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 Mahābhārata 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, NAḤMAN (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, 712 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
