Photograph by William T. Ellis 

 RUSSIAN SOLDIERS ON A VOLGA BOAT: EVENING 



Creature comforts are almost as unnecessary to the Russian peasant as are sheer luxuries 

 to the people of the western world. He never slept in a bed with springs in his life, a bath- 

 tub is all but an unknown quantity to him. Give him a pillow for his head, black bread and 

 soup for his stomach, and simple clothes for his body, and he has fewer worries than the 

 ox that grazes in the pasture. 



" 



Photograph by Charles E. Beury 

 WAKING HOURS ON A VOLGA RIVER STEAMER 



"The story of the Volga is the story of Russia. Slav, Tatar, Mongol, and German, all 

 have left their impress upon its banks. Khan and Mogul, the Golden Horde and the armies 

 of the Czars, have written their stories about this water. The tangled tale of Russia's people 

 and history can best be understood when read in the leisurely comfort of one of the steamers 

 on the Volga" (see text, page 245;. 



256 



