PARTITIONED POLAND 



91 



Much of the land which Russia secured, 

 and particularly Kiev, had been identi- 

 fied with Russia generations before. 



Poland, in the days of her greatest 

 area, extended from a point within 50 

 miles of Berlin, on the west, to the me- 

 ridian of the Sea of Azov on the east; 

 on the north it reached nearly to the 

 Gulf of Finland and on the south down 

 to the Khanate of Crimea. 



The plan of the Congress of Vienna 

 was to let Prussia have Posen and the 

 districts of East and West Prussia that 

 were Polish, and to give Austria Galicia 

 and Bukovina, while the Kingdom of Po- 

 land was to be continued and Russia's 

 Tsar was to be its king — the two govern- 

 ments to be entirely separate except for 

 the union of tsar and king in one per- 

 son ; but revolts in Poland led to the com- 

 plete absorption of the Kingdom into the 

 Russian Empire. 



RUSSIAN POLAND PROPER 



What we now know as Russian Po- 

 land is that neck of territory stretching 

 westward between the Prussias and Ga- 

 licia. This territory has an area almost 

 exactly equal to that of New York, yet, 

 in spite of the fact that its extreme south- 

 ern boundary lies north of the latitude of 

 Winnipeg, its population is as great as 

 those of New York and New Jersey 

 combined. 



Russian Poland, in this limited sense, 

 consists of a great plain, somewhat undu- 

 lating, with an average elevation of about 

 400 feet, sloping upward toward the high- 

 lands of Galicia on the south and toward 

 the swelling ground paralleling the Baltic 

 on the north. It joins the lowlands of 

 western Germany with the great plain of 

 ■western Russia. Its rivers are slow and 

 sluggish, with their mouths often but a 

 few dozen feet below their sources and 

 seldom more than a few hundred feet be- 

 low. Their basins intricately interpene- 

 trate one another, and the frequent inun- 

 dations of these basins have covered them 

 with a very rich alluvial soil. 



Russian Poland usually has a winter 

 somewhat similar to that of New Eng- 

 land. There is an even cold, with not a 

 great deal of snow, but often with razor- 

 edgred winds from the northward. The 



rivers of this region usually freeze over 

 about the middle of December, and the 

 Vistula is under ice for approximately 80 

 days during the average winter. 



In the eighteenth century, when the city 

 of Warsaw, next to Paris, was the most 

 brilliant city in Europe, this flat plain was 

 unusually rich in herds and in geese 

 flocks, though almost bare of manufac- 

 tures. 



THE CITY OF WARSAW 



Warsaw has never been able to forget 

 that it was the capital of the Kingdom of 

 Poland, and it still conscientiously main- 

 tains the vivacious gayety for which it 

 was famed during the days of its highest 

 fortunes. It is still Russian Poland, but 

 instead of a native king and court it has 

 a Russian governor general and a Rus- 

 sian army corps. The gayety of the city, 

 long ago modeled upon that of Paris, is 

 one of the few distinctive characteristics 

 which it has been able to retain from the 

 past. 



The city is well situated. It is built in 

 the midst of a fertile, rolling plain, mostly 

 upon the left bank of the Vistula, which 

 is navigable here for large river boats. 

 The main part of the city lies close to the 

 river and is compact and massive. Its 

 streets are very narrow and very crooked^ 

 wriggling in and out regardless of all 

 logic of direction. The more modern 

 parts of the city, on the other hand, are 

 laid out in broad, straight streets. In 

 these parts one occasionally finds bath- 

 tubs, steam-heating, and various devices 

 of sanitary plumbing in the private 

 homes. 



There are many magnificent palaces of 

 the old Polish nobility in the city. A 

 number of these sumptuous buildings are 

 being put to public use, such as the re- 

 nowned Casimir Palace, which now 

 houses the university. Other palaces are 

 being made to serve the needs of munici- 

 pal and garrison administration. 



Warsaw has become under Russian 

 rule a great industrial and commercial 

 center. It manufactures machinery, car- 

 riages, and woven goods, and it trades in 

 these things and in the animal and food 

 products of Russian Poland. A large ex- 

 port of leather and coal to Russia passes 

 through Warsaw. A great deal of the 



