"The Russian nation is composed of more than a hundred different races, speaking forty languages. The Russians--properly so called--are the inhabitants of Great and Little Russia, who are from the Slavic races. Besides these, there are Tartars, Poles, Germans, Jews, Finns, Mongols, Persians, and others, who have been united in one nation. The government has permitted these people, as their territory was conquered and annexed to the empire, to retain their own laws and customs, so far as they were not inconsistent with the general code of Russia. "The original nobility of the country were the boyars; but Peter the Great established a new order, and there are now in the empire over half a million whose titles are hereditary, and a quarter of a million who have only personal rank. The citizens of towns are ranked in six classes, the first owning real estate; the second, having a certain amount of taxable property; the third, mechanics; the fourth, resident foreigners in business; the fifth, artisans, soldiers, and scholars; and the sixth, all others. There are forty-seven million peasants, of whom twenty-two millions were serfs, emancipated in 1863, though indirectly they are obliged to pay for their freedom, for the government compensated the owners of the land to which they were attached, and collects the amount paid by an annual assessment on the emancipated for the succeeding forty-nine years. "The state religion, which is professed by a great majority of the people, is the Greco-Russian, officially Styled 'Orthodox-Catholic Faith.' When the Roman empire was divided into two portions, the Eastern, or Byzantine, empire retained the Catholic religion, and the bishop, or patriarch of Constantinople, was officially recognized as second only to the Pope at Rome. But there was a schism in the Eastern division, which resulted in a total separation in 1054. Then the Patriarch of Constantinople became the head of the Eastern church, of which the Russian church was a part. In 1588 a separate patriarchate was established in Russia, and the Greek church is now made up of ten independent organizations. The Russian church is governed by the Holy Synod, at the head of which is the emperor, who has greater power than the Pope of Rome in the external affairs of the church, but cannot render a decision himself on theological questions. In critical doctrinal cases, the patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria are consulted, and when a decision is reached, the emperor is as much bound by it as the prelates; and he does not officially style himself the Head, but the Protector and Defender of the Church.