RUSSIAN IMMIGRATION. 67 



of Livonia. German artisans were imported and enjoyed the favor 

 of the Great Peter, and German farmers took advantage of the break- 

 ing up of the large Polish estates after the insurrection of 1863 to 

 establish themselves upon much of the best farming land in Poland. 

 But none of these different divisions of the German race in Eussia 

 concerns us in our consideration of the Eussian-German immigrant. 

 He has a history entirely his own and has no more connection with 

 other isolated colonies of Germans in Eussia than he has with the 

 Eussian, from whom he holds himself religiously aloof. 



Anne, daughter of Peter the Great, married the Duke of Holstein 

 Gottorp, a German prince, and their son, who was crowned Peter III., 

 was thus half German. Peter III. married a German princess, Sophia, 

 of Anhalt Zerbst, who later deposed him and became sole ruler of 

 the country, taking the name of Catherine II. The Ukraine, or coun- 

 try north of the Black Sea, which was the most fertile part of Eussia, 

 had never been consistently cultivated. This magnificent 'black mold 

 belt,' one of the finest wheat-raising regions in the world, could only 

 be kept from the Tartar hordes by the employment of the Cossacks 

 as a protection. The Cossacks effectually prevented further Tartar 

 raids, but were not farmers; and to develop this fine country Cather- 

 ine offered special inducements to German settlers. 



These inducements included the use of their own schools and the 

 practise of their own religion, exemption from military service and 

 some other special privileges. Many Germans took advantage of their 

 countrywoman's liberal offer. As a result there are to-day in southern 

 Eussia in the governments immediately north of the Black Sea thou- 

 sands of Germans who speak only German, who are in religion Luther- 

 ans and who are by far the most prosperous agricultural class in Eussia. 



The present Tsar has withdrawn the privileges granted by the 

 Empress Catherine, has sought to replace the German schools by Eus- 

 sian, and the Lutheran religion by the Greek orthodox church; but 

 he has only succeeded in exiling from Eussia thousands of these Ger- 

 man farmers, who come as immigrants to America with the proceeds 

 of their Eussian farms in their pockets and the courage of the pioneer 

 in their hearts. 



The Finns. 



The Finns belong to the Ugro-Finnic or Uralo-Altaic stock and 

 are akin to the Magyar and Laplander. About a dozen different 

 tribes of this Ugro-Finnic stock are recognized; they are scattered 

 over northern and central Eussia and Siberia. 



It must be remembered that the classification of Finnic peoples 

 is made from a philological view-point, without regard to the influence 

 great or slight which surrounding races may have exerted on the racial 

 type. Otherwise it would often be hard to believe that the Finnish 

 immigrant was of the same race as the Lapp, Magyar or Volga Finn. 



