The book is a
philosophy of Jewish history, and has a double importance. On the one
side it was a critical examination of the Rabbinic literature and much
influenced subsequent investigators. On the other side, Krochmal, in the
words of N. Slouschz, "was the first Jewish scholar who views Judaism,
not as a distinct and independent entity, but as a part of the whole of
civilization." Krochmal, under Hegelian influences, regarded the
nationality of Israel as consisting in its religious genius, its
spiritual gifts. Thus Krochmal may be called the originator of the idea
of the mission of the Jewish people, "cultural Zionism" as it has more
recently been termed. He died at Tarnopol in 1840.
See S. Schechter, _Studies in Judaism_ (1896), pp. 56 seq.; N.
Slouschz, _Renascence of Hebrew Literature_ (1909), pp. 63 seq.
(I. A.)
KRONENBERG, a town of Germany in the Prussian Rhine Province, 6 m. S.W.
from Elberfeld, with which it is connected by railway and by an electric
tramway line. Pop. (1905), 11,340. It is a scattered community,
consisting of an agglomeration of seventy-three different hamlets. It
has a Roman Catholic and two Protestant churches, a handsome modern
town-hall and considerable industries, consisting mainly of steel and
iron manufactures.
KRONSTADT or CRONSTADT, a strongly fortified seaport town of Russia, the
chief naval station of the Russian fleet in the northern seas, and the
seat of the Russian admiralty. Pop. (1867), 45,115; (1897), 59,539. It
is situated on the island of Kotlin, near the head of the Gulf of
Finland, 20 m. W. of St Petersburg, of which it is the chief port, in
59° 59´ 30´´ N. and 29° 46´ 30´´ E. Kronstadt, always strong, has been
thoroughly refortified on modern principles. The old "three-decker"
forts, five in number, which formerly constituted the principal defences
of the place, and defied the Anglo-French fleets during the Crimean War,
are now of secondary importance. From the plans of Todleben a new fort,
Constantine, and four batteries were constructed (1856-1871) to defend
the principal approach, and seven batteries to cover the shallower
northern channel. All these modern fortifications are low and thickly
armoured earthworks, powerfully armed with heavy Krupp guns in turrets.
The town itself is surrounded with an _enceinte_. The island of Kotlin,
or Kettle (Finn., _Retusari_, or Rat Island) in general outline forms an
elongated triangle, 7½ m. in length by about 1 in breadth, with its base
towards St Petersburg. The eastern or broad end is occupied by the town
of Kronstadt, and shoals extend for a mile and a half from the western
point of the island to the rock on which the Tolbaaken lighthouse is
built. The island thus divides the seaward approach to St Petersburg
into two channels; that on the northern side is obstructed by shoals
which extend across it from Kotlin to Lisynos on the Finnish mainland,
and is only passable by vessels drawing less than 15 ft. of water; the
southern channel, the highway to the capital, is narrowed by a spit
which projects from opposite Oranienbaum on the Russian mainland, and,
lying close to Kronstadt, has been strongly guarded by batteries. The
approach to the capital has been greatly facilitated by the construction
in 1875-1885 of a canal, 23 ft. deep, through the shallows. The town of
Kronstadt is built on level ground, and is thus exposed to inundations,
from one of which it suffered in 1824. On the south side of the town
there are three harbours--the large western or merchant harbour, the
western flank of which is formed by a great mole joining the
fortifications which traverse the breadth of the island on this side;
the middle harbour, used chiefly for fitting out and repairing vessels;
and the eastern or war harbour for vessels of the Russian navy. The
Peter and Catherine canals, communicating with the merchant and middle
harbours, traverse the town. Between them stood the old Italian palace
of Prince Menshikov, the site of which is now occupied by the pilot
school. Among other public buildings are the naval hospital, the British
seaman's hospital (established in 1867), the civic hospital, admiralty
(founded 1785), arsenal, dockyards and foundries, school of marine
engineering, the cathedral of St Andrew, and the English church. The
port is ice-bound for 140 to 160 days in the year, from the beginning of
December till April. A very large proportion of the inhabitants are
sailors, and large numbers of artisans are employed in the dockyards.
Kronstadt was founded in 1710 by Peter the Great, who took the island of
Kotlin from the Swedes in 1703, when the first fortifications were
constructed. (P. A. K.; J. T. Be.)
KROONSTAD, a town of Orange River Colony, 127 m. by rail N.E. of
Bloemfontein and 130 m. S.W. of Johannesburg. Pop. (1904), 7191, of whom
3708 were whites. Kroonstad lies 4489 ft. above the sea and is built on
the banks of the Valsch River, a perennial tributary of the Vaal. It is
a busy town, being the centre of a rich agricultural district and of the
diamond and coal-mining industry of the north-western parts of the
colony. It is also a favourite residential place and resort of visitors
from Johannesburg. It enjoys a healthy climate, affords opportunities
for boating rare in South Africa, and boasts a golf-links. The principal
building is the Dutch Reformed church in the centre of the market
square.
On the capture of Bloemfontein by the British during the Anglo-Boer War
of 1899-1902 Kroonstad was chosen by the Orange Free State Boers as the
capital of the state, a dignity it held from the 13th of March to the
11th of May 1900. On the following day the town was occupied by Lord
Roberts. The linking of the town in 1906 with the Natal system made the
route via Kroonstad the shortest railway connexion between Cape Town and
Durban. Another line goes N.W. from Kroonstad to Klerksdorp, passing (17
miles) the Lace diamond mine and (45 miles) the coal mines at
Vierfontein.
KROPOTKIN, PETER ALEXEIVICH, PRINCE (1842- ), Russian geographer,
author and revolutionary, was born at Moscow in 1842. His father, Prince
Alexei Petrovich Kropotkin, belonged to the old Russian nobility; his
mother, the daughter of a general in the Russian army, had remarkable
literary and liberal tastes. At the age of fifteen Prince Peter
Kropotkin, who had been designed by his father for the army, entered the
Corps of Pages at St Petersburg (1857). Only a hundred and fifty
boys--mostly children of the nobility belonging to the court--were
educated in this privileged corps, which combined the character of a
military school endowed with special rights and of a Court institution
attached to the imperial household. Here he remained till 1862, reading
widely on his own account, and giving special attention to the works of
the French encyclopaedists and to modern French history. Before he left
Moscow Prince Kropotkin had developed an interest in the condition of
the Russian peasantry, and this interest increased as he grew older. The
years 1857-1861 witnessed a rich growth in the intellectual forces of
Russia, and Kropotkin came under the influence of the new
Liberal-revolutionary literature, which indeed largely expressed his own
aspirations. In 1862 he was promoted from the Corps of Pages to the
army. The members of the corps had the prescriptive right of choosing
the regiment to which they would be attached. Kropotkin had never
wished for a military career, but, as he had not the means to enter the
St Petersburg University, he elected to join a Siberian Cossack regiment
in the recently annexed Amur district, where there were prospects of
administrative work. For some time he was aide de camp to the governor
of Transbaikalia at Chita, subsequently being appointed attaché for
Cossack affairs to the governor-general of East Siberia at Irkutsk.
Opportunities for administrative work, however, were scanty, and in 1864
Kropotkin accepted charge of a geographical survey expedition, crossing
North Manchuria from Transbaikalia to the Amur, and shortly afterwards
was attached to another expedition which proceeded up the Sungari River
into the heart of Manchuria. Both these expeditions yielded most
valuable geographical results. The impossibility of obtaining any real
administrative reforms in Siberia now induced Kropotkin to devote
himself almost entirely to scientific exploration, in which he continued
to be highly successful. In 1867 he quitted the army and returned to St
Petersburg, where he entered the university, becoming at the same time
secretary to the physical geography section of the Russian Geographical
Society. In 1873 he published an important contribution to science, a
map and paper in which he proved that the existing maps of Asia entirely
misrepresented the physical formation of the country, the main
structural lines being in fact from south-west to north-east, not from
north to south, or from east to west as had been previously supposed. In
1871 he explored the glacial deposits of Finland and Sweden for the
Russian Geographical Society, and while engaged in this work was offered
the secretaryship of that society. But by this time he had determined
that it was his duty not to work at fresh discoveries but to aid in
diffusing existing knowledge among the people at large, and he
accordingly refused the offer, and returned to St Petersburg, where he
joined the revolutionary party. In 1872 he visited Switzerland, and
became a member of the International Workingmen's Association at Geneva.
The socialism of this body was not, however, advanced enough for his
views, and after studying the programme of the more violent Jura
Federation at Neuchâtel and spending some time in the company of the
leading members, he definitely adopted the creed of anarchism (q.v.)
and, on returning to Russia, took an active part in spreading the
nihilist propaganda. In 1874 he was arrested and imprisoned, but escaped
in 1876 and went to England, removing after a short stay to Switzerland,
where he joined the Jura Federation. In 1877 he went to Paris, where he
helped to start the socialist movement, returning to Switzerland in
1878, where he edited for the Jura Federation a revolutionary newspaper,
_Le Révolté_, subsequently also publishing various revolutionary
pamphlets. Shortly after the assassination of the tsar Alexander II.
(1881) Kropotkin was expelled from Switzerland by the Swiss government,
and after a short stay at Thonon (Savoy) went to London, where he
remained for nearly a year, returning to Thonon towards the end of 1882.
Shortly afterwards he was arrested by the French government, and, after
a trial at Lyons, sentenced by a police-court magistrate (under a
special law passed on the fall of the Commune) to five years'
imprisonment, on the ground that he had belonged to the International
Workingmen's Association (1883). In 1886 however, as the result of
repeated agitation on his behalf in the French Chamber, he was released,
and settled near London.
Prince Kropotkin's authority as a writer on Russia is universally
acknowledged, and he has contributed largely to the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_. Among his other works may be named _Paroles d'un révolté_
(1884); _La Conquête du pain_ (1888); _L'Anarchie: sa philosophie, son
idéal_ (1896); _The State, its Part in History_ (1898); _Fields,
Factories and Workshops_ (1899); _Memoirs of a Revolutionist_ (1900);
_Mutual Aid, a Factor of Evolution_ (1902); _Modern Science and
Anarchism_ (Philadelphia, 1903); _The Desiccation of Asia_ (1904); The
Orography of Asia (1904); and _Russian Literature_ (1905).
KROTOSCHIN (in Polish, _Krotoszyn_), a town of Germany, in the Prussian
province of Posen, 32 m. S.E. of Posen. Pop. (1900), 12,373. It has
three churches, a synagogue, steam saw-mills, and a steam brewery, and
carries on trade in grain and seeds. The castle of Krotoschin is the
chief place of a mediatized principality which was formed in 1819 out of
the domains of the Prussian crown and was granted to the prince of Thurn
and Taxis in compensation for the relinquishment by him of the monopoly
of the Prussian postal system, formerly held by his family.
KRÜDENER, BARBARA JULIANA, BARONESS VON (1764-1824), Russian religious
mystic and author, was born at Riga in Livonia on the 11th of November
1764. Her father, Otto Hermann von Vietinghoff, who had fought as a
colonel in Catherine II.'s wars, was one of the two councillors for
Livonia and a man of immense wealth; her mother, _née_ Countess Anna
Ulrica von Münnich, was a grand-daughter of the celebrated field
marshal. Juliana, as she was usually called, was one of a numerous
family. Her education, according to her own account, consisted of
lessons in French spelling, deportment and sewing; and at the age of
eighteen (Sept. 29, 1782) she was married to Baron Burckhard Alexis
Constantin von Krüdener, a widower sixteen years her senior. The baron,
a diplomatist of distinction, was cold and reserved; the baroness was
frivolous, pleasure-loving, and possessed of an insatiable thirst for
attention and flattery; and the strained relations due to this
incompatibility of temper were embittered by her limitless extravagance,
which constantly involved herself and her husband in financial
difficulties. At first indeed all went well. On the 31st of January 1784
a son was born to them, named Paul after the grand-duke Paul (afterwards
emperor), who acted as god-father. The same year Baron Krüdener became
ambassador at Venice,[1] where he remained until transferred to
Copenhagen in 1786.
In 1787 the birth of a daughter (Juliette) aggravated the nervous
disorders from which the baroness had for some time been suffering, and
it was decided that she must go to the south for her health; she
accordingly left, with her infant daughter and her step-daughter Sophie.
In 1789 she was at Paris when the states general met; a year later, at
Montpellier, she met a young cavalry captain, Charles Louis de
Frégeville, and a passionate attachment sprang up between them. They
returned together to Copenhagen, where the baroness told her husband
that her heart could no longer be his. The baron was coldly kind; he
refused to hear of a divorce and attempted to arrange a _modus vivendi_,
which was facilitated by the departure of De Frégeville for the war. All
was useless; Juliana refused to remain at Copenhagen, and, setting out
on her travels, visited Riga, St Petersburg--where her father had become
a senator[2]--Berlin, Leipzig and Switzerland. In 1798 her husband
became ambassador at Berlin, and she joined him there. But the stiff
court society of Prussia was irksome to her; money difficulties
continued; and by way of climax, the murder of the tsar Paul, in whose
favour Baron Krüdener had stood high, made the position of the
ambassador extremely precarious. The baroness seized the occasion to
leave for the baths of Teplitz, whence she wrote to her husband that the
doctors had ordered her to winter in the south. He died on the 14th of
June 1802, without ever having seen her again.
Meanwhile the baroness had been revelling in the intellectual society of
Coppet and of Paris. She was now thirty-six; her charms were fading, but
her passion for admiration survived. She had tried the effect of the
shawl dance, in imitation of Emma, Lady Hamilton; she now sought fame in
literature, and in 1803, after consulting Châteaubriand and other
writers of distinction, published her _Valérie_, a sentimental romance,
of which under a thin veil of anonymity she herself was the heroine. In
January 1804 she returned to Livonia.
At Riga occurred her "conversion." A gentleman of her acquaintance when
about to salute her fell dying at her feet. The shock overset her not
too well balanced mind; she sought for consolation, and found it in the
ministrations of her shoemaker, an ardent disciple of the Moravian
Brethren. Though she had "found peace," however, the disorder of her
nerves continued, and she was ordered by her doctor to the baths of
Wiesbaden. At Königsberg she had an interview with Queen Louise, and,
more important still, with one Adam Müller, a rough peasant, to whom the
Lord had revealed a prophetic mission to King Frederick William III.
"Chiliasm" was in the air. Napoleon was evidently Antichrist; and the
"latter days" were about to be accomplished. Under the influence of the
pietistic movement the belief was widely spread, in royal courts, in
country parsonages, in peasants' hovels: a man would be raised up "from
the north ... from the rising of the sun" (Isa. xli. 25); Antichrist
would be overthrown, and Christ would come to reign a thousand years
upon the earth. The interview determined the direction of the baroness's
religious development. A short visit to the Moravians at Herrenhut
followed; then she went, via Dresden, to Karlsruhe, to sit at the feet
of Heinrich Jung-Stilling (q.v.), the high priest of occultist pietism,
whose influence was supreme at the court of Baden and infected those of
Stockholm and St Petersburg.[3] By him she was instructed in the
chiliastic faith and in the mysteries of the supernatural world. Then,
hearing that a certain pastor in the Vosges, Jean Frédéric Fontaines,
was prophesying and working miracles, she determined to go to him. On
the 5th of June 1801, accordingly, she arrived at the Protestant
parsonage of Sainte Marie-aux-Mines, accompanied by her daughter
Juliette, her step-daughter Sophie and a Russian valet.
This remained for two years her headquarters. Fontaines, half-charlatan,
half-dupe, had introduced into his household a prophetess named Marie
Gottliebin Kummer,[4] whose visions, carefully calculated for her own
purposes, became the oracle of the divine mysteries for the baroness.
Under this influence she believed more firmly than ever in the
approaching millennium and her own mission to proclaim it. Her rank, her
reckless charities, and her exuberant eloquence produced a great effect
on the simple country folk; and when, in 1809, it was decided to found a
colony of the "elect" in order to wait for "the coming of the Lord,"
many wretched peasants sold or distributed all they possessed and
followed the baroness and Fontaines into Württemberg, where the
settlement was established at Catharinenplaisir and the château of
Bönnigheim, only to be dispersed (May 1) by an unsympathetic
government.[5] Further wanderings followed: to Lichtenthal near Baden;
to Karlsruhe and the congenial society of pietistic princesses; to Riga,
where she was present at the death-bed of her mother (Jan. 24, 1811);
then back to Karlsruhe. The influence of Fontaines, to whom she had been
"spiritually married" (Madame Fontaines being content with the part of
Martha in the household, so long as the baroness's funds lasted), had
now waned, and she had fallen under that of Johann Kaspar Wegelin
(1766-1833), a pious linen-draper of Strassburg, who taught her the
sweetness of "complete annihilation of the will and mystic death." Her
preaching and her indiscriminate charities now began to attract curious
crowds from afar; and her appearance everywhere was accompanied by an
epidemic of visions and prophesyings, which culminated in the appearance
in 1811 of the comet, a sure sign of the approaching end. In 1812 she
was at Strassburg, whence she paid more than one visit to J. F. Oberlin
(q.v.), the famous pastor of Waldbach in Steinthal (Ban de la Roche),
and where she had the glory of converting her host, Adrien de
Lazay-Marnesia, the prefect. In 1813 she was at Geneva, where she
established the faith of a band of young pietists in revolt against the
Calvinist Church authorities--notably Henri Louis Empeytaz, afterwards
destined to be the companion of her crowning evangelistic triumph. In
September 1814 she was again at Waldbach, where Empeytaz had preceded
her; and at Strassburg, where the party was joined by Franz Karl von
Berckheim, who afterwards married Juliette.[6] At the end of the year
she returned with her daughters and Empeytaz to Baden, a fateful
migration.
The empress Elizabeth of Russia was now at Karlsruhe; and she and the
pietist ladies of her entourage hoped that the emperor Alexander might
find at the hands of Madame de Krüdener the peace which an interview
with Jung-Stilling had failed to bring him. The baroness herself wrote
urgent letters to Roxane de Stourdza, sister of the tsar's Rumanian
secretary, begging her to procure an interview. There seemed to be no
result; but the correspondence paved the way for the opportunity which a
strange chance was to give her of realizing her ambition. In the spring
of 1815 the baroness was settled at Schlüchtern, a piece of Baden
territory _enclavé_ in Württemberg, busy persuading the peasants to sell
all and fly from the wrath to come. Near this, at Heilbronn, the emperor
Alexander established his headquarters on the 4th of June. That very
night the baroness sought and obtained an interview. To the tsar, who
had been brooding alone over an open Bible, her sudden arrival seemed an
answer to his prayers; for three hours the prophetess preached her
strange gospel, while the most powerful man in Europe sat, his face
buried in his hands, sobbing like a child; until at last he declared
that he had "found peace." At the tsar's request she followed him to
Heidelberg and later to Paris, where she was lodged at the Hôtel
Montchenu, next door to the imperial headquarters in the Elysée Palace.
A private door connected the establishments, and every evening the
emperor went to take part in the prayer-meetings conducted by the
baroness and Empeytaz. Chiliasm seemed to have found an entrance into
the high councils of Europe, and the baroness von Krüdener had become a
political force to be reckoned with. Admission to her religious
gatherings was sought by a crowd of people celebrated in the
intellectual and social world; Châteaubriand came, and Benjamin
Constant, Madame Récamier, the duchesse de Bourbon, and Madame de Duras.
The fame of the wonderful conversion, moreover, attracted other members
of the chiliastic fraternity, among them Fontaines, who brought with him
the prophetess Marie Kummer.
In this religious forcing-house the idea of the Holy Alliance germinated
and grew to rapid maturity. On the 26th of September the portentous
proclamation, which was to herald the opening of a new age of peace and
goodwill on earth, was signed by the sovereigns of Russia, Austria and
Prussia (see HOLY ALLIANCE; and EUROPE: _History_). Its authorship has
ever been a matter of dispute. Madame de Krüdener herself claimed that
she had suggested the idea, and that Alexander had submitted the draft
for her approval. This is probably correct, though the tsar later, when
he had recovered his mental equilibrium, reproved her for her
indiscretion in talking of the matter. His eyes, indeed, had begun to be
opened before he left Paris, and Marie Kummer was the unintentional
cause. At the very first séance the prophetess, whose revelations had
been praised by the baroness in extravagant terms, had the evil
inspiration to announce in her trance to the emperor that it was God's
will that he should endow the religious colony to which she belonged!
Alexander merely remarked that he had received too many such revelations
before to be impressed. The baroness's influence was shaken but not
destroyed, and before he left Paris Alexander gave her a passport to
Russia. She was not, however, destined to see him again.
She left Paris on the 22nd of October 1815, intending to travel to St
Petersburg by way of Switzerland. The tsar, however, offended by her
indiscretions and sensible of the ridicule which his relations with her
had brought upon him, showed little disposition to hurry her arrival.
She remained in Switzerland, where she presently fell under the
influence of an unscrupulous adventurer named J. G. Kellner. For months
Empeytaz, an honest enthusiast, struggled to save her from this man's
clutches, but in vain. Kellner too well knew how to flatter the
baroness's inordinate vanity: the author of the Holy Alliance could be
none other than the "woman clothed with the sun" of Rev. xii. 1. She
wandered with Kellner from place to place, proclaiming her mission,
working miracles, persuading her converts to sell all and follow her.
Crowds of beggars and rapscallions of every description gathered
wherever she went, supported by the charities squandered from the common
fund. She became a nuisance to the authorities and a menace to the
peace; Württemberg had expelled her, and the example was followed by
every Swiss canton she entered in turn. At last, in August 1817, she set
out for her estate in Livonia, accompanied by Kellner and a remnant of
the elect.
The emperor Alexander having opened the Crimea to German and Swiss
chiliasts in search of a land of promise, the baroness's son-in-law
Berckheim and his wife now proceeded thither to help establish the new
colonies. In November 1820 the baroness at last went herself to St
Petersburg, where Berckheim was lying ill. She was there when the news
arrived of Ypsilanti's invasion of the Danubian principalities, which
opened the war of Greek independence. She at once proclaimed the divine
mission of the tsar to take up arms on behalf of Christendom. Alexander,
however, had long since exchanged her influence for that of Metternich,
and he was far from anxious to be forced into even a holy war. To the
baroness's overtures he replied in a long and polite letter, the gist of
which was that she must leave St Petersburg at once. In 1823 the death
of Kellner, whom to the last she regarded as a saint, was a severe blow
to her. Her health was failing, but she allowed herself to be persuaded
by Princess Galitzin to accompany her to the Crimea, where she had
established a Swiss colony. Here, at Karasu Bazar, she died on the 25th
of December 1824.
Sainte-Beuve said of Madame de Krüdener: "Elle avait un immense besoin
que le monde s'occupât d'elle...; l'amour propre, toujours l'amour
propre...!" A kindlier epitaph might, perhaps, be written in her own
words, uttered after the revelation of the misery of the Crimean
colonists had at last opened her eyes: "The good that I have done will
endure; the evil that I have done (for how often have I not mistaken for
the voice of God that which was no more than the result of my
imagination and my pride) the mercy of God will blot out."
Much information about Madame de Krüdener, coloured by the author's
views, is to be found in H. L. Empeytaz's _Notice sur Alexandre,
empereur de Russie_ (2nd ed., Paris, 1840). The _Vie de Madame de
Krudener_ (2 vols., Paris, 1849), by the Swiss banker and Philhellene
J. G. Eynard, was long the standard life and contains much material,
but is far from authoritative. In English appeared the _Life and
Letters of Madame de Krüdener_, by Clarence Ford (London, 1893). The
most authoritative study, based on a wealth of original research, is
E. Muhlenbeck's _Étude sur les origines de la Sainte-Alliance_ (Paris,
1909), in which numerous references are given. (W. A. P.)