INTRODUCTION. XXVJI 



of cast iron, ii"on. steel aiul zinc, and in the tloiu-ishing- condition of tin- production 

 of cotton and woollen fabrics. The productions of these and many other Polish manu- 

 factories and mills find a Rowing- market throughout all Russia. By means of the 

 competition of this industrial centre with the Moscow industrial region are attained, 

 on the one. hand, the fundamental object of Russia's protective policy, and on the 

 other, that union of Poland with Russia which answers to the peaceful aims of the 

 Russian people. But as the Polish coal is little adapted to the production of the coke 

 required in metallurgical operations, which is easily obtained from the coal of the 

 western Donets, and the mineral wealth of the region is limited, while the distance 

 from the centres of sale especially from the east of Russia is great, it follows that 

 to maintain her industrial growth Poland must constantly busy itself with the techni- 

 cal improvements of its manufactiu'ing industries, which is indeed seen to be the case. 



XII. The North-western Region. 



This region contains White Russia and Lithuania, that is, comprises the govern- 

 ments of Vilno, Vitebsk, Grodno, Kovno, Minsk and Mogliiliov, a part of which formed 

 the ancient principality of Lithuania, which once struggled for independence with the 

 Teutonic knights, and entered into alliance at one time with the Russian tsars, at 

 another with the Polish kings, an was then united to the Empire. This forms in 

 every respect the transition from the former to the two central and Baltic regions. 

 The surface of this district, 269 thousand square versts. or 5,563 square geographical 

 miles, is devoid of mountainous elevations, contains the vast marshy forest tract called 

 Polesie, and is still rich in woods, which cover about one-third of it area. Its 

 inhabitants, numbering about 9 millions, are almost exclusively occupied with agri- 

 cultural pursuits, so that here, as in the following district, manufacturing is only in 

 embryo, satisfying principally local needs which are being but little developed and 

 gravitates in industrial respects to the Moscow, Baltic and Polish districts, as centres 

 of manufacturing activity. 



There is almost no mining industry whatever in the whole of this region. 



XIII The Little Russian Region. 



This region contains thickly populated governments stretching from the west 

 to the east and separating New Russia (Region IX) from the central grain producing 

 governments (Region XIV). The Little Russians or Cossacks of olden times (Khokhly, 

 tufts, as they are called by the common people), inhabit not only the governments of 

 Chernigov, Poltava and Kharkov which form the region described, but also many 

 localities in the neighboiu'ing districts, especially in the South-western Region. In the 

 sevententh and eightenth centuries it was here that was concentrated the activity 

 of those primitive Russians, who once formed Russia's bulwork against the attacks of 

 the Tui'ks, principally by way of the Crimea, and against the Poles. Once a popula- 

 tion of warriors to a man, the Little Russians have long become converted into 

 veritable farmers, thanks to the fertility of the plain occupied by them. The surface 

 of the district, 138 thousand square versts, or 2,846 square geographical miles, is 

 fairly populated, there being between seven and eight million inhabitants, almost 



