Czech. Amongst its buildings are the Gothic five-naved church of St Barbara, begun in 1368, the Gothic church of St Jacob (14th century) and the Late Gothic Trinity church (end of 15th century). The Wälscher Hof, formerly a royal residence and mint, was built at the end of the 13th century, and the Gothic Steinerne Haus, which since 1849 serves as town-hall, contains one of the richest archives in Bohemia. The industry includes sugar-refining, brewing, the manufacture of cotton and woollen stuffs, leather goods and agricultural implements.
The town of Kuttenberg owes its origin to the silver mines, the existence of which can be traced back to the first part of the 13th century. The city developed with great rapidity, and at the outbreak of the Hussite troubles, early in the 14th century, was next to Prague the most important in Bohemia, having become the favourite residence of several of the Bohemian kings. It was here that, on the 18th of January 1419, Wenceslaus IV. signed the famous decree of Kuttenberg, by which the Bohemian nation was given three votes in the elections to the faculty of Prague University as against one for the three other “nations.” In the autumn of the same year Kuttenberg was the scene of horrible atrocities. The fierce mining population of the town was mainly German, and fanatically Catholic, in contrast with Prague, which was Czech and utraquist. By way of reprisals for the Hussite outrages in Prague, the miners of Kuttenberg seized on any Hussites they could find, and burned, beheaded or threw them alive into the shafts of disused mines. In this way 1600 people are said to have perished, including the magistrates and clergy of the town of Kauřim, which the Kuttenbergers had taken. In 1420 the emperor Sigismund made the city the base for his unsuccessful attack on the Taborites; Kuttenberg was taken by Žižka, and after a temporary reconciliation of the warring parties was burned by the imperial troops in 1422, to prevent its falling again into the hands of the Taborites. Žižka none the less took the place, and under Bohemian auspices it awoke to a new period of prosperity. In 1541 the richest mine was hopelessly flooded; in the insurrection of Bohemia against Ferdinand I. the city lost all its privileges; repeated visitations of the plague and the horrors of the Thirty Years’ War completed its ruin. Half-hearted attempts after the peace to repair the ruined mines failed; the town became impoverished, and in 1770 was devastated by fire. The mines were abandoned at the end of the 18th century; one mine was again opened by the government in 1874, but the work was discontinued in 1903.
KUTUSOV [Golenishchev-Kutuzov], MIKHAIL LARIONOVICH, Prince of Smolensk (1745–1813), Russian field marshal, was born on the 16th of September 1745 at St Petersburg, and entered the Russian army in 1759 or 1760. He saw active service in Poland, 1764–69, and against the Turks, 1770–74; lost an eye in action in the latter year; and after that travelled for some
years in central and western Europe. In 1784 he became major-general, in 1787 governor-general of the Crimea; and under Suvorov, whose constant companion he became, he won considerable distinction in the Turkish War of 1788–91, at the taking of Ochakov, Odessa, Benda and Ismail, and the battles of Rimnik and Mashin. He was now (1791) a lieutenant-general, and successively occupied the positions of ambassador at Constantinople, governor-general of Finland, commandant of the corps of cadets at St Petersburg, ambassador at Berlin, and governor-general of St Petersburg. In 1805 he commanded the Russian corps which opposed Napoleon’s advance on Vienna (see Napoleonic Campaigns), and won the hard-fought action of Dürrenstein on the 18th–19th of November.
On the eve of Austerlitz (q.v.) he tried to prevent the Allied generals from fighting a battle, and when he was overruled took so little interest in the event that he fell asleep during the reading of the orders. He was, however, present at the battle itself, and was wounded. From 1806 to 1811 Kutusov was governor-general of Lithuania and Kiev, and in 1811, being then commander-in-chief in the war against the Turks, he was made a prince. Shortly after this he was called by the unanimous voice of the army and the people to command the army that was retreating before Napoleon’s advance. He gave battle at Borodino (q.v.), and was defeated, but not decisively, and after retreating to the south-west of Moscow, he forced Napoleon to begin the celebrated retreat. The old general’s cautious pursuit evoked much criticism, but at any rate he allowed only a remnant of the Grand Army to regain Prussian soil. He was now field marshal and prince of Smolensk—this title having been given him for a victory over part of the French army at that place in November 1812. Early in the following year he carried the war into Germany, took command of the allied Russians and Prussians, and prepared to raise all central Europe in arms against Napoleon’s domination, but before the opening of the campaign he fell ill and died on the 25th of March 1813 at Bunzlau. Memorials have been erected to him at that place and at St Petersburg.
Mikhailovsky-Danilevski’s life of Kutusov (St Petersburg, 1850) was translated into French by A. Fizelier (Paris, 1850).
KUWĒT (Kuweit, Koweit), a port in Arabia at the north-western angle of the Persian Gulf in 29° 20′ N. and 48° E., about 80 m. due S. of Basra and 60 m. S.W. of the mouth of the Shat el Arab. The name Kuwēt is the diminutive form of Kut, a common term in Irāk for a walled village; it is also shown in some maps as Grane or Grain, a corruption of Kurēn, the diminutive of Karn, a horn. It lies on the south side of a bay 20 m. long and 5 m. wide, the mouth of which is protected by two
islands, forming a fine natural harbour, with good anchorage in
from 4 to 9 fathoms of water. The town has 15,000 inhabitants
and is clean and well built; the country around being practically
desert, it depends entirely on the sea and its trade, and its sailors
have a high reputation as the most skilful and trustworthy on the
Persian Gulf; while its position as the nearest port to Upper Nejd
gives it great importance as the port of entry for rice, piece goods,
&c., and of export for horses, sheep, wool and other products of
the interior. Kuwēt was recommended in 1850 by General F. R.
Chesney as the terminus of his proposed Euphrates Valley railway,
and since 1898, when the extension of the Anatolian railway to
Bagdad and the Gulf has been under discussion, attention has
again been directed to it. An alternative site for the terminus
has been suggested in Um Khasa, at the head of the Khor ʽAbdallah,
where a branch of the Shat el Arab formerly entered the sea;
it lies some 20 m. N.E. of Kuwēt and separated from it by the
island of Bubiān, which has for some time been in Turkish occupation.
An attempt by Turkey to occupy Kuwēt in 1898 was met
by a formal protest from Great Britain against any infringement
of the status quo, and in 1899 Sheikh Mubārak of Kuwēt placed
his interests under British protection.
The total trade passing through Kuwēt in 1904–1905 was valued at £160,000. The imports include arms and ammunition, piece goods, rice, coffee, sugar, &c.; and the exports, horses, pearls, dates, wool, &c. The steamers of the British India Steamship Company call fortnightly. (R. A. W.)
KUZNETSK, two towns of Russia. (1) A town in the government of Saratov, 74 m. by rail east of Penza. It has grown
rapidly since the development of the railway system in the Volga
basin. It has manufactures of agricultural machinery and hardware,
in a number of small factories and workshops, besides
tanneries, rope-works, boot and shoe making in houses, and there
is considerable trade in sheepskins, grain, salt and wooden goods
exported to the treeless regions of south-east Russia. Pop.
(1897), 21,740. (2) A town in West Siberia, in the government of
Tomsk, 150 m. E.N.E. of Barnaul, on the Upper Tom river, at the
head of navigation. It has trade in grain, cattle, furs, cedarwood,
nuts, wax, honey and tallow, and is the centre of a coal-mining
district. Pop. (1897), 3141.
KVASS, or Kwass (a Russian word for “leaven”), one of the national alcoholic drinks of Russia, and popular also in eastern Europe. It is made, by a simultaneous acid and alcoholic fermentation, of wheat, rye, barley and buckwheat meal or of rye-bread, with the addition of sugar or fruit. It has been a universal drink in Russia since the 16th century. Though in the large towns it is made commercially, elsewhere it is frequently an article of domestic production. Kvass is of very low alcoholic content (0.7 to 2.2%). There are, beside the ordinary kind, superior forms of the drink, such as apple or raspberry kvass.
