THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



24' 



Photograph by Charles E. Beury 

 OPEN MARKET AT ASTRAKHAN, ON THE VOLGA 



"Russia is huge, and inchoate, and potential. Her people are at present adrift in their 

 minds, as so many of them are adrift physically. They are in the grip of a great negation. 

 Nevertheless, as surely as the turbid and tortuous Volga finds the shining sea, so surely will 

 Russia one day emerge from her muddled and wavering drifting into the clear calm' of a 

 great and purposeful and brotherly national life" (see text, page 265). 



zaar during 1917 — though I was assured 

 in Moscow that it was in full blast ! No 

 action to this effect was taken by any offi- 

 cial body. Far from it. Nizhni, with the 

 prosperity of its hundred thousand people 

 at stake, hoped until the last. In two of 

 the largest fair buildings, where pathetic 

 trifles were sold to neighboring peasants, 

 brass bands blared daily, in an effort to 

 stimulate life and activity. As if by some 

 occult agreement, the merchants simply 

 failed to come. The shutters of the once 

 busy bazaars, in the height of the historic 

 fair season, were turned like blind eyes 

 toward a world that gave no heed. 



The Nizhni Fair of 19 17 was one of 

 war's casualties. Whether this archaic 

 institution will ever again revive its an- 

 cient glories is a moot question. Will no f 

 trade turn to the great city centers of the 

 world and to the conventional channels 

 and usages of purchase and sale? The 



economic upheaval which has accompa- 

 nied the world war may easily wipe out 

 this picturesque survival of an ancient 

 order, established at the confluence of the 

 Oka and the Volga. 



TRAFFIC ON A BUSY WATERWAY 



Even though the Nizhni Fair should 

 pass, the traffic of the Volga is certain to 

 grow, with the reorganization of Russia's 

 transportation system. There are riches 

 of many kinds to be gleaned along the 

 banks of this imperial river, and its 

 waters are rich in fish which are the 

 chief source of the world's supply of 

 caviar. Lumber, hides, grain, wool, fruit, 

 vegetables, and dairy products are among 

 the commonest articles offered to the 

 needs of the many by this productive re- 

 gion. Cotton, too, comes up from Persia 

 in great barges, while the oil fields at 



