ncreased by 900,000 men. The reserves were called out
once a year, and drilled as in actual war. Strategic railways were
built for the speedy transportation of troops. Coast defenses were
constructed and the navy was increased. In 1884, Batoum was closed as
a port and converted into a naval base, and when England protested,
claiming that this was in violation of the Treaty of Berlin,--as (p. 248)
it was,--Russia, referring to the changes in the Balkan, inquired if
the duty of observing the treaties was reserved exclusively for
Russia.

Alexander's reign was especially discouraging for the Poles who still
hoped for the revival of their country. Poles were made into Russians;
but Panslavism demanded that the German should be banished. In 1887,
Alexander ordered that, when a foreign landowner in Poland died, his
estate must be sold unless his heirs had been residents of Poland
before this order was published. Germany, suffering from
Pan-Germanism, collected several thousand Russian Poles who had
settled in Germany, and put them across the frontier. Russia replied
by making a law in the Baltic provinces that nothing but Russian could
be taught in any school, and that no more Lutheran churches could be
built without the permission of the Holy Synod.

Then came Finland's turn. In 1890, Russian money, Russian stamps, and
worse than that, Russian taxes were introduced. There were loud
protests, which received courteous answers, but the process continued.
In 1891, the Finnish Committee at St. Petersburg, which had directed
the affairs of Finland, was abolished, and Russian censorship
abolished the free press. The Russian language was made obligatory,
and the Finns who could afford it emigrated to the United States and
settled in the northwest.

In 1890, Alexander ordered the construction of the Trans-Siberian
railway, of which more will be said in the chapter on Asiatic Russia.

All these years Alexander had battled with nihilism and (p. 249)
revolution. His policy neither gave nor asked for quarter. In May,
1888, an army officer named Timovief made an attempt upon the czar's
life. On October 29th of the same year, as he was traveling in
southern Russia an accident occurred in which twenty-one were killed
and many injured; it was ascribed to nihilists, but may have been
caused by defects. Be that as it may, Alexander never recovered from
the shock. In March, 1890, another plot against his life was
discovered. I