14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 69 



immigration into Russia, which could not but add to its separatism, 

 for which anthropologically and outside of the Jews there is no 

 substantial reason. 



At about the same time that the terms of Ukraina and Mala Rossia 

 (" smaller Russia ") came into vogue, there also began to appear those 

 of Velika and Biela Rossia (" Greater, and White Russia") , and those 

 of Malorusi, Velikorusi and Bielorusi, which are applied to their 

 respective populations. These terms, like those of Ugro-Rusi, 

 Rutheni, Gorali, etc., are partly conventional, partly environmental 

 or geographical. The language and habits of the Bielorusi, who 

 occupy the westernmost part of Russia north of Ukraina, were grad- 

 ually affected, though on the whole to but a moderate extent, by 

 their relations with the Poles and Lithuanians ; while those of the 

 Velikorusi or " Moskvali " (Muscovites) who spread over central, 

 northern and eastern Russia, were modified somewhat in turn by 

 their associations with the Tchouds, Finns, and various other people 

 of the Finno-Ugrian stock with whom they mingled and whom they 

 freely absorbed. 



Such were in very brief the origin and nature of the three great 

 subdivisions of the Russian people with which we meet to-day. The 

 resulting differences between them, both cultural and somatological, 

 are smaller than those between some of the tribes of Germany, and 

 had it not been for Russia's enemies in whose interest it was to 

 foment dissensions in the population, they would have remained 

 harmless and with growing culture would have disappeared. But 

 powerful united Russia, such as it could have been and with the help 

 of the Allies may yet be, was an insupportable nightmare to both 

 Austria-Hungary and Germany. 



From the purely anthropological standpoint, the Russians belong 

 overwhelmingly to the great type of Slavs in general, which in turn 

 can hardly be distinguished from the Alpine type. But, like all 

 large nationalities, the Russians show in various localities more or 

 less marked traces of admixture with the Nordic peoples on the 

 one hand, and on the other with the Finnish, Turkish, Tartar, and 

 Iranian tribes. 



The modern Russian population represents a physically strong and 

 very prolific stock, freer as yet from degenerative conditions than 

 perhaps any other of the larger European groups. The total popula- 

 tion of European and Asiatic Russia counted collectively at the com- 

 mencement of the war 178,000,000, living in a continuous mass and 

 increasing yearly, through the natural excess of births over deaths 



