5 66 The National Geographic Magazine 



tries, which, in order of importance, are 

 textile fabrics, articles of nutrition, and 

 ores or metals. In total production 

 Russia ranked fifth among the nations. 

 This tremendous growth has been 

 through M. Witte, who declares agri- 

 cultural countries economically and in- 

 tellectually inferior to nations manu- 

 facturing commodities. Competition 

 and' overproduction led to failures and 

 a commercial crisis, from which Russia 

 was slowly recovering at the commence- 

 ment of its war with Japan. 



With manufacturing industries the 

 urban populations increased, notably of 

 L,odz and Moscow, the latter reaching 

 a million. Big factories with cheaper 

 methods of manufacture are killing 

 rapidly home industries. Whole groups 

 of 1 ' industrial villages have fallen under 

 the power of middlemen, who advance 

 money to the working households and 

 fix the price of the products." 



There are brief allusions to the in- 

 dustrial workers, especially in connec- 

 tion with their unfortunate material 

 conditions. While the workmen com- 

 plain of long hours, low wages, arbitrary 

 fines, and brutal severity, yet there are 

 other important evils emphasized — 

 those associated with the barrack sys- 

 tem, the company store, and unsanitary 

 surroundings. 



As a contrast and supplement to the 

 English view of Russia represented in 

 MacKenzie's volume, is that of ' ' Russia 

 under the Great Shadow, " by an Italian, 

 Luigi Villari. His services as corre- 

 spondent of the Iyondon Times afforded 

 unusual opportunities for acquiring an 

 excellent knowledge of European Rus- 

 sia. This exceedingly well-illustrated 

 volume, with interesting and often bril- 

 liant descriptions, covers the salient 

 points of modern Russia and supple- 

 ments them by broad generalizations of 

 evident value. Of Russia he says : 



' 'An immense country, rich in natural 

 resources, inhabited by a people who, if 

 primitive and ignorant, have many very 



fine qualities, strong, capable of the 

 hardest toil, inured to the struggle with 

 nature, brave, intelligent, and religious, 

 has been kept out of the march of pro- 

 gress in a condition of semi- Asiatic bar- 

 barism for the sake of impossible schemes 

 of universal dominion." 



Of especial interest for the light reader 

 are the chapters on St Petersburg, Mos- 

 cow, Nijni Novgorod, and the Crimea. 

 To the student or more serious reader 

 may be commended provincial Russia, 

 the industrial development, the work- 

 ing classes, Poland, and the economic 

 situation. 



He characterizes St Petersburg as 

 representing 1 1 the foreign element of 

 Russian civilization. ' ' Its picturesque 

 Alexander's market, or Thieves' bazar, 

 is happily described. 



Moscow, he says, sums up the essence 

 of many distinct civilizations. It still 

 remains a living force, while presenting 

 every aspect of Russian life, every phase 

 of Russian history. As a holy city sec- 

 ond only to Kiev, it has innumerable 

 miracle-working images, which are re- 

 garded with the deepest veneration. 

 The Iberian Virgin, where the Czar in- 

 variably pays his devotions, is noted for 

 its great popularity, which is utilized as 

 a valued source of income to the church. 

 Per contra is the Moscow University a 

 plague spot of liberalism, vexatious to 

 the government and not favorable to 

 advanced instruction, owing to censor- 

 ship and frequent closing by the gov- 

 ernment. On this point Villari says 

 Russia is especially cursed with an 

 intellectual proletariat, with indigent 

 students, insufficiently clothed and de- 

 pending on benevolent societies and 

 scholarships. He adds : 



f ' These students and graduates over- 

 flow the offices and liberal professions 

 and become the most active agents of 

 revolutionary propaganda. One finds, 

 indeed, glaring contrasts among the 

 Russian educated classes between ad- 

 vanced and daring ideas and complete 



