THE SLAV PEOPLES NIEDERLE. 603 



Russia), and Velika E,us (Great Russia). The Malorusi branch 

 remained apparently the purest linguistically. But notwithstand- 

 ing their differences, these three branches continued as parts of one 

 greater nation, bound together by all that was most important in 

 their existence. 



The further development of the Russian j)eople belongs to well- 

 known history. They have not advanced any toward the southwest 

 and west, due to the presence of other solid and strong ethnic units, 

 especially the Poles; but they have progressed greatly toward the 

 north and especially toward the southeast and east. The colonization 

 southward and eastward dates particularly from the fifteenth cen- 

 tury, and especially from the time of Peter the Great. From then 

 on we see an elementary, peaceful, and military advance of the Rus- 

 sians over the territory formerly subdued by the Tatars, culminating 

 in 1783 in the fall of the Krimean Dominion, and extending to re- 

 gions far beyond the original boundaries of the State. Expansion 

 into Siberia, the population of which to-day is already more than 

 four-fifths Russian, commenced in the sixteenth century. 



The total number of Russians existing in 1900 amounted to about 

 94,000,000; at the present date, judging from the average annual 

 increase of the people, their number must be somewhere about 

 110,000,000.1 



The regions at the present day most thickly settled by Russians 

 are the black-earth belt east of Poland, and Small-Russia, the least 

 settled being northern Russia and many parts of Siberia. 



The proportion of males and females is, in general, 103.4 females 

 to each 100 males, which is close to the condition among other whites. 

 But the birth rate is very large — 48 per thousand; the death rate is 

 also large, amounting, on the average, to about 34 per thousand. 



Physically, the Russian people everywdiere, barring some limited 

 localities, are predominantly brachycephalic. In complexion the 

 Malorusi are, in general, the darkest, the Bielorusi the most blond. 

 The principal differences are observable, on the whole, between the 

 Velkorusi and the Malorusi, but even these are such that to an out- 

 side scientific observer both of these branches must remain parts of 

 the same great Russian stem of people. 



THE POLACI OR POLES. 



The Poles constitute the principal western branch of the Slavs, 

 and of them alone is it possible to say that from immemorial times 



1 In these numbers the Velkorusi are represented by about 67 per cent, the Malorusi by 

 about 27 per cent, and the Bielorusi by about 7 per cent. The Kozaci (Cossack), who are 

 partly of Velkorus and partly of Malorus origin, but who in the course of time have 

 acquired many habits differing from those of ordinary Russians, count, approximately, 

 3,500,000. 



