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CHAPTER XLII THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY I. RUSSIA IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY 995. Great Interest of Russian History. During the past century Russia has been coming into ever closer relations with western Europe. Although still a backward country in many respects, the works of some of her writers are widely read in foreign lands, especially those of Leo Tolstoy and Turgenieff. The music of Rubinstein and Tschaikowsky is as highly esteemed in London or New York as in Petrograd or Moscow. Even in the field of science some Russians are well known to their fellow work- ers in Europe and America. Numbers of educated Russians have, in the last twenty-five years, settled in the United States, while thousands of emigrants have fled to America, seeking relief from the hard conditions in their own country. The long fight against the despotism of the Tsar and then the tremendous social revolution introduced by the Bolsheviki served to attract the attention of all Europe and America to Russian affairs. It becomes, therefore, a matter of vital interest to follow the changes which have been taking place in that vast country since Napoleon's time. 996. Vast Extent of the Tsar's Dominions. When, in 1815, Tsar Alexander I returned to his capital after the close of the Congress of Vienna, he could view his position and recent achieve- ments with pride. Alexander had participated in Napoleon's overthrow; he had succeeded in uniting the rulers of western Europe in the Holy Alliance (845) which he had so much at heart, and he was, moreover, the undisputed and autocratic ruler of more than half of the continent of Europe, not to speak of vast reaches of northern Asia which lay beneath his scepter.