Christians belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church.

First driven out of Hungary and Russia during the eighteenth century,
the Turks lost nearly all their European possessions in the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries. The subject peoples had kept their
national traditions and customs and from time to time they aimed at
independence. The Turkish rule was oppressive and at times its methods
were barbarous. If there had been no jealousies among the great European
powers, it is probable that Russia would have occupied Constantinople
long ago. The other powers, fearing this might make Russia too strong,
interfered on several occasions to prevent such an occupation. But the
powers could not prevent the smaller nationalities from attaining their
independence from Turkey. Greece, Serbia, Roumania, Bulgaria, and
Albania were freed from the rule of the "unspeakable Turk" and erected
into independent kingdoms at various times between 1829 and 1913. Of her
great empire in Europe, Turkey retained, at the outbreak of the Great
War, an area of less than 11,000 square miles (less than the area of the
state of Maryland), and a population of 1,890,000, which was almost
altogether resident in the two cities of Constantinople and Adrianople.

RUSSIA.--In 1914 Russia was an empire occupying one seventh of the
land area of the world and inhabited by about 180,000,000 people. During
the nineteenth century the country was ruled by absolute monarchs called
czars, under whom political and social conditions were corrupt and
oppressive. However, some progress was made during the century. Serfdom
or slavery was abolished from 1861 to 1866; restraints upon newspapers,
publishers, and schools were partly withdrawn. Natural resources were
developed, factories established, and railroads built. But these
measures only served to whet the appetite of the people for more liberal
government. The activities of revolutionists and reformers were met by