great facilities for advancement in the public service.  On the other hand, its semi-bureaucratic character, together with the law and custom of dividing landed property among the children at the death of their parents, deprives it of stability.  New men force their way into it by official distinction, whilst many of the old families are compelled by poverty to retire from its ranks.  The son of a small proprietor, or even of a parish priest, may rise to the highest offices of State, whilst the descendants of the half-mythical Rurik may descend to the position of peasants.  It is said that not very long ago a certain Prince Krapotkin gained his living as a cabman in St. Petersburg!

It is evident, then, that this social aristocracy must not be confounded with the titled families.  Titles do not possess the same value in Russia as in Western Europe.  They are very common—­because the titled families are numerous, and all the children bear the titles of the parents even while the parents are still alive—­and they are by no means always associated with official rank, wealth, social position, or distinction of any kind.  There are hundreds of princes and princesses who have not the right to appear at Court, and who would not be admitted into what is called in St. Petersburg la societe, or indeed into refined society in any country.

The only genuine Russian title is Knyaz, commonly translated “Prince.”  It is borne by the descendants of Rurik, of the Lithuanian Prince Ghedimin, and of the Tartar Khans and Murzi officially recognised by the Tsars.  Besides these, there are fourteen families who have adopted it by Imperial command during the last two centuries.  The titles of count and baron are modern importations, beginning with the time of Peter the Great.  From Peter and his successors about seventy families have received the title of count and ten that of baron.  The latter are all, with two exceptions, of foreign extraction, and are mostly descended from Court bankers.*

     * Besides these, there are of course the German counts and
     barons of the Baltic Provinces, who are Russian subjects.

There is a very common idea that Russian nobles are as a rule enormously rich.  This is a mistake.  The majority of them are poor.  At the time of the Emancipation, in 1861, there were 100,247 landed proprietors, and of these, more than 41,000 were possessors of less than twenty-one male serfs—­that is to say, were in a condition of poverty.  A proprietor who was owner of 500 serfs was not considered as by any means very rich, and yet there were only 3,803 proprietors belonging in that category.  There were a few, indeed, whose possessions were enormous.  Count Sheremetief, for instance, possessed more than 150,000 male serfs, or in other words more than 300,000 souls; and thirty years ago Count Orloff-Davydof owned considerably more than half a million of acres.  The Demidof family derive colossal revenues from their mines, and the Strogonofs have estates which, if put together, would be sufficient in extent to form a good-sized independent State in Western Europe.  The very rich families, however, are not numerous.  The lavish expenditure in which Russian nobles often indulge indicates too frequently not large fortune, but simply foolish ostentation and reckless improvidence.