NO. II THE RACES OF RUSSIA — HRDLICKA 1 7 



The Lithuanians are a strain of people whose racial identity has 

 been a matter of considerable controversy. Through their ancient 

 tongue, which has many similarities with the Sanscrit and with the 

 Slav, they are related most closely to the latter, but in physical type 

 while resembling the Poles and Great Russians they also approxi- 

 mate in part the Scandinavians on account of more frequent blond- 

 ness. In all probability they have an admixture of all these elements. 

 They are subdivided into three main branches, the Borussians (Prus- 

 sians), the Latvis or Letts, and the Litvini or Lithuanians proper. 

 Their total number at present is slightly over four millions, about 

 equally divided among the Letts and Lithuanians. The Borussians, 

 whose home was in eastern Prussia, were almost destroyed by the 

 Germans in the thirteenth century, under the pretext of Christianiza- 

 tion. In the words of one of the German writers himself (Schleicher, 

 1852), " Never has a pagan people, good, brave and generous, been 

 maltreated in a more cruel manner than the eastern Prussians .... 

 The history of their death struggle against the Teutonic order must 

 be mentioned as one of the most sinister episodes of mankind." A 

 few remnants of them still exist in Eastern Prussia. 



The Lithuanians, whose ethnographic limits are ill-defined, have 

 been connected with Russia since 1797. 



The Livonians. — The true Livonians are practically extinct. Their 

 country lies east of the Gulf of Riga and is now occupied partly by 

 Letts and partly by Esthonians. Their language belonged to the 

 Finnish or Finno-Ugrian family, and they were doubtless closely 

 related to the Esthonians. 



The Tchouds or Esthonians are a Finnish tribe occupying a larger 

 part of the territory between the Gulf of Riga and the Gulf of Fin- 

 land. They have been united with Russia since 1030, but were 

 tributary to the Russians much earlier. They number at present only 

 between five and six hundred thousand persons. Efforts by the Ger- 

 mans since the thirteenth century at " Christianizing " Livonia and 

 Esthonia, as they did Prussia, have been a failure, and " the Ehsts 

 and Letts openly display their traditional hatred against the in- 

 vaders." 



The Finns. — The Grand duchy of Finland was ceded by Sweden 

 to Russia in 1809. Its population consists at present of approxi- 

 mately 2,700,000 Finns, 350,000 Swedes, 8,000 Russians, 2,000 Ger- 

 mans, and 1,700 Laps. The Finns represent the westernmost exten- 

 sion of the Finno-Ugrian Asiatic stock ; but while retaining their 

 language their blood, especially in the south, has become much mixed 



