Sectaries called Raskolniky 2200
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Total 6646390
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Here we have a round number of six millions six hundred forty-six
thousand three hundred and ninety male persons, who pay the poll-tax. In
this number are included boys and old men, but girls and women are not
reckoned, nor boys born between the making of one register of the lands
and another. Now, if we only reckon triple the number of heads subject
to be taxed, including women and girls, we shall find near twenty
millions of souls.
To this number we may add the military list, which amounts to three
hundred and fifty thousand men: besides, neither the nobility nor
clergy, who are computed at two hundred thousand, are subject to this
capitation.
Foreigners, of whatever country or profession, are likewise exempt: as
also the inhabitants of the conquered countries, namely, Livonia,
Esthonia, Ingria, Carelia, and a part of Finland, the Ukraine, and the
Don Cossacks, the Calmucks, and other Tartars, Samojedes, the
Laplanders, the Ostiaks, and all the idolatrous people of Siberia, a
country of greater extent than China.
By the same calculation, it is impossible that the total of the
inhabitants of Russia should amount to less than twenty-four millions.
At this rate, there are eight persons to every square mile. The English
ambassador, whom I have mentioned before, allows only five; but he
certainly was not furnished with such faithful memoirs as those with
which I have been favoured.
Russia therefore is exactly five times less populous than Spain, but
contains near four times the number of inhabitants: it is almost as
populous as France or Germany; but, if we consider its vast extent, the
number of souls is thirty times less.
There is one important remark to be made in regard to this enumeration,
namely, that out of six million six hundred and forty thousand people
liable to the poll-tax, there are about nine hundred thousand that
belong to the Russian clergy, without reckoning either the ecclesiastics
of the conquered countries, of the Ukraine, or of Siberia.
Therefore, out of seven persons liable to the poll-tax, the clergy have
one; but, nevertheless, they are far from possessing the seventh part of
the whole revenues of the state, as is the case in many other kingdoms,
where they have at least a seventh of all estates; for their peasants
pay a capitation to the sovereign; and the other taxes of the crown of
Russia, in which the clergy have no share, are very considerable.
This valuation is very different from that of all other writers, on the
affairs of Russia; so that foreign ministers, who have transmitted
memoirs of this state to their courts, have been greatly mistaken. The
archives of the empire are the only things to be consulted.
It is very probable, that Russia has been better peopled than it is at
present; before the small-pox, that came from the extremities of Arabia,
and the great-pox that came from America, had spread over these
climates, where they have now taken root. The world owes these two
dreadful scourges, which have depopulated it more than all its wars, the
one to Mahomet, and the other to Christopher Columbus. The plague, which
is a native of Africa, seldom approached the countries of the North:
besides, the people of those countries, from Sarmatia to the Tartars,
who dwell beyond the great wall, having overspread the world by their
irruptions, this ancient nursery of the human species must have been
surprisingly diminished.
In this vast extent of country, there are said to be about seventy-four
thousand monks, and five thousand nuns, notwithstanding the care taken
by Peter the Great to reduce their number; a care worthy the legislator
of an empire where the human race is so remarkably deficient. These
thirteen thousand persons, thus immured and lost to the state, have, as
the reader may have observed, seventy-two thousand bondmen to till their
lands, which is evidently too great a number: there cannot be a stronger
proof how difficult it is to eradicate abuses of a long standing.
I find, by a list of the revenues of the empire in 1735, that reckoning
the tribute paid by the Tartars, with all taxes and duties in money, the
sum total amounted to thirteen millions of rubles, which makes
sixty-five millions of French livres, exclusive of tributes in kind.
This moderate sum was at that time sufficient to maintain three hundred
and thirty-nine thousand five hundred, as well sea as land forces: but
both the revenues and troops are augmented since that time.
The customs, diets, and manners of the Russians, ever bore a greater
affinity to those of Asia than to those of Europe: such was the old
custom of receiving tributes in kind, of defraying the expenses of
ambassadors on their journeys, and during their residence in the
country, and of never appearing at church, or in the royal presence with
a sword; an oriental custom, directly the reverse of that ridiculous and
barbarous one amongst us, of addressing ourselves to God, to our king,
to our friends, and to our women, with an offensive weapon, which hangs
down to the bottom of the leg. The long robe worn on public days, had a
more noble air than the short habits of the western nations of Europe. A
vest lined and turned up with fur, with a long scimar, adorned with
jewels for festival days; and those high turbans, which add to the
stature, were much more striking to the eye than our perukes and close
coats, and more suitable to cold climates; but this ancient dress of all
nations seems to be not so well contrived for war, nor so convenient for
working people. Most of their other customs were rustic; but we must not
imagine, that their manners were so barbarous as some writers would have
us believe. Albert Krants relates a story of an Italian ambassador, whom
the czar ordered to have his hat nailed to his head, for not pulling it
off while he was making his speech to him. Others attribute this
adventure to a Tartar, and others again to a French ambassador.
Olearius pretends, that the czar Michael Theodorowitz, banished the
marquis of Exideüil, ambassador from Henry IV. of France, into Siberia;
but it is certain, that this monarch sent no ambassador to Moscow, and
that there never was a marquis of Exideüil in France. In the same manner
do travellers speak about the country of Borandia, and of the trade they
have carried on with the people of Nova Zémbla, which is scarcely
inhabited at all, and the long conversations they have had with some of
the Samojedes, as if they understood their language. Were the enormous
compilations of voyages to be cleared of every thing that is not true
nor useful in them, both the works and the public would be gainers by
it.
The Russian government resembled that of the Turks, in respect to the
standing forces, or guards, called Strelitzes, who, like the
janissaries, sometimes disposed of the crown, and frequently disturbed
the state as much as they defended it. Their number was about forty
thousand. Those who were dispersed in the provinces, subsisted by rapine
and plunder; those in Moscow lived like citizens, followed trades, did
no duty, and carried their insolence to the greatest excess: in short,
there was no other way to preserve peace and good order in the kingdom,
but by breaking them; a very necessary, and at the same time a very
dangerous step.
The public revenues did not exceed five millions of rubles, or about
twenty-five millions of French livres. This was sufficient when czar
Peter came to the crown to maintain the ancient mediocrity, but was not
a third part of what was necessary to go certain lengths, and to render
himself and people considerable in Europe: but at the same time many of
their taxes were paid in kind, according to the Turkish custom, which
is less burthensome to the people than that of paying their tributes in
money.