RUSSIA 



5117 



RUSSIA 



wasteful methods of cutting timber now prac- 

 ticed will soon deforest large areas. In the 

 pine forests, for example, trees without number 

 are felled for the purpose of making tar and 

 turpentine. In other regions they are ruth- 



THE BLACK-EARTH BELT 

 This "granary of Russia," which extends 

 across Southern Russia, is one of the most fertile 

 as well as one of the most extensive arable 

 plains on the globe. It owes its name to a layer 

 of blackish humus, varying in thickness on the 

 average from one foot and a half to five feet. 



This black-mold belt stretches in one long 

 band across the whole of European Russia. 

 X< it withstanding its faulty cultivation, this re- 

 gion, like tin- .Mississippi Valley, is one of the 

 world's immense storehouses of grain. 



lessly destroyed for making potash. The tim- 

 xported was formerly valued at about $86,- 

 000,000 a year. 



Manufactures. Manufactures were stimulated 

 by a high protective tariff on imports and by 

 tin abundance and variety of raw material. 

 Nevertheless, the manufacturing industries were 

 far behind those of the countries of Western 

 Europe. The factory system common to Ger- 

 many, England and America was almost un- 

 known. With the exception of the iron and 

 steel industry, nearly all manufacturing was car- 

 ried on in small shops and mills, many of which 

 were located in the country; besides, thousands 

 of the peasants were engaged a portion of the 

 year in their own homes in the manufacture 

 of such articles as hate, household utensils, 

 hi!- n and woolen goods and leather. The ma- 

 jority of the people who worked in those estab- 

 lishments engaged in farming in summer. 



When the Bolshevik regime began, existing 

 factories were removed from private ownership, 

 and an attempt was made to place the control 

 of all industries in the hands of the workingmen. 

 Because of the lack of raw materials, a dis- 

 organized railroad system, civil war and the tur- 

 moil accompanying so radical a change, Russian 

 manufacturing after 1917 became demoralised 

 and production was greatly curtailed. 



Commerce. Commercially, Russia formed the 

 connecting link between Asia and Europe. To 

 the countries of Western Asia it was a source of 

 supply of manufactured products; to those of 

 Western Europe it furnished agricultural prod- 

 ucts and raw material for manufactures. Be- 

 cause of lack of facilities for travel and 

 transportation, the old method of exchanging 

 products at fairs is still followed to a consider- 

 able extent, and it is estimated that at least 

 16,000 fairs used to be held in the Russian do- 

 minions each year. Nizhni Novgorod was for 

 several centuries the location of the most noted 

 of these gatherings. Each large city has whole- 

 sale houses, and some of them did an extensive 

 business. Local trade is carried on chiefly in 

 small shops (see FAIR; NIZHNI NOVGOROD). 



Transportation. During all the centuries of 

 its existence the rivers of Russia have been 

 the great highways of commerce and civiliza- 

 tion. It was down the Dnieper that the fleets 

 descended against Constantinople and brought 

 Greek civilization to Kiev. The Dnieper made 

 Russia Byzantine, the Volga made it Asiatic, 

 and the Neva made it European. Nearly all 

 the navigable rivers are connected by canals, 

 and boats can pass from the Caspian and the 

 Black seas to the Baltic. The Black and the 

 Caspian seas are also connected by waterways, 

 as are the Baltic and the White seas. Although 

 the rivers and canals are closed by ice from a 

 fourth to a half of the year, fully one-third 

 of the freight is transported by water. The 

 total navigable mileage of rivers and canals in 

 European Russia, exclusive of Finland, is 153,- 

 780 miles. Of this mileage, 20,670 miles are 

 navigable for steamers. The most important 

 seaports are Archangel, on the White Sea; 

 Petrograd, on the Neva; Riga, on the Baltic; 

 Odessa, on the Black Sea, and Astrakhan, on 

 the Caspian. 



European Russia has 36,000 miles of railway, 

 and Asiatic Russia about 11,000 miles; in Rus- 

 sia proper rolling stock and equipment are badly 

 out of repair. Moscow is the chief railway 

 center, and the southern half of the country has 

 very good railway facilities, although in con- 

 struction and equipment the Russian railways 

 are inferior to those of America. The Trans- 

 Siberian Railway (which see) is one of the 

 most extensive systems in the world. In 1918 it 

 was taken over by the allies, who undertook to 

 put it into good condition. 



The country roads in summer are poor, but 

 during the winter they are greatly improved 

 by the snow. 



