RUSSIA 



35 



of wheat. The climate of this region is re- 

 latively mild, especially in Volhynia, and gar- 

 dening is extensively carried on. Cattle-breeding 

 and especially sheep-breeding are prosecuted on a 

 grand scale on the prairies. In the north of the 

 territory beet is much cultivated for sugar. Kieff 

 is one of the chief industrial centres of Russia, and 

 woollen cloth mills are rapidly spreading in Podolia. 

 The population is chiefly Little Russian, with a 

 considerable number of Moldavians in Podolia. 



Middle Russia. The provinces of Tver, Moscow, 

 , Vladimir, Smolensk, Orel, Tula, Kaluga, Kursk, 

 i Ryazan, Tarnboft', Penza, part of Voronezh, southern 

 i Varoslav, and Simbirsk are comprised under the 

 general name of Middle Russia. They contain a 

 population of more than 25,000,000 Great Russians, 

 the average density being over 100 inhabitants per 

 square mile. Except on its outskirts, this region 

 presents everywhere the same aspects, wide undu- 

 lating plains covered with cornfields anil dotted 

 with small deciduous forests. The soil in of very 

 modi-rate fertility in the north, where it chiefly 

 consists of boulder-clay ; but towards the south 

 it becomes very fertile in the black earth belt. 

 The population is thoroughly Great Russian, with 

 but a small admixture of White Russians and 

 Little Russians in the west, and of Tartars and 

 Finnish stocks, mostly Russianised, towards the 

 east. They live in large villages, pursue agricul- 

 ture in summer, and carry on a great variety of 

 domestic trades in the winter. Moscow and the 

 surrounding governments are the busiest industrial 



T >n of Russia. 

 jtper Volga and Kama. Farther north-east 

 the country is more elevated, but less effectively 

 drained ; and vast forests stretch from the upper 

 Volga to the Urals. The governments of Kostroma, 

 Vologda, and Vyatka, together with those parts of 

 Xijni- Novgorod and Kazan which lie on the left 

 bank of the Volga, belong to this domain. Its 

 population i* thin 5 to 50 inhabitants per square 

 mile. The villages and towns are separated 

 by wide uninhabited tracts, and intercommunica- 

 tion is difficult, the Kama and its tributaries being 

 the principal highways to middle Russia. The 

 governments of Perm (which includes the mining 

 districts on the Asiatic slope of the Urals) and 

 North Ufa are the chief centres for the iron 

 industry, and supply both middle Russia and 

 Siberia with iron and iron goods. 



The Middle Volga Governments of Simbirsk, Sara- 

 toff, and Samara, and the South Ural governments 

 of South Ufaand Orenburg, belong to a great extent 

 to the steppe-region of South Russia. The forests, 

 which are still extensive in Kazan and in the hilly 

 tract* of the Urals, gradually thin away, till 

 towards the south the territory becomes a wide 

 prairie, which often suffers from want of rain. 

 The dry, hot winds of central Asia make their 

 influence felt. The population, mostly Great 

 Russian, contains a large percentage of Turkish 

 .mil Finnish race. Its density is 70 to 82 in- 

 habitants per square mile on the right hand of the 

 Volga ; and a stream of Russian emigration is 

 irapidly extending eastwards into the fertile lands 

 of tin- Hanhkirs. 



Tin Xteppe-rtgion occupies a lielt more than 200 

 milt-* wide along the littoral of the Black Sea and 

 tln-Si-aof Azov, anil extends eastwards through 

 the region of the lower Volga and Ural till it 

 meets the steppes of central Asia. As far as the 

 eye can reach tnere are gently undulating plains, 

 clothed with rich grass, and entirely destitute of 

 i P-I- ; yet in the liottoms of the deep ravines, con- 

 i-i-al'-d by tin; undulations of tin- surface of the 

 steppes, there grow a variety of trees and shrubs, 

 as willows, wild cherries, wild apricots, and so 

 forth. The whole is coated with a thick layer 



of fertile ' black earth. ' For many centuries the 

 Russians coveted these fertile grounds, but it was 

 not until the 18th century that they actually took 

 possession of them ; they nave since rapidly covered 

 them with their villages. But in order to people 

 Bessarabia without depriving the Russian land- 

 owners of their serfs, several races of foreigners, 

 as Moldavians, Wallachians (Vlachs), Servians, 

 Greeks, Germans, and even Scotsmen, were freely 

 invited to settle there. The population of the 

 steppe-region exceeds 13,000,000, and its density, 

 from 90 to 71 per square mile in the west and 30 

 in the east, is rapidly increasing. 



The same steppe-land extends into the peninsula 

 of the Crimea, but there the soil is no longer black 

 earth, but a clay impregnated with salt. Its 

 extreme dryness prevents it from being utilised for 

 agriculture. A narrow ridge of mountains, the 

 Yaila, reaching 4000 to 5100 feet in their highest 

 summits, rises on the south-east coast of the 

 Crimea. Its southern slope is the most beautiful 

 corner of Russia, owing to its Mediterranean cli- 

 mate and Mediterranean flora. Farther east the 

 Caspian Steppes, in respect both of their physical 

 features ana of their population, form an inter- 

 mediate link between Europe and Asia. They 

 only emerged from the sea in quite recent geo- 

 logical times, and their surface, perfectly flat, 

 stul lies below sea-level for a distance of more 

 than 150 miles from the shores of the Caspian. 

 The small streams which cross them mostly dry up 

 through evaporation, and seldom reach the sea. The 

 Volga and tne Ural divide into numerous branches 

 before entering the Caspian Sea, and afford the 

 richest fishing grounds in the world. Numerous 

 salt lakes, whence Russia gets her supply of salt, 

 are scattered over the steppes. The population 

 consists to a great extent of Tartars, Kirghizes, 

 and Kalmucks. Cattle-breeding is the industry 

 mostly followed ; and fishing is a valuable source 

 of income. 



Ethnography. The population of the empire em- 

 braces a great variety of nationalities ; but the Rus- 

 sians, comprising the VelikorussesorGreat Russians, 

 the Malorusses or Little Russians, and the Byelo- 

 russes or White Russians, are by a long way 

 the predominant race. They number no less than 

 77,000,000, of whom 70,000,000 inhabit European 

 Russia. None of the three is, of course, a pure race. 

 The Great Russians, who invaded a territory 

 occupied by Finnish tribes, ended by assimilating 

 them. The Little Russians underwent a mixture 

 with Turkish tribes, and the White Russians with 

 Lithuanians. However, the Russians gave origin 

 to no half-breed races ; they mostly ' Russianised ' 

 the natives whom they came in contact with. The 

 Great Russians inhabit middle Russia in a compact 

 mass of over 35,000,000, and even in east and 

 north Russia they constitute from two-thirds 

 to three-fourths of the population. The Little 

 Russians, nearly 15,000,000 in all, are settled in 

 a solid body in Little Russia, which contains but 

 a slight admixture of other races chiefly in the 

 borderlands besides about 12 per cent, of Jews, 

 and from 3 to 6 per cent, of Poles. The White 

 Russians, who number about 5,000,000, also dwell 

 in a compact mass in the west, but they are 

 more mixed with Poles, Jews, and Little Russians. 

 The Poles number about 5,000,000 in Poland (q.v.), 

 and about 1,000,000 in the western governments 

 of Russia. Some 120,000 other Slavs Servians, 

 Bulgarians, and Bohemians exist in small colonies 

 in l>i-ssarabia and Kherson. The Letts and the 

 Lithuanians number about 2,600,000 in Russia and 

 400,000 in Poland, but the latter are rapidly losing 

 their national characteristics. Armenians, Kurds, 

 and Persians and other Iranians number nearly 

 1,300,000, and live chiefly in Caucasia. The Cau- 



