The Field Forces are in peace-time divided into 19 Army Corps (including the Guard Corps and the Grenadier Corps); 2 to 3 Infantry Divisions, and 1 Cavalry Division, with their Artillery, form an Army Corps. The Infantry Division numbers 2 Infantry Brigades, each of 2 regiments and 1 brigade of Field Artillery. A Cavalry Division numbers in the same way 2 brigades of 2 regiments each; besides 2 batteries of Horse Artillery. The peace-strength of the Regular Army comes to something like 700,000 men and 1,538 field-guns, and the war-strength to 1,800,000 men and 3,260 guns. In addition to this enormous number there are the Irregular troops—a force quite peculiar to Russia—namely, the Cossacks.[20] [Sidenote: +Cossacks.+] The Cossacks are tribes of mixed Russian, Turkish, and Tatar blood. They are descended from tribes of horsemen, who after the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century settled on the Don and Dnieper and established their own forms of government. Every three years they used to elect a “Hetman” as chief, with a council of elders, “Narschines,” to assist him. The Don Cossacks of Great Russia have their head-quarters north of the Sea of Azov and in the mountainous districts of that region. Branches of these Cossacks have settled on the Volga, on the shores of the Sea of Azov, along the Ural, in the Kuban North-Western Caucasus and in Siberia. Ever since they became subject to Russia they have assisted in carrying the Russian dominion further into Asia. The history of the settlement of these tribes in Siberia, led by the Cossack chief Jermac, is exceedingly interesting. This bold leader crossed the Ural mountains in 1758 with a following of only 840 Cossacks. His conquering progress equalled that of the Spaniards under Cortez in Mexico for adventure and for the great results that flowed from his successes. Although attached to Russia, the Cossacks are Russian in neither their language, religion, nor customs. Gifted with extraordinarily sharp senses, good-humoured, and hospitable, born warriors, excellent horsemen, and good shots, they are yet difficult to govern, and inclined somewhat to insubordination. Now that they have been bound down to stay in settled districts, instead of wandering all over the country, their wildness has been somewhat toned down, and they are of inestimable value to Russia in her service on the Chinese frontier, in the Ural, in the Kuban, in Siberia, in the Crimea, and on the Seas of Azov or of Aral. In return for lands granted by the government on the different frontiers, every Cossack is bound to serve as a soldier. They have a military organisation and are divided into Cavalry regiments, or “polks.” [Illustration: Russia. I. _Printed by G. Löwensohn, Fuerth Bavaria_ _Published by William Clowes & Sons, L^{d}, London._] [Illustration: Russia. II. _Printed by G. Löwensohn, Fuerth Bavaria_ _Published by William Clowes & Sons, L^{d}, London._]