Ukraine, the land and its people : an introduction to its geography

(••

UKRAINE

THE LAND AND ITS PEOPLE

AN INTRODUCTION TO ITS GEOGRAPHY

BY

STEPHEN RUDNITSKY, Ph. D.

PRIVATDOZENT OF GEOGRAPHY AT THE
UNIVERSITY OF LEMBERG

n

NEW YORK CITY
1918

VP^ ' \ RAND MCNAULY ft CO,
IEW YORK

%i

i?up

Publisher's Preface

The first appearance of this book, which is from
the pen of Stephen Rudnitsky, the famous geog-
rapher of the University of Lemberg, was in the
Russian Ukraine. The book was printed in Ukrain-
ian, at Kieff, and the date under the publisher's
imprint was 1910. The first translation into a
foreign language was into German. This trans-
lation appeared at Vienna in 1915, with many
improvements and additions.

The English translation which appears in this
volume is an authorized translation of the German
edition above-mentioned.

The reader is respectfully requested to note
that the few unpleasant references to Russia are
of course meant to apply to the Russia of the
Czars, as the book was written during the Czarist
regime.

Ukrainian Alliance
New York City of America

1918

CONTENTS

Book I. Physical Geography

PAGE

Ukraine as a Geographic Unit 3

Location and Size 12

The Black Sea and its Coasts 15

General Survey of the Topography of Ukraine

The Ukrainian Mountain Country 23

The Ukrainian Plateau Country 37

The Ukrainian Plain Country 53

Streams and Rivers of Ukraine 63

The Ukrainian Climate 85

Flora and Fauna of Ukraine 99

Book II. Anthropogeography

Ethnographic-Boundaries of Ukraine.

Number and Geographical Distribution of the Ukrainians. . 118

The Ukrainian Nation as an Anthropogeographical Unit

General Survey 148

Anthropological Characteristics of the Ukrainians 159

The Ukrainian Language 167

Historico-Political Traditions and Aspirations of the

Ukrainians 176

Ukrainian Culture 190

Relations between the Soil and the People of Ukraine 211

Economic-Geographical Survey of Ukraine 246

Hunting and Fishing 246

Forestry 251

Agriculture 255

Fruit and Vegetable Raising 267

Cattle Raising 271

Mineral Production 275

Industry , 282

Trade and Commerce 292

Districts and Settlements of Ukraine 307

Bibliography 341

Index 346

Maps:

General Physical Chart of Ukraine

General Ethnographic Map of Eastern Europe

Geological Map of Ukraine

General Climatic Map of Ukraine

Map of the Flora of Ukraine

Structural-Morphological Map of Ukraine

Book I.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

Ukraine as a Geographic Unit

There are few lands upon the whole globe so imperfectly
known to geographic science as the one which we shall try
to describe in this little work. The geographic concept of
the Ukraine does not exist in the geography of today.
Even the name has been almost forgotten in Europe in the
course of the last century and a half. Only occasionally on
some maps of Eastern Europe the name "Ukraine" shows
timidly along the middle of the Dnieper. And yet it is an
old name of the country, originating in the 11th Century,
generally known thruout Europe from the 16th to the end
of the 18th century, and then, after the abrogation of the
autonomy of the second Ukrainian state, gradually fallen
into oblivion. The Russian Government has determined to
erase the old name of the land and the nation from the
map of Europe. Little Russia, West Russia, South Russia,
New Russia, were officially introduced in place of the old
name Ukraine, the Austrian part of the Ukraine receiving
the name of East Galicia. The people were named Little
Russians, South Russians, Ruthenians, and all remembrance
of the old name seemed to have been blotted out. But, in
the speech of the people and in the magnificent unwritten
popular literature of the nation, the name of the land could
not be destroyed, and, with the unexpected rise of Ukrainian
literature, culture, and a feeling of national political inde-
pendence in the 19th Century, the name Ukraine came into
its own again. Today there is not an intelligent patriotic
Ukrainian who would use another name for his country

3

4 UKRAINE

and nation than Ukraine and Ukrainian, and, slowly, these
designations are penetrating foreign lands as well.

The Ukraine is the land in which the Ukrainian nation
dwells — a great solid national territory embracing all the
southern part of Russia in Europe, besides East Galicia,
Northwest Bukowina and Northeast Hungary.

This district is a definite geographic unit. A discussion of
its exact boundaries shall be reserved for the anthropo-
geographical part of this book.

A division of Europe into natural regions almost
invariably stops at Eastern Europe. While all the other
portions of our globe have long been the object of the most
detailed classification, Eastern Europe remains, as before,
an undivided whole. To be sure, there have been many
attempts at classification, but they are all based upon a
non-geographical point of view. Only the Baltic provinces
and Poland are, in their present political extent, regarded
as possible geographic units.

These deficiencies in the geographic material relating
to Eastern Europe are due, above all, to our imperfect
knowledge of this great region. Russian science is devoting
far more intensive study to the Asiatic borderlands of the
immense empire than to the European home country.
For this reason, our literary aids in this direction are few
and unreliable. The latter criticism applies even to the
twenty-volume Geography of Russia by Semyonoff and
the Geography of Krassnoff. Apart from the consideration
that it is relatively out of date, the fifth volume of Reclus'
"G^ographie universelle" still offers the best insight into
this unique region of Eastern Europe.

If we glance at the map of Eastern Europe, we perceive
at once that the great uniformity of this immense region
makes it quite impossible to apply to Eastern Europe as
a criterion the division of Western or Central Europe.
It is not seas and mountains that separate the natural

UKRAINE 5

regions and anthropogeographical units of Eastern
Europe, but imperceptible morphological transitions, hydro-
graphic and climatic boundaries, petrologic and floral
conditions.

The Ukraine is an Eastern European country. Its
situation, its decidedly continental character, its geologic
history, tectonic construction and morphologic conditions,
its climate, plant and animal life, its anthropogeography —
all are characteristic of Eastern Europe. But within
Eastern Europe the Ukraine occupies a unique position,
which fully warrants our conceiving of this great land as
a geographic unit standing on an equal basis with the
other natural units, as Great Russia, North Russia, the
Ural, White Russia, the Baltic Provinces. But it also forms a
characteristic transition country from Eastern to Central
and Southern Europe on the one side, and to Western Asia
on the other.

The location of the Ukraine causes us necessarily to
consider it as the easternmost of the Mediterranean countries
of Europe. The Ukraine differs from these other Medit-
erranean countries in that it is not hemmed in on the north
by mountains. The back-country of the Black Sea, which
the Ukraine really is, therefore merges gradually into
the lands lying further to the north — Great Russia and
White Russia. Of all the regions of Eastern Europe, the
Ukraine alone has access to the Mediterranean.

The geological history of the Ukraine is entirely different
from that of the rest of Europe. The pre-Cambrian core
of gneiss-granite of the Ukraine, unlike other parts of
Eastern Europe, was not flooded by the sea either in the
Cambrian period or the lower Silurian, while in the upper
Silurian the sea covered only a slight part of Western
Podolia and Northern Bessarabia. The Devonian sea
crossed the boundaries of the Ukraine only in the farthest
east (Donetz Plateau) and west (Western Podolia). The

6 UKRAINE

carbon deposits and Permian formations, so widely
distributed in Eastern Europe, are found in the Ukraine
only on the Donetz; triassic rock hardly at all. The
Jurassic Sea confined its action almost wholly to the
plicated borderlands of the Ukraine, altho it actually
flooded great stretches of Eastern Europe. Only the
extension of the chalk seas thru Eastern Europe affected
Ukrainian territory, especially the northern and western
borderlands. The old tertiary sea, on the other hand,
confined itself for the most part to the Ukraine, with the
result that a goodly section of the northeastern boundary
of the old tertiary deposits coincides exactly with the
anthropogeographical boundaries of the Ukraine. The
inland seas of the lower green-sand formation of Eastern
Europe, too, are confined almost entirely to Ukrainian
territory.

The geologic history of the Ukraine in the diluvian
period was also decidedly different from that of the other
districts of Eastern Europe. The Northern European
inland ice covered the northwestern borderlands of the
Ukraine only in the main ice period, for the boundary set
for the glaciation of the north, on the basis of the investi-
gations of Russian scholars, applies in great measure only
to the limits of the distribution of northern glacial boulders,
which were carried to their present site not by ice but by
flowing water. The two indentations of the glaciation-
boundary in the Don and Dnieper district merely mark the
sphere of action of two glacial river systems.

The absence of a one-time inland-ice-cap differentiates
the Ukrainian district very markedly from the other parts
of Eastern Europe. As we perceive, even from this short
description, the Ukraine has had an entirely different
geologic history from the rest of Eastern Europe.

More plainly still, the independence of the Ukraine as a
natural unit is revealed in its contour-line and surface-

UKRAINE 7

relief. The Ukraine is the only portion of the Eastern
European plain which has access to the mountainous
region, for it rests upon the Carpathians, the Yaila Moun-
tains and the Caucasus. Important individual districts
of the Ukraine lie in these mountains and lessen the
Eastern European uniformity of the country. The for-
mation of the Yaila and the Caucasus began at the end of
the Jurassic period — its completion and the building up of
the Carpathians occur in the late tertiary period.

The plains and plateau of the Ukraine, while at first
glance quite similar to those of Central Russia, are in
reality very different from these as to structure and
surface-relief. The nucleus of the Ukrainian plateau
group, which is surrounded by the two plain districts of
the Ukraine, consists of the so-called Azof Horst (so named
by E. Suess), which stretches from the banks of the Sea of
Azof in a northwesterly direction as far as Volhynia and
Austrian Podolia. This primeval rock surface, composed of
granite gneiss, is bounded by quarries and edged with
declivities, which are hidden by more recent sediment
deposits. Since this extended Horst stretches thru practi-
cally the whole length of the Ukraine, we shall call it "the
Ukrainian Horst."

This Ukrainian Horst is of great importance for the
entire process of folding, all over the earth. To the west
of this Horst is the immense fold-system of the Altai,
folded far into North America toward the north and
northeast, in direct opposition to the main parts of the
enormous system which lie to the east of it. In the east of
the Horst we see the straight line of the mountain system
of the Caucasus; in the west the winding guide-lines of
Central Europe.

The region of the Ukrainian Horst has influenced not
only the formation of the plicated country. In connection
with it we find, arranged on a grand scale, but not very

8 UKRAINE

intensive, disintegrating lines, which traverse the entire
Ukrainian country from N. W. to S. E. These tectonic
disturbances have led to strong folding and dislocation
of the more recent sedimentary layers which lie close to the
Horst. This folding district can be observed only in the
trunk range on the Donetz and in a few isolated places to
the northwest; beyond this it is buried under the huge cover
of the tertiary layers. The folding process took place in
the Donetz Mountains, continuing with long interruptions
from the end of the paleozoic era to the beginning of the
tertiary period. As pre-tertiary disturbances of this kind
we consider the disturbance of Isatchky, Trekhtimirov,
etc., as well as some dividing lines at the northwestern
extremity of the Ukrainian Horst.

There is no doubt that the Ukrainian Horst was also
the origin of more recent tectonic disturbances — tertiary
and post-tertiary. The two main lines of Karpinsky (the
northern — Volga, bend of the Don, source of the Donetz,
delta of the Desna, South Polissye, Warsaw; the southern —
delta of the Don, end of the Porohy of the Dnieper,
source of the Boh, Western Podolia) for the most part
go back to these more recent post-cretaceous disturbances.
Besides, we are already able, despite our insufficient
morphological data on the Ukraine, to establish the
fact that the entire Ukrainian plateau-group is the
scene of a significant post-glacial elevation. The strikingly
parallel courses of the main streams, the Dniester,
the Boh, the Dnieper as far as Katerinoslav, the
Donetz and the Don, together with the precipices
frequently accompanying them, lead us to infer the existence
of tectonic influences. That the precipices of Podolia are
very recent we may now confidently maintain, and that the
precipitous bank of the Dnieper is quite as recent is shown
by the familiar dislocation near Kaniv, where the tertiary
is affected. Seismic movements of the most recent past

UKRAINE 9

and morphological observations show us that the tectonic
disturbances of the Ukraine are continuing into our own day.
From this tectonic characterization of the Ukraine we
perceive that this country occupies an independent position
in relation to the rest of Eastern Europe. The much
more intensive tectonic disturbances of the Ukrainian region
have produced a greater variety of plateau and plain
country here than in White, Great or North Russia. The
Ukrainian plateaus attain the contour-lines of 400 and even
500 meters and reveal precipices of tectonic origin, which
for a long time were considered proof of Baer's law and
have recently been explained as Davis Cuestas. The
extensive working out of valleys in the Ukrainian plateau
regions, the characteristic canon-like type of the valleys,
the frequent occurrence of hills formed by erosion, lack
of glacial formations and deposits, but evidences of great
erosive and flattening action — these are the chief elements
of difference between the plateau lands of the Ukraine and
other Eastern European plateau lands. The plains of the
Ukraine possess similarities to neighboring Central Europe
only in the Northwest. Beyond this, they are all more or
less decided steppes, the like of which are not met with in
Central Europe, Hungary not excepted. At the same time
the character of the steppes of the Ukraine is different
from that of the steppe-region of Eastern Russia as well,
chiefly because of the detail of the country and the peculi-
arities of vegetation, which are occasioned by differences
of climate.

Hydrographically the Ukraine is distinguished by a
web of rivers concentrating in the Pontus. The Ukraine
embraces the river systems of the Dniester, Boh, Dnieper,
Don and Kuban — not entirely, to be sure, yet by far the
greater part, leaving only the sources of the two greatest
rivers to the White and Great Russians. Only the most
western borderlands of the Ukraine lie within the water-

10 UKRAINE

sheds of the Baltic Rivers (the Vistula district); only the
most eastern mountain-spurs in the water-shed of the
Caspian Sea (Terek and Kuma). We may therefore, without
hesitation, conceive of the Ukraine hydrographically as
the northern part of the Eastern European water-shed.

In respect to climate, the Ukraine occupies an indepen-
dent position in Eastern Europe. In fact, de Martonne
recently declared "the Ukrainian climate to be one of the
main types of climate of the earth." We shall not go so far
as this, but we must emphasize the fact that the climate of
the Ukraine differs no less from that of Poland, White
Russia and Great Russia than does Germany's climate from
that of England or France. An important wind-partition
crosses the Ukraine in winter from East to West, subjecting
the entire southern part to the sway of the east wind.
Winter in the Ukraine is strictly continental, with a cold-
ness of 30 degrees, but not with the semi-polar character
of the Russian or the Central European character of the
Polish winter. The east and southeast winds by day
prevent the snow-blankets, produced by the moist south
winds of the Pontus, from ever becoming too heavy, especi-
ally in the Southern Ukraine, and cause them to disappear
quickly in the spring. In the spring the temperature
rises very rapidly. The summer of the Ukraine is the hot
continental summer, and despite the predominant Atlantic
west winds and the abundant precipitation, it is not
sultry. Autumn is pleasant and dry.

The climate of the Ukraine, then, is the continental
climate of the Pontus. Toward the west it merges into
the Central European climatic zone at the border of Poland,
into the Eastern European continental climate at the border
of White and Great Russia, into the Aralo-Caspian dry
climate at the eastern border. The southern border-
lands of the Ukraine, like those of France, constitute a
transition to the Mediterranean climate.

UKRAINE 11

In respect to its flora, the unique position of the Ukraine
depends upon the fact that it embraces almost the entire
region of the prairie-steppes of the Pontus, with their
regions of transition to the Northern and Central European
forest zone. Right east of the Don begin the steppes and
desert-steppes of the Caspian region. Consequently, the
Ukraine is the only country in Europe which has the
prevailing character of the steppes. Here, again, this
circumstance is of geographical importance and makes
the Ukraine, in this respect also, a geographic unit.

The most important signs of independence as a geogra-
phic unit, however, are imparted to the Ukraine by its
anthropogeographical conditions, to which we shall turn
our attention in Book II of this little work.

We have now become acquainted with the natural
foundations of the Ukraine as a geographic unit. One
important characteristic of this geographic entity
must especially attract our attention. The name of the
country is Ukraine, which means border-country, march-
land. It is an old historical name which originated in the
course of the centuries and has become customary. And
yet it is significant as hardly another name of a land or
people could well be. For the Ukraine is a true borderland
Europe, between Eastern Europe, and Western Asia. It lies
on the borders of the European plicated mountain-girdle
and of the Eastern European table-land. The Ukrainian
Horst constitutes a tectonic border-post for the development
of the entire European folded area. In the morphological
sense as well, the Ukraine constitutes a decided borderland.
Here the glacial formations give way to the erosive and
flattening formation. Climatologically, too, the Ukraine
is a decided borderland. Yet, most of all, does the char-
acter of the Ukraine as a land of boundaries and transitions
appear in its biogeographical and anthropogeographical

12 UKRAINE

conditions. In the Ukraine are merged the boundaries of
two European forest regions — of the sub-steppes, transition-
steppe, prairie-steppe zone, and of the Mediterranean
region. The Ukraine is situated upon the boundaries of
the European family of peoples — of Slavdom, of European
culture — and, at the same time, upon the boundaries of that
anthropogeographical structure which is so remarkable
and so little known — the body social of Eastern Europe.

Location and Size

The Ukraine lies between 43° and 54° north latitude
_and between 21° and 47° east longitude from Greenwich,
/if we look for our country on a map we will find that it
lies as the northern hinterland of the Black Sea, in the
southern part of Eastern Europe, just on the threshold of
Asia. From the foot of the Tatra Mountains, from the
sunny Hegyalia and cloud-wreathed Chornohora, from the
silver-rippled San, from the dark virgin forest of Biloveza
and the immense swamps of Polissye, to the delta of the
Danube — so often sung in the lore of the Ukrainian folk —
to the Black Sea, to the gigantic Caucasians and the
Caspian, surrounded by brown desert steppes, extends our
fatherland, the Ukraine. From the beginnings of the his-
torical life of Eastern Europe, for one thousand two hundred
years, the Ukrainian race has resided in this region, and
has been able, not only to preserve its boundaries, but,
after heavy losses, to regain and even to pass beyond them.
And this continued thru centuries of stress, thru bloody
wars, after the loss of the first and second national govern-
ments, and under the merciless pressure of neighboring
states and peoples. That other nations, as the French,
the Italians, the Spaniards, should have preserved their
original seats, is not surprising; they were protected on all
sides by high mountains and deep seas. All the more,
therefore, must we admire the great vitality of the Ukrain-

UKRAINE 13

ian nation, which has been able to retain in its possession a
mother-country lying open, almost without any protection,
to mighty enemies.

For the Ukraine lies at the southeastern edge of Europe,
on the threshold of Asia, at the point where the easiest
overland route connects the two continents. For an
entire period of a thousand years, this border position was
most disadvantageous and dangerous for the Ukraine;
for Nature and History did not bring the Ukraine, placed
as it is, into the proximity of that part of Asia which for
thousands of years past had been inhabited by the rich
civilizations of that continent. The Ukraine has always
been the nearest European neighbor of the steppe-country
of Central Asia. There, from the earliest beginnings of
history, dwelt pillaging hordes of Nomads, who would
flood Europe from this point. The Pontian steppes of the
Southern Ukraine were, for these steppe-people, the natural
military road to the West and Southwest, where the rich,
civilized lands of the Mediterranean region lay invitingly
open. For more than a thousand years, from the beginnings
of the history of the Ukraine, these nomadic Asiatic tribes
traversed the South Ukrainian steppes, covering the entire
Ukraine with war and unspeakable misery. Huns, Avars,
Khazars, Magyars, Pechenegs, Torks, Berendians, Polovs,
Tatars, Kalmucks, infested the Ukraine in succession.
Of all the European peoples, the Ukrainians always had to
be the first to oppose these steppe-plunderers. The
nomads always had first to force their way thru the Ukraine.
Many of them were annihilated by the ancient Ukrainians ;
thus, the Khazars, Pechenegs, Torks and Berendians;
others were held off, as the Polovs or the Kalmucks. But
the Ukraine exhausted its strength in this eternal warfare,
and, in the terrible stress occasioned by the Tatars, lost
their ancient culture and their mighty state.

If, therefore, any one of the European nations may

14 UKRAINE

claim the credit of having been Europe's shield against
Asiatic barbarism, it is the half-forgotten Ukrainian
nation.

The border position of the Ukraine was fatal also, for
the reason that the country lay, and lies, so far distant from
the cultural centers of Europe. As long as the Byzantine
Empire, with its cultural wealth, remained firm, a strong
stream of culture flowed from the Pontus into the Ukraine.
The decline and fall of the Byzantine Empire suddenly
transferred the Ukraine to the furthest (in respect to
culture) corner of Europe, close to the Ottoman Empire,
which was at that time hostile to culture.^, The western
neighbors of the Ukraine, the Magyars and Poles, acquired
little of the culture of Western Europe in the time of their
independence, and allowed still less to slip thru into the
Ukraine. The Russians entered the circle of European
culture only two centuries ago, and have made only
superficial cultural progress since.

And yet the geographical location of the Ukraine is not
without favorable features. The Ukraine embraces the
entire northern coast of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof,
and holds considerable possibilities for oversea commerce.
The proximity of Asia is no longer dangerous, but, on the
contrary, very advantageous. A century and a half has
passed since the power of the steppe-races was finally
broken. Their heritage has been taken possession of, altho
in a different manner, by the Ukrainian peasant, who has
thickly settled the Pontian steppes. With plow in hand, he
has reconquered the lands which his ancestors tried in
vain to defend with the sword. Ukrainian colonization is
still advancing irresistibly in the Crimea and in the fore-
country of the Caucasus, and will, no doubt, within a very
short time, flood these countries completely.

A further advantage of location lies in the circumstance
that the Ukraine is situated on the shortest land-route from

UKRAINE 15

Central Europe to the southern part of Central Asia and
India, and commands a good portion of this route. This
fact may, in the very near future, be of the greatest political
and economic importance. At the same time, the Ukraine is
the only one of all the East European countries which,
thru its location, stands in the closest relations to the Medi-
terranean countries.!

Reserving theaetailed discussion of the Ukraine's
geographical location for the anthropogeographical part
of my little book, let us now consider the size of the Ukraine.

The area of the Ukrainian territory is 850,000 square
kilometers.

We see before us, therefore, a European country which is
surpassed in area only by present-day Russia in Europe.
No European people, with the solitary exception of the
Russians, possesses so large a compact national territory as
the Ukrainians. This characteristically Eastern European
spaciousness of the territory, combined with the natural
wealth of the region would, if coupled with Western Europe-
an culture, make a fit dwelling-place for a world-power. On
such ground as this, the possibilities for the development
of a material and intellectual culture are almost unlimited.
/ But alas! The greatest poet of the Ukraine, Taras
'Shevchenko, has characterized his fatherland all too
fittingly as "Our Land, but not belonging to us." Upon
its large and rich territory the Ukrainian nation has had to
endure so many hard buffets of fate, that it must be con-
sidered, along with the Jews, the most sorely tried civilized
race on earth. Even down to the present moment the
Ukrainians are a helot race, which is forced to unearth the
treasures of its fatherland for its hostile neighbors. /

The Black Sea and its Coasts

Altho for many centuries separated from the Pontus
by the nomad-haunted steppe-border, the Ukrainian

16 UKRAINE

nation is closely identified with this sea. An enormous
number of legends and songs of the Ukrainian people deal
with it; even in fanciful love-songs it is mentioned. And
the intimacy of this East European nation with the Sea
need not surprise us. The Black Sea, with which so much
in Ukrainian song and story is connected, has had a
significance in the history of the Ukraine which has not
been forgotten in the unwritten traditions of the people.
How many cultural and warlike memories are connected
with the Black Sea! How much Ukrainian blood has mingled
with its waters!

The Black Sea is not large (450,000 square kilometers).
It is a landlocked sea, situated between Europe and Asia,
and connected with the Mediterranean Sea by the narrow
Straits of theBosphorus and the Dardanelles and the Sea of
Marmora, which, geologically speaking, is a basin formed by
subsidence. Great subsidences of the earth's surface created
the deep basin of the Pontus. The Pontus was a part of the
extensive upper Miocene and Sarmatian inland sea,
which slightly flooded large districts of the present European
continent as far as the Vienna basin. Toward the end of
the tertiary period, this inland sea shrank and separated
into single sea basins. The Pontian basin became connected
with the Mediterranean Sea later, in the latter part of the
diluvial period, by means of great subsidences of recent date.

The present morphology of the Pontus is in full accord
with this genesis. The northern part, as far as the line of
communication between the Balkan and Yaila Mountains,
is a shallow sea of a depth of less than 200 meters; the
so-called bay of Odessa is barely 50 meters deep; the Sea
of Azof, projecting to the northeast, barely 15 meters.
But just on the southern border of the line of plicated
mountains, which is broken at this point, the bottom of the
Black Sea declines rapidly to greater depths (1500 meters)
until, declining more gradually now, it attains the depth

UKRAINE 17

of 2245 meters in the center of the oval-shaped main
basin of the Pontus.

The salt content of the Black Sea is much smaller
than that of the ocean, or even of the Mediterranean. The
Sea is comparatively small, and receives a great deal of
fresh water from the many and large rivers of the region
which it drains, while the influx of salt water from the
Mediterranean thru the shallow straits cannot be great.
The salt content is on the average 1.8%; only at great
depths does it reach 2.2%. The diluted surface layer
shows barely 1.5% salt content; the Sea of Azof hardly
1%. The surface water, containing little salt but a great
deal of air, cannot, because of the greater density of the
lower layers of water, sink far, and this low degree of
ventilation accounts for the fact that the waters of the
Black Sea below a depth of 230 meters are saturated with
sulphide of hydrogen, and thus preclude any possibility of
organic deep-sea life.

Nevertheless, the Black Sea is notable for its beautiful
blue-green color and the great transparency of its waters.
A white disc, on being submerged, disappeared only at a
depth of 77 meters.

The surface temperature of the Black Sea is subject to
many fluctuations; from 27° C in midsummer to 5° C in
winter. In severe winters the Sea is frozen over in the bay
of Odessa for a short time; the Limans and the Sea of
Azof regularly for from two to three months.

The Black Sea has been known since hoary antiquity as
a dangerous, stormy sea. The waves, running as high as
10 meters, the short cross-waves caused by the proximity
of the shores, the difficult approaches to the land, are still
a great hindrance to navigation, especially in the winter
time. Not without cause did the Greeks originally call it
"the inhospitable sea," until the great number of flourishing
Greek settlements on its shores led them to change its name

18 UKRAINE

to "hospitable sea." Despite this euphemistic name, how-
ever, "Pontus Euxeinos," the Black Sea has devoured many
goods and lives, many Greek and Roman ships, many
Turkish and Genoese galleys, many English and Russian
steamers. And many a little Zaporog vessel sank in the
dark waves of its native sea, "on white cliffs dashed to
pieces," as is related in the old folk-epics; many a one was
driven to far-off hostile Turkish shores, to the destruction
of its crews.

Being a closed interior sea, the Pontus has no noticeable
tides. Marked changes of level are caused by the action
of the wind. In the liman of the Boh, for example, they pro-
duce 20 centimeters difference of level in a day, sometimes
even 40 centimeters; in the bay of Yah6rlik as much as
46 centimeters. The Sea of Azof becomes 45 to 90 centi-
meters deeper when there is a west wind, up to 1 meter
deeper in the case of south winds, and shallower by an
equal amount when the winds are in the opposite direction.
Slight changes of level are dependent also on the seasons.
The Black Sea has its lowest water level in February,
when the region which it drains is covered with snow; the
highest in May and June, as a result of the melting of the
snows and the early summer rains. These fluctuations,
however, amount to only 25 cm. The currents of the
Black Sea, too, are inconsiderable, because of its isolation.
Outside of local currents which are caused by winds, we
know of only one greater current, weak in itself, which
encircles the Pontian Basin in a counter clock-wise direction
and may be traced to the cyclonal motion of the air.
The same conditions obtain on a smaller scale on the Sea
of Azof and are reflected in the direction of the tongues
of land along the coasts.

Despite the fact that the deep-sea region of the Black
Sea is poisoned with sulphide of hydrogen, it possesses a
rich flora and fauna in its surface layers. Enormous

UKRAINE 19

shoals of all kinds of fish — sturgeon, hausen, sterlet, "kephal,"
"bichok," "balmut," come to the coast and into the limans
of the river deltas. For this reason the Pontian fishing
industry has been considerable for thousands of years.
The extraction of salt from the limans and salt lakes is
also important. Before the age of the railroad the abun-
dance of fish and salt of the Black Sea created a special
trucking trade in the Ukraine, the so-called Chumaki,
who came to the Pontian strand in whole caravans of ox-
carts to take dried fish and salt in exchange for grain.

The Ukrainian coast of the Black Sea begins at the delta
of the Danube and ends at the western spurs of the Cau-
casus. The greater part is flat coast, the smaller, steep
coast.

At the northern Kilian arm of the Danube delta, where
now the descendants of the Zaporog Cossacks gain a
scanty living thru fishing, begins the coast of the Ukraine.
The steppe approaches the sea with a steep declivity,
which is bordered by a narrow strand of sand and pebbles.
The coast runs evenly as far as the Dnieper delta, without
any indentations. Even the famous port of Odessa is an
artificial harbor.

Only at a point where a river, a streamlet, even a balka
(step-glen, ravine) opens into the sea, is the steep incline
of the steppe-plateau broken. We then see before us an
enormous pond as it were, at the upper end of which the
water-course enters and the lower end of which is locked
from the sea side by a land-tongue or bar (Kossa, Peresip)
as by a flat dam. This sea-water lake is called liman in
Ukrainian.

Wherever a stream of great volume empties into a
liman, the bar is severed at one or more places. These
liman deltas are called, in Ukrainian, hirl6. Limans which
have such connections with the sea are broken. Of such a
kind are the limans of the Kunduk, Dniester, Boh and

20 UKRAINE

Dnieper. Where a little streamlet discharges which has
not a sufficient volume of water to cover the loss from
evaporation of the liman surface and still retain an excess
for keeping open the outlet, then the bar of the liman is
without an opening and the water contains a great deal of
salt. Of this kind are, above all, the limans of Kuyalnik
and Khadshib6 near Odessa, the large, deep Tilihul and
many smaller ones. The water and the mud of such limans
possess healing powers, and every summer thousands of
patients travel to the hot shores of the limans to regain
their health.

The limans are simply submerged eroded valleys of
steppe rivers which are now being filled in by alluvial
deposits. Therefore, the limans of all larger rivers are too
shallow to serve as good harbors for the larger sea-going
vessels. The liman of the Dniester allows entrance only
to small ships drawing two meters of water; the gigantic
Dnieper liman is only 6 m. deep, and only the Boh liman
is accessible to larger sea-going ships. Systematic dredging,
however, could, without a doubt, bring relief, and would
change a number of the limans into profitable harbors.

Beginning at the liman of the Dnieper, the coast is
strongly indented as far as the bay of Karkinit, but these
indentations (Yahorlik, Tendra, Kharilgach) are closed off
by long tongues of land and the undersea extension of the
bar of Bakalsk. The west coast of Crimea is also a uni-
form liman coast, increasing constantly in height, however,
toward the south. At the Alma delta the coast becomes
steep and has two excellent harbors, Sevastopol and
Balaklava, which are submerged deep valleys. The
southeast coast of the Crimean peninsula is a strongly
marked acclivitous shore. The steep descent of the Yaila
Mountains has been transformed here, thru the abrasive
action of the sea, into a beautiful coastline. Eruptive rock,
capable of offering great resistance, is found here in places,

UKRAINE 21

forming picturesque capes, jetties and crags, between which
lie pretty little bays and coves. The agreeable climate,
the clear sky, the good sea-baths and the beautiful country
annually lure to this Ukrainian Riviera thousands of
consumptives and health-seekers. There are rows and
rows of cottage-colonies and mansions.

Beginning at the crescent-shaped bay of Feodosia,
the coast again becomes lower and also has a number of
salty lagoons and bars. Of the same description are the
coasts of the Strait of Kerch, leading into the Sea of Azof,
which is 35,000 sq. km. in area. This extremely flat sea
is often compared to a liman. Numerous tongues of land
(Biriucha, Obitochna, Berdianska, Kossa, etc.) jut out
here into the sea, showing very clearly in their direction
the effect of the cyclonal motion of the air. The low coast
has an enormous number of limans and lagoons, e. g.,
Utluk, Mius, Molochni, Yeski, Akhtirski, Tamanski,
Kisiltash, etc. The most remarkable part of the Sea of
Azof, however, is the Sivash. A bar 111 km. in length
shuts the Sivash off from the Sea of Azof, leaving only a
connecting passage of 150 m.,near Henichesk. The curiously
ragged banks of red-clay, the salt swamps, lagoons and
islands, the bracken, ill-smelling water, which is salty in
summer, and in a few spots at other times as well, have
given the Sivash the name of Foul Sea (Hnile More).

The eastern part of the Ukraine's Black Sea coast is
a mountainous cliff-coast again. The plications of the
western Caucasus, which approach the sea obliquely, are
here so quickly destroyed by the powerful abrasive action
of the surf, that the erosive action of the rivers and moun-
tain streams cannot keep pace. Therefore, the crest is
difficult of access and only the two harbors of Novorossiysk
and Gelendshik offer shelter for ships along this part of the
coast. But even this shelter is doubtful, because of the
bora-like winds.

22 UKRAINE

As we perceive from this description of the Ukrainian
coast, it is not one which would promote navigation among
the inhabitants. Lack of harbors, isolation, remoteness
from the main lines of the world's traffic, never could have
an encouraging effect upon the development of navigation
among the Ukrainians. Despite all this, however, they
developed very high seafaring qualities in the time of the
old Kingdom- of Kiev and later on in the Cossack period,
and the present age, too, has brought a revival of the
nautical skill of the Ukrainian coast population.

General Survey of the Physical Geography
of Ukraine

The Ukrainian Mountain Country

Glancing at the map of the Ukraine, we perceive at
once that in this country we should seek in vain for such
a variety of surface configuration as is peculiar to Central
or Western Europe. In Germany or France there appear
in a comparatively small space the most varied landscape —
chains of high mountains, central chains of mountains,
terrace and hill country, plateaus and plains.

It is different here in our wide Ukraine. One can
travel hundreds of miles in any direction without seeing
a change in the character of the scenery. The uniformity
which is typical for Eastern Europe is peculiar also to the
Ukraine. But not to the extent that it is to Great Russia,
where the endlessness of the flat country wearies the eye of
the traveler. For there are in the Ukraine landscapes of
high and central chains of mountains, picturesque hill
districts and richly cut plateaus, marshy plains and steppes
strewn with barrows. There is, then, in the Ukraine, a
variety of surface configuration, but on a large scale, not as
in Western or Central Europe, confined in a small space.

The morphological nucleus of the Ukraine is the closed
group of pleateaus, which extends from the country at
the foot of the Carpathians and the Polish part of the Vis-
tula region to the Sea of Azof. Pontian Plateau or Avra-
tinian Ridge are the commonly used but incorrect names
of this plateau group. The first designation might do,
but the second transfers the name of a little destitute
hamlet at the source of the Sbruch to a territory of hun-

23

24 UKRAINE

dreds of thousands of square miles. We shall, therefore,
select for this plateau group the name Ukrainian Plateau
Group.

It forms a compact whole between the Carpathians and
the Dnieper and is divided into the following individual
sections: The Rostoch, between the San and Buh Rivers;
Volin, between the Boh and the Teterev; Podolia, between
the Dniester and the Boh; the Pocutian — Bessarabian
Plateau, between the Dniester and the Prut; the Dnieper
Plateau, between the Boh and the Dnieper. The plateau
character continues at the rapids section of this river on
the left bank, where, at some distance, the last member
of the Ukrainian Plateau Group lies — the Donetz Plateau.

The plateau group of the Ukraine is bordered on the
north and south by two plain districts. The northern
district consists of adjoining lowlands — Pidlassye, Polissye,
and the Dnieper plain — and their extensions along the
Donetz; the southern district is made up of the long
stretch of the Pontian steppe-plain, which, in the country
at the foot of the Caucasus, merges into the Caspian desert-
steppe.

Beyond the northern plain district, Ukrainian territory
does not extend, except in the Don region, where it embraces
the southern spurs of the Central Russian Plateau.

Besides these plateau and plain regions the Ukraine
takes in also parts of three mountain systems of the
European continent. The Ukraine is the only country of
Eastern Europe which extends over into the region of the
European mountains of plication. Parts of the Carpathians,
the little Yaila chain of Crimea, and the western parts of
the Caucasus lie, together with their environs, in Ukrain-
ian territory.

From this general survey of the surface configuration
of the Ukraine, we can easily see that more than nine-
tenths of the surface of this land is taken up by plains and

UKRAINE 25

plateaus. Nine-tenths of the Ukrainians have certainly
never seen a mountain and do not even know what one
looks like. Expressive of this circumstance is the fact that
in the wide plateau and plain region of the Ukraine the
most insignificant hills bear the high-sounding name of
"mountain." But, despite this, the Ukraine also has its
share in the three mountain systems of Europe — the Car-
pathians, the Yaila, and the Caucasus. All three were
formed thru plication of the rock-layers.

The vast plication-formed mountain range of the
Caucasus, even in the small part belonging to Ukrainian
territory, attains an alpine height ; the scenery of the Yaila
along the Crimean Riviera is wonderful, but the Carpath-
ians, altho not as lofty as the Caucasus and not of such
scenic beauty as the Yaila, are the dearest to the heart of
the Ukrainian. For the Ukrainian nation expanded in the
Caucasus only a century ago and has but just reached the
Yaila. And the Eastern Carpathians have for more than
a thousand years been a Ukrainian mountain range.

Still, hardly one-third of the 1300 km. curve of the
Carpathians belongs to Ukrainian national territory.
Toward the west the Carpathians are inhabited by
Poles and Slovaks; in the east and south by the Rou-
manians.

The boundary-posts of the Ukrainian territory extend
in the west beyond the famous defile of Poprad. From the
rounded peaks of the mountain country where the last
Ukrainian villages lie, one sees rising at a very short
distance the imposing range of the Tatra; still nearer lie
the cliffs of the Pienini, famous geologically as well as for
their scenery. In the eastern part of the Carpathian
chain, Ukrainian territory reaches the Prislop pass, which
connects the valleys of the Golden Bistritz and the Visheva
(Visso). To the Ukraine, then, belongs the sandstone
district of the Carpathians at that point where it is highest

26 UKRAINE

and most developed. It is called simply the "wooded
Carpathians."

The western part of the sandstone Carpathians which
lies within Ukrainian territory is called the Low Beskid.
It is also known as Lemkivski Beskid because it is inhabited
by the Ukrainian mountain tribe of the Lemkes. The Low
Beskyd extends from the defile of Poprad to the valleys of
the Strviazh River, the Oslava (Lupkiv pass), and the
Laboretz. It is a broad -backed but not a' high mountain
country. In long chains, gently undulating mountain
ridges stretch from west to east and southeast. Their
slopes are gentle; one can easily walk or even ride up, and
numerous wagon-roads and highways lead straight over
the crest or even along the edge of the crest. The peaks are
rounded and of uniform height, except where an occasional
gently vaulted mountain top rises above the low-hill
country. Between gently sloping ranges there extend,
in a longitudinal direction, valleys with watersheds
and communicating passes. Broad, well-developed defiles
separate the range into different sections. The Galician-
Hungarian dividing-ridge has only slight gorges of genuine
mountain passes.

The peaks and high passes of the Lower Beskid are
insignificant. Only in the extreme west, on the Poprad and
the Torissa,do the peaks reach a height of 1000 and 1 100 m. ;
further toward the east hardly 700 to 800 m. The im-
portant Dukla Pass is hardly 500 m. above sea-level.
In the middle of the Beskid mountain country we even
see a great longish strip of lower country ("the Sianok
Lowlands") whose low hills are less than 300 m. high.

There is a connection between the insignificant height
and soft landscape forms of the Low Beskid and the
geological construction and evolution of the mountain
range. This mountain country, like the whole sandstone-
region of the Carpathians, is built up of strongly plicate

UKRAINE 27

and compressed Flysch — a series of sandstones slates,
conglomerates, clays, etc., of the cretacian and tertiary
ages. All these species of rock occur in this region in thin
layers and have little power of resistance; everywhere the
basic mountain ridge is covered with a thick coat of
weathering loam; rock piles are found very seldom. There
is added the fact that all the sandstone Carpathians of the
Ukrainian territory have been evened out by the destruc-
tive action of water and air into a more or less perfect
plain. Not until the quaternary was the "obliterated"
range raised anew and transformed into a mountain district
by the action of the rivers which were cutting in again.

The Low Beskid was once covered with great, mixed
forests. Now the once splendid virgin forests are completely
thinned and all the ill effects of forest destruction have
visited the poor mountain country. The fertile soil was
washed away on the mountain-sides and heaped up with
rubble and mud in the valley bottoms. The tribe of the
Lemkos is therefore, perhaps, the poorest of all the Ukrain-
ians and is compelled to seek an existence in distant lands.

In the southern part of the Low Beskid the boundaries
of the Ukrainian nation in Hungary reach the northern
part of the Hegyalia-Sovari Ridge, which, at this point, is
1100 m. high, and is composed of extinct trachyte volcanoes.

To the east of the Lupkiv Pass begins the second
section of the Ukrainian Carpathians — the High Beskid.
It stretches to the southeast as far as the valleys of the
Stri, Opir and Latoritza Rivers (Pass of Verezki).

The High Beskid like the Low is composed of a number
of parallel, weakly joined mountain ranges, which run north-
west and southeast. The type of the Rost Mountains is,
therefore, even more clearly marked in this part of the
sandstone Carpathians than in the preceding. The
mountain crests are gently sloped, the edge of the crests
slightly curled, the height of the peaks constant, the

28 UKRAINE

passes only walled passes. Toward the southeast, tho, the
ridge steadily increases in height. The highest peaks are
Halich (1335 m.), the beautifully pyramid-shaped rocky
Piku (1405 m.) and the massive Polonina ruvna (1480 m.).
In the Flysch of the High Beskid, two species of sand-
stone attain greater power of forming layers and of resisting
pressure — the chiefly upper cretacian Yamna sandstone and
the oligocene Magura sandstone. The former forms
beautiful groups of rocks on peaks and precipices. The
cliffs of Noich, with its traces of a rock castle, are the most
famous.

The longitudinal valleys are much less developed in the
High Beskid than in the Low. They are traversed only
by smaller brooks. All larger streams like the Strviazh,
Dniester and Opir, flow thru well-formed passes. Expan-
sions of valleys (in regions of soft slate) alternate with
contractions of valleys (in regions of hard sandstone).
Most remarkable are the deeply cut out winding valleys
(San, Striy), which offer the best proof of the former
smoothing down and the later raising of the mountains.

Beautiful beech and evergreen forests still cover large
parts of the High Beskid. Above the tree-line(1200— 1300m)
we meet for the first time with the characteristic plant-
formation of the Polonini (mountain pastures) which yield
excellent pasturage for large and small cattle during the
summer and create the foundation for a primitive dairy
industry.

Along the southern foot of the High Beskid, and separ-
ated from it by a chain of longitudinal valleys, a long
chain of mountains rises above the neighboring Hungarian
plain, bearing the name of Vihorlat (the Burnt Out).
The Rivers Uz (Ungh), Latorizia and Bershava, have cut
the Vihorlat into four sections. The range is lower than
the Beskyd, since it is less than 1100 m. high, but it is
strongly cut up by deep-gorged valleys, and has steep,

UKRAINE 29

rocky precipices, bold rocky summits and pretty little
mountain lakes. The range, which is covered with thick
oak forests, owes its scenic character to its geological
composition. The Vyhorlat is a line of extinct volcanoes,
in the old craters of which the mountain lakes of the region
lie. The firm trachyte lava forms picturesque rock walls
and peaks. East of the Verezki Pass begins a new moun-
tain section, perhaps the most characteristic one in the
sandstone Carpathians. It extends toward the east as
far as the passes of the Prut and the Black Tyssa (Theiss)
and the Yablonitza Pass. This part of the sandstone
Carpathians bears the name of Gorgani.

The uniform mountain walls of the Beskid give way
here to shorter mountain ridges, strongly cut up by cross
valleys. The main streams of the northern slope, Opir,
Limnitza — the two Bistritzas — flow thru deep, picturesque
passes; still deeper are the valleys of the mountain streams
which flow into the Theiss, as the Torez, Talabor, etc.
It is a remarkable circumstance that the dividing border
ridge is lower than the ridges facing it on the north and
south, which are broken thru by magnificent passes.

The edge of the Gorgani ridge also shows traces of
the old leveling-surface and has only small gorges, yet it is
much more curled than in the Beskid. The ridge often
becomes a sharp edge and the cone-shaped peaks further
break its monotony. The height of the peaks is much
greater than in the Beskyd. On the Galician side the Popa-
dia attains a height of 1740 m.; Doboshanka, 1760 m.;
Visoka, 1810 m.; Sivula, 1820 m.; in Hungarian territory
the Stoh in the picturesque Bershavi group is 1680 m.;
the Blisnitza, in the Svidovez Range, 1890 m., etc.

The ridges and peaks of the Gorgani are covered with
seas of sandstone boulders and are, therefore, difficult of
access. The light gray Yamna sandstone, of great resisting
power, appears in this mountain section in very thick

30 UKRAINE

layers, and is the cause of the greater height and the
bolder forms which, in places, are suggestive of high
mountain ranges. The energetic weathering process, aided
by the cover of winter snow, breaks up the mighty sand-
stone layers into great rocks, boulders, fragments and
rubble. Deep fissures yawn between moss and lichen-
covered boulders, many boulders rock under the foot of the
wanderer, and many of them, thru caving-in and thru
accumulation, have formed natural chambers and hollows.
The rocky ridges, covered with seas of boulders, are
Arshizia, the Gorgan peaks, whence comes the name of the
entire mountain range. The seas of boulders and rubble-
stone are called Zekit or Grekhit.

In the highest groups of the Gorgani Range (especially
in the Svidovetz) are found also distinct traces of the
glacial age, glacial excavations with small lakes or with
swamps that have taken the place of lakes.

A splendid, only slightly thinned dress of virgin forest
covers the Gorgani Chain. The lower forest section is
composed of beech, ash and fir trees, the upper part of
pines and stone-pines. The tree limit is very irregular
and vascillates between 1100 and 1600 m. Mountain
pastures are very rare, because of the seas of boulders
and rubble-stone, but there are large and beautiful, tho
not easily accessible, stocks of mountain pines.

The last section of the Ukrainian Carpathians is called
Chornohora (Black Mountains). It extends from the
Prut and the Black Theiss to the Prislop Pass; to the valley
of the Visheva and of the Golden Bistritza. In this wide
and long mountain district we find greater morphological
variety than in the mountain sections hitherto discussed.
In the wide zone of the northern foothills, which separate
with a distinct edge from the sub-Carpathian hills and
continue into the Bukowina, we find low ridges and
rounded peaks, as in the High Beskid. Only in places on

UKRAINE 31

peaks and valley sides piles of rock are seen. Then
toward the interior of the range follows the wide vale of
Zabie, imbedded in soft slate, and above it rises the mighty
chain of the Chornohora, the only part of the sandstone
region of the Carpathians which has high mountain forma-
tions. The chain is composed of the hard magura sand-
stone, rich in mica. A whole stretch of peaks here attains
a height of 2000 m., the highest being the Hoverla(2058 m.).
Well-formed, partly rocky ribs branch off from the main
ridge on either side. The rock piles of the Shpitzi, Kisli
and Kisi Ulohy, are some of the most imposing rock forma-
tions of the Carpathian sandstone region. Between the
rocky ribs, finely developed glens lie on both sides of the
main ridge of the Chornohora, the beds of the ancient
glaciers. Waterfalls dash down the steep rock walls in
silver streams — of particular interest is the cascade of the
Prut under the Hoverla — and down below lie little crater
lakes reflecting the patches of summer snow on the crater
walls. Almost three-fourths of the year the Chornohoras
are covered with snow. In summer the snow almost
wholly disappears, and the beautiful carpet of flowers of
the mountain pastures, only occasionally interrupted
by dark green reserves of mountain-pine, spreads out over
the ridges and peaks of the Chornohora. Every summer
innumerable herds of cattle, small Hutzul horses and
sheep are seen here. Then an intensive dairy industry
enlivens the peak regions of the range for three months.
The lower regions are still covered with extensive forests;
in lower locations we find mixed forests here; in higher
altitudes, almost pure stocks of pines.

Standing on one of the Chornohora peaks, on the Hoverla
for instance, or the Petros or Pip Ivan, we see, in the near
southwest, a new and strange mountain world. It is
the third zone of the Chornohora Mountains, the mountain
land of Marmarosh. Situated in the region of the headwaters

32 UKRAINE

of the Theiss and orographically related to the Chornohora,
the mountains of the Marmarosh are of entirely different
geological composition and have a different morphological
appearance. Gneiss and other kinds of crystalline slate,
permotriassic and Jurassic conglomerates and limestones,
as well as eruptive rock of older and of more recent date,
lend great geological and morphological variety to the
Marmarosh Mountains. The high mountain character
here is even more marked than in the Chornohoras.
Rocky peaks, ridges, mountain walls, numerous craters,
with small glacial lakes, adorn the Marmarosh mountains,
which rise higher than 1900 m. : Pip Ivan, Farko, Mikhalek,
Petros, Troiaga. Toward the southeast the range wanders
over into South Bukowina, where its last boundary-posts,
the rocky peaks of Yumalen and Raren really stand on
Roumanian ground. And in the south, beyond the Visheva
Valley, which divides the settlements of the Ukrainian
Hutzuls from those of the Roumanians, rises the magnificent
lofty rampart of the Rodna Mountains, with its two
peaks of 2300 m., Pietrosu and Ineu.

On the outside of the Carpathian curve stretches a hill
country of varying breath, the sub-Carpathian hill-country,
in Ukrainian: Pidhirye or Pidkarpatye. The mountain-
edge of the Carpathian, which is at all points very distinct,
rises steeply over the low-hill country at the foot, along an
extended line in the neighborhood of the cities of Peremishl,
Sambir, Drohobich, Striy, Kolomia. The Carpathian
rivers leave the mountains by way of funnel-shaped valleys,
bordered by boulder terraces, and spread their alluvial
mounds over the low hill country. Wide stretches of
meadow accompany the river courses; fields and woodland
lie at a distance. The sub-Carpathian hill-country is
built up of miocene gray clays which, along the edge of the
Carpathians, contain an enormous treasure of petroleum,

UKRAINE 33

ozokerite, kitchen salt and potash salts. Boulders lie on
the clay, not only along the rivers, but also on the hilltops —
traces of old watercourses, which transported Carpathian
and northern rubble-stone toward the east in the direction
of the Dniester. The yellowish cover of loam and loess
lies over the whole, and its surface-layer, abounding in
vegetable soil, is, in places, very fertile.

The sub-Carpathian hill country reaches to the two
sub-Carpathian plains in the north — the Vistula and the
Dniester Plain. Only along the European main divide a
tongue of hill-country projects in the direction of Lemberg.
In the glacial period, watercourses of great volume flowed
directly across this hill-country divide, which, as might be
expected, is now completely cleft by the bifurcation of the
Vishnia, depositing considerable masses of rubble-stone
and sand. Thru destruction of forests, the sands have
become subject to wind action and dreary landscapes of
sand-dunes have been formed.

Only the southeastern reaches of the Vistula Plain,
extending along the San River to Peremishl are part of
Ukrainian territory. The low loam bags, which lie between
sandy and swampy valleys of the San, form the only rises
of ground in this plain, which borders in the northeast on
the spurs of the Rostoch.

The Dniester Plain extends in a broad ribbon along the
river from the place where it leaves the mountains to the
delta of the Striy. Its western part is a single great swamp
region, a one-time large lake. The rivers flow on flat
dams, and when the melting snows come and the rains of
early summer, they overflow their banks and flood the
swampy plains far and near. In some years the swamp
region changes into a lake for days and weeks. In the
dry season only a few swamp lakes remain, but the entire
region remains a swamp and produces only a poor sour
hay. Settlements lie only on the high banks of the rivers.

34 UKRAINE

The eastern part of the Dniester Plain extends beyond
the great alluvial mounds of the Striy River, and then
reaches over into the broad valley of the Dniester, which
ends in the Podolian Plateau at the point where the river
enters. The eastern Dniester Plain is not very swampy,
and only in places do ravines, swamps, and old river beds
accompany the river course. For the most part pretty
meadows, fields and woods lie on the thick sub-layer of
rubble-stone and river-loam.

If the Carpathians represent a primeval section of
Ukrainian ground, the mountain ranges of Crimea and the
Caucasus were entirely strange to the Ukrainians not so
very long ago. How many Ukrainian slaves, in the time
of Tartar oppression, cursed the rocky-wall of the Yaila
which separated them from their beloved home. How
discontented was the enslaved remainder of the Zaporogs
when transported to the Western Caucasus.

Now the conditions are quite changed. The great
colonizing movement of the Ukrainians touched the Yaila
as much as twenty years ago, and has extended the frontiers
of the Ukrainian settlements along the outer mountains of
the Caucasus to the Caspian Sea. And the once strange,
hostile mountain-worlds have opened their doors to
Ukrainian colonization.

The Yaila Mountains of Crimea are, in comparison with
the Carpathians, a small mountain system hardly 150 km.
long and 35 km. wide. They lie in three parallel ranges,
separated by longitudinal valleys, along the southeast
shores of the peninsula. The northern declivities of all the
ridges are gently sloping, the southern ones steep. The
southern main range exceeds a height of 1500 m. with its
peaks, Chatirdagh, Roman-chosh, and Demir Kapu.
This main ridge, which declines toward the sea in steep
precipices, is flat and rocky on top, strewn with rock-

UKRAINE 35

craters ; it bears the name Yaila and serves as a lean moun-
tain pasture. Deep gorges cut the rough surface of the
summit and divide it into single table mountains.

The mountains of Crimea, like the Carpathians, are
mountains of plication. They are composed of Jurassic,
chalk, and miocene-layers. The large blocks of lime of the
Jurassic, which rest on softer slates and clays, form the main
ridge of the mountains. Besides craters, we find, in the
limestone mountains of the Yaila, impassable furrows
(German Karrenbildungen) and numerous hollows.

Very picturesque is the magnificent precipitous decline
of the main range of the Yaila to the sea. Here the entire
southern part of the range has sunk in great ravines and
the resisting power of the eruptive rocks which appear here
has created a coastal mountain landscape of great beauty.
Protected by the mountain wall from northerly winds, a
Mediterranean flora has been able to develop here at the
southern foot of the range, while beautiful leafy forests
partly cover the declines of the mountains.

On the peninsula of Kerch, which forms the eastern
extreme of Crimea, a low steppe-like hill-country extends
seemingly as a prolongation of the Yaila Range. The
new tertiary clays are here laid in flat folds, which are more
closely related to the Caucasus. Here, and on the quite
similarly formed Taman peninsula, we find many small
cone-shaped mud volcanoes which emit gases, smoke, and
thinly flowing blue-gray mud from their miniature craters.

The magnificent lofty range of the Caucasus forms the
boundary-post of the Ukraine on the east. Only the
western part of the mountain system lies within Ukrainian
territory. We shall, therefore, discuss it quite briefly.

The Caucasian Mountain system, which is 1100 km. in
length, lies like a huge wall of rock between Europe and
Asia. Most geographers consider the Caucasus as part of

36 UKRAINE

the latter continent, which is correct in so far as these
mountains show many characteristics of Asiatic mountain
ranges. First of all they are hard to cross, much harder than
the highest mountains of Europe, the Alps. Along a
stretch of 700 km., the ridge of the Caucasus descends only
twice to a level of 3000 m. On the other hand; the Caucasus
is not wide — on the average only 150 km. — and at the
point where the Grusinian army road crosses the range,
barely 60 km. Then, the Caucasus, like many mountain
ranges of Asia, stretches in a straight line from the peninsula
of Taman to the peninsula of Apsheron, famous for its
abundance of petroleum.

The Caucasus is a plication-formed mountain range
composed of folded crystalline and sedimentary rock of
varying ages. Along huge ravines, the entire southern part
of the range has sunk down, so that the highest crystalline
central zone of the range declines directly and very steeply
toward the south. The highest Caucasus peaks are old
extinct volcanoes, set over the basic mountains; the Elbruss
(5630 m.), at the source of the Kuban and the Kasbek
(5040 m.), at the source of the Terek. Proof that the
subterranean powers are still active are the numerous
tectonic earthquakes of Transcaucasia.

The main chain of the Caucasus possesses, besides
the volcano peaks, many rocky granite peaks 4000 — 5000
m. in height, and, besides these, hundreds of lower peaks,
all of which find their counterparts in the Alps. The present
glaciation of the Caucasus is very considerable, while
that of the glacial period was also very extensive and
determined the present mountain forms of the Caucasus.
Only the most beautiful ornament of the one-time glacial
landscape is lacking in the Caucasus — the lakes, which
are so abundant in the Alps.

All the larger Caucasus rivers rise as milky glacial
brooks in the main range. Then, by way of deep cross-

UKRAINE 37

valleys, they break thru the lower ranges, which face the
main ridge in several rows, and are composed of sedi-
mentary rock formations of Jurassic, cretaceous, and old-
tertiary age. Their crests and peaks become constantly
lower and more rounded toward the north. Beautiful
mountain pastures and thick virgin forests, full of animals
that may be hunted, cover the mountains.

In the country at the foot of the Caucasus, a low hill-
region is spread, which consists mainly of new- tertiary
layers abounding in petroleum. At the Ponto-Caspian
divide, the hill-district and plateau of Piatihorsk and
Stavropol, which is composed of recent lime formations,
projects from the Caucasus. From a height of 600 m. this
structure declines slowly in flat hills toward the west,
north and east to the Ponto-Caspian steppe-plain, in
which lies the famous Manich Furrow. The Manich, or
rather Calaus River rises like the Kuma in the Plateau of
Stavropol and separates, in the Furrow, into two branches.
The one flows thru extended Manich lakes toward the
northeast into the Don River, and, incidentally, into the
Sea of Azof; the other turns toward the south to the Kuma
River and the Caspian Sea. But its waters reach this goal
very rarely; the burning sun and the sandy soil- of the
Caspian steppe rob the little river of its small supply of
water.

The Ukrainian Plateau Country

The Carpathians, the Yaila and the Caucasus, are
immovable boundary-walls, marking the southern borders
of the Ukraine. On its wide surface there are only these
narrow ■zones of mountain country. All the remaining
territory of our fatherland is occupied by plateaus and
plains. Upon these the Ukrainian nation has lived since
the dawn of history. . Not cloud-capped highlands, but
level, lightly undulating plateaus, furrowed by picturesque

38 UKRAINE

river valleys and immeasurable plains, are characteristic
of the Ukraine.

Between the Carpathians and the Ural Mountains
there extends an immense space which once bore the name
of Sarmatian Plain and is now generally called the Russian
Tableland, tho the name East European Lowland would
be geographically the most fitting. In this space, which
embraces half the surface of Europe, only one group of
hills in the Pokutia rises above 500 m., and only one small
part of the Podolia above 400 m. The entire remaining
space of Eastern Europe, with slight exceptions, keeps
below the 300 or even 200 m. level.

In the northern part of Eastern Europe, the lands over
200 m. high take up very little room. Like great flat
islands, they rise gently from the spacious cool lowlands.
In Central Europe the surface of the high part of the
flat country is relatively the greatest, but these rises of
ground are so insignificant and the transitions to the
low plain so imperceptible, that the main features of the
surface of this part of Europe were only discovered in the
second half of the Nineteenth Century.

In the Ukrainian south of Eastern Europe the character
of the ground elevations is different. They are the highest
of all in Eastern Europe and separate very distinctly,
largely by means of steep edges, from the surrounding
plains. The genuine plateau landscape is the type of
landscape peculiar to the Ukraine.

The Ukrainian plateau group, the real morphological
nucleus of the land about which its borderlands are gathered,
extends from the sub-Carpathian country and the Polish
Vistula-region to the Sea of Azof and the Donetz River.
It consists of the following plateaus: Rostoche, Podolia,
Pokutye (Bessarabia), Volhynia, Dnieper Plateau and
Donetz Plateau.

We shall begin our survey of the Ukrainian plateaus

UKRAINE 39

with the Podolia. The Podolian Plateau is the most
massive of all the plateaus in the Ukraine, the highest,
and the one possessing the most distinctive features of a
heavily cut high plain.

If, leaving the Carpathians, we overlook the surrounding
country from the edge of the mountain range, we observe
behind the wide stretch of the sub-Carpathian hills and
plains, just on the horizon, wide, flat elevations, which
obstruct the horizon in the north. These are the edges of
the Podolian Plateau.

The western boundary of Podolia is formed by the wide
valley of the little Vereshitza River, a valley covered
with swampy meadows and large ponds. On the south
and southeast, Podolia is bounded by the valley of the
Dniester River, which is first wide and then narrows
down to a canon. Between the lower course of the Dniester
and the Boh, the Podolian Plateau gradually leads into the
Pontian Steppe-plain. On the north and northeast,
Podolia is bounded by the rocky valley of the Boh and
then by the river divide, which extends toward the west,
between the basins of the Dniester and Dnieper Rivers.
Near its limit begins the well-known steep edge which
forms the decline of the Podolian Plateau to the plain of
the Buh. From Brody to Lemberg, the northern boundary
of Podolia is very clearly marked by this steep edge.

Despite its distinct plateau character, Podolia is by no
means lacking in beautiful landscapes. The northern,
steep, border of the Plateau occasionally rises for 200 m.
above the swampy Buh plain, and its height above sea
level is in some places 470 m. The whitish-gray chalk-marl
which forms the basis of this land grade glitters from a dis-
tance, exposed thru the action of the water, which flows
down the steep side. The miocene sandstone lying above
shows fantastic rock piles and ravines. Beautiful beech
forests are to a great extent still maintaining themselves

40 UKRAINE

on the steep edge. From a distance, everything produces
the illusion of a high forest-covered chain of hills. On
climbing it, however, we see in the south only an unbounded
lightly undulating elevated plain, with flat valleys filling
the entire view.

Toward the southwest, too, Podolia declines with a
similar steep border, but this one is neither so uniform nor
so high and picturesque. These steep borders owe their
origin to a recent uprising, which has affected the Podolian
Plateau, especially in the west, since the glacial period.
To the same cause the picturesque, beautifully wooded,
eroded hill-country of the Opilye owes its origin, a section
which extends southeast from Lemberg in the regions of
Rohatin and Berezani to the Dniester, and which, with its
peaks, reaches a height of 440 m. Most remarkable,
however, is the long chain of rocky hills which extends
from. Brody to the southeast toward Kamenetz Podilski.
This chain of hills, which bears the name of Toutri, is
marked on all maps by the wilfully chosen name of Medo-
bori. The limestone rock, which contains a great amount of
fossils, forms fantastic crags on the more than 400 m.
peaks of the hill-chain, which look down upon the land like
old fortresses. The entire chain of hills is a new-tertiary
coral and briozone reef which, after the withdrawal of the
sea, remained behind as a long rock dyke.

Beyond this hilly region the entire Podolian Plateau
has a flat, undulating surface. Beginning as far back as the
upper Sereth and Sbruch we find typical steppe-plains. The
farther southwest, the more flat, undulating and steppe-
like sections do we meet, until finally the Podolian elevation
gradually merges in the Pontian steppe-plain.

Much variety and beauty is given to the appearance of
the Podolian landscape by the valleys of the Dniester
tributaries on the left. In their upper parts they are wide
and have flat, swampy ground, many ponds and bogs

UKRAINE 41

and gentle valley declines. In its further course the river
begins to cut in more and more deeply, the valley becomes
constantly narrower and deeper and winds on in regular
bends, the valley-sides become higher and steeper, bare
walls of rock take the place of the soft green slopes. We
are in a Podolian "yar>" in a miniature canon.

In the sides of the yars the geologic history of the Podilia
is engraved in imperishable letters. The river has sawed
the plateau thru as tho with a gigantic saw, and has
exposed the various layers of stone. As a rule they lie
nearly horizontally above one another.

The oldest rock species of Podolia are the granite-
gneisses, which were folded and disturbed in pre-cambrian
times. The lines of the folds and breaks stretch principally
north to south. Granite composes the rocks of the Dniester
rapids near Yampol and the numerous rapids of the Boh
River, in whose rocky vale this primitive rock formation
appears distinctively. On the granite base, almost horizon-
tally, slightly turned toward the southwest, lie dark
slate and limestone, upper silurian at first in West Podolia,
then the devonic layers, of which the old red sandstone
attracts the eye most of all, because of the dark red coloring
which it gives to the steep walls of the Podolian canons.
These are followed by chalk layers, and, last of all, by
recent tertiary formation whose gypsums form picturesque
groups of rocks on the heights of the Yari walls. In the
mighty gypsum stores of Podolia may be found many a
large, beautiful cave, with wonderful alabaster stalactites.

All tributaries on the left side of the Dniester, beginning
at the Zolota Lipa, flow into yari-cafions of this sort.
The most beautiful and magnificent is the canon of the
Dniester, whose walls often exceed a height of 200 m. It
cuts thru the high plateau in adventurous windings, every
curve revealing new, beautiful prospects over the high,
concave, steep edge, torn by ravines, and the gently rising

42 UKRAINE

convex banks. In deep gorges the yari of the tributaries
open into the yar of the main stream. Between the defiles
stretches the flat, hardly undulating plain. In the summer
only endless waving grain-steppes present themselves to
the view of the traveler, only here and there a little wood
appears on the horizon, or a lone farm. Suddenly the wood
seems to end, the traveler is confronted by a deep, steppe-
walled valley, down the sides of which climbs the road.
And below, on the silvery river, amid the green of the or-
chards, lies village after village.

The further to the east, the more frequent do the yari
become, and the balkas (gorges) similar to them but
smaller; yet these are not so deep and picturesque. In
the regions of Tiraspol Ananiv the entire plateau surface is
very profusely cut by these defiles. In the district of
Ananiv the balkas take up one-seventh of the entire sur-
face. The plateau is cut up by these water crevasses into
innumerable narrow fens.

The balka, like the yar, owes its existence to the erosive
activity of flowing waters. On the Dniester we see, on both
sides of its deep yars, great masses of old river boulders,
which lie on the summit of the plateau beneath the thick
cover of loam. They are boulder deposits of the pre-glacial
Dniester. Later, when the recent raising of the Ukrainian
plateau group began, and it occurred with particular force in
the Podolian Plateau, the rivers cut in, and in the course of
thousands of years formed their present picturesque defiles.

The entire surface of the Podolian Plateau is covered
with a thick mantle of loess, which was formed in the
desert and steppe period following the glacial age. In the
manner in which the loess is heaped up, in the symmetry
of the river valleys, whose western declivities are regularly
steeper, in the general arrangement and formation of the
valleys of Podolia, the great influence of winds may be
distinctly recognized.

UKRAINE 43

The uppermost loess layer has been transformed thru-
out Podolia into the famous black earth (Chomozem).
Hence Podolia has for ages been famous for its fertility.
"In Podolia," says an old Ukrainian proverb, "bread
grows on the hedgeposts and the hedges are of plashed
sausages." On the other hand, Podolia suffers greatly
from lack of forests. The large areas of forest which still
existed in the 16th and 17th Centuries have now divided
to small woods. The effects of forest destruction were not
slow. Many springs and brooks have dried up, the rivers
have languished, so that in particularly dry summers there
is often a dearth of water. On the other hand, after the
cutting down of the forests, began the destructive activity
of the gorges, which extend after every strong rain and
are able in a short time to transform a rich agricultural
district into a maze of ravines.

Between the Podolian Plateau and the hilly sub-
Carpathian country lies the Pocutian-Bessarabian Plateau.
The far-stretching narrow plateau section which lies
between the valleys of the Dniester and the Prut is called
Pokutye (land in the corner) in the west, while in the east
the name Bessarabia (properly Bassarabia) is commonly
used. In the west the plateau country reaches the valleys
of the Bistritza and Vorona in the sub-Carpathian region;
in the southeast it passes over into Pontian steppe-plain.
On the Dniester one sees almost no difference between
the character of Podolia on the left bank and of Pocutia
or Bessarabia on the right. On both sides the same valley
slopes, composed of the same rock layers — except that the
one on the right bank is more compact, because the Dniester •
receives only few and small tributaries on this side. Only
at some distance from the course of the Dniester do the
peculiarities of the Pokutian-Bessarabian Plateau appear
to the view.

The western part of the plateau, which bears the name

44 UKRAINE

of Pokutye and extends to the east as far as the hill-group
of Berdo-Horodishche, has a level, very flat, undulating
surface, And yet it is a typical karstenite country, affected
by the existence of great strata of gypsum. The region has
a very great number of funnel-shaped depressions which are
called Vertep and are altogether analogous to the Carso
dolomites. They originated thru the dissolving action of the
subterranean water in the gypsum strata. The funnel
walls are always steep on one side, gray gypsum rocks rise
like walls over the bottom of the funnel, which is often
occupied by a small lake. Many brooks disappear in the
karstenite funnels, to continue their course as subterranean
streams. Nor does Pokutye lack other marks of a karstenite
region. The action of the subterranean waters has, by
dissolving the gypsum masses, formed large caves, which
are famous for their beautiful stalactites of white alabaster.
The best known are the cave of Lokitki, near Tovmach,
and in the neighboring South Podolia, the caves of Bilche
Zolote and the recently discovered magnificent caves of
Crivche.

However, the karstenite country of the Pokutye cannot
bear comparison with the karstenite regions of Krain,
Istria and Croatia. Gypsum is not limestone, and its
strength is insignificant as compared with strength of the
lime-stone in genuine karstenite regions. A genuine kar-
stenite formation therefore does not exist in Pokutye, and a
thick cover of clay is only in exceptional cases broken by
gypsum rocks.

The Pokutian Plateau is much lower than the Podolian.
Only in isolated places does it attain a height of 370 — 380 m.
and becomes constantly lower toward the east. But north
of Chernivtzi (Czernowitz) it rises to a height which we
look for in vain in all the rest of the Ukrainian plateau
group. The wooded hill-group of the Berdo Horodishche
here reaches 515 m., the greatest height above sea level

UKRAINE 45

to be found between the Carpathians and the Ural. In
the east, Berdo Horodishche passes over into the chain of
hills of Khotin, which attains a height of 460 m. and marks
the eastern end of the Pocutia. The southeastern long
and wide Bessarabian section of the plateau is divided
into far-reaching narrow marshes by the flat valleys of the
Prut and Reut Rivers. The Prut-Dniester river divide
attains a height of 420 m. (Megura hill) in the headwater
region of the Reut south of the city of Bilzi. The south-
eastern part of the Bessarabian plateau consists of very
numerous low marshes, which lie between flat valleys.
The plateau becomes constantly lower and flatter and
passes imperceptibly over into the Pontian Steppe-plain.

The third member of the Ukrainian plateau group is
the Rostoche. Looking from the summit of the castle
mountain of Lemberg, famous for its beautiful prospect,
we see, just behind the broad valley of the Poltva River, a
chain of high wooded hills which stretch toward the north-
east. They form the spurs of the Rostoche.

The Rostoche, called also the Lemberg-Lublin Ridge,
lies, a profusely cut, hilly, narrow plateau, which is bounded
on the one side by the San and Vistula Plain, on the other
side by the low country of the Buh. Toward the southwest
the Rostoche has a steep rim, which, as a matter of fact, is
rather insignificant-looking; toward the east it resolves
itself into parallel hill-ridges, which gradually become lower
and between which lie marshy valleys.

The southern part of the Rostoche, which merges with
the Podolian Plateau near Lemberg and extends to the
broad, sandy and marshy glacial river valley of Tanva
toward the northwest, is a plateau transformed into an
erosive hill-country. The highest hills attain a height of
400 m. The river valleys are in general flat; only along the
steep borders of the plateau are they cut deep. The steep
western border is very picturesque, with its deep gorges and

46 UKRAINE

loess walls. Many vigorous springs appear here, among them
the well-known Parashka spring, from which a heavy
column of water rises from time to time.

The oldest rock layer of the Rostoche is the chalk-marl.
Above it lie, in almost undisturbed horizontal layers,
miocene limestone, sandstone, clay, sand, Diluvial loam,
while sand and broken stone with many boulders, which
are of unmistakable northern origin and were transported
by glaciers and streams of the ice period as far as the
southern part of the Rostoche, form a heavy cover every-
where. The ground is not very fertile, sand and marl soil
being particularly wide-spread.

The northern part of the Rostoche, beyond the Tanva
valley, is a broad, slightly undulating plateau, which,
in its highest part, reaches a height of only 340 m. The
western edge of the plateau is distinct and steep and declines
in places 100 m. to the low country of the Vistula. Toward
the north the plateau surface declines very gradually
and merges almost imperceptibly into the plain of the
Pidlassye. The river valleys, as those of the Buh, Vepr, are
broad, flat and marshy.

The geological constitution of the northern Rostoche
is almost entirely similar to that of the southern part.
Its soil cover, too, is not very fertile, and only great woods
have survived, especially in the districts of the old morainic
sand and loam. Only in the neighborhood of the Pidlassye
does the soil become more fertile. For the configuration of
surface of the Rostoche, the recent post-glacial raising of
the ground has also been of great significance, altho here
it was not nearly so intensive as in Podolia.

The Volhynian Plateau extends over a broad space
between the Buh in the west and the Teterev in the east,
between the swampy plain of the Polissye in the north
and the Dniester-Dnieper watershed and the upper Boh
valley in the south. The Volhynian Plateau does not

UKRAINE 47

possess the compactness of the Podolian or Rostoche
Plateau. The swampy lowland of the Polissye extends
along the rivers into the heart of Volhynia, thereby dividing
its plateau country into several sections of different size.
Likewise, the inner structure and geological constitution
of Volhynia is variable. Western Volhynia, situated between
the Buh and Horin Rivers, has a sub-layer of chalk marl,
which is capped in places by layers of clay and sandstone
and limestone of recent tertiary date. Eastern Volhynia
lies entirely in the region of the primeval Ukrainian Horst,
whose plicate granite-gneiss sub-layer is covered by old
tertiary deposits. In this tectonically disturbed region we
meet with traces of early volcanic action. Near Berestovetz,
Horoshki, etc., species of eruptive rock appear as signs of
radical disturbances of the earth's surface.

The surface soil of Volhynia is black soil only in the
south. Beyond that we find here sandy soil, white earth
and loamy soil, as signs of a one-time glacial covering
and the action of fluvio-glacial waters. Many regions of
loamy ground are rich in vegetable soil and not without
considerable fertility.

The lowest part of the Volhynian Plateau is the western
part, which lies between the broad, marshy, flat valleys of
the Buh and the Stir. The slightly undulating, almost level
plateau surface, which declines imperceptibly toward the
Polissye, here just attains a height of 200 m., while the
next section, between the Stir and the Horin is the highest
part of Volhynia. As an extension of the above-mentioned
northern edge of Podolia, the Kremianetz-Ostroh hill-
country intrudes between the two rivers. Over 400 m.
high, near the city of Kremianetz, it declines toward the
north, a steep section torn by gorges and ravines. Near
Dubno, the plateau is cut into a picturesque hill country
with a maximum height of 340 m. The hills of Volhynia
have steep, often rocky declines and flattened rocky peaks.

48 UKRAINE

North of Rivne and Lutzk they finally begin to be lower and
more rounded, then they dwindle to a flat billowy tract
of land, until, at the borders of the Polissye, we see only an
almost perfect plain.

Between the Horin and Sluch Rivers, the Volhynian
Plateau becomes more uniform. Its surface is flat, and
broad valleys of the rivers which flow toward the east, form-
ing numerous ponds, part it slightly. Only in the south
is a height of more than 300 m. reached; in the north,
where the granite sub-layer appears everywhere, especially
in river valleys, barely 200 m.

The eastern part of the Volhynian Plateau extends,
at first, as a narrow plateau zone between the valleys of the
Boh and the Teterev on one side and of the Sluch on the
other. Then the plateau spreads out like a fan toward the
north. At the source of the Boh and the Sluch, the plateau
reaches a height of 370 m.; at the sources of the Teterev,
340 m. Here the surface is level, except that here and
there low, gently-rounded hills arise. In the broad, northern
part, the Volhynian Plateau becomes much lower and
finally separates into individual plateau islands, as, for
example, near Novhorod, Volinski, Zitomir, Ovruch, which
rise gently from the marshy lowlands.

The valleys of the Volhynian rivers, broad, flat, with
gentle slopes and marshy bottoms, differentiate the Volhy-
nian landscape most strongly from the Podolian. The
Volhynian landscape presents a view of flat, wooded hills,
slowly flowing streams between flat banks, marshes and
marshy meadows, sandy ground — all signs of the proximity
of the Polissye.

The Dnieper Plateau has the outlines of a longish,
irregular polygon. On the northwest it is bounded by
the rocky valley of the Teterev, on the southwest by the
Boh River, on the south and southwest by the Pontian
steppe-plain, on the northeast by the Dnieper River.

UKRAINE 49

This great space, however, does not constitute a uni-
form plateau. The broad river valleys and broad de-
pressions which traverse the plateau have parted it into
several sections. Only the uniform sub-layer and the
geologic character, as well as the uniform appearance of
the landscape, determine the natural unity of the region.

The sub-layer of the Dnieper Plateau is made up of the
primitive granite-gneiss clod of the Ukrainian horst.
The granite-gneiss formations were folded in the pre-
cambrian period. The folds and quarries stretch principally
from north to south, and appear very distinctly near
Zitomir and Korsun, and at the rapids of the Dnieper.
The mesozoic layers also, which lie close to the granite-
horst, are folded at Trekhtimiriv. The tertiary layers,
which form a thin cover over the granite, lie mostly in
undisturbed horizontal lines. Only along the right, steep
bank of the Dnieper we see them folded and broken thru
by quarries. In the neighborhood of the Shevchenko
barrow they appear most distinctly.

The occurrence of eruptive rock in the south of the
plateau, appearing in mound-shaped flat hills, is, however,
connected only with the old disturbances in the horst.

This species of rock of the Dnieper Plateau appears al-
most solely in the declivities of the valleys and balkas.
Otherwise it is covered everywhere by an immense mantle
of loam, loess, and chornozyom. The glacial deposits, whose
southern boundary passes through Zhitomir, Tarashcha,
Chihirin, and Kreminchuk, present, in the territory of the
Dnieper Plateau, examples of genuine fluvio-glacial
moraine, as well as sands of no great depth, and in
rather erratic distribution.

The configuration of surface of the Dnieper Plateau
is varied enough. The greatest height (300 m.) is reached
south of Berdichiv. Toward the east and southeast the
plateau becomes constantly lower. This lowering, however,

SO UKRAINE

does not proceed regularly, different sections of the plateau
presenting different conditions in this respect.

The section projecting furthest toward the west to the
Sob and Ross Rivers is a level, slightly divided plateau,
with a maximum height of 300 m. The tributaries of the
Teterev, Irpen and Ross flow slowly in flat valleys thru
whole rows of ponds. Where they enter the plain they
finally have steep granite banks and rocky beds. The
plateau section between the Sob and Ross Rivers in the
west and the Siniukha and Huili Tikich in the east has more
valleys. The river valleys and balkas are deeper, their sides
rockier, and thru them the plateau is transformed in places
into chains and groups of flat hills. But this plateau
section is lower than the preceding one, attaining only 260m.
Still lower is the section between the Siniukha and the
Inhuletz. It attains a height of only 240 m. and is very
even. The granite sub-layer appears here even in the
level steppe; the valleys and balkas are cut deep with
rocky bottoms and rocky slopes.

Besides these three sections, the Dnieper plateau em-
braces two long strips of plateau which stretch along the
right bank of the Dnieper. The one is surrounded by the
Dnieper, Irpen, and Ross Rivers, the other stretches
from the source of the Tiasmin to the rapids of the Dnieper.
The height of these strips of plateau is negligible, the
highest points attaining just 190 m. near Kiev, 240 m.
between Trekhtimirev and Kaniv, 250 m. near Chihirin,
and barely 180 m. at the first of the rapids. The steep
declivity with which the plateau strips descend to the
Dnieper plain emphasize the antithesis between plateau
and plain in this region very markedly.

The difference in level surpasses 100 m. near Kiev and
Katerinoslav and 150 m. near the Shevchenko barrow,
not far from Kaniv. The declivity of the right bank of
the Dnieper is much torn by gorges, and everywhere we

UKRAINE 51

see picturesque rock piles. The steep bank appears, especial-
ly to a plain-dweller, like a chain of mountains and is even
called "the mountains of the Dnieper." The idea of a
"mountain bank" of the Dnieper, therefore, need not be
rejected outright. The aspect of Kiev and the Shevchenko
barrow is one of the most beautiful in the entire Ukraine.

On ascending this "mountain chain," however, which
appears so imposing from the left bank of the river, and
looking toward the west, we find before us only a slightly
undulating plateau surface, with rounded dome-shaped
hills and deep valleys, belonging to the right-hand tribu-
taries of the Dnieper.

The nature of the landscape of the Dnieper Plateau is,
consequently, different from that of the Volhynian or Podo-
lian. The lightly undulating plateau, gradually becoming
flatter toward the east and south and broken up only near
the river valleys into flat dome-shaped hills; the valleys of
the rivers, wide, not deep, and yet with rocky river beds and
rocky slopes, with loess gorges and walls; the mighty
Dnieper with its picturesque mountain shores; the never-
ending grain steppes crossed by little woods, mohilas and
long, extended old walls of rock — this is the landscape
view of the old Kiev country, the heart of the Ukraine.

The Dnieper Plateau becomes constantly lower toward
the southeast, without, however, losing its original land-
scape nature in the least. Near the Dnieper rapids we
see, quite distinctly, that the miocene-covered sub-layer
of granite of the Ukrainian plateau group stretches straight
across the river and is the cause of its rapids. But the
differences in level at that point are no longer different
from the variations in a plain. In the region of the source
of the Samara and along the Donetz the land finally rises
above the 200 m. level again. We are now in the
Donetz Plateau.

As near as Isium we confront the first boundary post

52 UKRAINE

of the plateau in the steep chalk rocks of Mt. Kremianetz
on the Donetz River. Further down we see the picturesque
rocks of the famous monastery of "the Holy Hills." All
these are parts of the northern verge of. the plateau, which
is its limit on the north. Near Slavianoserbsk and Luhansk
this picturesque border reaches a height of 70 m. The
course of the Donetz also forms the eastern boundary; the
southern boundary is formed by the small strip of the Pon-
tian Plain on the shore of the Sea of Azof; the western bor-
der is denoted by the plain on the left bank of the Dnieper.

The Donetz Plateau stretches in a long flat ridge from
N. W. W. to S. E. E., and extends a flat side-ridge to either
side. The longer one goes southward, almost as far as
Mariupil, the other northward to Bakhmut. The surface
of the plateau is very level and declines very flatly toward
all sides. Only light billows of land traverse the steppe
surface, which is strewn with countless tumuli. In the
south these hills often have a core of granite. The river
valleys have steep, altho not high slopes. They divide
the uniform surface of the heights but slightly. From the
surface configuration one could never guess that at this
point there was once a mountain range which fell victim
to the exogenous forces of the earth's water and air
blanket. Only an insignificant part of the surface of the
Donetz Plateau lies more than 300 m. high; the highest
point, Tovsta Mohila, barely reaching 370 m.

In its inner structure it is entirely different from all other
parts of the Ukrainian group of plateaus. The entire
south and west of the plateau is composed of folded granite-
gneiss, of the Azof part of the horst, capped by a thin
tertiary layer, and in many places (especially between
Volnovakha and Kalmius) broken thru by eruptive rock
formations. Next to these, in the north and south of the
plateau, lie limestone, slate, clay and sandstone formations
of devonian, carbonic, permian, Jurassic and cretaceous

UKRAINE 53

age, folded and broken thru by ravines. Over this leveled
basic range lie the horizontal tertiary layers. The great
development of the coal-containing carbon layers gives to
the monotonous, only recently bared steppe elevation of
the Donetz Plateau, great significance for the industrial
life of all Easter/i Europe. The coal-fields of the Donetz
Plateau, 23,000 km. in size, are the richest and most impor-
tant coal region of the present Russian Empire. Thanks
to these "black diamonds," a forest of factory chimneys
(sparsely sown as yet, to be sure) has sprung up within the
most recent past in the black steppe, where the anthracite
and pit-coal collieries furnish the desired nourishment.
Besides this, the permian layers of the Donetz Plateau
hold great deposits of rock-salt. Here, too, lie the only
quicksilver mines of the Russian Empire in Europe. Rich
copper deposits are being exploited here, besides which we
must mention the occurrence of zinc, silver, lead, and
even gold in this Donetz region, which has not yet been
sufficiently explored by the mining prospector.

The Donetz Plateau forms the easternmost member
of the Ukrainian plateau group, which constantly narrows
toward the east. Outside of this, the group rises only at the
southernmost spurs of the Central Russian Plateau above
the 200 m. level. These regions of the Ukraine, however,
we may safely discuss in our description of the Dnieper
Plain, for the transition from this plain to the Central
Russian elevation is so imperceptible and gradual, the
plateau character so undecided, that even from the scientific
morphological point of view, one can hardly find any differ-
ence between the plain landscape and the neighboring
combined elevated surfaces.

The Ukrainian Plain Country

The Ukrainian plateau group, which passes thru the
Ukraine in its entire length is hemmed in on both sides by

54 UKRAINE

two plain regions. Without a break they accompany
the extended plateau groups in the north and south, uniting
finally on the left bank of the Don and the country below
the Caucasus. The northern plain district accompanies
the northern decline of the Ukrainian horst, concealing a
tectonically disturbed substratum; the southern district
accompanies the northern border of the Black Sea and
parts the broken chain of plicate mountains from the
plateau group of the Ukraine.

The northern plain district of the Ukraine joins directly
on to the Polish lowlands, and, indirectly, to the North
German lowland.

The first section of the northern plain district is called
Pidlassye (Podlakhia, land on the Polish border). Its
northern boundary consists of the southern limits of the
White Russian Plateau; the western boundary of the flat
elevations near Sidlez and Bilsk; on the south the plain
borders on the spurs of the Rostoche; in the east the boun-
dary is the Buh-Pripat divide, which is only 170 m. high.
The surface of the Pidlassye is very even, only slightly
undulating in places on the north and south borders.
The river valleys are very broad and flat. Only the great
forest (the well-known Biloveza forest lies here) and the
water-courses bring variety into the monotonous country.
The main stream of the Pidlassye, the Buh, as well as its
tributaries have the character of genuine lowland rivers.
They flow thru their over-great valleys in great turns,
divide into many arms, and form innumerable old river
beds. Besides these we find, in southern Pidlassye, a
large number of lakes and many swamps and moors which
mark the sites of former lakes.

The chalk and tertiary substratum appears only in
very few places, the rest being covered everywhere by sand
and loam, which include boulders and rubble of Finnic-
Scandinavian origin. These are traces of the great (second)

UKRAINE 55

glacial period of Northern Europe, which covered the
entire region of the Pidlassye with glacial ice. The lakes
are morain-lakes. The ice of the glacial period did not reach
Pidlassye. At that time a broad primeval river valley
formed here as an extension of the primeval Vistula river
valley. In this valley the water from the melting glacier
flowed off to the east toward the lowland of the Polissye.
The Polissye (woodland) is one of the most remarkable
lands of Eastern Europe. Only a low (170 m.) and very
flat divide, which is crossed without difficulty by the
Dnieper-Buh ship canal, separates the Polissye from the
Pidlassye. In the north the White Russian Plateau ap-
proaches, in the south the Volhynian, in the east the Polissye
extends beyond the Dnieper to the spurs of the Central
Russian Plateau. The region thus bounded forms an
immense flat trough, in the vertical axis of which the
Pripet River flows. The bottom of this trough is very
flat and lies at a height of 120 — 150 m. Only in places
do we find almost imperceptible rises of ground. The sub-
stratum of the Polissye is composed of chalk marl with
numerous holes made by springs (vikno=window), while
in the east oligocene formations also appear. But this
substratum is seen very seldom, all the rest of the Polissye
being covered with diluvial sands and great swamps. The
sands take in all the elevated places and form wandering
or wood-covered dunes. These sandy rises of ground,
together with the elevated banks of some of the rivers,
afford the only sites for human abodes. All the remaining
land is marshy wood, genuine forest swamps, bog or moor.
The Pripet with its tributaries, the Stokhod, Stir, Hornin,
Ubort, Uz (on the right) and the Pina, Yassiolda, Sluch,
and Ptich (on the left), comprises the water system of the
Polissye. All these rivers flow very slowly and deposit
the mud which they bring from the plateau regions sur-
rounding the Polissye along their courses. By this means

56 UKRAINE

they raise their beds and their banks more and more, so
that all these Polissian rivers flow upon flat dams. At the
time of high water the rivers overflow their banks and
flood the entire lowland far and near. At the time of the
melting of snows in the spring, or of the strong showers
in the early summer, the entire Polissye is transformed
into an immense lake, above whose surface only the flooded
forests and the settled sandy elevations of ground are
visible. The spring flood lasts from two to three months,
the summer floods the same length of time, for the water
flows off very slowly because of the slight decline. On the
highways and railroads all traffic is blocked and certain
places in the Polissye may be reached only by water. Dur-
ing the flood period the rivers have often sought new beds,
and this explains the frequency of old river beds and river
branches, which are peculiar to all the Polissian river
courses. And, as reminders of the floods, innumerable
pools and marsh lakes remain behind.

These periodic floods are the main cause of the con-
tinuance of the Polissian swamps. We can find two main
types of marshes in the Polissye. In the west and north
of the region, great peat moors, with pine woods, predomin-
ate; in the south and east treeless marsh meadows, over-
grown with willow brush. These are called hala. Many
fictions are told by the inhabitants of the Polissye about the
swamps and small marsh lakes being bottomless. For a
long time it was even believed that the swamps lay lower
than the normal surface of the rivers. But exact measure-
ments have proved these "fairy tales" to be false and have
shown that the swamps of the Polissye are not deep and lie
at a higher level than the rivers. Since 1873 the Russian
government has been working to drain the swamps and
reclaim them for civilization. Up to 1898, 6000 kilometers
of canals are supposed to have been dug and 32,000
square kilometers of ground made usable.

The glacial period was of great importance for the

UKRAINE 57

surface configuration of the Polissye. Apart from the
traces of the main glacial period, which are met with
frequently in southern Polissye, it was the third glacial
period that was of marked significance. The water from
the Baltic glacier flowed off thru the region of the present
Polissye and formed a large lake with the Dnieper as its
outlet. The deposits of this lake are to be found especially
in the south of the Polissye basin. The lake was then
gradually filled in, the northern and western tributaries
bringing more sand, the southern ones mud. At the same
time the Pripet River cut in more deeply, and was, there-
fore, constantly more able to carry the waters of the
Polissye to the Dnieper River. Swamps have taken the
place of the lake and have gradually covered the entire
land. The many smaller lakes of the region (the largest
of them are Vihonioske Ozero and Knias) are the only
remains and proofs of the one-time great lake. Only at
the time of high water does the Polissye recall the
memory of former times.

Dreary is the Polissian landscape. The dark forest in
the deep-bottomed swamps alternate with the open
marsh-meadow covered with pools; with gliding flow the
many-armed rivers traverse the gloomy country. On
yellow-white sand-dunes stand a few log-houses amid
wretched little fields and poor meadows, corduroy and
brush roads stretching for miles connect small, very
sparsely scattered human settlements.

The Polissye Plain also extends to the left bank of the
Dnieper, and there imperceptibly passes over into a
comparatively narrow lowland district which stretches
along the main river of the Ukraine. This is the third
member of the series of plains of the Ukraine — the Dnieper
Plain. It extends toward the southeast as far as the
region of the rapids (porohi) of the Dnieper and rises
slowly toward the northeast, passing over into the Central

58 UKRAINE

Russian Plateau. The transition takes place so imper-
ceptibly that the difference in the nature of the country
only becomes apparent at the furthest bounds of Ukrainian
territory, which practically lie in the southern spurs of
the Central Russian Plateau.

The Dnieper Plain is quite level only along the river
itself. Every year a strip of the plain, in places 10 km.
wide, is flooded by the Dnieper River, wherefore it is full
of old river beds and swamps, on the Desna and near
Cherkassy, where the lowland, too, enters upon the right
Dnieper bank, and also of sand-dunes. Near Chernihiv
and Uizin the landscape is quite Polissian and the name
Polissye, too, is often used here to denote the region.
Toward the southeast the Polissian character begins to
gradually disappear. Black earth takes the place of the
sandy soil, the forest mantle becomes constantly thinner,
and the flat, undulating steppe-plain, with its innumerable
barrows and plate-shaped depressions of ground, where, in
springtime, small steppe lakes glisten in the sunlight,
increases very rapidly.

The river valleys, along which the Dnieper Plain
intrudes far into the Central Russian Plateau, are very
wide valley slopes on the right, and flat slopes on the left
side. Sand, swamps and forest terraces cover the flat
valley bottoms, which are flooded every spring.

At the porohs of the Dnieper the country rises much
higher than at Pereyaslav or Kreminchuk, where the
Dnieper Plain rises barely 50 m. above sea-level. At the
porohs the landscape on both sides is that of a low rock-
plateau. The picturesque rocks of the Dnieper banks,
the rapids and ledges of rock in the river bed, everywhere
remind us that here the Ukrainian Horst is crossed by the
main stream of the Ukraine. Not until we get down to the
Zaporoze (land below the rapids) do we find the genuine
lowland character again — in the Pontian Steppe-plain.

UKRAINE 59

The transition of the Dnieper Plain to the southern
spurs of the Central Russian Plateau is marked only by
the rising of the valley slopes of the tributaries of the
Dnieper in this region. Beyond that, the surface of the
high bog, lying between the rivers, remains as flat and level
as on the Dnieper and below the 200 m. level. Moreover,
the spurs of the Central Russian elevation nowhere within
Ukrainian territory attain the level of 300 m. The spur
between the Dnieper and the Desna barely reaches a
height of 230 — 240 m. ; near the high Desna bank, the spur
between the Desna and the Sem barely 260 m. About
the sources of the Sem, Psiol and Donetz, the country
attains a summit height of 280 m.; between the upper
Donetz and Don only 250 — 260 m. From these highest
regions the country declines imperceptibly but steadily
toward the southwest, south and southeast.

The general nature of the land in the region of the
southern spur of the Central Russian Plateau is entirely
analagous to that of the neighboring Dnieper Plain, except
that the river valleys are more deeply cut. The right
valley-side descends to the river in a steep slope, furrowed
by water rifts. The broad, flat valley bottom is occupied
by river branches and old river beds, marshes and marsh
meadows, sand areas or dunes. The left bank rises very
gently, and we at last come upon the level, or at most
slightly undulating surface of the water-shed, between two
rivers. It, in turn, declines suddenly to the neighboring
river and the succession of land-forms begins anew. This
monotony of landscape reminds one of the neighboring
Great Russia. The only variety is afforded here by the
details of landscape, which appear most numerous in this
region of the Ukraine.

These are rain water-rifts (in Ukrainian balka, provallia,
yaruha). In this, and often in other plateau and plain
lands of the Ukraine, they become a terrible scourge. The

60 UKRAINE

heavy mantle of black soil, loess and loam favors the
formation of water-rifts as well as the loose chalk and old
tertiary strata (marl, sand, clay). The strenuous cutting
down of forest in the past century has given the final
impulse to the formation of such water clefts. In the loose
soil, no longer held together by the forests, the water-rifts
grow and spread after every heavy rain with terrible
speed, and may, in a few years, reduce a wealthy farmer to
the beggar's staff by transforming his most profitable
black-soil fields into a maze of deep, dry ravines. Only
a national re-stocking of the forests could bring the land
relief. Especially in the neighborhood of the high precipi-
tous banks of the rivers, the water-rifts work their mischief.

The glacial age had no particular significance for the
surface configuration of the Dnieper Plain and the adjacent
plateau spurs. Only in the north Chernihov country we
find real traces of the glacier. The large peninsulas
which the southern limit of the glacial boulders forms along
the course of the Dnieper and the Don are by no means to
be regarded as traces of two great glacial tongues. The
sand and loam masses, with enclosed glacial boulders,
which are found in the region of these peninsulas, are of
fluvio-glacial origin, and were deposited by melted ice
from the glacier on its way to the Black Sea. The northern
limit of the black soil region is not in the least affected by
these problematic glacial peninsulas.

After the glacial period, however, movements of the
earth took place in the entire Ukrainian plateau group.
It rose considerably, and the erosive action of the rivers
began. At the point where the axis of the Ukrainian
horst cuts the Dnieper, we find this rise of ground also in
the Dnieper Plateau. The rapids of the Dnieper were
formed at that time, and, up to the present, the giant
river has not succeeded in leveling its falls.

That tectonic disturbances are not unknown to the

UKRAINE 61

Dnieper Plain we learn from the occurrence of volcanic
rock and displacement of the strata near Isachki, not far
from the city of Lokhvitza, and on Mount Pivikha, north
of Kreminchuk. It seems that along the northeast border
of the Ukrainian horst a greatly disturbed area is hidden
beneath more recent flat-piled rock layers. Great dis-
turbances of the magnetic force of the earth seem to indicate
the same.

The Dnieper Plain forms the last member in the northern
plain district of the Ukraine. The southern plain district
which extends along the northern banks of the Black Sea,
from the delta of the Danube into the Kuban region, has
since ancient times borne the accepted name of the Pontian
Steppe-plain. Its old Ukrainian name is simply nis (low-
land) or dike pole (wild field. The steppe-land and the
river district, to this day, bear the famous name of Zaporoze
(land below the rapids).

The Pontian steppe-plain is bounded on the north by
the spurs of the Bessarabian, Podolian, Dnieper and Donetz
Plateaus. On the south, by the sea-shore and the country
at the foot of the Yaila Mountains, in Crimea. Past the
Danube deltas the steppe-plain merges into the exactly
similar steppe-plain on the Kuban.

The surface of the steppe-plain is exceptionally flat,
slightly undulating only at the northern border, where
the transition to the southern spurs of the Ukrainian
plateau group proceeds imperceptibly. Innumerable bar-
rows (mohyla) are as characteristic of the landscape of
the Pontian Steppe-plain as the flat plate-shaped depressions
of the ground, with small temporary lakes, the swampy
flat valleys and the small salt marshes with their peculiar
vegetation.

The many balkas, which divide the steppe-plain into
innumerable low plateaus, do not affect the grand uniform-
ity of the steppe landscape very much. As in the neighbor-

62 UKRAINE

ing plateaus, they are cut in deep, but do not become visible
to the traveler until he comes directly upon them. The
pliocene steppe-lime which predominates in the entire
steppe-plain, covers the sarmatian and Mediterranean
strata, and reveals the crystalline substratum only in the
west of the Dnieper in the neighborhood of the Dnieper
Plateau, and forms rocky cornices on the slopes of the
balkas. Lesser tectonic disturbances, in the shape of anti-
clinals and synclinals, have affected these youngest tertiary
formations also. They are covered by a mantle of loess
and black earth, which becomes constantly thinner toward
the south. The typical chornozyom gives way, south of the
parallel of Kherson, to the brown, also very fertile steppe-
soil, which is accompanied in long stretches, however, by
the saline earth. To the east of the Dnieper, at the southern
spurs of the Donetz Plateau, the crystalline substratum
also appears to a great extent, in banks of rock, in the
midst of the steppe-plain.

Only along the large streams of the steppe country
does the nature of the land change. Their valleys are
broad and swampy, covered by the so-called plavni.
Interminable thickets of sedge and seeds, marsh forest
and meadows, together with innumerable river branches,
old river beds, and small lakes, make up a beautiful,
fresh, verdant country in the midst of the boundless
steppe, whose vernal dress, resplendent with blossoms,
turns yellow and blackish-brown in summer and fall,
from the fierce glow of the sun.

Streams and Rivers of the Ukraine

The Ukrainian rivers are genuinely typical of Eastern
Europe. The great uniformity of the surface configuration
of the Ukraine is responsible for the lack of that variety
in its own river system which characterizes the waters of
Western and Central Europe. But the great extent of the
land does cause the Ukraine to have mountain, plateau and
lowland streams, so that it does not attain the degree of
uniformity in hydrographic conditions of Russia proper.

The Ukrainian river system concentrates in the Black
Sea. From northwest, north and east, the rivers of the
Ukraine tend toward its sea. Besides, the western boundary
lines of the Ukraine lie on the Baltic slope. There, in
Podlakhia, in the Kholmshchina, on the San River and in
the Lemko country, the Ukrainian people has had its
seats since the dawn of its history. In most recent times
Ukrainian colonization has gained also parts of the Caspian
slope on the Kuma and Terek Rivers. But the region
drained by the Black Sea surpasses both the other regions
so much in extent and in the size of its rivers, that the Baltic
and Caspian region of the Ukraine dwindle in comparison.
Nature has, therefore, turned the Ukrainian nation toward
the south and southeast to the Black Sea. But, at the
same time, she has not denied the Ukraine a convenient
connection with the north and south of the globe. The
main European river divide is, perhaps, nowhere so flat and
so easy to cross as in Ukrainian territory. From the
Dniester to the San (bifurcation of the Vishnia creek near
Rudky), from the Pripet to the Buh and Niemen the
passages are easy. Since ancient times portages have

63

64 UKRAINE

existed here, and in modern times the Pripet has been
connected with the Buh and the Niemen by means of
canals (King's Canal and Oginski Canal) which, however,
are at present entirely antiquated and almost useless.
Besides, the widely branched water system of the Dnieper
outside the Ukraine affords easy passage to the Dvina
(Beresina Canal), Volga and Neva, in White Russian
territory. Over these waterways and the portages lying
between them the old path of the Northmen led from
Scandinavia to Constantinople. This most important
aspect of the Ukrainian water system promises at some
future time to bear rich fruit, if the recently-formed plan
to build a waterway for navigation on a large scale, from
the Baltic to the Black Sea, utilizing the course of the
Dnieper, should become a reality.

The Baltic watercourses of the Ukraine flow into the
Vistula. Several large Carpathian tributaries originate in
Ukrainian territory. Here the rapid Poprad carries the
melted snow of the Tatra to the Dunayetz. The source of
the Visloka also lies in the Ukrainian Lemko country.
The last and largest Carpathian tributary of the Vistula
belongs, in three-fourths of its extent, to Ukrainian territory,
namely, the navigable San. It receives from the Carpa-
thians the Vislok on the left and the Vihor on the right.
The other tributaries of the San on the left side, the Vishnia,
Sklo, Lubachivka and Tanva, come from the sub-Carpa-
thian country and the Rostoche Plateau.

All the Carpathian tributaries of the Vistula have only at
their sources the character of mountain streams, with
swift currents, in rocky river beds, lined by banks of water-
worn material. Even in the mountains their valleys
become wide, covered with banks of pebbles, sand and
loam, and overgrown with willow-brush, and their falls
insignificant. In the sub-Carpathian country the banks
become low and sandy, the stream slow, and the water-

UKRAINE 65

level is very unsteady, owing to the cutting down of
forests in the country of the source. In spring, when the
snow melts in the mountains, and at the time of the early
summer rains, there are terrible floods; in dry summers the
rivers dwindle to almost insignificant proportions.

From the Rostoche the Vepr, navigable from Kras-
nostav down, flows thru a broad, marshy valley, into the
Vistula. The northern declivity of the Podolian Plateau
sends its largest river, the Buh, navigable from Sokal on,
down to the Vistula. This river is really a genuine lowland
river. Its valley is wide and flat, the river winds with its
muddy bed thru forest marshes, thickets of reeds and
willow brush, now parting into a dozen branches, now
flowing in a wide bed, past fresh, green meadows and
dark forests. The same lowland character is a common
quality of the left-hand tributaries of the Buh, the Poltva,
Rata, Solokia, Krna and of the Luha on the right hand.
The Mukhavetz, Lisna, Nurez and Narva, on the other
hand, are typical woodland streams, which roll their
great mass of water thru the forests of Podlakhia.

The Pontian Rivers of the Ukraine belong to the six
great regions drained respectively by the Danube, Dniester,
Boh, Don and Kuban.

Of the great region drained by the Danube, only the
Carpathian country of the sources of the Theiss, Sereth,
and Pryt lie within Ukrainian boundaries. The Theiss is
formed by the junction of two source-rivers near the
Svidovez and the Chornohora, and collects all the rivers
of the Ukrainian country belonging to Hungary — the Vis-
heva and Isa on the left, the Torez, Talabor, Velika Rika,
Berzava and Bodrochka, which consists of five source-
rivers (the Latoritza, Uz, Laboretz, Tepla and Ondava).
All these rivers of the Hungarian-Ukrainian mountain
country break their difficult way in deep, picturesque
passes, thru forest-covered mountain chains. Innumerable

66 UKRAINE

rafts carry the trunks of the fallen Carpathian giants into
the treeless plains of Hungary. Here, too, the rivers suddenly
lose their mountain character; their currents become
sluggish, their waters turbid, their banks swampy.

Of the Sereth and its tributaries, the Sochava and
Moldava, only the sources belong to Ukrainian national
territory. On the other hand, a considerable part of the
Prut country lies within it. The Prut River rises at the
Hoverla, where it forms a beautiful waterfall along the
crater walls. Then it flows in a picturesque defile toward
the north, forms another waterfall at Yaremche, then
immediately leaves the mountains, uniting in the sub-
Carpathian hill-country with the roaring Cheremosh,
which also rises in two source-rivers on the slopes of the
Black Mountains and flows in a deeply-cut meandering
valley thru the beautiful Hutzul country. In the sub-
Carpathian country the Prut has a wide, flat valley, taken
up in places by marsh meadows. The river winds down the
wide valley in countless twists, forms side branches and
old river beds, and reaches the Danube in the midst of
liman-like lakes and bogs, not far from the swampy
delta. Outside of the mountains, the Prut receives only
insignificant tributaries of small volume. Between the
Danube and the Dniester we see only a few miserable
little steppe rivers, emptying into salty or bracken liman
lakes (e. g., the Yalpukh and the Kunduk Rivers). #

The important Dniester River attains a length of over
1300 km., and possesses the greatest variety of distinct
sections of river of all the Ukrainian streams. It originates
in the High Beskid, near the village of Vovche, as a very
energetic, wild creek. In a defile it advances into the
sub-Carpathian hill-country, where it has deposited great
masses of rubble. The mountain stream changes rapidly
into a lowland stream and forms great swamps in the
Dniester Plain, which, in high-water time, are converted

UKRAINE 67

into large river lakes. From the left bank, the Dniester
here receives the muddy Vereshitza (from the Rostoche),
which forms many ponds, from Western Podolia, the
Hnila Lipa. All the remaining tributaries of this section
of the Dnieper come from the Carpathians, on the left
the Strviaz (Strivihor), on the right the Bistritza, the
mighty meandering river Striy with the Opir, and the
Svicha (with the Misunka). All these rivers are mountain
streams, flow in beautiful defiles, and deposit great masses
of rubble on the verge of the Carpathians. Beginning at
the delta of the Svicha, the Dniester Plain becomes a wide,
flat-bottomed valley, in which the river flows along in great
bends and receives the Limnitza and both the Bistritzas
from the Carpathians. Near Nizniv the banks approach
each other very closely and the Dniester enters a yar
(canon), not leaving its steep sides until near Tiraspil.
The Podolian tributaries of the Dniester on the left
side, the Zolota Lipa, Stripa, Sereth, Zbruch, Smotrich,
Ushitza, Murakhva, Yahorlik, roll their turbid waters in
similar cafions toward the Dniester. The Bessarabian
tributaries, on the contrary, have wide, swampy valleys.
All these plateau rivers are slight in volume of water,-
altho some of them attain considerable length. Only in
the spring, when the snow-blanket melts, do their waters
overflow the banks. In summer the water-level becomes
very low, and the water of the early summer showers is
stored up in the many ponds, which are found in large
numbers, in the country about the sources of these rivers.
All these plateau rivers are not even navigable for rafts;
even the little fishers' boat can hardly find its way along
the muddy shoals.

In its cafions the Dniester River assumes all the
characteristics of a plateau river. Its waters generally
take up the entire bottom of the canon, leaving very
little space for the abodes of men. The incline of the river

68 UKRAINE

is not uniform, but constitutes a series of slight steps.
Sections with rapid currents alternate with quiet depths.
The small brooks which come down the short lateral
gorges of the Dniester canons bring great masses of loose
stones and rubble into the river bed, as a result of the
reckless destruction of forests, and build constantly
growing cones of rubble, which the river must remove
slowly and laboriously. They also form dangerous shoals
and hinder the development of navigation on the Dniester.
The river also forms regular rapids, near Yampil, where
a layer of granite stretches clear across the river. For this
reason the Dniester, tho navigable along a stretch of
almost 800 km., has not become an important waterway.
The navigation of the Dniester, which becomes more active
from Khotin on, is now on the wane. Eight hundred years
ago sea vessels were still able to reach the old Ukrainian
royal city of Halich.

The floods of the Dniester are famous. In the spring,
when the snows melt in the Carpathians, the Dniester
Plain is converted into a great river-lake. The Carpathian
tributaries bring the main stream so much water, that it
*it cannot easily flow off thru the narrow cafion, and so,
floods the whole wide Dniester Valley for weeks. Then
there is high water even in the cafion of the Dniester, but
it has little scope.

Near Tiraspil, the Dniester Valley widens out again.
Swampy plavni wilds extend on both sides of the river.
In a beautiful, rapidly growing delta, the Dniester empties
into itsliman, which it is slowly filling in with its precipitates.
Two narrow outlets (hirl6) break thru the bar of the liman
and connect it with the sea.

Between the Dniester and the Boh, not one river finally
empties into the sea. Even the largest rivers of the region,
the Little and Big Kuyalnik and the Tilihul end their
courses in limans, which are. entirely closed off by bars.

UKRAINE 69

The valleys of these coastal rivers are narrow, becoming
wider at last, when they are about to enter the limans.
The current is always slow and the water often evaporates
completely in the summer.

The Boh, falsely named the Southern Bug, is a real
plateau river. It rises in the village of Kupil, near the
source of the Sbruch, on the Austrian border, and flows
as a typical Podolian mud-streamlet, in a flat valley,
covered with ponds and swamps. But, beginning at Mezibiz,
its bed becomes rocky, the valley slopes become high and
keep approaching each other. The Boh Valley gradually
becomes a canon-like "yari" altho it is at no point so
deep as the Dniester Valley. The granite-gneiss formations
of the Ukrainian horst appear here as picturesque shore
rocks and slopes along the river and form innumerable
rapids (as, for example, Constantinivka) in the river bed.
Stony beds and narrow, rocky valleys are also found in the
most important tributaries of the Boh — the Sob, Siniukha,
Inhul on the left; the Kodima and Chichiclea on the right.
All of them have little water, and in dry summers only a
chain of ponds marks the valley road of the river. The
main stream, too, has not much water, being unfit for
navigation even in the time of the spring floods. Only the
last 130 kilometers of its course, from Vosnesensk down, are
navigable. At the entrance of the Inhul the Boh begins to
widen considerably, the current becomes slow, and the
depth at Mikolaiv sufficiently great to enable smaller sea
vessels to reach its harbor. Slowly widening, the river
gradually turns into the Buh liman, which has the winding
outline of a river and unites with the great liman of the
Dnieper. The entire length of the Boh is over 750 kilo-
meters.

We now come to the main river of the Ukraine, the
majestic Dnieper. To the Ukrainian people the Dnieper
bears the same significance as the "Matushka Volga" to

70 UKRAINE

the Russians, the Vistula to the Poles, and the Rhine to the
Germans. The Dnieper is the sacred river of the Ukraine.
Like a divinity it was honored by the old Polans, the
founders of the ancient Ukrainian state of Kiev; Slavutitza
was the name given it by the Ukrainians of the monarchy.
It was esteemed as a father and provider by the brave
Zaporog Cossacks, the champions of Ukrainian liberty.
For many centuries the Dnieper has played an im-
portant part in the folk-lore and literature of the Ukraine,
in traditions and fairy-stories and folk-tales and in thou-
sands of folk-songs; since ancient times it has been sung
by all Ukrainian poets, from the unknown bard of the
epic of Ihor, to the greatest of all Ukrainian poets, Taras
Shevchenko, and so on, down to the youngest generation
of the poets of the Ukraine. To them all, the Dnieper
is the symbol of the Ukraine, of its life, and of its past.
Not without cause did Shevchenko ask to be buried on
the mountain shore of the Dnieper, "that I may see the
endless plains and the Dnieper and the crags of its banks
and hear the rushing of the Rushing One." For no one is
able to repeat the impressions which fill the soul of every
Ukrainian when he looks down from this beautiful observa-
tion point of Shevchenko's grave upon the majestic river
below. How many thoughts, then, arise about the glorious,
and yet so unspeakably sad, past of the Ukraine, about
its miserable present and the great future toward which
the nation tends, amid great difficulties, as does the
Dnieper toward the Black Sea over the porohs. And we
do not wonder that the Dnieper has become the national
sanctuary of the Ukraine. With this river are connected
all the important events of the historical life of the Ukraine.
The Dnieper was the father of the ancient Ukrainian
empire of Kiev; by way of the Dnieper a higher culture
made its way into the Ukraine; on the Dnieper the Ukrain-
ian Cossack element developed, which, after centuries of

UKRAINE 71

subjugation, gave the Ukrainians a new government.
The Dnieper River has, since hoary antiquity, been the
most important channel of intercourse between the North
and the South of Eastern Europe ; it has been the means of
connecting the Ukraine with the sea and the cultural
realm of Southern Europe. Its present importance,
despite the low grade of culture in Eastern Europe, and
despite Russian mismanagement, is great, and is growing
rapidly. And if in the future the river is made accessible
to sea-going vessels and becomes a road for large-scale
navigation, its significance may become almost incalculable.

The Dnieper is the third largest river in Europe, after
the Volga and the Danube. The length of its course is
more than 2100 km. The region it drains includes 527,000
sq. km., not much less than the whole of France. Among the
streams of the globe the Dnieper ranks thirty-second.

If the Dniester possesses some of the properties of a
Central European river, namely, mountainous country
at its source and many mountain tributaries; if the Boh
is a genuine plateau river; the Dnieper, on the other hand,
is the real type of a river in Eastern Europe. It rises in
White Russia near the village of Clozove. A little swamp,
which was formerly a small lake, situated at a height of
256 m., forms the source of the river. Because of this
small height of the source, the Dnieper has, as, in fact,
all the Eastern European rivers have, a very insignificant
incline and an average speed of Current of 0.4 m. per
second. The source of the Dnieper lies near the sources of
the Dvina and the Volga, as well as the source streams of
the Neva.

Near its source the Dnieper is a small, muddy streamlet,
which seeks its way southward in a flat valley, three miles
wide, between swamps and moors. But quickly its volume
increases, and, as near the source as Dorogobuz, the river
becomes navigable for smaller vessels. Here it suddenly

72 UKRAINE

turns to the west, both valley slopes, but especially the
left one, become higher and steeper, the valley narrows
down to Y2 km. But after a short stretch it becomes wide
and swampy again at Smolensk. The depth of the river
is very irregular, the pools (plessa) attaining a depth of
5 meters, the rapids often less than Y2 meter. From Smo-
lensk to Orsha the Dnieper Valley again becomes hardly
1 kilometer wide, between high banks. On the left bank
picturesque, rocky precipices appear. At Orsha the Dnieper
turns to the south, retaining this direction as far as Kiev.
Down to Shclov the Dnieper Valley remains narrow, with
steep slopes, then it widens slowly but steadily. The
depth of the river reaches 10 meters, but many shoals,
great morain boulders and broken sandstone make naviga-
tion difficult. Below Mogilev the spurs of the White
Russian and Central Russian plateaus withdraw from the
Dnieper and show only on the left side. The river reaches
the low plain of the Polissye and flows in majestic turns
thru swamps and meadows which are dotted with old
river beds. In this section of its course the Dnieper receives
the Druch and the voluminous, navigable Beresina on the
right, and the navigable Soz on the left. The Dnieper
receives an especially great amount of water from the
Beresina. River navigation is doubled below its entrance,
mainly because of innumerable rafts which are traveling
to the treeless South Ukraine and the Black Sea from
the forests of White Russia.

From the mouth of the Soz numerous low islands
appear in the bed of the Dnieper. The river divides into
numerous branches. The entire trough lying between
the Dnieper and the Pripet is a labyrinth of river branches,
lakes, old river beds, swamps and fens. Thru the Pripet
the volume of the Dnieper River increases twofold, and
very seldom flows along in a single bed.

The tributaries on the right side, the Teterev and the

UKRAINE 73

Irpen, bring the Dnieper the first remembrances of the
Ukrainian plateau country, and soon its spurs appear on
the right river bank. The Dnieper presses against this
bank and forms the picturesque precipices above which
glisten the gilded domes of the ancient churches of Kiev.
Here the Dnieper receives the largest of its tributaries
on the left, the navigable Desna. Thus the formation of
the Dnieper River is completed, its source-rivers, the
Pripet, Beresina, the upper Dnieper, the Desna and the
Soz have united to build a majestic stream. Its normal
average width is 600 — 850 meters near Kiev. During the
spring floods, however, the width of the river exceeds 10 km. ;
from the high, right bank one can barely see the woods of
the left. All the islands, sand-banks, swamps, meadows,
river branches and old river beds disappear beneath an
interminable mass of yellowish water, rolling slowly toward
the south. Deep into the valleys of the tributary streams
the high-water enters, and receding, leaves behind a layer
of fertile river mud. Not without reason did Herodotus
compare the Dnieper with the Nile.

The floods generally occur but once a year — in the spring,
when the snows melt. In this respect the Dnieper differs
from the Dniester and is similar to all the other rivers of
Eastern Europe. In the early summer, at the time of the
greatest precipitation in the Dnieper country, small
floods occur only occasionally, because the rain-water is
stored up in the many swamps and moors of the upper
Dnieper country. The spring high-water originates in
the great masses of snow, which remain lying all thru
winter, melting and flowing off all at once in the spring.
After an ice-drift lasting 5 — 12 days, the high-water comes
and lasts a month and a half. It attains its highest level
in the middle of April; at this time the water stands at
3.2 meters above normal at Mogilev, 2.2. meters at Kiev,
2.6 meters at Kreminchuk, 2 meters at Kherson, 0.3 meters

74 UKRAINE

at the delta. The spring floods are at present becoming
greater and more irregular, consequently more dangerous,
too, than they have been previously. The progressive
destruction of forests has contributed most to this condition.
From Kiev down, the Dnieper River turns in a flat
curve to the southeast and retains this direction as far as
Katerinoslav. The right bank remains steadily high,
torn by gorges and crowned with rock formations, with
numerous niches, which betray former places of contact
of the river bends. The view, defended especially by
Russian scholars, that the mountain bank of the Dnieper,
like that of all other Eastern European rivers, originated
thru the influence of the rotation of the earth (Baer's
Law), notably does not apply to the Dnieper, for the plain
on the left very distinctly crosses over to the right shore
at three places; at the mouth of the Stuhna below Kiev,
between the mouth of the Ross and Cherkassi, and north
of Chihirin. Recent movements of the crust of the earth,
by elevating the Dnieper Plateau in huge sections, prepared
the ground for the mountainous shores; the resulting steep
declivities were attacked and transformed by the river cur-
rent, aided by an effective simultaneous action of the winds.

The left bank of the river is very flat, taken up by
swamps, lakes, old river beds and wooded fens. Great
wildernesses of reeds cover the swampy banks of the num-
erous river arms. Great masses of sand brought by the
tributaries on the left side are thrown up by the steppe
winds and from dune landscapes in various places.

The tributaries of the Dnieper River in this section are
of far less importance than the above mentioned northern
ones. From the right side the river receives the plateau
streams Stuhna, Ross and Tiasmin, from the left the
Trubez, the Supo, the Sula with the Udai, the Psiol with the
Khorol, and Holtva, Vorskla and Orel. All these rivers
increase the volume of the main stream only to a slight

UKRAINE 75

degree. The width of the river at the point where it
flows along in a single bed is regularly 1 km. on the average;
at the narrowest part, to be sure, only 150 meters. Where
the river branches off into several forks, however, the
complete width, even at the time of low-water, is more
than 4 km., at high-water over 8 km. The depth of the
river, too, is very changeable. The tributaries on the
left side bring great masses of sand to the main river bed,
forming great banks of sand, which slowly move downward
and cause great changeability of the depth. Over such
banks of sand the depth of the river is hardly 1 Yi meters,
but attains a depth of 1 2 meters where the river flows in a
narrow bed.

Between Kiev and Kreminchuk, the majestic character
of the Dnieper River is most apparent. The slight incline
here causes a current of only one-third the speed of the
current of the Volga. With an impressive calm the
waters of the Dnieper flow along; it seems as tho the
mirror-like mass of water were motionless. But soon,
above the mouth of the Psiol, the speed of the current is
suddenly tripled, so that the steamboats must exert their
entire force in the up-stream trip. The low left bank begins
slowly to rise; the river valley, up to this point, wide almost
beyond reach of the eye, becomes narrow, the river forks
and islands gradually disappear, and at the mouth of the
Samara both banks approach the stream with steep preci-
pices. The direction of the river becomes southerly and
the section begins where the Dnieper breaks thru the
granite ledge of the Ukrainian horst, the famous section
of its rapids.

Here the Dnieper assumes all the characteristics
of a plateau river. The river valley becomes so narrow
that at high-water the river spreads over the entire valley
bottom. The settlements take refuge on the heights of
the steep bank. The granite-gneiss sub-layer appears in

76 UKRAINE

steep precipices and high picturesque rock formations on
the valley slopes. We are confronted with the same caflon-
like valley on the Dnieper, then, as on the Dniester in the
Podolian Plateau. Yet there are certain fundamental
differences. The river valley is at most 100 meters deep,
and the granite slopes do not form compact valley sides
such as we see in the yars of the Dniester. At every moment
the steep decline is broken by numerous gorges, picturesque
foothills; and jutting cliffs lend to the river landscape of
the Dnieper Valley, at this point, a variety unknown in the
yar of the Dniester.

The section of the Dnieper River from the mouth of the
Samara to Veliki Luh, at the mouth of the Konca, forms a
river country which is the only one of its kind in Eastern
Europe. It is the section of the Dnieper rapids. The
post-tertiary elevation of the Ukrainian horst, at this
point, has forced the river to dig its bed into the hard
granite and gneiss rocks. Despite great masses of water,
the river has not succeeded in equalizing its incline. For
this reason, we find in its bed innumerable rocky islands,
ledges of rock, separate cliffs and great boulders. In a
wild, roaring torrent, the current beats against these
obstacles, creating deep pools and dangerous vortices.
But not at all places was the river destined to saw thru
the obstacles in its way. At many points solid ledges of
rock lie right across the river. Its mass of water falls
down over these granite steps in immense foam-wreathed
bilows and seethes about innumerable boulders, remains
of already parted ledges. The dull roaring and rumbling
can be heard, even by day, for several miles. These are
the rapids of the Dnieper — the "porohi" and "zabori."

The porohi are not real waterfalls or cataracts; the
incline of the river in this section is 35 meters for a stretch
of 75 km., and is, therefore, too slight for regular falls.
The greatest incline attained within this stretch of river is

UKRAINE 77

6%. Therefore, only the individual branches of water
between boulders form small falls, while the main channel
only shoots along down-stream in a long, foam-covered
streak, over the inclined surface of the ledges. In summer,
the depth above the rock ledges is barely 1 Yi meters, while
in the spring even the highest reefs of the rapids disappear
beneath the masses of the high-water.

Still, the rapids of the Dnieper are even now a great
hindrance to navigation. Within the porohi section,
steamboat navigation is altogether impossible, and the
smaller rowboats or sailboats can risk it only during the
spring floods, and then only the down-trip. Only the rafts
can pass thru the porohi at low-water time, altho with
great danger. The up-stream trip is almost impossible,
even in the smallest vessel, altho, at one time, everyone
who desired to join the Zaporog Cossacks was required to
undertake this daring enterprise.

The Russian government has attempted, indeed, to
make the rapids of the river navigable, and has caused a
navigable canal to be formed at each fall, thru blasting
of the rock ledges. But these canals have been planned
in so impractical and even faulty a manner that the river
pilots (lotzmani) still use the old "Cossack paths" to a
great extent (the Cosachi khody) to bring river boats and
rafts thru the porohi.

The width of the river in the rapids section remains
unchanged — 1 to 1 % kilometers. Only at its exit from the
porohi, at the so-called Wolf's Throat (Vovche horlo),
the river narrows down to 160 meters. The quiet sections
between separate rapids are usually very wide and as
much as 30 meters deep.

Of genuine rapids (porohi), according to the pilots,
who are direct descendants of the Zaporog Cossacks, there
are nine; of the larger sabori (ledges of rock which do not
obstruct the entire width of the river), six. The first rapids

78 UKRAINE

below Katerinoslav are the Kaidac rapids (Kaidazki porih) ,
with four ledges of rock. Then follow the Yazeva Sebora,
the Little Sursky porih, with two ledges, the dangerous
Lokhanski porih with three ledges, and the Strilcha Sabora,
with the great rocks of Strilcha skela and Kamin Bohatir.
The next rapids, Svonez and the far-sounding Tiahinska
Sabora, allow vessels easy passage, but after passing thru
the Dnieper the pilot must exert all his strength. Even
from the Svonez rapids on, one can hear the terrible
roaring and rumbling of the largest of the porohi, the
Did (grandfather) or Nenassitetz (insatiable). Masses of
white foam cover it completely, the water shoots down over
the twelve ledges of rock with the speed of an arrow. The
vessel groans and creaks, but flies thru the porih in three
minutes, if it can only escape the dangerous rock of Krutko
or the terrible whirlpool of Peklo (the Hell). Or it may
happen that the ship is dashed to pieces in the Voronova
Sabora, which is full of dangerous reefs.

After the Did and the insignificant Kriva Sabora,
comes the Vnuk (grandchild) or Vovnih, whose four
ledges, covered with great billows and masses of foam,
holds many hidden dangers for the sailor. But "after
overcoming the Grandfather and the Grandchild, don't
go to sleep, for the Awakener will wake you" — meaning
the next following Porih Budilo (Awakener) which also is
dangerous for ships. We then come past the Tavolzanska
Sabora, where the beautiful crag (Snieva skela) rises, to the
next to the last porih, Lishni (the Dispensable), with two
insignificant edges of rock, which offer but slight dangers.
The last porih, however, which bears the name of Vilni
(free) or Hadiuchi (serpent falls), is very dangerous for
ships and rafts, for the channel winds in serpentine twists
thru the six ledges, and the pilot must exercise all his
skill in order to steer the ship entrusted to him safely thru
the dangerous channel. After this follows the narrow

UKRAINE 79

(160 m.) "Wolf's-Throat" (Vovche horlo), with three
great rocks; the small Javlena Sabora, three dangerous
"Robber Rocks" (Kameni Rosbiyniki), and two granite
precipices, Stovli (Pillars), and we come into the Zaporog
country (Zaporoze).

Here the Dnieper valley widens and numerous islands
appear in the stream. The upper ones, for example,
Khortizia and Tomakivka, which were once the site of the
first Zaporog Sich, are high, rocky, and overgrown with
forest. Further south the steep left-hand valley slope
recedes far from the river and the so-called Veliki Luh
begins. It is a labyrinth of flat forest and reed-covered
alluvial islands, river branches, old river beds, lakes and
swamps. Here were located the hunting and fishing
grounds of the Zaporog Cossacks; here was their dwelling
place, wonderfully fortified by nature and surrounded by an
inaccessible wilderness of forests and waters, and the
center of their military state; of the century-old oaks of
the Veliki Luh, the Zaporogs built their ships, in order to
pay their daring visits to the lord of Islam in his own
capital. But the glorious days are past, the warlike life
and activity has disappeared, and strange colonists, whom
the Russian Government has sent here to settle, now
occupy the ground on which the second Ukrainian state
originated.

From the many-branched mouth of the Konka (also
named Kinska voda) the Dnieper River turns toward the
southwest, which direction it retains until it disembogues
into the sea. From this point on, the river nowhere flows
in a single bed; an enormous number of side arms branch
off from the main arm or unite with it. The broad river
valley, whose right bank continues to be high and rocky
for a time, is taken up by the plavni formation and winds
like a broad band of freshly growing verdure thru the steppe,
which stretches out dry and golden-brown in the hot mid-

80 UKRAINE

summer. After receiving, as its last tributary, the steppe-
river Inhuletz, it empties with nine arms into its liman,
below Kherson. Of these arms only two are navigable for
larger vessels, and the immense Dnieper liman is at most
only 6 meters deep. The river brings down great masses of
sand and mud, and fills up its liman so rapidly that strenu-
ous dredging is necessary, in order to make it possible for
small sea-vessels to reach the harbor of Kherson.

The Dnieper River brings the Black Sea, on the average,
2000 cu. m. of water per second. It is navigable, even for
large river boats, along a stretch of 1900 km." The ice-cover
lasts 100 days at Kiev; 80 days in the lower part of its
course.

The tributaries of the Dnieper are very numerous and
important; their total length is over 13,000 km. Of those
on the right, the Pripet River is the most important.
It gathers in all the waters of the Polissye and is the typical
river of that district. Its length exceeds 650 km. Rising
in the northern spurs of the Volhynian Plateau, very close
to the course of the Buh, it immediately reaches the
Polissian Plain and becomes a navigable river over 50 m.
wide and about 6 m. deep. In the main axis of the Polissian
basin the Pripet turns eastward and becomes about 100 m.
wide. The incline of the river is very slight, the number
of turns and river arms enormous. Between swampy
woods and moors the river forms labyrinths of delicate,
intricate waterways and stagnant pools. Near Mosir,
where the river turns to the southeast, its width reaches
450 m., its depth 10 m. Of quite the same type are
the tributaries of the Pripet: the Turia, Stokhod, Stir
with the Ikva, the Horin with the Sluch, the Ubort and
the Uz on the right ; the Pina Yasiolda, Sluch and Ptich on
the left. All of them are navigable along great stretches.
The remaining right-hand tributaries of the Dnieper,
the Teterev and the Irpen, have the Polissian character

UKRAINE 81

only near their mouth, otherwise they are purely plateau
rivers with rocky beds. The Teterev is able to transport
rafts of logs, while the other rivers of the Dnieper Plateau,
as for example, the Ross (altho greater than the Teterev)
and the Tiasmin, are entirely unfit for navigation, as a
result of their rocky beds and their small volume in summer.
The last large Dnieper tributary, the steppe-river Inhulez,
altho barely 100 km. shorter than the Pripet, is, for the
same reasons, only capable of carrying logs in the last
150 km. of its much-twisted course.

Of the left-hand tributaries of the Dnieper only the
northern ones possess a sufficient volume of water to be
navigable. The Soz, which is 550 kilometers in length,
becomes as wide as 150 meters, and is navigable for a
stretch of nearly 360 kilometers. The Desna is the longest
of all the Dnieper tributaries (1000 km.). It rises near
Yelnia, on the Central Russian Plateau, and flows in a
broad symmetrical valley, which it floods in places every
spring to the extent of 10 kilometers. The normal width
of the river at low- water is 160 meters; the depth is 6
meters. Despite many shallows and sand-banks, the
Desna is capable of bearing rafts along a stretch of 250
kilometers, and is navigable for 700 kilometers even for
the larger river boats. Of the Ukrainian tributaries of the
Desna, the most important is the Sem, which is 650 km.
long and navigable for 500 kilometers.

All the other left-hand tributaries of the Dnieper flow
in broad valleys, with high right slopes and low left slopes,
covered with stagnant waters, marshy meadows and
areas of sand. But, altho they all look very imposing
at the time of the spring floods, yet, neither the Sula with
its high wooded banks, nor the Psiol with its 670 km. of
length, neither the Vorscla flowing along between sand-
banks and dunes, nor the Orel sliding slowly along with
its twisted course — none of these have any significance for

82 UKRAINE

navigation. Only the steppe-river Samara, flowing between
granite banks, is capable of floating rafts along a short
stretch. There was a time, however, in which all these
rivers were navigable, even for ships of considerable size.
Great old anchors and wreckage of ships, which are found
in the beds and banks of these rivers, are sufficient proof
of this fact. The cause of the present condition may be
sought in the destruction of forest in the drainage country.
The spring floods, increased from this cause, develop
considerable destructive activity, filling up the river bed
with masses of sand and mud, floating brushes and stumps
of trees. The decreased volume of water in the dry season,
due to the drying up of the swamps and springs, can not
transport these deposits further, and the river becomes
unfit for any sort of navigation.

The Don (Din) is the fourth in the series of rivers of
Europe. It is over 1800 kilometers long, but the country
it drains is smaller in area by 100,000 square kilometers
than that of the Dnieper. Hardly one-fourth of the Don
country belongs to the Ukraine, and even less of its~course.
For this reason it was long considered as a border stream
of the Ukraine on the east, until the past century extended
the boundaries of Ukrainian territory into the Kuban region
and to the Caspian Sea.

The Don rises in Lake Ivan-Ozero, which has also an
outlet to the Aka on the Central Russian elevation of
ground. Its valley is at first deeply cut, its bed rocky.
Then the valley widens and becomes symmetrical, the
left bank becomes flat and swampy, covered in places by
wide areas of sand. In the source region the direction of
the river is south as far as Korotniak, then the river turns
to the southeast, forms a sharp bend at the mouth of the
Ilovla, approaching to within 60 km. of the Volga. Then
the Don repeats on a small scale the direction of the course
of the Dnieper, turns toward the southwest, and disem-

UKRAINE 83

bogues in thirty arms, of which only three are navigable
and only one accessible to sea-vessels, into the Sea of
Azof. Its delta region is very rich in fish and is growing
very rapidly. The general volume of the Don is twice as
small as that of the Dnieper and is subject to many
vacillations. During the spring floods the water-level
reaches 6 — 7 m. above the normal and the river becomes as
much as 10 km. wide. At the time of low-water, on the
other hand, the river, despite its width (in the lower part
of its course) of 200 to 400 m. and depths of 2 — 16 m., is
full of sandbanks and shallows, so that navigation on the
Don is but slightly developed, altho more than 1300 km.
of its course may be considered fit for floating rafts of
logs and 300 km. for ships. The freezing-time lasts on the
average 100 days.

Of the left-hand tributaries of the Don, the Voronizh,
Bitiuh, Khoper, Medveditza, and the Manich (famous,
because of its bifurcation) are the most important. Of the
right-hand tributaries only one, the Donetz, is important.
Its entire course belongs to Ukrainian national territory.
It is 1000 km. long, and, in its southerly and then south-
easterly direction, entirely analogous to the Dnieper and
the Don. The Donetz flows in a broad valley and washes
beautiful white cliffs along the steep right bank, crowned
with dark forests. The Donetz is capable of floating rafts
along a stretch of over 300 km., and is navigable for 200 km.
more.

Of the steppe-rivers which tend toward the Sea of
Azof from the east, only the Yeia reaches its goal. All the
rest end their courses in lagoons.

The last great river of the Ukraine is the Kuban,
800 km. long. It rises in the glaciers of the Elbus and
flows, a roaring mountain stream, in a narrow and deep
rocky defile. A great number of the mountain streams
of the northern Caucasus slope empty into the Kuban and

84 UKRAINE

make it a stream of considerable volume. In the Stavropol
hill country the Kuban turns in a widely-drawn curve
toward the west. Its valley becomes broad and flat,
covered with bogs, swampy forests and wildernesses of
reeds. From the left side it receives a number of tributaries
from the Caucasus, the most important being the Laba
and the Bila. In the midst of immense plavni, lakes and
limans, the Kuban forms its many-armed delta, which
carries its waters partly to the Black Sea, partly to the
Sea of Azof, and embraces the peninsula of Taman.

The Kuban always has a large volume, the floods
coming in the early summer, when the snow blanket of
the Caucasus melts. Navigation is greatly injured because
of banks of sand and rubble, brush and tree-stumps, but is,
nevertheless, possible for a distance of over 350 km.

The Ukrainian Climate

The great uniformity of Eastern Europe, in respect
to its morphology, we find repeated in its climatic conditions.
But, to the same extent that the attentive investigator,
upon close observation, finds several independent mor-
phological individualities within the Eastern European
low country, he will also observe important climatic
differences in this great half-continent.

The Central European climatic zone stops at the
western borders of the Ukraine. Similarly, the cool Eastern
European continental climate, which rules over all of
White and Great Russia, embraces only insignificant
borderlands in the north of Ukrainian territory. The
Ukrainian climate assumes an entirely independent posi-
tion. It is more continental than that of Central Europe
and differs from that of Great Russia in its greater mildness.
The Ukraine shares with France the advantage that in its
territory the direct transition from the temperate climate
of Eastern Europe to the Mediterranean climate of Southern
Europe takes place.

The thermal conditions of the Ukraine, despite its
great size, are very uniform. The yearly averages fluctuate
between +6° and +9° C. Ternopil, in Podolia, and Vov-
chansk, in the Kharkov country, have the same yearly
temperature of +6.3°, Pinsk +6.7°, Kiev and Kharkiv
+6.8°, Lviv (Lemberg) and Poltava +6.9°. The differences
are confined within a space of 1° C. Chernivtzi (Czernowitz)
in the Bukowina, Yelisavet in the Kherson region, and

85

86 UKRAINE

Luhan in the Donetz region have an annual temperature
of 7.6° or 7.7°, Katerinoslav on the Dnieper, Tahanroh
on the Sea of Azof, and Stavropil in the sub-Caucasus
country 8.3° or 8.2°. This great coincidence of yearly
averages in so widely separated places is all the more
surprising, since the mean temperature falls considerably
directly behind the borders of the Ukraine. Thus, Kursk
has only +5.2°, Voroniz +5.4°.

Not until we reach the southern borders of the Ukraine
does the mean temperature rise considerably. Odessa and
Kishinivhave +9.8°, Mikolaiv +9.7°,Simferopil +10.1°,
Sevastopil +12.2°, Katerinodar +12.1°, Novorossiysk +12°,
Yalta +13.4° mean annual temperature. The last-named
place actually lies in the narrow belt of the Mediterranean
climate, on the southern slope of the Yaila Mountains.

Comparing the annual averages of the Ukraine with
those of different places in Western and Central Europe,
the latter appear relatively much higher. London,
situated in the same geographical latitude as Kursk has
an annual temperature almost twice as high (+10.3°).
London is on the average even a little warmer than Sim-
feropil, which actually lies 650 km. nearer the equator.
Brussels lies a little more north than Kiev, yet it is in the
mean warmer than Odessa.

The cause of this unfavorable relation is the severe
winter of the Ukraine. The mean temperature of January
is +3.5° in London, +2° in Brussels, +1.2° in Frankfort
a m., — 1.2° in Prague, — 3.3° in Cracow. In the Ukraine
the January means are much lower. Lemberg has — 4.6°,
Kiev has —6.2°, Kharkiv —8.3°, Luhan —8°, Vovchansk
— 7.7°, Katerinoslav — 7.4°, etc. To be sure this is not re-
markable when compared with the January temperatures of
even the south of Great Russia, where the winter suggests
polar conditions, but the antithesis to the winter climate
of Western and Central Europe is striking. Hammerfest,

UKRAINE 87

the northernmost city of the. earth, is one degree warmer
than Kiev in January and even a little warmer than
Lemberg.

On the other hand, the summer of the Ukraine is even
warmer than that of Western and Central Europe. The
July mean of London is +17.9° C.,of Brussels 18°, Lemberg
the same, but Kiev has as much as 19.2°, Kharkiv 20.9°.
The differences in the summer temperatures are much
smaller, however, than the differences in the winter tem-
peratures— hence the comparatively low annual mean in
the Ukraine.

These figures clearly show the continental character of
the Ukrainian climate. The influences of the Atlantic Ocean,
which still strongly dominate the climate of Central
Europe, become slight in the Ukraine. Particularly, the
southern part of the Ukraine is almost unaffected by the
mitigating influence of a nearby ocean, and the necessary
result is the low winter-temperatures. But the continental
character of the Ukrainian climate is, nevertheless, not so
strongly marked as that of the Russian or Siberian climate.
Kamishin, Semipalatinsk, Blagovieshchensk, situated on
the same degree of latitude as Kiev, have a January mean
of —11.6°, 17.5° and —25.4°, and a July mean of +24.1°,
+22.2° and +21.3°, respectively. The influences of the
Black Sea, altho in general not great, are at least unmis-
takable in the coastal region of the Ukraine.

The difference between the mean of the coldest and
that of the warmest month is slighter in the Ukraine than
in Russia or Siberia, to be sure, but it is, at any rate,
considerable. Only in the Mediterranean climate of
Southern Crimea does the difference amount to as little
as 20°. The rest of Crimea, the sub-Caucasian country
and the northwestern part of the Ukraine as far as Kiev
and Uman have a difference of 20° — 25°, Lemberg, for
example, 22.6°, Pinsk 24°, Chernivtzi 25.1°, Kiev 25.2°.

88 UKRAINE

On the other hand, the southern and the entire eastern
part of the Ukraine, especially east of the Dnieper, shows
a considerable difference, from 25° to 30°, as for example,
Kiev 25.4°, Odessa and Mikolaiv 26.3°, Poltava 27.3°,
Kharkiv and Tahanroh over 29°, Luhan and Katerinoslav
30.4°.

The winter appears severe in the entire Ukraine, with
the exception of Crimea and the sub-Caucasian country.

The January mean temperature of — 4° to — 8° then
obtains in the entire wide territory. Lemberg has — 4.3°,
Tarnopol — 5.5°, Chernivtzi — 5.1°, Kiev — 6.2°, Vovchansk
— 7.7°, Katerinoslav — 7.4°, Mikolaiv — 4.3°, Tahanroh
— 6.7°, Luhan — 8°. Even the southern lands of the Ukraine
have a low mean for January, for example, Odessa — 3.7°
(Kishiniv — 3.5°), while Kamenetz owes its exceptionally
high mean, — 3.3°, to its sheltered location in a "yar."
The January isotherms run from northwest to southeast
in Ukrainian territory, in a wide curve, which becomes
increasingly flat toward the southeast. For this reason
the cold in the Ukraine grows in intensity not in a northern
but in a northeastern direction. The mean annual mini-
mum almost everywhere exceeds — 20° (Lemberg — 19.2°,
Chernivtzi —2 1.1°, Tarnopol —23.4°, Kiev —23.2°, Mikolaiv
— 21.4°, Luhan — 28.4°). The absolute extremes attain
very high values. The absolute minimum amounts to
—30° in Mikolaiv and Odessa, —33.1° in Kiev, —34° in
Ternopil, — 35° in Lemberg and Czernowitz, — 40.8° in
Luhan.

The Ukrainian winter is far less variable than the
Central European or even the Russian. Only in the north-
western borderlands of the Ukraine does a thaw, brought
by the Atlantic winds, frequently appear. The duration of
the frost on the Pontian shore is at most two months,
in the Pontian steppe-plain and the southern spurs of the
plateau groups three months, in all the rest of the Ukraine

UKRAINE 89

three and a half. Only in the northeastern borderlands
of the Ukraine, located on the spurs of the Central Russian
elevation and the Donetz, does the frost period extend over
four months.

In Southern Ukraine the winter is followed directly by a
sunny spring, with dry east winds, which partly degenerate
into sand-storms (sukhovi). Everywhere else in the
Ukraine wet, sloppy weather follows the steps of the receding
winter. Toward the northwest it continues longer and
longer. The sloppy weather of spring consists of a con-
stantly varying succession of frost, thaw, snowstorm, rain
and sunshine, ending in the southern part of the Ukraine
usually in the middle of April, in the northern and north-
western part at the end of April or even at the beginning
of May. The actual spring following thereon is very short
thruout the Ukraine and usually lasts three weeks, except
in the northwest, where it continues thru the entire month
of May. The mean April temperature is everywhere
higher than the annual mean (Lemberg +7.8°, Tarnopol
and Kiev +6.9°, Czernowitz and Odessa +8.6°, Luhan
— 8.1°). But the month of May is quite as warm as July in
England. On the other hand, we find' May frosts in the
entire Ukraine as far as the shores of the Black Sea, altho
they do not appear so destructive here as in Russia proper.

The Ukrainian summer is everywhere marked by
considerable heat. Only in the northwest corner of the
Ukraine (Rostoche, Pidlassye, Polissye, Volhynia) is the
summer moderately warm (Lemberg +19.1°, Ternopil
+ 18.7°, Pinsk +18°).

The July temperature of all the rest of the Ukraine is
much higher than this. The July isotherm of +20°, like
all the July isotherms of the Ukraine, runs in a northeast
direction past the source of the Sbruch and the mouth of
the Pripet, and the further we advance from this line
towards the southeast, the hotter the summers we find.

90 UKRAINE

On the lower Dniester and Dnieper the mean July tem-
perature exceeds -(-23°. Following are a number of July
means: Czernowitz -)-20.1°, Kiev -{-19.2°, Vovchansk
+20.3°, Odessa +22.6°, Katerinoslav and Mikolaiv +23°,
Luhan -(-22.4°, Tahanroh -(-22.8°. The strongest degrees
of heat are +37° to +43°, and the mean annual maxima
are +30.3° for Ternopil, +31.1° for Lemberg, +32.7° for
Czernowitz, +32.1° for Kiev, +35.2° for Mikolaiv, +35.5°
for Luhan. The duration of the heat period with temper-
atures of +20° and over is two months southeast of a line
which runs near Kishiniv, Poltava and Kharkiv, one
month southeast of the line of Mohiliv, Kaniv and Kursk.
The total duration of the summer is only in the northwest
of the Ukraine as short as three months; otherwise it is
four, and on the Black Sea even four and a half.

The autumn of the Ukraine is regularly very beautiful
and comparatively warm. The month of October has a
mean of temperature higher than the annual (Lemberg
+8.5°, Ternopil +7.7°, Czernowitz +9°, Kiev +7.5°,
Vovchansk +7°, Katerinoslav +9.7°, Luhan +8.4°, Odessa
+ 11°, Mikolaiv +9.7°, Tahanroh +9.1°). But even in
October the warm sunny days are followed by night frosts.
The moist autumnal weather which begins the transition to
winter lasts as much as two months in the northwest;
beyond that, one to one and a half months. The mean
date of the earliest frost is October 19th for Kiev, Octo-
ber 11th for Luhan, October 28th for Micolaiv, and
November 10th for Odessa.

A different position, climatically, is that of Crimea, the
sub-Caucasian country, as well as the mountain islands
of the Carpathians, the Yaila and the Caucasus. In the
temperature conditions of Crimea and the sub-Caucasus
country, the influence of their southerly location and the
proximity of the sea is everywhere apparent. The mean
temperature is everywhere higher than +10° (Simferopol

UKRAINE 91

+ 10.1°, Sevastopol +12. 2°, Katerinodar +12.1°). The
winter is short and comparatively mild (January mean of
Simferopol +0.8°, Sevastopol +1.8°, Katerinodar +2.1°,
Stavropol — 4.7°), but very variable. The degrees of frost
are sometimes quite high (Sevastopol — 16.9°, Stavropol
— 25.6° as absolute minima), but the frost period is short
(one to two months). The spring begins in March with full
force; in May follows the five-months' summer. The July
means are very high, especially in the sub-Caucasus
country, the heat period lasting everywhere more than
two months. (July mean of Simferopol -f- 28°, Sevastopol
33.1°, Stavropol +20°, Katerinodar +25.3°). The long
autumn also is very mild.

South of the Yaila and Caucasus Mountains, on the
shore of the Black Sea, lies a narrow strip of land which
actually shows Mediterranean climatic characteristics.
The winter lasts less than a month and is very mild (Jan-
uary mean of Yalta +3.5°, altho the absolute minimum is
— 13°), and, as in Novorossiysk, cold, bora-like gusts of wind
are common in times of heavy cold. After a long spring
follows a six-months' summer, which passes imperceptibly
into a mild autumn.

The climate of the mountains of the Ukraine has been
but little investigated. In the entire Ukrainian territory
there is not a single meteorological observatory. The
general characteristics of mountain climate, its greater
uniformity, the smaller difference between the warmest
and coldest months, the belated beginning of all the seasons,
etc., may be found in all the mountains of the Ukraine.

Only the climate of the Ukrainian Carpathians is
somewhat better known. The dreariest climate is that of
the Beskyds and the Gorgani. The five-months' winter and
long periods of sloppy weather in the spring and in the
fall encroach upon the short summer. The Chornohora
chain, despite the greater height of its peaks, upon which

92 UKRAINE

the snow in sheltered places remains lying thru the entire
summer, has a much milder and pleasanter climate. The
influence of the warm summer of the adjacent plain regions
limits the duration of the sloppy weather in spring and
autumn. For this reason, the mountain valleys have a
short but very beautiful spring, a warm summer, and a
wonderful mild autumn. The mountain pastures have in
place of the summer only a three months' spring.

In the Yaila Mountains, as a result of their small size
and height, the characteristics of typical mountain climate
are lacking, but in the Caucasus we find them in their
highest development. The analogy to the Alps is perfect,
but the influence of the continental steppe climate of the
surrounding country is unmistakable, expressing itself
in the position of the various climatic regions, in the height
of the snow limit, in the development of the glacial covering,
etc., very distinctly and very differently than in the Alps,
which are surrounded by countries with a climate of a
different kind.

We now come to the second group of climatic phenomena,
pressure and wind conditions. The Ukraine may, in this
respect, be divided into two great regions. The line of
high pressure which separates these parts, called by
Voiekoff the great axis of Europe, extends from the bend
of the Volga, near Tsaritsin, over the porohi section of the
Dnieper at Katerinoslav to Kishinev. North of this line,
west winds prevail, bringing Atlantic air into Northern
Ukraine. In the south, east winds prevail, bearing the
influences of the Asiatic steppe climate. This wind divide
is most distinct in winter. In the northern part of the
Ukraine we find chiefly west and southwest winds, which
mitigate the frosts and cause precipitations of rainfall;
in the southern part dry, cold east winds prevail, increasing
the cold. Sometimes the east wind increases to a snow-
storm (metelitzia, fuga) which whirls up terrible masses of

UKRAINE 93

snow, filling the air with snowflakes until absolutely
nothing can be seen, and causes terrific destruction.
Herds of a thousand head fall victim to its icy breath,
even in the steppes of Crimea, and woe to the traveler who
is caught in a snowstorm in the steppe.

In November and December, in Southern Ukraine,
moist, warm south winds frequently come up from the
Pontus. But the absolute balance is on the side of the
freezing east winds, to which is to be ascribed the severe
winter climate of Southern Ukraine. The northern half
of the Ukraine as a rule, is seldom reached by the east
winds, the northwestern corner very seldom. Their
occasional appearance is accompanied by heavy frosts
with fair weather.

In the spring, east and south winds blow, especially
over Southern Ukraine. They often change to heavy
sand-storms (sukhovi) very harmful to the crops, which
carry clouds of sand, with which they form miniature
dunes as high as 30 cm. The east and south winds, at
such times, penetrate even into Northern Ukraine, altho
with the exception of the northwest corner.

In the summer, on the other hand, the west, northwest,
and southwest winds hold a decided balance over the east
winds, even in Southern Ukraine. They bring moist
Atlantic air and rain into the entire land and mitigate the
heat. The occasional east winds increase the heat and
bring periods of drought, but usually not until August,
when they are rather frequent. In September all the
winds are weak thruout the Ukraine, with high pressure.
That is why the fall is so beautiful too. Then, in October
and November, follows the gradual transition to the winter
wind conditions.

The third group of atmospheric phenomena, humidity
and precipitation, possesses the same great uniformity in
Ukrainian territory as the other two elements of the climate.

94 UKRAINE

The humidity of the air in the Ukraine is in general slight.
It is greatest in the forest-covered partly swampy West and
Northwest. Toward the southeast the humidity in the
Ukraine constantly decreases. Fogs appear seldom and are
only light, so that the antithesis to Western and Central
Europe, as well as Russia, is striking. The light night and
morning fogs which appear, especially in the latter part of
summer and in the fall, only contribute to the beautification
of the landscape, by flooding the depressions of land like a
sea. Cloud-formation is much slighter in the Ukraine
than in Western or Central Europe, or in Russia proper,
the dreary Muscovite country. The greatest number of
clouded days occurs in the western and northwestern
part of the Ukraine; toward the southeast and east the
number of such days dwindles continuously. The least
amount of cloudy weather occurs in the month of August.
In September and October the increase is very slight.
November and December are much cloudier and January
is most cloudy all over the Ukraine. After that the cloudy
weather lessens considerably at first, then slowly, until
August.

The atmospheric precipitations in the Ukraine are in
general insignificant, except in the Carpathian and Caucasus
regions. The Ukraine has less rainfall than Central or
Western Europe. The Atlantic Ocean, the most important
source of the precipitations in Europe, lies far distant, and
the cyclonal systems on their way east drop their collected
moisture upon Western and Central Europe. For the
Ukraine, and particularly for the eastern part of it, there
is, therefore, very little left. In this connection the Black
Sea has only a local significance, and the evaporation of
water from the rivers, lakes and swamps, from the plants
and the ground, is hardly worth considering, except as it
happens in the summer.

The great amounts of precipitation are to be found in

UKRAINE 95

the mountains of the Ukraine, where rising currents of
air help along the condensation of the water vapor. Even
in the Low Beskid the precipitation exceeds 1000 mm.
(Yasliska 1170 mm.), in the Gorgani and Chornohora we
find in large areas, especially on the southern slope, a
precipitation of over 1200 mm., in a few places 1400 mm.
(Kobiletzka Polana 1377 mm., Bradula 1419 mm.). The
amount of precipitation is still large in the entire Pidhirye,
but at only a short distance it decreases considerably.
Lemberg has only 735 mm. of rainfall, the southern part
of the Rostoche as much as 900 mm. in places, since the
western edges act like chains of mountains to the west
winds. But Czernowitz, near as it is, has only 619 mm.
and the Podolia on the Dniester still less. The Khotin
lying in the yar of this river has only 300 mm., which best
illustrates the significance of local conditions. At a greater
distance from the curve of the Carpathians the amount
of precipitation shows a slow but regular decrease toward
the southeast. Only in the northern part of the Rostoche
and the northwestern part of Podolia does the amount of
precipitation attain 600 mm., while further toward the
south and east a wide zone stretches out with only 500 — 600
mm. (Pinsk 581 mm., Kiev 534 mm., Uman 546 mm.,
Poltava 532 mm.). Another wide zone, which extends
from the mouth of the Dniester to the bend of the Don,
has a precipitation of between 400 and 500 mm. (Kharkiv
465 mm., Katerinoslav 475 mm., Kishinev 471 mm.,
Yelisavet 444 mm., Odessa 408 mm.). The next narrow
zone of the Pontian and Crimean steppe has a precipitation
of less than 400 mm. (Mikolaiv 360 mm., Sevastopol 386
mm., Luhan 379 mm.), a corner of Crimea on the peninsula
of Tarkhankut has even barely more than 200 mm.

The Yaila Mountain Range is too small to have any
marked influence on the increase in the amount of precipi-
tation. Yalta has only 508 mm. precipitation. On the

96 UKRAINE

other hand, the influence of the Caucasus is very great.
The sub-Caucasus Kuban region, to be sure, has only
400 — 500 mm . precipitation , Stavropol 7 20 mm . , N ovorossy sk
691 mm. However, the amount of precipitation on the
southwestern side of the Caucasus Mountains increases
uncommonly. At the borders of Ukrainian territory,
Sochi has not less than 2071 mm.

From this account we see clearly enough that, in com-
parison with Central and Western Europe, the Ukraine is
rather poor in rainfall, especially in the southeast. But the
distribution of the precipitations among the seasons is so
favorable that most of them fall at the time they are most
needed, namely, in the early part of summer. The entire
Ukraine lies within the area of the summer rains, only
the narrow strip of the south coast of Crimea and the
Caucasus are within the area of the winter rains.

The reason of the preponderance of the summer rains
lies in the western and northwestern Atlantic winds, which,
in that season, have easy access far into the southeastern
part of the Ukraine. These winds bring so much moisture
into the Ukraine that almost two-thirds of the annual rain-
fall belongs to May, June and July. The month with the
greatest amount of precipitation for the entire Ukraine
is June. Only the Polissye, Northwestern Volhynia and
the western part of the Kiev territory show the heaviest
precipitation in July, since, in these regions of forests and
swamps, evaporation is heaviest at this time of greatest
heat.

The summer rains of the Ukraine differ from those of
Central or Western Europe in their heaviness. Only in
the Western Ukraine are the summer rains of the type
of gentle rains that are uniform for an entire country; in
the south and east they appear as cloudbursts in heavy
showers. In Samashcani, in Bessarabia, there have been
times when 200 mm. of rain fell in a single day, in Korovintzi

UKRAINE 97

in the Poltava region, 5 mm. in one minute. In the Pontian
steppes all rain falls in the form of heavy showers. The
water flows off quickly and evaporates rapidly, before
it is able to thoroughly saturate the ground..

Electric discharges and hailstorms occur in close
connection with the summer rains, most frequently in
June, less so in July and in May. They usually come from
the southwest in the afternoon hours. Most of these
storms originate in the Carpathian Mountains and reach
Volhynia and Kiev, but do not cross the Dnieper. The
Caucasus, too, has very many storms. Hailstorms are
most frequent in Galicia and Volhynia and the western
part of the Kiev regions; very rare in the southeast.

In August the amount of rainfall slowly decreases; in
September and October still more, and so it continues until
December. January is the month of least rainfall for the
entire Ukraine (only one-fourth of the June figure), and this
circumstance is of particularly great significance for the
southern and eastern parts of the Ukraine. For this
reason the cover of snow in the Ukraine is much less
than in Central Europe or Muscovy, besides which, it is
often disturbed by snowstorms. The slight snow-cover
melts down quickly in the spring, without saturating the
soil well, and without requiring much warmth. This
explains the rapid rise of heat in the Ukrainian spring.

From January until the end of April the amount of
rainfall again grows slowly but steadily, reaching its
maximum in June.

The southern part of Crimea and the Caucasian shore
have just the opposite annual distribution of the precipita-
tions. Under the influence of the moist Pontian winds, the
greatest amount of rain falls in December and January,
while the spring and summer have very little rain. These
characteristics of the Mediterranean climate, the rainy
winter after the dry summer, are all the more striking,

98 UKRAINE

since the opposite condition prevails on the other side of
the Yaila and Caucasus Mountains.

From this account of the Ukrainian climate we see
that this climate retains an entirely independent position
as against that of Central Europe or Russia. The Ukrainian
climate is characterized by an annual amplitude of 20° to
30°, a mean annual temperature of from +6° to +12°, a
July mean of from +19° to +24°, and a January mean of
from 0° to 8°, with predominant summer rains and a
generally insignificant cover of snow. The difference
from the Russian climate is, consequently, quite consider-
able. The Russian climate forms the transition to the
polar, that of the Ukraine to the Mediterranean climate.

Nature has provided the Ukraine with a pleasant, very
wholesome climate. On the whole temperate, it does not lack
heavy frosts and considerable degrees of heat, which
harden the Ukrainian to any inclemencies of the weather.
The differences of the seasons cause a pleasant variety,
strong winds clear the atmosphere and bring motion into
nature, the rains are everywhere sufficient for the growth
of vegetation and the carrying on of the most important
occupation of the Ukraine — agriculture. The great
uniformity of this Ukrainian climate has recently caused
the French geographer, de Martonne, to set it up as one
of the types of climate of the globe.

Flora and Fauna of Ukraine

Eastern European bigness characterizes also the organic
life of the Ukraine. But it follows, from the location of
the country, that the Ukraine has a much more varied
plant and animal geography than the proper Russian
territory, despite the latter's much greater extent.

In the Ukraine, the borders of three main divisions of
plant-geography of Europe meet — the Mediterranean
division, the steppe region, and the forest region, with their
transition regions. Besides, we meet in the Ukraine three
mountain regions — the Carpathian, the Crimean, and the
Caucasian. In respect to flora, the Ukraine possesses only
a few endemic species. To be sure the great ice period
covered only comparatively small areas of the Ukraine
with its glacier, but the polar flora undoubtedly prevailed
in the entire country at that time. After the withdrawal
of the glacier, steppes first appeared in its place, which
then, especially in the Northwest, were forced to make
room for a forest flora that had immigrated from Central
Europe and Siberia. Hence, despite the considerable
area of the Ukraine, so few endemic species.

Since those primeval days, only a very few natural
changes have occurred in the vegetation of the Ukraine.
However, man, thru his cultural activity, has wrought
many changes in the plant-world of the country.

The forest region occupies barely one-fifth of the Uk-
rainian territory, only the northwestern and northern
borderlands. The southeastern border of the forest region

99

100 UKRAINE

extends from the Prut and Dniester on the western bound-
ary of Pokutye and Podolia in a curve to the source of the
Buh, then near the northern boundary of the Dnieper
Plateau east as far as Kiev, and thence toward the northeast
as far as the source of the Aka. This boundary, however,
is not sharp. In numerous peninsulas the compact forest
penetrates the adjacent transition region toward the
southeast. On the other hand, this forest boundary
coincides almost exactly with the northern boundary of
the black soil. The soil of the forest region is in general
poor. Only in higher places we find fertile turf ; beyond that
sandy soil and the podsol, rich in quartz, predominate.

The prevailing plant formation in this region is the
forest. It once covered the entire region and was thinned
to any great extent only within the last two centuries.
What these primeval forests were like we can now tell in
only a few districts of the Polissye and in the famous virgin
forest of Biloveza, which lies in the extreme northwest
corner of the Ukrainian territory. Here we see the primeval
forest in its mighty size and beauty. In wind-fallen woods,
several meters high, rotten, decaying stumps cover the
ground. Their roots stand up high into the air above
swampy holes and vast masses of rotting remains of plants.
Above this swampy fen rise, like a vast mass of pillars, the
knotty trunks of century-old oaks and lindens, ash and
aspen, and the slender pine and fir. High above the ground
their branches intertwine. All strive up toward the sun,
for a continuous semi-darkness reigns below. Shrub and
herb vegetation thrives only in clearings; beyond that only
last year's leaves, needles, and a mysteriously glowing decay
cover the ground. Dead silence, only occasionally
broken by the hammering of a woodpecker or by the
timid voice of a bird, reigns everywhere, making all the
more impressive the mighty roaring of the lofty crowns
in the storm.

UKRAINE 101

As to their composition, the woods of the Ukrainian
forest region are mixed, altho local conditions cause one or
the other species of tree to predominate. The Ukrainian
forest region may be divided into two regions by a line
running thru Lublin southeast toward Lutzk. Southwest
of this line extends the Central European forest zone,
northeast of it the Northern European forest zone.

The Central European forest zone embraces the entire
Pidhirye in the Ukraine, the southern part of the Rostoche,
and the western spurs of Volhynia and Podolia. It is
distinguished by a greater variety of tree species. Here,
upon damp, loamy hills, entire forests of beech are found,
on the Carpathian foothills the pine, and singly or in
small groups, the larch, the yew, the maple, etc. In the
Northern European zone all these trees disappear, due to
the increasing continentality of the climate. The pre-
dominating species of tree here is the pine, which forms
large woods everywhere on sandy soil, then the birch,
which always accompanies the pine, the fir on sandy soil,
the oak and white beech on loamy soil. There is an
admixture of a considerable number of alders on swampy
ground, aspens, lindens, elms, maples, ash and wild apple,
pear and cherry trees. Hazel bushes, willow (salix caprea),
mountain ash, raspberry and blackberry bushes comprise
the thick underbrush in these mixed forests, and contribute
a great deal to the beauty of the woods, together with grass
and herb vegetation, especially in numerous clearings. In
truer evergreen forests the underbrush usually is very poor.

There are a great many swamp forests in the Ukrainian
forest region. In the Carpathian foothills they are called
lasi, and are quite common there, but in the Polissye they
are most widely developed. There they are usually com-
posed of pines, with which, however, the swampy ground
does not agree very well. The alders and willows, however,
grow all the better.

102 UKRAINE

The second important formation of the forest region are
the luhi. They usually stretch thru the wide, flat river
valleys of the region. These are luxurious meadows with a
beautiful growth of grass and herbs set with single trees
and clusters of trees. In dry places the oak usually
grows, in damp places the alder.

The third typical plant formation is that of the swamps.
They are widely developed in the forest region of the
Ukraine, especially in the flat river valleys of the Rostoche
and Volhynia. Polissye is the greatest swamp country in
Europe. Regular moors, made up of peat mosses, alternate
even in the Polissye region with meadow moors, in which
swamp grass and herb vegetation predominates.

The forest region has played a significant part in the
history of the Ukraine. When the Turkish nomad tribes,
using the steppe district of the Ukraine as a convenient
military road, destroyed the work of Ukrainian civilization
in the steppe region, the Ukrainian people retreated into
the forests and swamps of the north and west, advancing
toward the southeast again, at the proper moment, to
reinhabit the ravaged and desolated lands. This circle of
events repeated itself frequently in the history of the
Ukraine.

Today the woods of the Ukraine forest region are greatly
thinned, so that they take up more than one- third of the
total surface only in the Polissye. Cutting down and rooting
up of the woods some centuries ago was, without a doubt,
an important part of the work of civilization. But now
things are different. Now the forest is considered a very
important part of a well organized cultural section, and is,
therefore, carefully preserved in the truly civilized lands
of Europe. In the beautiful forests of the Ukraine, however,
a reckless exploitation is going on, and the evil results are
already apparent,respecially in the sparsely wooded borders
of the forest region, as well as in the entire country

UKRAINE 103

surrounding the steppe. The rivers have become small in
volume of water, the sources dried up, and the ravines
annually transform thousands of hectars into desert land.
And this is happening in the granary of Europe, which
some 300 years ago made foreign travelers marvel at its
incredible fertility.

All the rest of the Ukraine, as far as the foothills of the
Yaila and the Caucasus, is occupied by the steppe region.
The limits of this region, as we have said, are not distinct.
In peninsula and island formations the forest penetrates
toward the southeast. In this direction the forest islands
become constantly rarer and smaller, so that the Russian
plant-geographers have felt called upon to insert two
transition zones between the real forest and the real steppe —
the zone of the exterior steppe and the zone of the tran-
sitional steppe. The actual steppe region is supposed to
begin at the line which extends thru Kishinev and Katerin-
oslav to the bend of the Don. This division may be
criticized, however, since it at most, fits present conditions
brought about in the last 200 years by the destruction of
forests on the part of men. The historical sources of the
Ukraine tell of large woodlands, which, in the 16th, 17th
and 18th Centuries, still extended along the sources of the
Inhul and Inhulez, along the Tasmin, on the river divides
between the left-hand tributaries of the Dnieper, etc.
They were not forest terraces, not mere strips of woods
confined to river valleys; they covered the divides far and
wide, as well as the broad tableau sheds lying between
rivers. For this reason care must be taken in sketching
the boundaries of the steppe. We therefore comprehend both
the above mentioned transition zones into one, for which we
would suggest the name luhi zone, because the luh, a
meadow studded with scattered groups of trees and little
groves, must have been the predominating plant formation
of this transition country.

104 UKRAINE

The typical soil of the transition country, as well as of
the steppe region, is the black earth (Ukr. chornozem, Russ.
chernozyom). Every Ukrainian is familiar with this
blackish, ever fertile soil, which cannot be duplicated the
world over and which makes the Ukraine the granary of
Russia. The black earth is a product of the transformation
of loess, with a strong admixture of the products of decom-
position of plants. In places it attains a depth of 2 m.
and over.

The black-earth region extends longitudinally thru the
Ukraine, embracing over three-fourths of its territory.
The northern boundary of the black-earth region passes
from Lemberg along the north border of the Podolian and
Dnieper Plateau as far as Kiev, and then northeast to the
bend of the Aka, south of Kaluga. The southern boundary
describes a line drawn thru the Boh and Dnieper deltas to
their limans and the city of Mariupol. The entire Kuban
plain and the plateau of Stavropol also belong to the region
of black earth. Along the northern border of the black-
earth region extends a transition zone of about 100 kilo-
meters width, whose black earth contains 4 to 6 % decaying
plant matter. South of this lies the wide main area of the
black earth with 6 to 10% decaying matter. On the sea
and along the lower Dnieper the region ends with another
transition zone, whose brownish black earth contains
4 to 6% of decaying matter. On the Sea of Azof and in
Southern Crimea the brown dry steppe soil, with numerous
islands of saline soil (solonchaki) and a peculiar vegetation,
inclined to absorb salt, prevails. These are present also in
the remaining black earth region, and there are also islands
and strips of saline earth along the rivers and the seashore.

In the steppe region, the steppe is not the only plant
formation. Above all we must differentiate between the
meadow-steppe of the transition zone and the real steppe
of the south, as well as the desert steppe in some districts

UKRAINE 105

of Crimea and the Caucasus. Besides this shrub formation,
meadow-woods (luhi) and real forests are found in the
steppe region.

In the vegetation of the meadow-steppe, grasses and
herbs take the first place. Of the grasses the stippa
species are the most characteristic {Ursa, kovil) ; of the
herbs, the lily-like growths. The growth of grass in the
northern part of the steppe region is very luxuriant and
thick, and attains great heights, altho the times in which
a rider and his horse might disappear in the grass belong to
the past. High weeds and thistles (buriani, bodiaki) form
thickets of great luxuriance. In the spring, when the
fresh young grass begins to sprout up and the blossoming
herbs convert the steppe into a carpet of flowers, when
everything is resplendent with the fulness of life and beauty,
then the Ukrainian steppe presents a wonderful picture.
But this picture is not lasting. The heat and the drought
transform the fresh, green, primitive color into yellow and
brown. Grasses and herbs wither and die away, and only
the roots and seeds preserve the living power of the plant,
surviving the autumnal drought and the severe cold of
winter, once more to wrap the steppe in its bridal gown in
the spring.

In the southern part of the steppe region the plant
covering is not so luxurious as in the north, and the grasses
and herbs grow in isolated little bushes, between which
the bare ground of the steppe remains visible. The saline
earth appears much oftener, with its gray-green vegetation
of salt plants, and we often find sand areas, which begin to
suggest the desert steppes of the Caspian steppe country.

A characteristic plant formation in the entire steppe
region is comprised by the bushes (bairaki, chahart),
which generally consist of heavily tangled thickets of wild
cherry (prunus chamacerosus, viskennik), spiral (tavolha),
snowball (calina) , almond shrub {amygdalus nana, bobovnik),

106 UKRAINE

etc. They generally grow in the steppe balkas, or near
them, and cover extended areas.

The Ukrainian steppe, despite contrary current
opinion, does not lack tree growth. In the region of the
real steppe, to be sure, we meet only forest terraces, which
extend along the river courses, but in the transition zone
we still find woods and groves, which not only appear in
river valleys, but also cover the plateaus between these. The
oak, the white beech, the maple, the poplar, the wild apple
and pear trees, are the chief representatives of the tree
species of the woods of this section. Even the pine ventures
as far as the district of Kharkiv.

Besides the forest terraces, the rivers of the steppe
region are accompanied by the formation of the so-called
plavni. They are thickets of sedge and reeds, with luxuri-
ant willow and alder growth; in drier places, which are
flooded only during high-water time, real oak forests are
added. With pleasure the eye of the traveler, wearied
by the uniformity of the steppe, rests upon them.

As to the origin of the steppes of the Ukraine, scholars
differ. Every one of them thinks he has found the only
correct explanation. In reality, the origin and preservation
of the Ukrainian steppes can be traced to the combined
action of various causes. In the first place there is the
continental dry climate. The amount of rainfall is too
slight for the development of forest-flora; the drought of
the summer and fall too long.

A minor cause is the salt content of the steppe-soil,
which, however, is apparent only in places. On the other
hand, the shape of the ground is very important. Where the
land is level, where the dry steppe winds have free play
and the rainwater cannot easily dissolve and wash away
the salt of the soil, the steppe prevails. Where the land is
cut by river valleys and balkas, however, there is more
shelter from wind, more moisture, and no salt in the soil,

UKRAINE 107

so that conditions are given which are favorable for the
development of tree vegetation. For this reason not
only the valleys of the rivers, but also the balkas, which
but seldom carry water, have always had tree growth, and
even woods and groves. The trees which are planted there
thrive very well, while attempts at cultivation in the real
level steppe almost regularly fail. The most important
foundation for the existence of steppes, however, is their
character as remains of the old post-glacial steppe formation.
Since the beginnings of the alluvial epoch, its territory is
being won by the forest, which is constantly pushing
forward toward the south and southeast, using the river
valleys as the main lines of advance. In this advance toward
the south, the forest has now been stopped by man before it
was able to reach the shore of the Black Sea and the Sea
of Azof.

Man has wrought many changes in the steppe region.
In the first place he has entered into the struggle between
the woods and the steppe in opposition to the woods.
The ancient Ukrainians of the Kiev state rooted out great
areas of forest and reclaimed them for civilization. On the
other hand, the nomad tribes, roaming the steppes ever
since man can remember, repeatedly destroyed forests
with fire, in order to obtain good pasture for their herds
and to break down the best defense of the agricultural
Ukrainian population. In the 16th Century began the
deforestation of the transition zone thru the progressing
colonization movement of the Ukrainians, under the
protection of the Cossack organization. But even in the
18th Century there were still great forests in the transition
zone, which have since entirely disappeared. The in-
tensive colonization movement of the 19th Century put an
end to them. At the same time the hand of man attacked
the steppe formation. Today only very small parcels of
steppe are in their original condition. The steppe grasses

108 UKRAINE

have yielded place to an increasingly intensive cultivation of
grain grasses; the place of the natural steppe has been
usurped by the cultivated steppe, with its waving fields
of grain and inevitable dreary stubble fields. With the
progressive destruction of forests this cultivated steppe
of man's fields constantly moves toward the north and west
of the Ukraine, favoring the accompanying migration of
the steppe-plants and steppe animals into Central Europe.

Entirely independent is the position of the Ukrainian
flora in the southern slope of the Yaila and the Caucasus.
They belong really to the Mediterranean Sea region. The
mild climate here has matured a flora of an entirely southern
type, with many evergreen trees and shrubs peculiar to the
Mediterranean region. Yet the vegetation of this district
can only be considered as the advance guard of the real
Mediterranean vegetation, for the representatives of
the northern flora by far predominate over the southern
species of plants, particularly in the forests which develop
in higher altitudes.

Besides the just discussed plant-geographical regions
and zones of the plain, the Ukraine has three
mountain regions — the Carpathian, the Crimean and the
Caucasian.

The foot of the Carpathians is covered by mixed and
leafy forests. White beech, birch, linden, aspen and pine
comprise these forests. At one time the oak predominated
here, as it still does on the southern slope of the mountain
range. On higher ridges of the Low and High Beskid,
mixed forests of beech and fir are found. At the upper tree
limit of the High Beskid the beech appears almost exclu-
sively in forest formation. The trees become constantly
smaller and more gnarled, and at a height of 1000 m. we
meet only beech brush. On the southern side of the
mountain range pure beech woods prevail.

In the Gorgani we soon distinguish two forest zones.

UKRAINE 109

The lower one has principally beech woods, with an admix-
ture of firs and maples; the upper one consists almost entire-
ly of fir woods. Their upper limit usually lies at a height
of from 1500 to 1600 m., but the zekoti (seas of sandstone
boulders), which cover all the higher peaks and ridges,
reduce the upper tree limit a great deal in some places.

In the Chornohory, a similar division of the forest zone
prevails. Oak forests, with thick underbrush, cover the
foot of the range on both slopes. Above the oak woods lies
the zone of mixed forests, in which white and red beech,
birch, ash, maple and firs predominate. Above the
height of 1300 m. lies the upper tree zone, which is made
up of stocks of fir entirely. The upper tree limit lies at a
height of 1700 m. The milder climate of the Chornohory
matures a much more luxurious and a richer vegetation
than in other parts of the Ukrainian Carpathians.

In the forest zones of the Carpathians, great complex
primeval forests have survived to a great extent. They lie
in inaccessible places, which the bandit axe of the profes-
sional forest destroyer has not yet penetrated. The
Carpathian virgin forest is, perhaps, the most beautiful
plant formation of the Ukraine. Giant firs, as much as
60 m. in height and six feet thick, raise their dark green
slender pyramids above rocky slopes and immense wind-
fallen woods, in which the modern firs lie in piles. Thick
shrubbery covers the clearings, while in the eternal semi-
darkness of the thickets, on rocky ground covered with
needles, just an occasional pillow of moss may be found.

A second plant-formation of the Carpathians is that of
the dwarf-shrubs. They develop above the forest limit and
cover wide areas in the Gorgani and Chornohori. Moun-
tain fir (zerep), accompanied by juniper (in the Beskyds
and Gorgani) and by dwarf-alder bushes {lelich, in the
Chornohory), in thickets which are impassible in places.
The formerly widely distributed stone pine has become

110 UKRAINE

rare, since its fragrant wood is preferred by the mountain-
dwellers for all sorts of woodwork.

The third plant formation of the Carpathians are their
mountain meadows (polonini). They lie above the forest
limit and begin to appear at the source of the San. Toward
the southeast they become constantly more luxuriant and
more frequent. The grass and herb growth of the polonini
is very varied and rich, especially in the so-called zarinki,
that is, parts of the mountain meadows where hay is
made. The polonini are of great importance to the inhabi-
tants of the mountains. Great herds of horses, cattle and
sheep remain here all summer. The polonini are peopled,
and a life of great privation — a hard life but free — develops
in primitive dairy huts, with never dying camp-fires.

In the mountains of Crimea we find, in the main, the
same arrangement of plant zones. At some height above
sea-level the forest zone begins. White and red beech, oak,
and two species of pine appear here in forests. Only on
the broad peak surfaces we find poor mountain meadows
with thick but short grasses. The name of these mountain
pastures (yaila) has been transferred to the entire mountain
chain.

In the Caucasus we find, within Ukrainian territory,
only the forest zone of this mountain system. The forests
often attain a height of 2500 m., and consist of various
kinds of oak, beech, elms, linden, maple and ash. Above
the forest limit we meet with a low shrub formation and
the beautiful, wonderfully rich grass and herb growth
which cover the mountain meadows of the Caucasus,
rising, at a height of 2900 — 3500 m., to the snow border.

The animal-geographical conditions of the Ukraine
are much simpler than the plant-geographical. The
Ukraine, like the rest of Europe, belongs to the holarctic
region, and despite the extent of the land, only slight
differences in the fauna are found, these being due to

UKRAINE 111

the floral and morphological differences of the mountains,
forests and steppes of the Ukraine.

Since the ice age, the animal world of the Ukraine has
experienced no lesser changes than the plant world. In
the ice period many mighty beasts of prey (cave bear, cave
lion, cave hyena, etc.) lived here, besides thick-skinned
animals (mammoth, rhinoceros), together with the an-
cestors of the present animal world and various polar
forms. All these animals are either altogether extinct, or
they followed the receding glacier to the north. On the
other hand, together with the post glacial steppe, a steppe-
fauna spread out from south and east, which then gradually
had to make way for the forest fauna advancing southward
with the forests.

From this time on, the Ukrainian fauna suffered only
very slight natural changes. On the other hand, the
artificial changes produced by the hand of man have been
all the greater. Many species which were dangerous as
beasts of prey or useful for food or skins, have either been
entirely exterminated by man or greatly limited in their
spread. In destroying the forests and putting cultivated
steppes and fields in their place, he has, to a great extent,
beaten the way to the heart of Central Europe for the
animals of the steppe. But his activity has been rather to
exterminate than to change, and he has destroyed the once
wonderful animal life of the Ukraine.

Of the higher animal life of the Ukraine on the middle
and lower Dnieper, we are told, in a historical source, almost
incredible facts prevailing about the middle of the 16th
Century. "The Ukraine is so rich in game that bisons,
wild horses and deer are hunted merely for the sake of their
skins. Of their meat only the choicest cuts of chine and
loin are used, all other parts thrown away. Hinds and
young boars are not hunted at all. Roes and wild boars
wander in great herds from the steppes into the woods

112 UKRAINE

in winter, returning to the steppes in summer. During
this season they are killed by the thousands. On all the
rivers, streamlets, brooks, live innumerable beaver colonies.
The bird world is so remarkably rich that enormous quan-
tities of wild goose, wild duck, crane and swan eggs and
young ones are gathered. In the rivers, such great shoals
of fish swarm in the spring that the fishing spear thrown in
stands upright." Another chronicler, of the 17th Century,
tells that he was present when a single throw of the net
at the mouth of the Orel brought 2000 fish to light, of
which the smallest was one foot long.

Of the cat family, the lynx and the wildcat have become
very rare and are met with only in the Carpathians and
the Caucasus; the lynx also in the Polissye country. The
bear, formerly very frequent thruout the Ukraine, is now
also confined to these three regions. On the other hand,
wolves, foxes, badgers, martens, polecats and all sorts of
small animals of prey have survived, altho in very much
smaller numbers. Of the large plant-eating animals the
bison (thanks only to the unusual care on the part of the
government) has survived in the primeval forest of Biloveza,
the moose-deer only in the Polissye, the stag only in the
Carpathians and the Caucasus. On the other hand, there
are still a great many roes and wild boars in the woods.
Of the rodents the hare is still common everywhere, while
the beaver, which at one time inhabited all the rivers of
the Ukraine, is now confined to the most inaccessible
swamps of the Polissye and the Caucasian tributaries of the
Kuban. The bird kingdom, too, has become much poorer
in species. Large birds of prey, like eagles and hawks,
nest only in the Carpathians and in the Caucasus — very
seldom in the woods of the plain. The heath fowl and
grouse seek the most inaccessible thickets, and even the
number of small insect and grain-feeders has been greatly
reduced. Of the waterfowl, wild ducks, wild geese, coot,

UKRAINE 113

diving birds, etc., are still very numerous. Cranes and
herons are rare. The former wealth of fish is ruined and
no one takes care of the artificial raising of fish. To be sure,
much fish is still caught, especially in the Dnieper and
Don systems, mainly pike, tench, carp, crucian, shad, etc.,
and trout in the mountain streams; but of the abundance
of even the comparatively recent past, there is no trace.
Sturgeon, sterlet and other sea fish, which formerly came
in great swarms up the Dniester, Boh and Dnieper, are only
seldom found today.

The steppe region has lost even more of its animal
wealth. Above all, the rich higher animal life of the
transition zones, which as late as the 18th Century, provided
food for the populous Zaporog Sich, has quite disappeared.
The tarpani (wild horses), which still inhabited the steppe
in great herds in the 17th Century, are now completely
exterminated. Saiga antelopes (saihaki), once generally
distributed thruout the steppe region of the Ukraine, have
retreated to the Caspian steppe. The smaller game and the
bird world have suffered far less, but the activity of man,
who has changed the steppes into fields and pastures, has
been fatal to them too. The bustard, sandpiper, partridge
and grouse, which formerly inhabited the steppe brush in
great numbers have become rare. The same may be
said of the bird-world of the watercourses and swamps
which once inhabited the river districts of the steppe in
immense swarms. The insectivorous birds, too, have
decreased, and the harmful insects are increasing at a
terrible rate. Only the locust pest, which formerly caused
great damage in agriculture, is now almost gone.

But, in spite of the war of extermination which man is
waging against the animal world of the steppe, animal
species are found which were well able to adapt themselves
to the new circumstances, have become accustomed to man
and have found plenty of food in the fields of the cultivated

114 UKRAINE

steppe (field-mice, marmot, ground squirrels, etc.)- They
have increased greatly and have migrated toward the
west and north, causing great damage to farming.

As we must dispense with a scientific discussion of
the flora and fauna of the Ukraine, we shall only report
a few esssential facts about the useful plants and domestic
animals.

The Ukraine, according to its soil and its climate, is the
richest grain country of Europe. For wheat the conditions
in the Ukraine are the most favorable, especially in the
southern half of the black-earth region. Rye is raised
more widely in the north and northwest; barley everywhere,
but on a large scale only in the south; oats in the north
and in the Carpathians, where it is often used to make bread.
Buckwheat is distributed chiefly on the northern edge of
the black-earth region; millet thrives well in the entire
Chornozyom region. Corn is raised on a large scale only in
the southwest and in the sub-Caucasus country.

Of pod plants, peas and beans are especially imported;
they are raised not only in vegetable gardens but also in
fields. Of the tuberous plants, the potato is generally
distributed only in the western part of the Ukraine and
increases in importance but slowly in the rest of the coun-
try. Sugar beets are cultivated on great areas of the
Volhynian, Podolian and Dnieper Plateaus. Vegetable
culture embraces all the vegetables of Central Europe,
but is not especially developed. On the other hand, water
melons, canteloupe, cucumbers (particulary in the Southern
Ukraine) are raised in special plantations (bashtani).
Hemp, flax, rape-seed, sunflower, are generally distributed,
and poppy is cultivated not only in gardens but also in
fields. Tobacco culture is very important in the Ukraine,
particularly in the Dnieper Plain.

Thanks to the warm summer and fall, the Ukrainian
climate is well fitted for fruit culture. The orchard is a

UKRAINE 115

necessity to the Ukrainian farmer and is planted and
cared for even under difficult conditions. Fruit culture
flourishes particularly in Pokutye, Podolia (where the
more tender species of apple and pear, as well as apricots,
thrive in the Dniester valley), in Bessarabia, in Crimea and
the sub-Caucasus country, where even peaches and grapes
are added. .The northern limit of the vine extends along
the Dniester, then thru Kamenetz and Katerinoslav to
the bend of the Don. Wine-culture has its main regions in
Bessarabia, in Crimea and in the sub-Caucasus country,
altho South Podolia and the Dnieper valley in the old
Zaporog country do not lack vineyards.

The domestic animals are the same in the Ukraine as in
Central Europe. Only in the extreme south camels and
buffaloes are added. The horned cattle belong chiefly to
the so-called Ukrainian breed, which is distinguished
by its gray color and its size, and is bony and strong-
limbed. It is very well fitted for work and is rich in milk.
On the southwest borders of the Ukraine the Hungarian
great-horned breed is widely distributed. In recent times
the pure Holland, Tirol and Swiss breeds are continually
spreading. The horses of the Ukraine belong to various
mixed breeds. The most beautiful breed of horses, the
Ukrainian, has been raised by the Zaporog Cossacks. It is of
medium size, very strong and fleet, very enduring and useful
for any sort of work. The Chornomoric variety is now
being raised by the Kuban Cossacks and is rightfully
famed thruout Eastern Europe for its high qualities.
Very efficient, too, is the Hutzulian breed of mountain
horses, small of stature but very strong, unsurpassed for
mountain roads and foot-ways. The peasant horses of
Galicia, Volhynia, etc., are, despite their unseemly outward
appearance, really created for the rough roads of their land.

Donkeys and mules are rarities in the Ukraine, also
very few goats are kept. In sheep, however, the Ukraine is

116 UKRAINE

the richest country in Europe. Not only native breeds
(among them the justly famous reshetilivka, as it is called),
but also foreign merino sheep are raised, especially in the
steppes of the Ukraine. Hog raising is very highly develop-
ed. Usually Polish hogs are raised in Western Ukraine,
Russian short-eared hogs in the eastern part, and in
Southern Ukraine, southern crinkled hogs. In barnyard
fowl the Ukraine is the richest land in Eastern Europe.
Also bee culture is very important, especially in the Dnieper
Plain. Silkworm culture, however, is not very important,
altho the mulberry trees find favorable climatic conditions
thruout the Ukraine.

BOOK II

ANTHROPOGEOGRAPHY

Ethnographic Boundaries of Ukraine

Number and Geographical Distribution
of Ukrainians

To give the ethnographic boundaries of a Western or
Central European nation is very easy, for they have long
since been determined and investigated, and it would be
hard to find anyone who might try to efface or disregard
them, least of all to falsify them. But with the Ukrainians
it is quite different. They possess neither political
independence, as for example, the Germans, French,
Italians, etc., nor political influence, as for instance, the
Poles and Czechs in Austria. The Ukrainians inhabit
parts of two states, Austria-Hungary and Russia, and have
some political significance in the former, while in the
latter they are not even recognized as a racial entity.

Accordingly, the real boundaries of the National
territory of the Ukraine are insufficiently known. They
are best known within Austrian territory, altho the statistics,
expecially those of Galicia, are very poor. Even less exact
in respect to the distribution of the Ukrainians are the
Hungarian statistics. In Russia the condition is worst of
all. The first real census here was taken on January 28,
1897. All earlier calculations and estimates are of very
questionable worth. For instance, all the Pinchuks, the
Ukrainian inhabitants of the Polissye, have been erroneously
counted with the White Russians, the Ukrainians in the

118

UKRAINE 119

vicinity of Mhilin and Starodub with the Great Russians.
Besides, very many Ukrainians were registered under the
general heading of "Russians."

For this reason, it is impossible at the present time to give
the boundaries of the Ukrainian racial territory as exactly
as those of the Western and Central European countries.
The boundaries here given, however, are drawn from official
statistical sources, and only very conspicuous and generally
acknowledged errors have been corrected.

The western boundary of the compact Ukrainian
national territory begins on the shores of the Black Sea
at the delta of the Danube, where part of the descendants
of the Zaporogs are still devoted to their traditional voca-
tion of fishing. Here the neighbors of the Ukrainians are
the Roumanians and Bulgarians. The Ukrainian- Rouman-
ian boundary line then goes thru Bessarabia, Bukowina,
and Northeastern Hungary.

In Bessarabia the border passes thru Ismail, Bilhorod,
the mouth of the Dniester at its liman, then up the Dniester
to Dubosari, running in adventurous windings past Orhiev
and Bilzi until it reaches the Pruth-Dniester divide, and
leaving this province near Novoselitza. Innumerable
ethnographic islands lie on both sides of this boundary;
Roumanians on Ukrainian territory and Ukrainians on
Roumanian territory. Only within the past centuries
has the land been settled more thickly and the main body
of Roumanians has been so dotted with this medley of
races as to form a veritable ethnographic mosaic.

In the Bukowina, the boundary of the Ukrainian
territory, running along the national border at first, reaches
the cities of Sereth and Radivtzi. Then it turns with a
sharp bend to Chernivtzi and passes in a wide curve toward
the southwest and west, thru Storozhinetz, Vikiv, Moldavit-
sia and Kirlibaba to the White Cheremosh, where it
extends over into Hungary. In the Bukowina, too, the

120 UKRAINE

ethnographic boundary of the Ukrainians is not of great
antiquity (the Cheremosh region excluded).

The boundary is all the older in Hungary, for the
Ukrainian people have had a place here since the early
middle ages. This boundary extends along the Visheva,
and then the Tissa, past Sihot to Vishkiv. At this place
the border crosses to the left bank of the river and, passing
along the Gutin Mountain Ridge, reaches the river Tur
near Polad. Here the Roumanian-Ukrainian boundary
ends and the neighboring country of the Magyars begins.

The boundary of Ukrainian territory here runs in a
generally northeast direction, touching Uylak, Beregszasz,
Mukachiv (M unkacs) , Uzhorod (Unghvar) , Bardiiv (Bartfa) ,
Sabiniv (Kis Szeben), Kesmark. At Lublau the boundary
crosses the Poprad River and reaches Galicia. Between
Unghvar and Bartfeld, the Slovaks become the neighbors
of the Ukrainians. The boundary between Slovaks and
Ukrainians is very indistinct, and only the investigations
of Hnatiukand Tomashivsky have succeeded in determining
it and in proving that thru the centuries the borders of
Ukrainian territory have been subject to comparatively
slight changes.

In Galicia, the Ukrainians are neighbors to the Poles.
The Polish rule of over 500 years' duration, has forced the
Ukrainian element eastward to a great extent into the
hill country and the plain. Only in the mountains has
the Ukrainian element preserved itself and the Ukrainian
territory here forms a peninsula extending far to the west.

The Ukrainian-Polish boundary in Galicia begins at
the village of Shlakhtova, west of the Poprad Pass, and
extends eastward, touching the small towns of Pivnichna,
Hribov, Horlitzi, Zmigrod, Dukla, Rimanov, Zarshin, as
far as Sianik, whence it follows the general direction of
the San as far as Dubetzco. Here it turns toward the
northeast, reaches the San River again near Radimno,

UKRAINE 121

and runs along the left shore past Yaroslav, Siniava,
Lezaisk, reaching Russian-Poland at Tarnogrod.

In Russian Poland, the Ukrainians inhabit the newly-
created Government of Kholm, and for five centuries they
have had to ward off the eastward expansion of the Poles.
Nevertheless, the Polonizing of the country began to
progress under Russian rule, as a result of the inconsiderate
Russification policy of the authorities and the sympathy of
the Ukrainian population with the Greek-Catholic faith,
ruthlessly suppressed by the Russians, to which the Ukrain-
ians of the Kholm country still belonged half a century
ago, a sympathy which is not yet extinct.

The boundary line between Poles and Ukrainians in the
Kholm country has, on both sides, a more or less wide
zone of a mixed population and numerous ethnographic
islands. It passes thru Tarnogrod, Bilhoray.Shteshebreshin,
Zamostye, Krasnostav, Lubartiv, Radin, Lukiv, Sokoliv,
Dorohichin and Bilsk, reaching the Narev River in the
Government of Grodno. Here the borders of the Ukrainian
and the Polish national territory meet the White Russian
border and the northern border of the Ukraine begins.

The Ukrainian-White Russian boundary extends thru
the Governments of Grodno and Minsk, at first along the
Narev River, up to its source in the Biloveza Forest.
Then the line passes Pruzani over to the Yassiolda River,
turning off near Poriche toward the northeast and reaching
the lake of Vihonivske Ozero. From here it turns toward
the southeast and reaches the Pripet River at the mouth of
the Zna. Then this river forms the boundary up to where
it joins with the Dnieper. Only below Mosir the White
Russians push forward in an obtuse salient to the right
bank of the Pripet. It should be observed that the White
Russians along the boundary described form a transition in
respect to language and ethnology between the real White
Russians and the real Ukrainians, who, in this region, are

122 UKRAINE

called Pinchuki. The transition zone is 30 to 50 kilometers
in width.

The Dnieper forms the boundary of the Ukraine only
along a short stretch in the Government of Chernihiv,
from the mouth of the Pripet to the mouth of the Sol near
Louv. Then the border runs northeast past Novosibkiv,
Nove misto and Suraz, as far as Mhlin, where the White
Russian country ceases and the Russian begins.

To sketch accurately the boundary of the Ukraine
toward Muscovy is not easy, even tho there is by no means
a gradual transition here, as there is on the White Russian
border. The boundary of the Ukraine is even much more
sharply defined here than in the region where it separates
the Ukrainians from the Poles, Roumanians and Magyars.
But it is hard to determine without detailed investigation
on the spot, for the official Russian statistics have been
compiled very much in favor of the ruling race. In
addition, it must be observed that the districts along this
border were not thickly settled until the 17th and 18th
Centuries. The settlers came from the Ukraine on the one
side and from Muscovy on the other, and established
themselves in separate settlements. To this day a purely
Ukrainian village or small town often borders on one made
up entirely of Russians, and the number of ethnographic
islands is rather large on both sides.

The boundary of the compact Ukrainian territory in the
Governments of Kursk and Voronizh passes thru Putivil,
Rilsk, Sudza, Miropilia, Oboian, the sources of the Psiol,
and Vorskla, Bilhorod, Korocha, Stari Oskol, Novi Oskol,
and Biriuch, and reaches the Don River near Ostrohosk.
The Don forms a smaller part of the border of the Ukraine
than the Dnieper. The boundary line leaves the river at
the mouth of the Icorez, cuts the Bitiuh River and, passing
Baturlinivka and Novokhopersk, reaches the Khoper
River in the country of the Don Cossacks. Here begins the

UKRAINE 123

eastern boundary of the Ukrainian country. It extends
first along the Khoper River southward, crosses the Don
perpendicularly at the mouth of the Khoper, passes along
the Kalitva and the Donetz, crossing the Don for the
third time near Novocherkask, and, pursuing a wide
curve along the Sal River, reaches Lake Manich. Right
opposite, on the left bank of the Don, the Ukrainians
confront the Kalmucks, the advance guard of the sub-
Caucasian and Caucasian medley of races. Among these
thinly scattered and culturally inferior tribes, a strong
flood of Ukrainian and Russian colonization has been
pouring in the course of the past century. The Ukrainian
element is gradually predominating in the entire region of
Ciscaucasia and is constantly pushing forward toward the
east and southeast. New islands of Ukrainian-speaking
people are forming and are growing constantly and uniting
to form larger complexes.

From Lake Manich, the border of the Ukraine country
runs southward thru the district of Medveza of the Govern-
ment of Stavropol, as far as the sources of the great Ya-
horlic. Then it turns eastward past Stavropol, Alexandrivsk
and Novohrihoryvsk. In a narrow strip the Ukrainians
here reach the Caspian Sea. It was only suggested in the
census of 1897, but proved beyond doubt by the reports
of the new settlements of the Ukrainian element in these
regions, that the Ukrainian area here shows a great increase.

The southern boundary of the Ukraine in the Caucasian
lands passes thru the Terek, Kuban and Black Sea Govern-
ments by way of Nalchic, Piatihorsk, Labinsk and Maikop,
reaching the shore of the Black Sea between Tuapse and
Sochi. In this region the Ukrainians have as neighbors
besides the Russians, the Kalmucks, Kirgizians, Norgaians,
Chechenians, Cabardines, Circassians, Abkhasians and
Caucasian Tartars.

The further course of the southern border of the Ukraine,

124 UKRAINE

as far as the delta of the Danube, is indicated on the whole
by the coasts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof. Only
Crimea has, until recently, remained outside the ethno-
graphic confines of the Ukraine. To the extent that the
Crimean Tartars have begun to emigrate to Turkey,
however, the Ukrainian element has gained strength thru
constant reinforcements from the Central Ukrainian
districts, so that today only the mountain region and the
south coast of Crimea are considered Tartar country.

These boundaries enclose the compact country which
is inhabited by the Ukrainians. This country includes
North and West Bukowina, Northeastern Hungary,
East Galicia and the southwestern part of West Galicia,
the newly-created Government of Kholm (the eastern
districts of the Governments of Lublin and Sidlez in Russian
Poland), the southern part of Grodno and Minsk, all of
Volhynia, Podolia, Kiev and Kherson, besides the south-
eastern and northwestern districts of Bessarabia. To the
left of the Dnieper, the borders of the Ukraine include the
Governments of Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Katerinoslav,
Tauria (with the exception of the Yaila) and the entire
Kuban region, the chains of high mountains excepted.
In addition, the following belong to the territory of Ukraine:
The southern third of the Government of Kursk, the south-
ern half of Voroniz, the western third of the Don Cossack
country, the southern half of Stavropol, the northern
border of the Terek region, and, finally, the northwestern
part of the Government of the Black Sea. For Europe it
is a very spacious territory, being second in size only to the
Russian (Muscovite) national territory. The area of the
Ukrainian national territory is 850,000 square kilometers,
of which only 75,000 square kilometers lie within the
borders of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the remaining
country of 775,000 square kilometers being subject to
Russian rule.

UKRAINE 125

Beyond this compact Ukrainian national territory, the
Ukrainians live in numerous great homogeneous patches,
scattered over wide areas of the Old and New Worlds.
In Bessarabia we meet with a whole series of these Ukrain-
ian language areas or islands along the Pruth River and
the Russian-Roumanian boundary, in the Roumanian
Dobrudja, and in the delta of the Danube. In the Buko-
wina there are Ukrainian language islands at Suchava and
Kimpolung, in Hungary in the Backza, at Nyregihatza,
Nagi-Caroli, Gollnitz, etc., in the Kholm country between
Lukov and Zelekhov, between Sidletz and Kaluszin, and
near Sokolov. Along the White Russian border, where the
transition is gradual, no real language islands are found
in the intervening zone before mentioned. We find all
the more of them in Ukrainian-Russian borderlands,
where the two nationalities are very sharply separated
and there are no transitions. In the Government of
Kursk we find a whole chain of well-defined Ukrainian
language islands in the midst of the Russian territory; at
Fatiez, between Dmitriev and Oboian, and also at the
sources of the Sem. In the Government of Voroniz there
are several language islands at Siemlansk and Borisoglebsk.
A few scattered Ukrainian settlements extend to the
district of Tambov and Yelez. The Don country, for a
long time practically closed to settlers because of its
Cossack organization, was a valuable thoroughfare for
the Ukrainian colonization movement in its expansion
in the central Volga district. Here there lived (1910) over
600,000 Ukrainians in the Governments of Saratov,
Samara and Astrakhan. Here lie, in closest proximity
to numerous German colonies, great Ukrainian language
islands, near Balashov, Atkarsk, Balanda, on the Eman
and Medveditza, at Nikolaievsk, Khvalinsk, Samara and
Boguruslan. From Khvalinsk on, the Ukrainian colonies
on the left bank of the Volga take up as much space as the

126 UKRAINE

Russian. We find the Ukrainian colonies here opposite
Saratov, Kamishin, Dubivka, Chorni Yar, and at Zarev.
Besides these there are, at a greater distance from the
Volga, Ukrainian language islands in the country around
the source of the Yeruslan and the Great Usen, on Lakes
Elton and Baskunchak, on the Ilovla and the Yergeni hills.
In the Orenburg Government, on the Ural River, more
than 50,000 Ukrainian colonists now dwell. In general,
the Ukrainians in the year of 1897 comprised 13% of the
population of the Government of Astrakhan (District of
Zarev 38%, Chornoyar 43%), more than 7% in the Govern-
ment of Saratov, nearly 5% in Samara. At present,
considering the active Ukrainian colonization of the past
decades, these percentages must be much greater.

In the Caucasus lands we likewise find a goodly number
of Ukrainian Colonies. According to the results of the
census of 1897 the Ukrainians comprised 17 to 19% of the
"Russian" population in the Governments of Erivan,
Kutais, Daghestan and Kars, 7,5% in Tiflis and 5% in
Yelisavetpol and in Baku each.

Thru the Volga and Caucasus lands, the tide of Ukrain-
ian emigrants reached Russian Central Asia. The estab-
lishment of Ukrainian settlements in this region only began
toward the end of the past century and has continued to
this day. In the year 1897 the Ukrainians already com-
prised 29% of the "Russian" population in the province
of Sir Daria and 23% in the province of Akmolinsk. In
the Provinces of Transkaspia, Siemiriechensk, Turgai,
Samarkand and Ferghana, the Ukrainians comprised 10%
to 20% of the "Russian" population; in the Province of
Siemipalatinsk, 5%.

But Ukrainian colonization in Siberia appears on the
largest scale of all. In a long line of thousands of kilo-
meters, Ukrainian language islands and detached colonies
stretch along the southern border of this land of tomorrow.

UKRAINE 127

The highest percentages of Ukrainians are found among
the "Russian" population of the coast province near
Vladivostok (over 29%) and the Province of Amur (over
20%), the greatest absolute numbers in the southern
districts of the Governments of Tomsk, Tobolsk and
Yeniseysk.

Besides these colonies and language islands in Eurasia,
we find settlements of considerable size in America. More
than half a million Ukrainians are scattered in small
groups over the spacious area of the United States. They
are, for the most part, mine and factory workers, who
usually return, with the earnings they have saved, to
their fatherland. Pennsylvania is especially rich in
Ukrainian emigrants, who sometimes take root here, but
usually lose their nationality in the second generation.
Agricultural colonies have been established by the Ukrain-
ians in Canada. Here we find Ukrainian language islands
of some size in Manitoba, Saskachewan and Alberta, and
smaller groups of settlements in Ontario, Quebec and British
Columbia. The number of the Ukrainians in Canada
exceeds 200,000, and the steady character and compactness
of the settlements preserve the Ukrainian element from
rapid denationalization. The same kind of agricultural
colonies have been established by the Ukrainian peasants
in Brazil. They are located chiefly in the State of Parana,
also in detached groups in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa
Catarina and Sao Paulo, as well as in the adjacent lands of
Argentina. These rapidly increasing settlers, about 60,000
in number, form an important cultural element here among
the indolent Luso-Brazilians.

But we do not desire, in this small work, to write a
geography of the Ukrainian colonies. All are branches
severed from the mother-tree, which, considering the low
grade of culture of the settlers, must sooner or later be
assimilated by the foreign race. Only the Asiatic colonies

128 UKRAINE

have some (though rather slight) prospects of preserving
their national individuality into the remote future. The
constant addition of new arrivals from the home country,
as well as the higher culture of the Ukrainian people as
opposed to the Russian masses, will preserve the Ukrainian
colonists in Asia from rapid denationalization.

What is the total number of Ukrainians, and how many
of them live in the compact Ukrainian national territory?

The answer to this question is not easy — for the same
reasons which do not permit us to draw accurately the
boundaries of the Ukrainian country. The political
subjugation of the Ukraine on the one hand, and the size
of the nation and its territory on the other, cause the ruling
governments to falsify the statistics, thus concealing the
true state of affairs. To a great extent, also, the ignorance
of the organs performing the census bear the blame for
the unreliability of the statistics collected in Ukrainian
territory. The Ukrainians are either simply registered
as members of another (usually the ruling) nationality,
or forced, by various means, to deny their inherited nation-
ality.

In Hungary entire villages are sometimes set down as
Magyar, Slovak or Roumanian, altho their population is
wholly, or for the most part, Ukrainian. In the Bukowina,
too, a great many Ukrainians are registered as Roumanians.
In Galicia, all Roman-Catholic Ukrainians are regularly
entered as Poles, altho, as a rule, they have not even a
mastery of the Polish language. Nevertheless, the Austro-
Hungarian statistics allow the possibility of determining
very closely the true condition. The Russian census of
1897, which gives us the sole materials for statistics on a
racial basis in the Ukraine, was carried out greatly to
the disadvantage of the Ukrainian element. In the cities,
only the smallest minority of the Ukrainians are registered

UKRAINE 129

as such, all the rest being counted as Russians. The same
has been the case in all the Ukrainian colonies and language
islands scattered thru the great space of the gigantic
Russian Empire. Even so, we are omitting from consider-
ation those Ukrainians who, because of lack of national
consciousness or for fear of persecution, have denied their
nationality.

Despite all these shortcomings of the official statistics,
we shall make their statements the basis of our calculations.
Only the most marked falsifications or errors can be
considered and corrected. As the basis of our calculations,
we shall take the figures of the census in Austria and
Hungary of the year 1910, as well as the Russian calcula-
tions of the same year. As the latter lack any statement
as to the relative proportions or percentages of the nation-
alities, we must apply the percentages of the enumeration
of 1897 to the totals of 1910. This process, of course, gives
us only approximate values, but it is the only available
method.

We shall begin our statistical view of the Ukrainian
lands with Northeastern Hungary. Here the Ukrainians
inhabit a compact territory of over 14,000 square kilometers.
The greatest part of it lies in the Carpathian Mountains
and includes the northern three-quarters of the County of
Marmarosh, the northeastern half of the County of Ungh,
the northern borderlands of the Counties of Semplen and
Sharosh, and the northeastern borderlands of the County
of Zips. The total number of Ukrainians in Hungary was
470,000 in 1910, a number which, because of the insufficient
Hungarian statistics, may be confidently raised to a half a
million, if we consider the fact that even the doctored
Greek-Catholic figures of the eighties gave approximately
the latter number. The percentages of the Ukrainians in
different counties, according to official reckoning, are as fol-
lows: In Marmorosh 46%, Uhocha 39%, Bereg 46%,

130 UKRAINE

Ungh 36%, Sharosh 20%, Semplen 11%, Zips 8%. In
the east the Roumanians form small scattered language
islands, in the west the Slovaks. Amid the Ukrainian
population, scattered, but in considerable numbers, live
Jews; in the cities, Magyars and Germans besides. The
Ukrainians inhabit all the mountainous, sparsely settled
parts of the counties, hence the percentage of them is
small, despite the extent of the country they inhabit.
The Ukrainian people in Upper Hungary consist almost
exclusively of peasants and petty bourgeois. The lack of
national schools causes illiteracy to grow rampant. The
upper strata of the people are three-fourths denationalized ;
the common people are stifled in ignorance, and in the
consequent poor economic conditions, which the Hungarian
Government is vainly trying to relieve.

In the Bukowina the Ukrainians, over 300,000 in
number (38% of the total population of the land), inhabit
a region of 5000 square kilometers, situated mostly in the
mountainous parts of the country. The Ukrainians inhabit
the following districts: Zastavna (80%), Vashkivtzi (83%),
Viznitza (78%), Kitzman (87%), and Chernivtzi (55%),
half the District of Sereth (42%), a third of the District of
Storozinetz (26%), besides parts of the Districts of Kimpo-
lung, Radautz andSuchava. Amid the Ukrainian population
a great many Jews are settled, scattered, and in the cities
many Germans, Roumanians, Armenians and Poles besides.
The degree of education and the "economic state of the
Bukowina Ukrainians are incomparably better than those
of the Ukrainians of Hungary. From the rural population
a numerous educated class has sprung, which has taken
the lead of the masses in the economic and political struggle.

In Galicia (78,500 square kilometers, 8 million inhabi-
tants) the Ukrainians, 3,210,000, that is 40% of the total
population (with 59% of Poles and 1% of Germans)
occupy a compact space of 56,000 square kilometers, in

UKRAINE 131

which they comprise 59% of the population. These
figures are taken from the census of the year 1910,
which, because of its partisan compilation, is perhaps
unique among the civilized states of Europe. For not only
are all the Jews (who speak a German jargon). listed as
Poles, but also all the Ukrainians of Roman-Catholic
faith, of whom there is more than half a million, and 170,000
pure Ukrainians of Greek-Catholic (united) faith. Basing
our calculations, not on these statistics of the vernacular,
but on the statistics of faith, which, too, are not unobjection-
able, we obtain the following results: For the Greek-Catholic
Ukrainians 3,380,000 (42%), for the Roman-Catholic
Poles 3,730,000 (47%), and for the Jews 870,000 (11%).
According to religious convictions, then, Ukrainian East
Galicia would contain 62% of Ukrainians, over 25%
(1,350,000) Poles, and over 12% (660,000) Jews. As a
matter of fact, the number of Ukrainians in Galicia, ac-
cording to the investigations of Dr. Okhrimovich, should be
raised to at least 3,500,000, and, adding the Roman-Catholic
Ukrainians of East Galicia, the number is 4,000,000. We
shall retain the figure 3,380,000, however, but for the
following view of the districts, the percentages will be
taken from the much more justly compiled census of the
year 1900. The greatest percentage of the Ukrainian
population, that is 75 — 90%, is found in the Carpathian
Districts of Turka, Stari Sambir, Kossiv, Pechenizin;
the sub-Carpathian Districts of Bohorodchani, Kalush,
Zidachiv; the Pocutian Districts of Sniatin and Horodenka,
besides the District of Yavoriv in the Rostoche. The
percentage of Ukrainians vacillates between 67 and 75%
in the Districts of Lisko, Dobromil, Striy, Dolina, Nadvirna,
Tovmach, Salishchiki, Borshchiv, Rohatin, Bibrka, Zovkva
and Rava. More than three-fifths of the population
(60 — 66%) is made up of Ukrainians in the Districts of
Drohobich, Sambir, Rudki, Mostiska, Horodok, Kolomiya,

132 UKRAINE

Sokal, Kaminka, Brody, Sbaraz Zolochiv, Peremishlani,
Berezani, Pidhaytzi, Chorytkiv, and Husiatin; 50 — 60%
Ukrainians are found in the Districts of Chesaniv, Pere-
mishl, Sianik, Ternopil, Skalat, Terebovla, Buchach and
Stanislaviv. In only two districts the percentage of
Ukrainians falls below 50%: in the districts of Lemberg
(49%) and Yaroslav (41%). In the city of Lemberg the
Ukrainians comprise only one-fifth of the population, and
in other larger cities of East Galicia, too, their percentage
is not great. Consequently, the total percentages of the
Ukrainians in the districts are influenced very unfavorably
thru the addition of the city population. Besides, the
East Galician cities, inhabited chiefly by Jews and Poles,
are the chief centers of the Polonizing efforts. Only in the
most recent times is the percentage of Ukrainians in the
larger cities of East Galicia becoming greater, as a result
of the continued flocking in of the Ukrainian rural popula-
tion. In the fifty smaller cities of East Galicia, on the
other hand, the Ukrainians comprise absolute majorities,
e. g., Yavoriv, Horodenka, Tismenitza.

In West Galicia only the District of Horlitzi (Gorlice)has
more than 25% Ukrainians, the remaining four (Yaslo,
New Sandetz, Krosno, Hribov) only 10 — 20%.

The Ukrainian population of Galicia consists nine-
tenths of peasants and petty bourgeois. From them a
numerous educated class has sprung in the past century,
which has taken the political and cultural leadership of
the masses. For this reason, too, national consciousness
has advanced most among the Ukrainians of Galicia.

In the compass of the Russian State the Ukrainians
occupy a compact national territory of almost 775,000
square kilometers. The actual size of this territory will
be accurately determined only when we possess an accurate
ethnographic map of the Ukraine. Until then the size
of the various Ukrainian sections can only be estimated.

UKRAINE 133

The following statistical information is taken from the
calculation of 1910, the percentage of Ukrainians from the
Russian census of 1897. But the Pinchuks, in the Govern-
ment of Minsk, were counted as belonging to the Ukrainians
by the common opinion of all Russian and non-Russian
ethnographers, altho the official statistics have designated
them as White Russian.

We shall begin at the western border region, at the
Kholmshchina (Kholm land), which was recently organized
by the Russian Government as an independent Govern-
ment apart from Russian Poland, and includes the eastern
areas of the Governments of Lublin and Sidletz. In the
Government of Lublin (16,800 square kilometers, 1,500,000
inhabitants) the Ukrainians comprise 17% of the popula-
tion (250,000), in the Government of Sidletz 14% (140,000).
The region inhabited by the Ukrainians in both Govern-
ments together, amounts to 10,000 square kilometers.
Poles and Jews inhabit not only the cities in the Kholm
country, but to a great extent villages as well, and comprise
a considerable percentage of the population near the
western border of the Ukraine. The percentage figures of the
Ukrainians and Poles (in parentheses) are in the various
districts of the Government of Lublin: Hrubeshiv 66 (24),
Tbmashiv52 (37), Kholm 38 (38),Bilhoray22 (68),Zamostye
9 (83), Krasnostav 6 (83); in the districts of the Govern-
ment of Sidletz: Vlodava 64 (20), Bila 48 (38), Konstan-
tiniv 22 (55), Radin 5 (87). In these districts the Jews
comprise 5 — 13% of the population, the Germans 14%
in the District of Kholm. The number of Ukrainians in
the generally Polish-Jewish cities is not insignificant, even
comprising the absolute majority in Hrubeshiv.

In the Government of Grodno (38,600 square kilometers
1,950,000 inhabitants), the Ukrainians comprise 23% of
the population and inhabit the districts of Berestia (81%
Ukrainians), Kobrin (83%) Bilsk (42% relative majority),

134 UKRAINE

and the border of Pruzani (7%), altogether 14,000 square
kilometers, with a Ukrainian population of 440,000. The
Poles and White Russians comprise 2 — 3% in the first
two of these districts, the Poles 37% in the District of
Bilsk, the White Russians 79% in Pruzani, the Jews 9 — 11
% in all districts.

In the Government of Minsk (91,000 square kilometers,
2,800,000 inhabitants), the Ukrainians (Pinchuks) com-
prise 14% of the population. They inhabit the entire
District of Pinsk and the half of the District of Mosiv,
situated on the right bank of the Pripet River, altogether
17,000 square kilometers, with a Ukrainian population of
390,000.

The Government of Volhynia (71,700 square kilometers,
3,850,000 inhabitants) is a central Ukrainian region. The
Ukrainians (2,700,000) here comprise over 70% of the
population, the Jews 13%, the Poles over 6%, the Germans
about 6%, the Russians 3%, the Czechs 1%. These
foreign peoples live scattered, or as colonists, and chiefly in
the cities of Volhynia, in all of which (Kremianetz excepted)
they are more numerous than the Ukrainians. In the
country it is different. The percentages of Ukrainians in
the districts of Volhynia are very high: Kovel 86%,
Ovruch 87%, Ostroh 85%, Zaslav 82%, Kremianetz 84%,
Starokonstantiniv 80%. Somewhat smaller are the per-
centages in the following districts: Zitomir 73%, Dubno
73%, Volodimir Volinsky 68%, Rivne 65%, Lutzk 62%.

In the Government of Kiev (51,000 square kilometers,
4,570,000 inhabitants) the Ukrainians comprise over
79% (3,620,000) of the population. This percentage takes
into account the city population, of which the majority
are Jews and "Russians." In the districts, as Chihirin,
Svenihorodka, Uman, Tarashcha, the percentage of
Ukrainians exceeds 90%, in Radomishl 80%. The chief
foreign element are the Jews (12%),* then the Russians

UKRAINE 135

(over 6%), and the Poles (2%). In the city of Kiev the
Ukrainians comprise more than one-fifth of the population,
as much as the Jews and Poles together. An absolute
Ukrainian majority exists in the cities of Vassilkiv, Kaniv,
Tarashcha, Zvenihorodka and Chihirin. In Berdichiv,
Cherkassi, Uman, Lipovetz, Skvira and Radomishl the
Jews predominate.

The Government of Podolia (42,000 square kilometers,
3,740,000 inhabitants) has over 81% of its population
Ukrainian (3,030,000). In some districts the percentage is
much higher, as for example in the District of Mohiliv,
89%. The Jews are the largest foreign element (12%)
then the Russians (3%), and the Poles (2%), who live
principally in the cities. Only the smaller Podolian cities,
e. g., Olhopol, Yampol, Stara Ushitza, Khmelnik, have a
Ukrainian majority. In Haisin, Vinnitza, Litin and Bar
the number of Ukrainians equals the number of Jews; in
Kamenetz, Balta, Bratzlav, Letichiv, Mohiliv and Proskuriv
the Jews predominate.

The Government of Kherson (71,000 square kilometers,
3,500,000 inhabitants), just as the three last discussed, is
part of the compact Ukrainian national territory, altho the
population of this region appears much more mixed.
The Ukrainians (1,640,000) here comprise barely 54% of
the population. The chief cause of this is the fact that in
the large cities of this Government, Jews and Russians
predominate, and then there are a great many Roumanian,
German and Bulgarian colonies. Despite this, however,
the Ukrainians constitute an absolute majority in most
of the districts (e. g., the District of Alexandria 88% of
Ukrainians, Yelisavet 73%, Kherson 70%, Ananiiv 63%),
a relative majority in the rest (Odessa 47%, Tiraspol 38%).
The Russians comprise more than 21% of the population,
the Jews 12%, the Roumanians over 5% (District of
Tiraspol 27%), the Germans nearly 5%, the Bulgarians

136 UKRAINE

and Poles 1% each. Odessa is a city of many languages.
Russians and Jews predominate; the Ukrainians comprise
barely one-eleventh of the population, besides which there
are Germans, Roumanians, Bulgarians, Poles, Greeks,
French, English, Albanians, etc. In Mikolaiv the Ukrain-
ians are only one-thirteenth of the population, in Kherson
one-fifth, in Yelisavet one-fourth. In the following cities
the Ukrainians possess an absolute majority over the
Russians: Alexandria, Ananiiv, Bobrinetz, Vosnesensk,
Olviopol, Ochakiv, Berislav, Dubosari.

The Government of Bessarabia (46,000 square kilome-
ters, 2,440,000 inhabitants) has only its northwest tip and
its coastal region within Ukrainian national territory.
The Ukrainians (460,000) comprise barely 20% of the
population of this Government, which consists principally
of Roumanians. The territory inhabited by the Ukrainians
amounts to 10,000 square kilometers. The Ukrainians
comprise an absolute majority only in the District of
Khotin (56%), along with 25% Roumanians and 13%
Jews. In the District of Akerman the Ukrainians make
up 24% of the population, the Bulgarians the same, the
Germans and the Roumanians 18% each, the Turks 4%.
The Ukrainians settle on the sea-coast and the Dniester.
In the District of Ismail there are 17% Ukrainians, 47%
Roumanians, 11% Bulgarians, 9% Turks, 3% Germans;
in the District of Soroki 17% Ukrainians, 67% Roumanians,
11% Jews. In other districts of Bessarabia there are much
fewer Ukrainians; in the district of Biltzi 12%, Benderi
9%, Orhiiv 6%, Kishinev only 2%. In the cities Jews,
Russians and Roumanians predominate. The Ukrainians
possess an absolute majority only in Akerman, a relative
majority in Ismail and Kilia.

In our survey of the Ukraine on the left Dnieper bank
we shall begin with the border regions, coming gradually
to the central parts.

UKRAINE 137

In the Government of Kursk the Ukrainians (670,000
comprise over 22% of the population and inhabit the
following districts: Putivl (55% Ukrainians), Hraivoron
(61%), Novo Oskol (56%), and the southern parts of
Sudga (44%), Rilsk (33%), Korocha (35%), Bilhorod
(24%). Besides that, the Ukrainians are scattered in large
and small language islands over the Districts of Oboian
(12%), Stari Oskol (9%), and Lhov (5%). The area of
the compact Ukrainian territory in the Government of
Kursk may be estimated at 12,000 square kilometers.
The only neighbors and co-inhabitants of the Ukrainians
here are the Russians, who, even in many cities of the
purely Ukrainian territory, comprise majorities. However,
there are a number of Ukrainian cities in the Kursk country.
Miropilia has 98%, Sudza 65% Ukrainians, Hraivoron and
Korocha are half Ukrainian.

In the next following border region, the Government of
Voroniz (65,000 square kilometers, 3,360,000 inhabitants),
the Ukrainians inhabit the Districts of Ostrohosh (94%
Ukrainians), Bohucha (83%), Biriuch (70%), Valuiki
(53%), and the southern parts of Pavlovsk (43%), Bobrovsk
(17%), Korotoiak (17%), Novokhopersk (16%). Ukrainian
language islands are found chiefly in the District of Semli-
ansk (4%). The total percentage of Ukrainians in the
Government of Voroniz is 36%, their number over 1,210,000,
the surface they inhabit 29,000 square kilometers. The
only neighbors of the Ukrainians here are the Russians,
who also comprise the majority in all cities. Only in
Biriuch, Bohuchar, Ostrohosh, do the Ukrainians pre-
dominate.

In the Government of the Don Cossack army (164,000
square kilometers, 3,500,000 inhabitants) the relation of
the Ukrainians to the population is similar to that in the
Governments of Kursk and Voroniz. Just as the Ukrainian
districts there border on the adjacent central Ukrainian

138 UKRAINE

lands of Poltava and Kharkiv, so the Ukrainian parts of
the Don country touch the central Ukrainian lands of
Kharkiv and Katerinoslav. The Ukrainians (980,000)
comprise 28% of the population of the Don country and
inhabit 45,000 square kilometers. Most thickly populated
by Ukrainians are the southern districts: Tahanroh (69%),
Rostiv (52%), the western half of the Donetz District
(40%). The statistics show far less Ukrainians in the
Districts of Cherkask (23%) and Sal (31%). In the
Districts of Don I (12%), Don II (4%), Ust Medvedinsk
(11%), Khoper (7%), the Ukrainians form language
islands in the midst of a Russian population. In the
District of Sal the relative majority is credited to the
Kalmucks (39%), but beyond that only Russians are the
neighbors of the Ukrainians. But all this data is not
unobjectionable. It has long been an established fact
that the lower "Don Cossacks" are for the most part of
Ukrainian nationality. At the same time we see, from the
official census of 1897, that none of the Don Cossacks were
counted as members of the Ukrainian nation. In the cities
of the Don country the number of Ukrainians is very small,
e. g., in Rostiv hardly greater than one-fifth. Only the
city of Osiv (Azof) is predominantly Ukrainian.

The Kuban country (92,000 square kilometers, 2,630,000
inhabitants) has a relative Ukrainian majority (over 47%=
1,250,000), along with 44% Russians and 9% Caucasus
races.

In this land the purely Ukrainian country embraces
over 56,000 square kilometers. Three of the districts
have an absolute Ukrainian majority: Yask (81%),
Temriuk (79%), and Katerinodar (57% Ukrainians,
27% Russians, 11% Circassians). In the Caucasian Dis-
trict there are 47% of Ukrainians and as many Russians,
in the District of Maikop 31% Ukrainians, 58% Russians,
6% Circassians, 2% Kabardines, in the Labinsk District

UKRAINE 139

28% Ukrainians, 77% Russians, in the District of Batal-
pashinsk 28% Ukrainians, 39% Russians, 13% Karachaians,
5% Abkhasians, 4% Kabardines, 3% Nogaians, 2%
Circassians. It should be observed, however, that perhaps
nowhere have so many Ukrainians been entered as Russians
in the census as in these very Caucasian lands. For this
reason the entire Kuban country may be considered
Ukrainian territory, except the chains of high mountains.

In the Government of Stavropol (60,000 square kilo-
meters, 1,230,000 inhabitants) the Ukrainians comprise
37% (450,000). They inhabit a region of nearly 22,000
square kilometers in the west and south of the Government,
where the border of the Ukrainian settlements, which
reaches the Caspian Sea, begins. The District of Medveza
has 48% Ukrainians (in the west), the District of Stavropol
13% (in the extreme south), the District of Olexandrisk
40%, Novotvihoriiosk 54% (chiefly in their southern
halves). The neighbors here are Russians and Nogaians.

In the Terek region (69,000 square kilometers, 1,183,000
inhabitants) the Ukrainians officially comprise only 5%
of the population (50,000), altho it is generally known that
an appreciable part of the Terek Cossacks belongs to the
Ukrainian nation. A large percentage of Ukrainians
(14%) is found only in the District of Piatihorsk; outside
of that the Ukrainians are united in a narrow seam of
settlements extending to the Caspian Sea. 29% of the
population in the Terek region is Russian; the absolute
majority is made up by various Caucasian races
(Kabardines, Tatars, Ossetians, Ingushians, Chechenians,
Avaro-andians, Kumikians, Nogaians).

The small Government of the Black Sea (7000 square
kilometers, 130,000 inhabitants) has only 16% Ukrainians
who live, 10,000 in number, in the northwestern part of the
extended coast region. In the District of Tuapse there
are 27% Ukrainians; in the District of Sochi 8%. Their

140 UKRAINE

neighbors are Russians, who do not form an absolute
majority at any place, then Armenians, Circassians,
Greeks, Turks, etc.

The most important border country in the south,
however, is, without doubt, the Government of Tauria
(60,000 square kilometers, 1,800,000 inhabitants). The
Ukrainians here comprise the relative majority of the
population (42%— 790,000), with 28% Russians, 13%
Crimean Tatars, over 5% Germans, about 5% Jews,
about 3% Bulgarians, about 1% Armenians, etc. The
Ukrainians comprise an absolute majority in the Districts
of Dniprovsk (76%), Berdiansk (64%), and Melitopol
(57%), and large minorities in the Districts of Eupatoria
(27%) and Perekop (24%), the northern parts of which
they inhabit. The entire mainland part of the Government
and the northern part of the Crimean pensinsula, conse-
quently belong, without doubt, to the compact Ukrainian
national territory, while the number of Ukrainians in
the southern regions of Crimea appears much smaller
(District of Feodosia 13%, Simferopol 10%,Yalta2%). The
chief foreign element in Tauria is composed of Russians
(Dniprovsk 16%, Melitopol 32%, Berdiansk 18%, Perekop
24%, Eupatoria 17%), and Tatars (Yalta 71%, Simferopol
51%, Feodosia 45%, Eupatoria 40%, Perekop 24%).
To the extent that the Tatars emigrate to Turkey,
however, the settled area and the number of the Ukrainians
of Tauria constantly increase, so that the time does not
seem far off when the Ukrainian element will have gained
the entire Crimean peninsula for its national territory.
Besides, one must entertain strong doubts concerning the
actual number of the Russians mentioned in the statistics,
for the Rittich map of 1878 gives almost no Ukrainians in
Tauria, and calls even the mainland parts of Tauria
Russian. And twenty years later came the just-mentioned
figures of the official statistics. We may then, confidently

UKRAINE 141

consider the entire Government of Tauria a Ukrainian
district, with considerable colonization by foreign-speaking
people. The most important of the foreign settlers are without
a doubt the Germans. They are 24% of the population
in the District of Perekop, 12% in Eupatoria, 8% in
Berdiansk, 5% in Melitopol; the Bulgarians make up
10% of the population in Berdiansk.

Next to be considered, after these borderlands, are the
four central regions of the Ukraine which lie on the left
bank of the Dnieper. In the Government of Kalerinoslav
(63,000 square kilometers, 3,060,000 inhabitants) the
Ukrainians 2,110,000 in number, comprise 69% of the
total population, with 17% Russians, 5% Jews, 4% Ger-
mans, 2% Greeks, 1% each of Tatars, White Russians
and Poles. Detached districts of the land have very high
percentages of Ukrainians, e. g., District of Novomoskovsk
94%, Verkhnodniprovsk 91%, Olexandrivsk 86%, Pavlo-
hrad 83%. In the large cities the number of the foreign
elements is very great, hence, the District of Katerinoslav
has 74% Ukrainians, and when the city is counted in,
only 56% Ukrainians, with 21% Russians, 13% Jews, 6%
Germans, 2% Poles. The smallest percentage of Ukrainians
is found in the southeastern districts of the region, where
populous settlements of foreign elements exist. The
District of Bakhmut, for instance, has 58% Ukrainians
with 32% Russians, the District of Slavianoserbsk 55%
Ukrainians besides 42% Russians, the District of Mariupol
51% Ukrainians besides 20% Greeks. In the City of
Katerinoslav the Ukrainians comprise barely one-seventh
of the population, while in Olexandrivsk, Verkhnodniprovsk,
Novomoskovsk and Bakhmut, they predominate over the
Russians, and are equal to them inSlaviansk and Pavlohrad.

In the Government of Kharkiv (54,000 square kilome-
ters, 3,250,000 inhabitants) the Ukrainians make up 70%
of the total population, or 2,275,000. As a result of

142 UKRAINE

considerable Russian colonization (28%), forming several
language islands in the midst of Ukrainian territory, the
percentage of Ukrainians in several districts varies appre-
ciably (e. g., Smiiv 66%, Vovchansk 75%, Starobilsk 84%,
Kupiansk 87%). But we note for the first time, here,
the remarkable fact that in all the district cities the Ukrain-
ians are much more numerous than the Russians. Only
in the capital city, Kharkiv, are they in the minority, and
comprise little more than one-fourth the population.

The Government of Poltava (50,000 square kilometers,
3,580,000 inhabitants) may be considered the heart of the
Ukraine. The Ukrainians here comprise 95% of the popula-
tion, or 3,410,000, beside 4% Jews and 1% Russians. The
percentage in detached districts varies between 88%
(District of Konstantinohrad) and 99% (District of
Sinkiv). The Russians and Jews live principally in the
cities, where they are always second to the Ukrainians,
however, except in the city of Kreminchuk, where the
Jews comprise the majority.

In the Government of Chernihiv (25,000 square kilo-
meters, 2,980,000 inhabitants) the Ukrainians comprise
86% of the population (2,450,000), beside 5% White
Russians, 5% Jews, and 4% Russians. With the exception
of the northern districts, Suraz (Ukrainians 19%, White
Russians 67%, Russians 11%), Novosibkiv (Ukrainians
66%, Russians 30%, White Russians 2%), and Starodub
(Ukrainians 75%, Russians 22%), all the districts of the
region have from 88% (Horodnia) to 99% (Krolevetz) of
Ukrainians. All the district cities, except Novosibkiv,
Starodub, Suraz and Mhlin, have an absolute Ukrainian
majority; the capital, Chernihiv, only a relative one.

The number of Ukrainians within the compact national
territory in Russia, then, amounts to almost 28^ millions.
Excluded in this estimate are the Ukrainians of the Govern-
ment of Astrakhan (190,000), Saratov (220,000), Samara

UKRAINE 143

(150,000), Orenburg (50,000), as well as the Ukrainians of
all Asiatic-Russian lands, whose number is not placed too
high at 500,000. We may therefore estimate the number of
Ukrainians in the entire Russian Empire as 29^ millions.

This figure, which was gained thru a critical survey of
the statistical material of the individual administrative units
of Russia, is approached with remarkable closeness by the
figure which may be gotten in another, more general
way. In the year of 1897 the number of Ukrainians in the
Russian Empire was 22,400,000; that is, 17.4% of the total
population of 129,000,000. Applying the same percentage
to the numerical estimate of 1910, we get 28,900,000
Ukrainians in a total Russian^population of 166,000,000.
Adding the Pinchuks (390,000) who, in the official statistics
were erroneously counted as White Russians, we receive
for the number of Ukrainians of Russia (1910) 29,300,000.

Now, adding up all the Ukrainians of the globe, we
receive (for 1910) an amount of 34^ millions; 32,700,000
of it in the compact Ukrainian country. This figure is a
minimum value, for in calculating it the intentional errors
of the official statistics were taken into the bargain. Never-
theless, this figure shows us that the Ukrainians occupy the
sixth place, numerically, among the nations of Europe, the
five above them being the Germans, Russians, French,
English and Italians. Among the Slavic races they stand
in the second place.

How this great numerical strength of the Ukrainian
nation can be brought into harmony with its political and
economic weakness we shall try to show in the sections
following. Now let us turn briefly to the density of popu-
lation of the Ukraine.

The 850,000 square kilometers of solid Ukrainian
national territory are inhabited by approximately forty-
five million people (1910), of whom, according to official
estimates, 73% are Ukrainians. The general density of

144 UKRAINE

the Ukraine, consequently, amounts to 53 inhabitants to
the square kilometer. The Ukraine is also the transition
from the thickly populated countries of Central Europe
to the thinly-peopled northeast and east of the globe.
This transition may easily be followed out within the
Ukraine also. The western border regions are the most
thickly settled. Galicia has a density of 102, the Govern-
ment of Lublin 90, the Government of Kiev 90, Podolia 89,
Bukowina 77, Poltava 72. We see a wide zone of dense
population, then, extending along the 50th parallel of
latitude, from the Carpathians to the Dnieper. To the
north of it, the first more thinly peopled zone extends:
Sidletz 69, Grodno 51, Minsk 39, Volhynia 54, Chernihiv 57,
Kursk 65, Voroniz 51. On the south of the thickly peopled
zone lies the second more sparsely settled zone : Bessarabia
53, Kherson 49, Tauria 31, Katerinoslav 48. Most thinly
settled, however, are the eastern borderlands of the Ukraine:
Kuban 28, Don and Stavropol each 21, Chornomoria and
the Terek region each 17.

Within these extensive regions, too, the density of
population varies greatly. Sometimes districts very
close together have a widely different density. These
differences, however, are largely only seeming differences
and are caused by the city populations. Thus, for example,
the marked density of the Districts of Stanislaviv (184),
Ternopil (161), Peremishl (160), Kolomia (156), is caused
by the presence of the populous cities of the same names.
Therefore the Pokutian District of Sniatin (147) seems very
thickly settled, because of the smallness of the district
cities. The average density of Ukrainian East Galicia
is only 98; in the mountainous Districts of Dolina and
Kossiv it only attains 45. The same conditions exist
in Russian Ukraine. The District of Kharkiv has a density
of 164 inhabitants to the square verst; the District of
Kiev 152. Considering only the rural population, however,

UKRAINE 145

these figures sink to 81 and 75 respectively. Therefore,
the District of Kaniv with its 117 inhabitants to the square
verst, (113, or not reckoning in the inhabitants of the
cities), appears to be the best-populated district of the
Russian Ukraine. Many districts besides, in Podolia,
Kiev, Poltava, Kharkiv and South Volhynia (without
counting the cities), have a density of 75 and 100, while
other districts of the same region vary between 50 and 75.
In the forest swamp regions of Northern Ukraine the
density figure falls a great deal. The District of Ovruch,
in Northern Volhynia, attains a density of only 29; the
Polissian Districts of Pinsk and Mosir 26 and 17 respect-
ively.. The steppe country of Southern Ukraine is likewise
very thinly settled in places. The density of population of
most of the districts of Southern Ukraine varies between
30 and 50, but the Districts of Eupatoria and Perekop,
for example, have only 11 inhabitants per square verst,
the second Don District 12, the Sal only 6, the District of
Batalpashinsk in the sub-Caucasian country only 17.

From these figures we see that the Ukraine, as regards
its density, is a genuine Eastern European land. But in
comparing its density of population with that of the
Russian Empire, or even of Russia in Europe, we perceive
that the Ukraine is the most thickly settled part of the
giant Russian Empire, after Poland. Even the most
thinly settled southeastern border regions have a greater
population to the square kilometer than Russias's average
(25 per square kilometer). Almost one-fourth of the enor-
mous human reservoirs of Russia are found on Ukrainian
territory. And yet the Ukraine, despite its great size,
is only one-twenty-ninth of the giant Russian Empire.

From these figures we see, furthermore, that trade,
industry and commerce have, to this day, been unable to
influence the density of population of the Ukraine. The
Ukraine has remained in the original stage of development,

146 UKRAINE

in which only the age of settlement and the fertility of the
soil form the basis for increase in the density of population.
The history of the Ukraine has, to this day, influenced
the country's density of population. The former central
districts of the old Ukrainian state of Kiev and Halich are
still the most thickly settled; the southern and eastern
border regions, which have suffered most from the 500
years of the Tartar scourge, the most thinly settled. This
is the reason that Galicia, one of the poorest regions of
the Ukraine in natural resources, where industry and trade
are so little developed, is at the same time the most thickly
populated region.

Similarly primitive, and betraying a low grade of
culture, is the relation between the city and country
population of the Ukraine. Only a very insignificant
fraction of the population inhabits the cities and towns
of the Ukraine. In Galicia (1910) only U%% of the
population lives in places whose population is more than
5,000; only 9J^% in cities of over 10,000. Similar condi-
tions prevail in Russian Ukraine. Very rarely does the
city population exceed 10% of the total number of people,
usually keeping below this percentage, which is typical
for all of Russia. Podolia has only 7% city population,
Volhynia 8%, Chernihiv 9%, Poltava 10%, Kuban 11%,
Katerinoslav 12%, Kiev 13%, and Kharkiv 14%. Only
the regions colonized within the last century in Southern
Ukraine, with their large cities, have a large percentage of
city population (Tauria 20%, Kherson 29%).

More glaringly still does the low grade of culture of the
Ukraine stand out when we give the percentage of the
Ukrainian population in the cities of the Ukraine. Only
in Galicia do 14% of the Ukrainian people of the country
live in the cities. In the Government of Kharkiv only
10% of the Ukrainians of the district belong to the city
population, in Kherson only_9%, in Kuban 8%, in Cherni- '

UKRAINE 147

hiv 7%, Poltava 6%, Tauria 5%, Kiev and Katerinoslav
each 4%, in Podolia 3%, and in Volhynia actually only
2% It is true that, especially in the cities, the official
estimates were "made" very unfavorably to the Ukrainian
element, but, nevertheless, they show clearly enough that
the Ukrainian people, clinging to their agrarian state, have
left the cities, those centers of cultural and economic life,
in the hands of foreign elements. Only within very recent
years have these conditions begun to improve. The
foreign-speaking cities are gradually coming to be Ukraine-
ized, and the very rapidly growing percentage of Ukrainians
in Galicia and the Russian Ukraine justify us in hoping that
the Ukrainian element, in its continuous stream from the
surrounding country, will, in time, absorb the foreign-
speaking elements which now command the cities of the
Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Nation as an
Anthropogeographic Unit
General Survey

In the first chapter of our little book we mentioned
the reasons which compel us to regard the Ukraine as a
physico-geographic whole. We emphasized the fact that
the geographic units of the great uniform country of
Eastern Europe could not, for obvious natural reasons,
appear so well-defined and individualized as the different
sections of Western and Central Europe. The same is
true of the anthropogeographic conditions of Eastern
Europe as well.

The anthropogeography of Eastern Europe is so
unfamiliar a part of geographic science that even such
pioneer geographers as Ratzel, Kirchhoff and Hettner
entirely misunderstood and misrepresented the anthropo-
geographic conditions of Russia, and especially the racial
conditions of this giant empire.

There are two reasons for the universal ignorance of the
anthropogeographic conditions of Russia which exists
even in the ranks of renowned scholars. The first cause
lies in the sources from which scholars, and subsequently
publicists, draw their knowledge of the subject. Now the
official Russian sources on the basis of which an anthropo-
geography of Eastern Europe would have to be written
are not immune from serious criticism. The ranks of
Russian scholars have always worked in the interests of
the Russian political idea, and latterly, caught by the

148

UKRAINE 149

mighty wave of Pan-Slavic-Russian nationalism, they are
doing their best to represent as actual fact whatever
Russian governmental politics would desire to be fact.
Russian geography, ethnography, statistics, history, have
always worked in accordance with approved "unifying"
designs. Hence, European learning involuntarily sees all
that exists and is coming into existence in Russia thru the
spectacles put on it by official Russia. The same official
Russia comes to meet the European traveler upon every
step of his journey, and guides him in such a way that he
may be sure not to see below the general official Russian
varnish what is actual and true. Besides, there is the
Russian censorship, which even now, after the introduc-
tion of the constitution, takes very good care to veil
everything from the view of the outside world, which, in
the interest of the Russian political idea, should remain
hidden.

The second cause of ignorance as to the anthropogeo-
graphy of Russia lies in the subject itself. The Eastern Euro-
pean family of races inhabiting Russia is so different from
that of Western and Central Europe in its evolution and
composition, that the anthropogeographical laws and
methods which (as far as civilized peoples are concerned)
are based upon Western European conditions, do not apply
in the least in Eastern Europe. A difficulty confronts
anthropogeography here, analogous to the difficulty which
confronted geologic science when, fitted out with European
stratigraphy, it sought to explore South Africa or India.
The geologists, as representatives of a natural science, were
readily able to find the way out, but the anthropogeogra-
phers, whose field is more that of a psychic science, have lost
themselves in false assumptions and in commonplaces.

We must not wonder, therefore, if every critical reader
of the preceding chapter is assailed by a host of questions:
Why in the world are the Ukrainians, this second largest

150 UKRAINE

Slavic nation of the whole world, so utterly unknown?
Perhaps Ukraine is only an ethnographic conception, and
the Ukrainians only a branch of the Russian race, just as
the Bavarians or Saxons are branches of the German
people? Or are the terms "Ukraine," "Ukrainian", only
outgrowths of the idle imagination of a few belated en-
thusiasts, who rave about a glorious past and a brilliant
future, and represent what they are striving after as a
fait accompli, and so forth.

Such questions, based upon deep ignorance of the
anthropogeography and history of Eastern Europe, come
up in this very 20th Century, even in the learned circles
of scholars, publicists and politicians. To answer these
and similar questions correctly, this little book has been
written.

The Ukrainians are quite as independent a Slavic
nation as the Czechs, Poles, White Russians, Russians,
Serbs or Bulgarians. The historic roots of the Ukrainian
nation extend just as far back into the early middle ages
as the roots of the German, French or English nations.
The old Ukrainian Empire of Kiev is of the same age as
the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. But,
while the evolution of the great European nations was
steady and uninterrupted, the Ukrainian Nation was
hindered in its development by reason of its geographical
position on the threshold of Asia. The Mongolian attack
in the 13th Century shattered the state of Kiev and intro-
duced the 500 years' Tartar scourge. Weakened by the
continual expeditions and slave-hunts of the Crimean
Tatars, the Ukraine fell under the rule of Lithuania
and Poland, who not only could not relieve the land of the
Tatar menace but even added national, social and religious
pressure. The instinct of self-preservation led the Ukrainian
nation, in that troubled time, to create the splendid

UKRAINE 151

military organization of the Ukrainian Cossacks, and about
the middle of the 17th Century, in a victorious war, to
shake off the Polish yoke. Thus, the second Ukrainian
state, the Cossack Republic, came into existence. By the
Treaty of Pereyaslav (1654) it was ceded as a vassal state
to Russia, which was related to it in religious faith. But
Russia broke the treaties of suzerainty, shared the desolated
Ukrainian land with Poland, and, after a century and a
half, changed the autonomy of the Ukraine into abject
serfdom. After Russia, in the partitions of Poland, had
united almost the entire Ukrainian territory under its
rule (with the exception of Eastern Galicia, Northwestern
Bukowina, and Northeastern Hungary), it set all forces
to work to destroy the national independence of the
Ukrainians as well. In the 17th and 18th Centuries the
Ukrainian Nation lost its upper classes — the aristocracy,
the lesser nobility, the wealthy burghers — first thru
Polonization, then thru Russification. It had left only its
minor clergy, its lower middle class, and a completely
downtrodden peasantry. Thus, at the end of the 18th
Century, it seemed as if the last hour of the Ukrainian
people had struck.

It is therefore easy to explain that in the 19th Century,
when the national question became one of the most impor-
tant problems of humanity, the two neighbor nations of
the Ukraine, the Poles and the Russians, believed they
had solved the "Ukrainian question."

The views of Poles and Russians coincide absolutely
in emphasizing one statement: "There is no such country
as the Ukraine; no such people as the Ukrainians; there
are only Poland and Russia; a Polish nation and a Russian
nation."

This complete agreement of both nations, whose giant
states fought for two centuries for domination in Eastern
Europe, may be easily understood. The Ukraine has always

152 UKRAINE

been the richest region of Eastern Europe in natural
resources, the Ukrainians the second largest nation, the
Ukrainian question the most important problem in every
state commanding Eastern Europe. Now the Ukrainian
nation was completely exhausted by half a thousand years of
Tatar oppression and an equally long period of serfdom.
So that it seemed an easy matter to the mighty neighbor
nations to even deny the existence of the Ukrainian nation,
to hold up its development, and gradually to absorb it.

The Poles, since their country lost its independence,
have made heroic attempts to win back their freedom by
armed uprisings. Despite all defeats, they have never
given up their hopes of re-establishing the Polish Kingdom.
But these hopes were never confined to the ethnographic
territory of the Polish nation. The future Polish Kingdom
was to have the old boundaries of the historic Poland —
the Baltic and the Black Sea. Hence, the geographical
conception of Poland, even to the scientific Polish geogra-
phers, still includes, besides the entire Polish ethnographic
territory, Lithuania, White Russia and all of the Ukraine,
as far as the Dnieper River and the Black Sea.

How could this historico-geographical conception of
Poland be made to harmonize with the ethnographic
conception of the Ukraine? The solution of this question
seemed very easy to the Polish scholars and politicians.
They simply proved that the Ukrainians constituted a
part of the Polish nation, that their language was a pro-
vincial dialect of the Polish language, and that only the
religious faith, a number of manners and customs, songs,
etc., were slightly different from those of the Poles; these
slight differences the common country folk might retain,
likewise the educated Ukrainian might be permitted to
keep his language and customs in private life, but in his
political sentiments, in his culture, in his literary language,
he must be and remain a Pole.

UKRAINE 153

This Polish solution of the Ukrainian question is
derived from the Polish "state-idea" of a Polish Empire
extending from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Despite the
fact that the history of the national relations of Eastern
Europe clearly proved this solution false in the second
half of the 19th Century, the opinion prevails in all im-
portant Polish circles, that the Ukrainian people merely
constitutes an ethnographic mass which shall make a good
foundation for the expansion of Polish culture and power.

This Polish theory in the Ukrainian question has not
been detrimental to the development of the Ukrainian
nation. That the Ukrainians are not a Polish people
was quite clear to every Ukrainian at the very beginning
of the relations of the two nations (11th Century). Among
the masses the feeling of independence was always lively
and strong, and only those of the educated Ukrainians
credited Polonophile theories, who were the few members
of Polish secret societies, plots, uprisings (1831, 1863), etc.
Polonization, in former centuries, demanded many victims
from among the educated Ukrainians; in the past half a
century it has only very slight successes to show, altho the
Ukrainians of Galicia still continue to be under the
political and cultural influence of the Poles.

Much more dangerous for the Ukrainians was the other
solution of the Ukrainian question. It, too, is derived from
a state-idea, namely, from the idea of a Russian state
which should unite all Slavdom, or at least, all of the
one-time Empire of Vladimir the Great, under its scepter.
In order to attain this end the "Theory of the Unity of
the Russian Nation" was formed, as far back as the times of
Peter the Great, who transformed the old Muscovite Czar
state into an imperial Russian government, and later this
doctrine was further developed. According to this theory
the Russian nation consists of three tribes: the Great
Russians, the Little Russians, and the White Russians,

154 UKRAINE

whose tongues differ from one another only dialectically.
A common literary language, Russian, connects all the
tribes; race, customs, history, political aspirations are the
same for all three. Ukraine, Ukrainian, are only local
names, which, however, bear a strong taint of separatism,
and must, therefore, appear dangerous and inadmissible.
In the spirit of this theory of the unity of the Russian
nation, the politics of the Russian state have, for more than
two centuries, aimed incessantly to hinder the develop-
ment of the Ukrainian nation, by means of the most
ruthless oppression, and to degrade it to an ethnographic
mass which, thru its increasing denationalization, should
strengthen the Russian state and support its political
expansion.

In a later section we shall be able to follow the individual
phases of Russian state politics in regard to the Ukraine.
We shall turn, now, to consider the great injury which the
Russian unity theory has done to the progress of the
Ukrainians as a nation.

The internal injury of the Russian unity theory to the
Ukrainian peasantry is comparatively slight. The Ukrain-
ian peasant in Russia is much more highly conscious of
his national individuality as opposed to the Russian than
as opposed to the Pole. The ethnologic culture of the
Ukrainian peasantry is so much higher than that of the
Russian, that the Ukrainian looks down with contempt
upon the "rough Katzap." This, as it were, ethnologic
feeling of independence has protected the Ukrainian
peasantry from Russification, not only within its national
territory, but even in its distant Siberian or Turkestan
colonies. Only a small part of the so-called village aristoc-
racy, e. g., pensioned soldiers, village mayors, notaries,
former city workmen who have learnt some Russian,
try to murder the Russian language and to pass for Russians .
The same is true of a part of the city proletariat. But the

UKRAINE 155

great mass is opposed to the Russian language and cus-
toms, and preserves its national individuality unchanged.

Far more serious injuries has the Russian unity theory
caused among the upper classes of the Ukrainian nation.
For the sake of office, honors and gifts of land, the Ukrainian
nobility has, in the last two centuries, permitted itself
to be Russified for the most part ; likewise a host of govern-
ment officials, military men, clergymen, etc. In the second
half of the 19th Century the Russification of the educated
Ukrainian circles has slackened its pace, altho, even now,
there are in Russia a great many of the educated Ukrainians
by birth who are completely Russified and the worst
enemies of their own nation.

The Russian unity theory, in the sixties of the 19th
Century, found its way into Austria-Hungary too, and
founded the so-called "Russophile Party." Its educated
retainers, with few exceptions, do not even command the
Russian language. Nevertheless, they call themselves
Russians, propagate "the unity of the Russian People from
the Carpathians to the Kamchatka," and call their
Ukrainian mother-tongue "a dialect of the Carpathian
herdsmen and swineherds." They speak and write a
remarkable jargon consisting of Ukrainian, Russian and
Church-Slavic words (the so-called Yazichiye) ; only in very
recent years have they begun to use a bad Russian. Sup-
ported by considerable subsidies of money from Russia, the
educated Russophiles are developing an active agitation
among the peasants of Eastern Galicia, the Bukowina and
Northeastern Hungary. The Russophile peasants of these
countries, whose number is insignificant, to be sure,
constitute a remarkable type of a seduced mass. They
also try to speak the Yazichiye, use the old-fashioned
"thousand-year-old" orthography, which is entirely an-
alogous to the Russian and, at least, partly hides the dif-
ferences between the Ukrainian and Russian languages,

156 UKRAINE

live in the illusion that the Czar speaks the same language
that they speak, use the Russian national colors, and
hate everything Ukrainian with the passion of the renegade.

These internal injuries of the Russian unity theory
and the Russophile tide it has created are becoming
slighter year by year. Ukrainian national consciousness
is continually growing in the masses of the Ukrainian
nation, and the Russophile wave would long since have
disappeared if it were not for the Russian subsidies, and if
certain Polish circles, frightened by the rapid advance of
the Ukrainian national idea, were not working with all
their might to prevent the fall of Russophilism.

Much more important are the external injuries done to
the Ukrainian national idea by the Russian unity theory.
They may be expressed in a single sentence: As a result
of the absolutism of the Russian unity theory in the history,
geography and statistics of Eastern Europe, the civilized
world does not know that there exists in Europe a large
country which is called "Ukraina," and that in this country
there lives a nation with a separate individuality, a nation
of over thirty million souls, which bears the name "Ukrain-
ians."

It is true that, from time to time, since the beginning of
the present century, magazine articles and pamphlets in
various leading languages have appeared, which aim to
inform the world about the Ukraine and the Ukrainian
people. But these journalistic efforts have only an ephem-
eral value. Politicians only occasionally interest themselves
in the Ukrainian question when it is brought to their
notice. And scholars, however well-disposed, can not
give such publications preference over the official Russian
sources.

The young Ukrainian learning has thus far been unable
to spread true information on the Ukrainian nation, and
to establish the Ukrainian nation in the scientific world as

UKRAINE 157

an independent unit among the Slavic nations. Only in
the historical field the independent position of the Ukrain-
ians among the nations of Eastern Europe has been demon-
strated, thanks to the compositions of a Kostomariv,
Antonovich, Drahomaniv, Hrushevsky. In the fields of
philology, anthropology, ethnology, ethnography and
folk-lore, there are many treatises relating to these
sciences, but there is no systematic exposition of the
Ukrainian nation as a uniform whole in relation to these
branches of science. In the anthropogeographic field
the present lines constitute the first effort. In addition,
all these treatises have appeared only in Ukrainian or
Russian, and, consequently, remain inaccessible to the
overwhelming majority of the European world of scholar-
ship.

For these reasons science must depend upon the official
statements. The official Russian geography considers the
Ukrainians only as one of the three tribes of the unified
Russian people. The official Russian statistics report
this to the world. Hence, German, French and English
geographic science, too, usually accounts for the Ukrainians
as Russians. The names Kleinrussen, Petits Russes, Little
Russians, do not mean an independent nation, but a tribe
of the Russian nation. Such erroneous views may be
found in all the general encyclopedias and lexicons, in all
handbooks of geography and statistics. The Austro-
Hungarian Ukrainians, who are mentioned in the official
statistics as Ruthenians, are also to a great extent taken
for a part of the Russian people which differs from the
mass of Russians only in its Catholic faith, or more remark-
ably still, for an entirely independent little nation called
Ruthenia, and differing both from the Little Russians and
the Russians.

The results of such ignorance of the Ukrainian Nation
in the scientific world are disastrous for the Ukrainians.

158 UKRAINE

Every appearance of the Ukrainians in the political and
cultural arena remains enigmatic to the whole world.
Enigmatic remains the struggle of the Ukrainians against
Russia and particularly against its Russification policy.
In case after case it is explained by far-fetched political,
social and economic causes, but never by national-cultural
reasons. For almost no one in Europe knows that in the
Ukraine a great independent nation is struggling for its
national life, and not a political or social party for its
significance in the state. The struggle of the Austrian
Ukrainians against the predominance of the Poles in
Galicia seems hardly more reasonable to the foreigner than
the striving of the Russian Ukrainians. Most incompre-
hensible here appears the struggle of the Ukrainians
against the Russophile movements. For a long time it was
regarded as insincere, or even as non-existing, and this
circumstance has brought the Ukrainians innumerable
political injuries.

From these briefly stated observations we see what
obstacles are impeding the Ukrainians in their efforts to
bring their Ukrainian nation to a point where it will be
respected as an element of equal worth with the other nations
of Europe. The two neighboring nations, the Polish
and the Russian, politically and culturally stronger, are
trying to divide the Ukrainians between themselves, and
are refusing them the right to exist as an independent
nation. Against these appetites for conquest the com-
paratively small army of educated Ukrainians is fighting
with might and main, supported semi-consciously by the
mass of the Ukrainian People. The Ukrainian peasantry
has for centuries defied all attacks upon its ethnographic-
national independence. It refuses, even in its most distant
Eastern Siberian colonies, to be assimilated by the Russians.
This characteristic has made the Ukrainians the subject of
a proverb with their Russian neighbors: "Khakhol vsyegda

UKRAINE 159

khakhol" — the Ukrainian remains a Ukrainian everywhere.
In the following sections we shall discuss briefly all the
foundations of the independence of the Ukrainians as a
nation. The chief foundations of an independent nation are,
proceeding from the less important to the most important:
Independent anthropological characteristics, a distinct,
independent language, uniform historico-political traditions
and aspirations for the future, an independent culture, and,
especially, a compact geographical territory.

Anthropological Characteristics of the Ukrainians

Anthropology is a comparatively recent science. Barely
a century has elapsed since the beginning of its serious
work. The material thus far collected by anthropological
science, while it might seem immense to some, is, neverthe-
less, still small, and what is even more important, irregular.
Concerning some races and peoples the science has many
thousands of measurements at its command, while other
races and peoples are known from very few measurements.
For this reason the science of anthropology is still a long
way removed from an exact knowledge and perfect des-
cription of different races and peoples. Even in Europe,
where anthropological investigations have been based on a
study of the greatest number of human individuals, the
distribution of various anthropological racial character-
istics in different peoples and tribes of the continent were,
until recently, very hard to interpret and to understand.
It is the pioneer work of investigation of Deniker, Hamy
and others, that has made it possible to divide the popu-
lation of Europe into so-called anthropological races.

Pure-blooded peoples, all of whose individuals possess
the same anthropological characteristics, exist nowhere.
Hardly in the most inaccessible corners of the globe, are
small primitive peoples found who approach the ideal of
pure-bloodedness. The great civilized peoples of the earth

160 UKRAINE

are all of them more or less heterogeneous peoples, and
show no uniform anthropological type. This is true
especially of the Western and Central European cultured
peoples: French, English, Spanish, Italians, even Germans.
Continued commixtures, which can certainly be proved
historically, have entirely eradicated the original anthropo-
logical characteristics of these civilized nations. No
wonder, then, that anthropogeography, in view of these
most apparent examples, has almost given up designating
anthropological characteristics as the characteristics of
nations.

But, in considering an Eastern European nation, such
misgivings of anthropogeographical science cannot be
justified. Just as the physico-geographic conditions of
Western and Central Europe are measured by other
standards than those of Eastern Europe, so the anthropo-
geographical problems of this region, too, must be
approached differently. Just as the physico-geographical
variety of Western and Central Europe gives way to
Eastern European uniformity in Ukrainian territory, so
the anthropological variety gives place to greater unity.
Vast areas of the Ukraine, even without any great natural
hindrance, were always unfavorable to separation into
classes, and did not encourage the development of physical
differences. And foreign admixtures are almost out of the
question. For the foreign peoples which, since the earliest
beginnings of history, traversed or even dominated the
region of the Ukraine, were first of all too small in number
to make any noticeable impression on the anthropological
type of the Ukrainians. And, besides that, the foreign
races — almost all nomad peoples — came into the land as
fierce enemies, with whom there existed no voluntary
peaceful relations. For these reasons the Ukrainian nation
reveals a much greater uniformity in its anthropological
aspect than the nations of Western and Central Europe,

UKRAINE 161

which, in the course of history, were visited by innumerable
peoples of the most varied anthropological types, who
stayed there and were assimilated. If, therefore, in these
peoples, anthropological characteristics can have no
particular significance, the matter is quite different with
the Ukrainians and many other Eastern European
nations. Here, anthropological peculiarities still have con-
siderable weight as distinguishing characteristics of nations.
Investigations concerning the anthropology of the Ukrai-
nians began more than half a century ago. But they were
made, without any system, in different regions of the great
national territory selected, quite without a plan, and for a
long time gave no acceptable results. Not until the 20th
Century was enough material gathered to at least make
it possible to determine the main anthropological type of the
Ukrainians. The most important investigators in this
field are: Hopernitsky, Protzenko.Welker, Popov, Hilchenko,
Krasnov, Petrov, Erckert, Emme, Talko Hrincewich,
Diebold, Biloyid, Anuchin, Ivanovsky, Vovk and
Rakovsky.

To be sure, according to these investigations, the
Ukrainians, too, are anthropologically a mixed race, just
as the other nations of Europe. But the formation of this
mixed race took place in a very distant prehistoric past
and later admixtures have been too insignificant to visibly
change the original racial type of the Ukrainians. From
the Vislok to the Kuban, from the Pripet to the Black Sea,
the Ukrainian people constitute a uniform anthropological
type. This type has preserved itself in its purest state in
one wide zone which embraces the Ukrainian Carpathian
Mountain lands, Pokutye, Podolia, Dnieper Plateau and
Dnieper Plain, the Donetz Plateau and the Kuban sub-
Caucaeus country. Tall stature, with long legs and broad
shoulders, strongly pigmented complexion, dark, rich,
curly hair, rounded head and long face with a high and

162 UKRAINE

broad brow, dark eyes, straight nose, strongly developed
elongated lower part of the face, medium mouth and small
ears; that is the type. Outside the described main zone of
distribution of the Ukrainian racial type, these character-
istics become less and less sharply defined, altho at all
parts of the ethnographic boundary the anthropological
differences of the Ukrainians from their neighbors, especially
from the Poles, White Russians and Russians, are very
clearly marked.

The mean stature of the Ukrainians is 1670 mm.
Consequently the Ukrainians are among the tallest peoples
of Europe, and in this respect they surpass their neighboring
nations by a great deal. The average height of the White
Russians is only 1651 mm., the Poles 1654 mm., the Russian
1657 mm., of 100 individuals among the Ukrainians, 53 are
taller than the average, 47 shorter; among the Poles and
Russians 51% taller and 49% shorter. Right here we see
a great difference between the Ukrainians and their
neighbors, as well as a great similarity of these three
peoples.

The tall stature of the pure Ukrainian racial type is
pretty regular in the above-mentioned main zone. The
tallest stature is that of the Kuban Ukrainians of the
sub-Caucasus country (1701 mm.). It is due to the fact
that the Ukrainians of that region are, to a great extent,
descendants of the Zaporog Cossacks, who for centuries
represented the flower of the physical power of the Ukrain-
ian people. Barely below that is the stature of the Hutzuls
(1693 mm.), of the Podolians, Volhynians and Dnieper
dwellers. In Central Galicia, Podlakhia, Polissye, in the
Don country, that is in direct proximity to the Poles,
White Russians and Russians, the stature of the Ukrainians
decreases appreciably. But, even in these border countries,
the Ukrainian people form a strong contrast, with their
higher stature, to their neighbors, especially to the Russians,

UKRAINE 163

with their heavy mixture of the small grown Finnish-
Mongolian elements. Anuchin emphasizes expressly that
in those parts in any Russian "Government" into which
the smallest tip of Ukrainian territory extends, the average
height of the recruits is noticeably increased. Because of
their fine stature many Ukrainians in Russia are stationed
in the regiments of the guard.

In the Ukrainians, the tall slender form is coupled
with breadth of shoulders and great chest-measurement.
From the material gathered by Ivanosky, it is evident
that in this respect the Ukrainians surpass all their neigh-
bors. The average chest-measurement of the Ukrainians
is 55.04% of the length of the body, of the Poles
54.11, of the White Russians 53.84, of the Russians
only 52.18.

In respect of length of arms and legs, the Ukrainians again
occupy an independent position among the nations of
Eastern Europe. In the White Russians, the length of the
arms is 45.1% of the length of the body, in the Poles and
Ukrainians 45.7, in the Russians 46.0. The length of the
legs is greatest in the Ukrainians (53.6%), much less in the
Poles (52.1) and White Russians (51.7), and least in the
Russians (50.5), which again indicates considerable mixture
of Finnish-Mongolian blood. (The length of leg of the
Mordvines is only 49%, that of the Altaic Tartars 48.6).

The most important anthropological characteristic
was for a long time thought to be the shape of the skull.
The Ukrainians belong (as do all Slavs, for that matter)
to the class of Brachicephalites (short heads) . The average
skull index in the Ukrainians amounts to 83.2. Among the
neighboring peoples, the Poles (82.1) are least short-headed,
then follow the Russians, almost the same as the Poles
(namely 82.3), and then further away the Ukrainians
(83.2). The greatest Brachicephalousness appears in the
White Russians (85.1). The height of the skull is greatest

164 UKRAINE

in the Ukrainians (70.3), smaller in the Russians (70.1),
smallest in the White Russians (66.1).

The skull index of the Ukrainians shows a similar
territorial distribution as the stature. The greatest
brachicephalousness is found in the Hutzuls; it decreases
continually as we go northeast and east, so that in the Don
and Kuban region the skull index is smallest. Besides, the
shortness of head of the Ukrainians decreases regularly on
the Polish and Russian borders, as a result of centuries of
proximity. In the Russians the shortness of head is
much less marked than in the Ukrainians, because of the
Finnish strain, in the Poles because of the commixture with
Finns and a primeval European long-headed and light-
haired race.

Just as in the shape of the skull, so also in the form of the
nose, the Ukrainians reveal distinct differences from their
neighbors. In the Ukrainians the nose is usually straight
and thin. The nasal index is 67.7, and consequently
somewhat greater than in the Poles (66.2). Then follow
the Russians (68.5) and the White Russians (69.2).

The width of the face in the Ukrainians is on the
average 180, that of the Poles 181, of the Russians 182, of
the White Russians 186; the facial index in the Ukrainians
78.1, in the White Russians 76.2, in the Poles 76.3, in the
Russians 76.7. Here, too, we note the great difference of the
Ukrainians from their neighbors and the similarity of these
to one another.

The color of hair and eyes is by far not so sure an
anthropological characteristic as the above-mentioned, yet
constitutes an important complement. In this respect, too,
the position of the Ukrainians among their neighbor
nations is just as independent as in regard to the above
discussed characteristics. Among the Ukrainians dark
shades predominate, so that out of 100 individuals only
29.5% have light hair and eyes, 35%jnedium color, and

UKRAINE 165

35% dark. In the Russians the percentages run 37% light,
41% medium, 22% dark; in the Poles 35% light, 46%
medium and only 19% dark. Thus the light type is much
more common in the neighboring races than in the Ukrai-
nians.

In the distribution of color of eyes and hair in the
Ukrainians the same territorial law holds as in the distri-
bution of stature and shape of skull. In the main zone of
the Ukrainian racial type, but especially in the southwest,
the color of hair and eyes is most characteristically repre-
sented. Near the Polioh, White Russian and Russian
borders, the Ukrainian type loses much of its peculiarity.

This short anthropological sketch of the Ukrainians,
despite its scanty1 and general character, enables us to
perceive very clearly that the Ukrainians show extremely
little anthropological similarity to the Poles, White Russians
and Russians. On the other hand, all of these neighboring
races of the Ukrainians are very similar, and closely related
to each other. The Pole, the White Russian and the
Russian, stand very close to one another, while the Ukrain-
ian is very different from all his neighbors and, from an
anthropological point of view, holds an entirely independent
position.

The vanity of the impression that the Ukrainians are
Polonized Russians or Russified Poles, therefore, becomes
apparent at once. The "unity theories," Polish and
Russian, which are based on perverted V historical and
philological phrases, are here opposed by a natural science,
with its exact results of investigations.

But anthropology discredits not only these theories
which are still dominating European science. Several
Polish historians have recently evolved a new theory of
the origin of the Ukrainians and spread it thru Europe.
According to this theory the Ukrainians are a mixture of
Slavs and the Mongolian-Turkish nomad tribes which

166 UKRAINE

traversed and commanded the Ukrainian steppes for
centuries; they are a semi-nomadic steppe people, incapable
of culture, whose development might bring with it the
greatest dangers for European civilization.

The science of anthropology, however, robs this theory
of its very foundation. The Mongolian-Turkish nomad
tribes were almost all distinguished by low stature, short
legs, long arms and round heads. The same characteristics
should therefore appear very distinctly in the Ukrainian
racial type. But the Ukrainians have a higher stature
than any of the neighboring peoples, the longest legs, and
arms of medium length. And the brachicephalousness of
the Ukrainians is least just in the east, where mixing
with the Mongolian tribes could proceed most easily.

The anthropological type of the Ukrainians, then,
reveals complete individuality as opposed to the Polish,
White Russian and Russian type, and betrays no noticeable
trace of a Mongolian admixture. The difference of the
Ukrainian type from the types of other Eastern Slavs
caught the attention of the great geographer, Reclus,
in the eighties of the past century. At that time he noticed
the closer relationship of the Ukrainians to the Southern
Slavs. Toward the end of the 19th Century, Hamy divided
all the Slavs into two large groups, a tall brachicephalous
group with dark hair, and a short, less brachicephalous
group with light hair. In the first group he included the
Serbians, Croatians, Slovenes, Czechs and Ukrainians;
in the second the Polabians, Poles, White Russians and
Russians. A similar division was accepted also by Deniker.
According to his view the Ukrainians belong to the so-called
Adriatic (Dinaric) Race, while the Poles and the Russians
belong to the two closely related races, the Vistula Race
and the Oriental Race, respectively. The Adriatic Race
has recently come to be considered by many the specifically
Slavic Race. However, it has remained comparatively

UKRAINE 167

pure only in the case of the Southern Slavs and the Ukrain-
ians, while the Northern Slavic races reveal strong foreign
admixtures.

Anthropology shows us, in the Ukrainians, a finely
grown, physically sturdy race of men. Another character-
istic of the Ukrainian People is its great fecundity. Wher-
ever the Ukrainian People has not yet degenerated thru
social pressure and the spread of pauperism, it shows
remarkably high birth figures, which, despite the high
infant mortality resulting from the low grade of culture,"
occasion a very rapid increase in population. The birth
rate and rate of increase (1900-1904) for the central districts
of the Ukraine in European Russia are on the average
yearly: Volhynia 4.5% and 2%, Podolia 4.3% and 1.8%,
Kiev 4% and 1.4%, Kherson 4.5% and 2%, Tauria
4.2% and 1.9%, Katerinoslav 5.6% and 2.8%, Chernihiv
4.6% and 2%m, Poltava 4.3% and 1.9%, Kharkiv 4.9%
and 2%. Galicia, in the early years of the century, has
had a yearly increase in population of 1.6 to 1.8%. These
figures, which are much higher than the corresponding
figures in Polish or Russian national territory, constitute
one of the less agreeable facts which enable us to look
with confidence toward the future of the Ukrainian nation.
For the greater increase of the Ukrainians is not due to a
higher state of culture of the neighbor nations. The
Polish and Russian peasantry is not only not superior to
the Ukrainan in respect to culture, but, on the contrary,
inferior. The greater increase of the Ukrainians is con-
nected only with their superior racial qualities.

The Ukrainian Language

Language is not an absolutely necessary distinguishing
characteristic of a nation, as is shown by the examples of
the Swiss, the North Americans, and the Spanish and
Portuguese daughter-nations in America. If the Ukrainians,

168 UKRAINE

determining to be considered an independent nation, had
the remaining characteristics of an independent nation,
they would certainly be one even if their language were
identical with the Russian, White Russian or Polish.

But, in this regard, the Ukrainians are in the favorable
position of really calling an independent language their
own. To be sure, the opinion has been to a great extent
spread thruout Europe that the Ukrainian language is a
rural dialect of the Polish language, and official Russia is
still encouraging the view that there is only a "Little
Russian dialect" of the Russian language; European science
and publicism opened the doors to both the above-mentioned
unity theories, and the Russian unity theory has become
the solely dominating one even in German science.

Slavic philology passes a different judgment. With the
exception of a few Pan-Russian philologists (Florinsky.etc),
who, as a matter of fact, are not capable philologists at -all,
the entire philological profession is decided on the point
that the Ukrainian language is related to the Russian and
the Polish only to the extent that the Serbian and Bulgarian
are, for instance, or the Polish and Czechic. The investiga-
tions of Miklosich, Malinovsky, Dahl, Maksimovich,
Potebnia, Zitetsky, Ohonovsky, Shakhmatov, Broch, Bau-
douin de Courtenay, Fortunatov, Korsh,Krimsky,Satotsky,
and others, have proved beyond a doubt that the Ukrainian
language is not a dialect of the Russian language, but an
independent language of equal rank with the Russian.
The same opinion has been expressed most forcibly by the
St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences in its famous official
decision, "Concerning the Removal of the Restrictions on
Little Russian Publications, St. Petersburg, 1905." The
Academy emphasized expressly that the Russian and
Ukrainian languages are two independent languages of
equal rank. The Russian written language is not built up
on a general East Slavic, but only on a Great Russian

UKRAINE 169

foundation. Hence, it cannot be forced upon the Ukrainians,
since they have a completely developed written language
at their command.

It is very likely that, in a far distant prehistoric time,
all Eastern Slavic tribes, the ancestors of the present
Ukrainians, White Russians and Russians, spoke a common
tongue. But soon after the beginnings of historical life in
Eastern Europe we see these Slavic races divided lingually
into three groups. In the 11th Century, the differences
between the language spoken in Kiev or Halich on the one
hand, and Vladimir on the Klasma or Sugdal on the other,
were already distinct. The political unification of all the
Eastern Slavic tribes in the Kiev Empire could not eradi-
cate these differences between North and South, and they
are very evident in the literary monuments of that time.
The disruption of the Empire of Kiev into loosely connected
principalities, the formation of the Muscovite political
center, the decline of Kiev — all went to strengthen the
lingual antitheses between the ancestors of the Ukrainians
and those of the Russians. The Tatar oppression finally
separated the Muscovite group permanently from the
Ukrainian, forcing each to lead a separate historical life.
The Ukraine fell under Lithuanian, then Polish rule;
Muscovy gradually developed into the Russian Empire.
The differences in language, which in the 14th Century
were already appreciable, increased so strongly thru the
independent development of each language that in the
18th Century, when Russia received the greatest part of
the Ukraine beneath her dominion, the Russian and
Ukrainian languages confronted one another as entirely
independent languages.

According to the investigations of Stozky and Gartner,
the Ukrainian language, from a philological point of view,
is related to the Russian only to about the same extent
that it is related to the Polish or Czechic. Of all Slavic

170 UKRAINE

languages the nearest to the Ukrainian is theSerbo-Croatian.
From this it follows that the Ukrainians must at one time
have had a much closer community with the Serbo-Croations
than with the Russians.

We see here a fine example of how relationship of
languages goes hand in hand with anthropological relation-
ship. (Incidentally, proof is herewith presented that the
anthropological characteristics in the peoples of Eastern
Europe have an entirely different significance from the
same in Western and Central Europe). This coincidence
of two sciences, entirely independent of one another,
causes the Ukrainians to appear to us a very peculiar
independent unit in the Slavic family of races. Only the
restriction of the knowledge of Ukrainian among Slavists,
the interpretation of Eastern European history always from
the Russian point of view, the common church language,
which, for a long time, was the basis of the written language
as well, the unfortunate confusion due to the name Russ,
Russki, which as ancient state designations for the Empire
of Kiev were usurped by the Muscovite Empire and applied
to all Eastern Slavic nations; these things have made it
possible to conceal the real state of affairs from the eyes
of European science and have helped establish the Russian
unity theory.

That the Ukrainian language is independent and
entirely different from Russian or Polish is known to every
illiterate peasant from one end of the Ukraine to the other.
He does not understand the Pole and the Russian ; likewise
his language is unintelligible to a Pole or Russian. Polish
is the more easily understood by the uneducated Ukrainian,
since the living together of the Poles and Ukrainians for
centuries in the Polish-Lithuanian state resulted in impor-
tant influences in both directions, especially in the vocabu-
lary. But Russian, with its strange vocabulary and
phonetic character, different manner of word-building,

UKRAINE 171

declension and conjugation, is for a Ukrainian a difficult
foreign language. How much trouble must the Ukrainian
peasantry endure at every step because the unintelligible
Russian language is used exclusively in administration,
court, school and church! The educated Ukrainian who
has been trained in Russian schools has had much trouble
to learn his Russian, and he never has so complete a com-
mand of it that a Russian could not immediately recognize
"the Khakhol in him." For an educated Ukrainian trained
outside of Russia, Russian is as hard to learn, if not more so,
than the Polish, Czechic or Serbian. Such obvious facts
convince us of the independence of the Ukrainian language,
perhaps, more forcibly than the arguments of learned
philologists.

The Ukrainian language, like every other great Euro-
pean language, is not uniform. Because of the great
extent of the Ukrainian territory and the great population,
favorable conditions have always been present for the
formation of dialects and idioms. The Ukrainian language
has four dialects, — the South Ukrainian, the North Ukrain-
ian, the Galician (Red Ruthenian), and the Carpathian
mountain dialect. The South Ukrainian dialect embraces
the south of the region of Kiev, Kursk, Voroniz, the entire
regions of Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson, Katerinoslav,
Tauria, Don and Kuban. It possesses three idioms; — the
northern, which constitutes the basis of the present Ukrain-
ian literary language, the central, and the southern or
steppe idiom. The North Ukrainian dialect includes the
Chernihov country, the northern part of the Kiev district,
Northern Volhynia, the Polissye along the Pripet, and the
northern part of the Pidlassye. Its idioms are the Cherni-
hov, the North Ukrainian proper, the Polissian, and the
Black Ruthenian. The Galician or Ruthenian dialect takes
in: Galicia (outside of the mountains), the Kholm region,
Southern Volhynia and Western Podolia, and possesses

172 UKRAINE

two idioms, — the Podolian-Volhynian and the Galician
(Dniester) idiom. The Carpathian Mountain dialect
includes the entire Ukrainian Carpathian country and has
four idioms, — the Hutzulian, the Boikish, the Lemko idiom,
and the Slovak-Ruthenian border-idiom.

The Ukrainian dialects and idioms differ very little
from one another, as indeed is the case with all the dialects
and idioms of all the Slavic languages. A comparison
of the Ukrainian dialects and idioms with the German,
for instance, is entirely impossible. The Kuban Cossack or
the Boiko, an Ukrainian inhabitant of Polissye or of Bessara-
bia, understand one another without the slightest difficulty.
Only the Lemko idiom and Ruthenian-Slbyak^rtieW
idiom show greater differences than other Ukrainian idioms.
Beyond that, a great uniformity of language prevails
thruout the wide areas of the Ukraine. A popular tale
taken on a phonograph in the Kuban sub-Caucasus
country is heard with the same understanding in a peasants'
reading society in the neighborhood of Peremishl, as if it
came from a neighboring village, instead of a border country
of the Ukraine thousands of kilometers distant. The
same folk-songs, proverbs and fairy tales are found in
Pidlassye and along the Manich, at Chernihiv and Odessa,
on the Don and on the Dniester.

The Ukrainian language is distinguished by advantages
which insure it a high place among Slavic languages. The
great wealth of vowels, the full tone, the softness and
flexibility, the transition of many vowels to the i-sound, the
absence of the massing of several consonants in one syllable,
make Ukrainian the most melodious Slavic language. After
the Italian language the Ukrainian is best adapted for
singing. Most important, however, is the great richness of
the Ukrainian language. This richness is all the more
remarkable in that it did not come about thru centuries
of development of the language in literature and science.

UKRAINE 173

The common people have collected and preserved the
treasures of the Ukrainian language. While the vocabulary
of an English farmer, according to Ratzel, does not include
more than three hundred words, the Ukrainian peasant
uses as many thousands. And, incidentally, the purity of
the language is remarkable. Barely a few borrowed words
have been introduced into the language of the people thru
the centuries of contact with neighboring peoples. They
disappear entirely amid the wealth of pure Ukrainian
words. What interests us geographers and natural scien-
tists most of all is the wonderful wealth of the colloquial
language in very striking names for surface forms, natural
phenomena, plants and animals. The construction and
codification of the Ukrainian terminology of natural
sciences and geography was, therefore, very easy. The
infant science of the Ukraine possesses a terminology which,
for example, far surpasses the Russian.

The most important proofs of the independence of the
Ukrainian language are Ukrainian literature and Ukrainian
science. The Ukrainian language has given proof, thru
its development of a thousand years, that it is capable of
giving expression to the loftiest products of human feeling
and human intellect.

Ukrainian national literature cannot possibly be com-
pared with the literature of a Provencal or Low German
dialect, which represents the daily life of a small group of
people. Ukrainian Literature is the versatile literature of a
great nation; a literature which looks back upon a history
of a thousand years and continues to develop in spite of
all obstacles. A strong foundation is furnished it in the
remarkably rich, popular poetry, which has not a counter-
part in the entire civilized world.

Ukrainian Literature holds a high place among Slavic
literatures. Only Russian and Polish Literature surpass it
in the number and greatness of their works.

174 UKRAINE

The history of almost a thousand years of Ukrainian
Literature begins at the time of the fullest development of
the Kiev Empire, when the so-called Chronicle of Nestor
originated, the Galician-Volhynian Chronicle, the powerful
Epic of Igor and other important monuments of Ukrainian
Literature (the works of Ilarion, Serapion, Kirilo Turivsky,
etc.)- Their language is built up upon the Church-Slavonic
dialect, but presents great linguistic departures, as early as
the 11th Century, from the literary works simultaneously
produced in the Russian territory to the north.

This promising beginning of the old Ukrainian Litera-
ture was almost completely crushed by five centuries of
Tatar barbarism. The continuous state of war, the loss of
their independent political organization, the crushing
foreign yoke, permitted only a weak vegetating of Ukrainian
Literature for five centuries. Legal, theological, philosoph-
ical and polemic literary monuments and the beginnings
of the drama, written in a Macaronic language made up of
a mixture of Ukrainian and Church-Slavonic, can at the
most be considered proof that the educated Ukrainians of
that time had too little leisure and opportunity to devote
themselves to artistic literature.

But these times of decline of the written literature are
at once the times of the greatest flourishing of the unwritten
literature of the people. The old pre-christian religious
and secular songs and tales were not forgotten, and the
active, warlike life of the nation created an immense mass
of epic folk-lore dumy, which was sung by by wandering
minstrels (kobzar, bandurist). Toward the end of the
18th Century, when the political and national destruction
of the Ukrainian nation seemed inevitable, the Ukrainian
popular literature reached such a high stage of development
that it awoke the educated classes of the nation to new
literary life.

Through the introduction of the pure popular speech

UKRAINE 175

into Ukrainian Literature (by Kotlarevsky, in 1798), and
thru the great influence of the popular literature, the
foundation was laid for an unanticipated rise of Ukrainian
Literature. In the course of the 19th Century the history
of Ukrainian Literature has a number of great poets and
prose writers to show, who would be a credit even to the
greatest literatures of the world (Shevchenko, Vovchok,
Kulish, Fedkovich, Franko, Mirni, Kotsiubinsky, Vinni-
chenko and others), as well as a considerable number of
lesser poets. Great versatility characterizes the works of
Ukrainian Literature in th'e 19th Century, and in the
20th Century its development in all directions is making
giant strides.

The second half of the 19th Century was also marked
by a very active study of the sciences, leading to the found-
ing of two learned bodies very much along the plan of the
so-called "Academies" (in Lemberg and Kiev). In every
branch of human knowledge the Ukrainians can already
point to publications, books and dissertations in their
own language.

The versatility and richness of Ukrainian Literature
assure it a prominent place among Slavonic literatures,
thus furnishing proof, if any is needed, that the Ukrainian
language is not a mere dialect, but a civilized language in
every sense of the word; and the testimony of Ukrainian
scholarship strengthens the case beyond a doubt. For
surely nobody could d iscuss problems of higher mathematics,
biology or geomorphology in a dialect analogous to the
Provencal or Low German.

The rise of the Ukrainian literary language from the
speech of the common people makes clear that it will be an
admirable means of educating the race, in view of its well-
known intelligence, into an enlightened and progressive
nation. But the Russian government has been thoroughly
aware of this, and for fear of national separatism, has left

176 UKRAINE

no stone unturned in its efforts to stop the development of
Ukrainian Literature and, finally, by the famous ukase of
the Czar of the year 1876 has forbidden absolutely the
publication of any writings in the Ukrainian language.
None but a really living and significant literature could
have survived these thirty years (1876 — 1905) of repression,
and Ukrainian Literature has stood the test!

Historico-Political Traditions and Aspirations
of the Ukrainians

Anthropological and lingual distinguishing character-
istics are not sufficient to make a race into a nation. An
individual nation, whether it be a Staatsnation or a Kultur-
nation, must have its own historical, tradition, its own
sacrifices and heroes, its own historical griefs and joys.
These are the basis of the united aspiration to an ideal of
the future, of that constant plebescite which E. Renan
regards as the thing which makes a race into a nation.

Now it is really the historico-political traditions which
are very strongly developed in the Ukrainians. The story
of his fatherland, full of the most terrible catastrophes, with
the frightful Tatar menace and the oppression enduring
for centuries, still lives in the consciousness of even the
most uneducated Ukrainian. How few happy moments
does the history of the Ukraine present, and yet no people
in the world so dearly loves its past and so piously honors
its national heroes as the Ukrainian People. And in this
connection I do not mean the educated Ukrainians who
know the history of their country, but the illiterate peasant,
who recalls in his songs the naval expeditions to Constan-
tinople, the old princes of the Kiev dynasty, the hetmans,
and the great commanders of the Cossack period.

It is the historico-political tradition, living even in the
lowest ranks of the nation, that gives the Ukrainians their
most important indications of separate national existence.

UKRAINE 177

And, had it not been for the dense ignorance that prevails
in Western Europe regarding the history of the eastern
half of the continent, and for the advertising carried on to
this very day by Russian scholars in behalf of their propa-
ganda for "Russian" history, which has worked its way
into all the history books, this real condition of affairs
could never have been obscured so long. We shall now
attempt to determine the main lines of the Ukrainian
historical tradition, basing our exposition on the works of
Kostomariv, Antonovich, Drahomaniv, Hrushevsky and
others.

The historical life of the Ukrainian Nation 'has been
of an entirely different type from that of the Poles or
Russians. Hence, the historical traditions and, consequent-
ly, the present political aspirations of the three nations, are
entirely different.

The Ukrainian historical tradition has its roots in the
ancient Kingdom of Kiev. Altho the historians of Eastern
Europe are still undecided as to whether the so-called Old
Russian Kingdom was founded by the Varangians in the
present Northern Russia, or by the Eastern Slavic tribes of
the south in Kiev, I have no doubt that the latter viewshould
be approved. Anthropogeography knows no instance of a
pirate band, at most a few thousand strong, which, within
a few decades, could constitute a kingdom embracing half
a continent. The Normans, to be sure, were able to found
governments in Normandy, Naples and Sicily; they were
even able to conquer the England of their day and to settle
there, because everywhere they could take advantage of
already existing state organizations and modify them to
suit their purpose. Whenever the state organization was
just in its beginnings, as for instance, in their own country,
the Normans exhibited no particular capacity for state-
organization.

The ancient Kingdom of Kiev, which is called "Old

178 UKRAINE

Russian" in all historical works, was a state organized by
the southern group of the Eastern Slavic races, particularly
the Polan race around Kiev. The tribal chiefs, who had
grown rich thru commercial relations with Byzantium,
founded the State of Kiev. This government was already
in existence in the beginning of the 9th Century. With the
aid of mercenaries from Scandinavia (Varangians) who,
since the middle of the 9th Century, had been serving in
the armies of the princes of Kiev, the Kingdom during
the 10th Century gave remarkable evidences of a very
unusual activity of expansion. The Northern Slavic tribes,
the forbears of the Russians of today, were subjugated, the
nomadic tribes of the steppes were driven back, commercial
and cultural relations were established with the Byzantine
Empire. In the year 988 the Great Prince of Kiev (Vladimir
the Great), together with all his peoples accepted Greek
Christianity — with Slavic rites. There ensued, especially
under his successor, Yaroslav the wise, a great advance in the
material and spiritual civilization of the ancient Ukrainians.

The fact that the ancient state of Kiev, as well as its
civilization, was produced by the ancient Ukrainians, is
evident, not only from the fact that the most ancient
literary monuments of Kiev already show specifically
Ukrainian peculiarities of language. A still more important
piece of evidence is the constitution of the Kingdom of
Kiev, which originated thru the amalgamation of the newly
organized royal power with the original republican con-
stitution of the Ukrainians.

The ancient clan constitution has been of as fundamental
importance for the historico-political tradition of the
Ukraine as the Kingdom of Kiev itself.

All the power of government rested originally in the
hands of the general assembly of all freemen, whose decrees
were executed by elected officials, consisting in part of the
war-chieftains (probably the later princes). In the ancient

UKRAINE 179

Kingdom of Kiev there was constant opposition between the
power of the princes, which originated later and rested on
military might, and the power of the clan assembly,
sanctioned by long tradition. The Prince, his retainers,
and the Boyar nobility, which gradually developed out of
the body of retainers, were never liked by the people. The
Kingdom of Kiev grew out of the union of trade, and was
a union which at that time was necessary. The govern-
mental system established by the princes of the Kiev
dynasty, on foreign models, was inherently alien to the
original social-political system of the Ukrainian People,
so that the amalgamation of these two elements was
difficult, in fact, almost impossible.

Altho, as time passed, the General Assembly (viche —
a name that is applied to all political assemblies of the
Ukrainians to this day) partly regained their former power,
and, altho at the same time various provisions of the original
constitution sifted into the new governmental organization,
monarchy, nevertheless, always remained something extran-
eous and unpleasant to the people. There is no wonder,
therefore, that the State of Kiev never attained a power in
keeping with its great territory and population. The people
ostensibly supported everything which tended to weaken
the power of the government. Thru the entire existence
of the ancient Kingdom of Kiev, its Great Princes were
forced to wrestle with the Boyar nobility and the people
for absolute power. This limitation of the monarchic
power turned out to be a disaster for the Kingdom of Kiev.
By applying the practice of succession to the throne, in
accordance with a principle known as that of "seniority,"
there resulted the formation of numerous petty principalities,
all rather loosely, perhaps only nominally, subject to the
authority of the Great Prince of Kiev. The Boyar caste
and the people were very persistent in their labors to aid
in the formation and maintenance of these petty princi-

180 UKRAINE

palities thruout the southern portion of the Kingdom of
Kiev.

At the same time, it is very probable that if the ancient
State of Kiev had survived a longer time, the Ukrainian
People would gradually have become accustomed to a
constitution founded on caste and privilege. It would also
have been possible, as early as the Middle Ages, for the
Ukrainian People to attain a constitutional monarchy.
But things happened differently.

The Kingdom, weakened by partitions, was soon
confronted by a powerful enemy in the young Muscovite
State which was formed by the northern petty principalities
of the Kingdom. In a series of bloody wars with the Mus-
covite State, Kiev was so permanently weakened that the
headquarters of Ukrainian political life had to be shifted
southward, in the 13th Century, to Halich on the Dniester.
Then, the situation of this Kiev country was such as to
expose it to continuous invasion on the part of the nomadic
warlike tribes which infested the steppes of the Ukraine.
But the nation managed to hold them in check during this
weary term of warfare. When, however, the hosts of the
Mongol potentate, Djingis Khan, appeared in the Pontian
steppes, the resources of Kiev and Halich were no longer
equal to the pressure. In the three days' battle on the
Kalka (1224) their army was annihilated, and in 1240 the
city of Kiev was razed to the ground. The principality
(later kingdom) of Halich survived it by almost a century,
but could not withstand the continued aggressions of the
Tatars on the one side and of the Poles and Lithuanians
on the other; in 1340 it was incorporated with Poland by
right of succession, and thus ended the first national
organization of the Ukrainian People. All the Ukraine,
excepting the forest regions in the northwest, had been
completely devastated.

The Polish-Lithuanian state treated the Ukraine as

UKRAINE 181

conquered territory. Being now dissenters in the midst of
a Catholic state, the Ukrainian nobles were limited in
their prerogatives, and deserted their faith and their nation-
ality, in order to have a share in the golden freedom of
Poland. The burgher class was tyrannized (as was the
practice all over Poland) ; the peasant became a serf. The
splendid task of an ecclesiastical union with Rome was
solved (Florence, 1439; Brest 1596) in an unsatisfactory
manner and bore little fruit at the time. Every Ukrainian
was made to feel the iron hand of the Polish government,
and their dissatisfaction expressed itself in numerous
rebellions. And yet the Polish-Lithuanian State was far
too weak to protect the Ukraine against the onslaughts of
the Tatars. Every year these hordes of riders sallied forth
from the Crimea, pushing their invasions even as far as
Galicia and Volhynia, devastating the country and depopu-
lating it by seizures of slaves, conducted according to a
systematic plan. The victims of this slave trade filled the
markets of the Orient for centuries.

It was inevitable that this sorely-tried nation should
take steps to defend itself. And its efforts were successful
in that they led to the formation of a new independent
state, but unsuccessful in that they exhausted its resources
and later had a tragical outcome.

The constant state of warfare on the Tatar border
forced the Ukrainian population in those parts to adopt a
policy of continual "Preparedness." These fighting people
of the marshes led a precarious life, but they had access
to the virgin lands of the borders with all their natural
treasures, and the exploiting Polish officials did not dare
venture forth into these dangerous districts. These armed
farmers, hunters and fishermen led an independent life
and called themselves Cossacks, i. e., "free warriors."

In the 16th Century there arose among these Ukrainian
Cossacks a military state organization, the center of which

182 UKRAINE

was a strongly fortified position below the rapids of the
Dnieper (the Zaporog Sich). The Zaporog warrior state,
compared by some to a religious order of knights (because
of their compulsory celibacy and their wars against un-
believers) , by others to a communistic republic, shows us
most clearly what has always been the goal of the Ukrainian
"political idea." In the Zaporog organization, absolute
equality of all citizens in all political and social rights pre-
vailed above all else. All authority was vested in the
General Assembly of all the Zaporogs, and their decisions
were enforced by elective officers who were, at the same
time, officers of the army. The liberty of the individual
was very great, but had to yield to the will of the whole.
And when, in time of war, the General Assembly delegated
unlimited dictatorial power to the highest official, the
Hetman, it gave him a degree of authority with which the
power of any one of the absolute rulers of Europe at the
time could not be compared.

In the aristocratic state organization of Poland there
was no room for such a lawless democratic state as that of
the Zaporogs was in Polish eyes. The entire Ukrainian
nation regarded the Zaporog Cossacks as their natural
defenders against the terrible Tatar peril, and likewise as
their sole hope as opposed to the oppression practiced by
the Poles. An ominous discontent prevailed thruout the
Ukraine, and after the Poles had naturally taken severe
measures, a number of Cossack revolts occurred in rapid
succession, beginning toward the end of the 16th Century
and filling the first half of the 17th. In these revolts the
Cossacks were supported by the oppressed peasantry. But
the Polish Kingdom was rather deficient, always, as far as
its standing army was concerned, and was obliged to
appeal to the Ukrainian Cossack organization, which it
could not possibly destroy, to aid in its wars against the
Turks, the Russians and the Swedes.

UKRAINE 183

Finally, in 1648, the Ukrainian Cossacks, aided by the
entire people, from the Dnieper to the San, raised the
standard of rebellion, and under the leadership of Bohdan
Khmelnyzki, succeeded in annihilating the Polish armies.
Thus the Ukrainian Nation fought for and won its inde-
pendence again after three hundred years of a foreign yoke.
Chmelnyzki, after his victory over the Poles, extended
the Cossack organization beyond the narrow bounds of the
Zaporoze, over the entire huge area of the Ukraine.

Surrounded by enemies on all sides, the new state
needed calm and quiet to enable it to achieve the necessary
internal organization. Much time was needed to organize
the new order completely in so enormous a country, to
bring to a successful conclusion the fight against the Polish
social-political order, which had prevailed here so long and
was so different from the Ukrainian. It required much time
to work out new constitutional forms, which were inevita-
ble, now that the Zaporog organization was extended over
great areas. Khmelnitsky negotiated with all the surround-
ing governments and peoples, with the Poles, the Transy-
Ivanians, the Swedes, the Turks, and finally, in 1654,
concluded the treaty of Pereyaslav with Russia, with
which they were related by ties of religion. This treaty
provided that the Ukraine should retain a complete
autonomy, as well as their Cossack organization, the latter
under the suzerainty of the Czar. The Hetman, who was
to be elected by the votes of the General Assembly, was
even to retain the right of conducting an independent
foreign policy.

But Russia had no mind to respect the treaty that
bound it in dual alliance with the warlike Ukrainian nation.
The democratic form of government in the Ukraine was an
abomination to Russia, just as it was to aristocratic
Poland.

Once the Cossack- republic was under the control of

184 UKRAINE

Moscow, the Russian government felt that not a stone
must be left unturned to destroy this dangerous national
organism. Taking advantage of the untimely death of
Khmelnitsky (1657), and the incompetence of his immediate
successors, Russia began her political machinations in the
Ukraine. The Cossack generals were inspired with pre-
judice against the Hetman, the common Cossacks against
their superior officers, and the common people against all
who were wealthy and in authority; huge sums of money
were spent, successfully, and vast tracts of land granted
as fiefs; and Russia thus fished in troubled waters to
very good advantage. At every successive election of a new
Hetman the autonomy of the Ukraine was cut down,
and in the Peace of Andrussovo (1667) with Poland, the
country was partitioned. Of the two sections, one, that
nearest to Poland, which had been dreadfully devastated
and depopulated, was ceded to that country, and this
section very soon lost its Ukrainian form of government
and its Cossack organization. The section on the other
side, the left side, east of the Dneiper, under its dashing
Hetman, Mazeppa, made an effort, during the Scandinavian
War, to throw off the Russian yoke. Mazeppa made an al-
liance with Charles XII of Sweden. But the Battle of
Poltava (1709) buried all his hopes. He had to flee to Turkey
with Charles XII, and the Ukrainian rebellion was put
down by Peter the Great with the most frightful atrocities,
and finally the guaranteed autonomy of the Ukraine was
abolished. To be sure, the title of Hetman was again
introduced after the death of Peter the Great, but it had
only a wretched semblance of life. Even this shadow of
autonomy was destroyed in 1764; in 1775 the last bulwark
of the Ukraine, the Zaporog Sich, fell into the hands of the
Russians thru treachery, and was destroyed by them. The
peasants became serfs.

Russia thus^succeeded, in the course of about a century

UKRAINE 185

and a half, incompletely wiping out the later, second Ukrain-
ian state. The devious policy Russia was simultaneously
carrying on in Poland, led also to the latter's downfall.
In the successive partitions of Poland (1772 — 1795), the
entire part of that nation which was inhabited by Ukrain-
ians, with the exception of Eastern Galicia and the Bukow-
ina, which fell to Austria, became the property of Russia.

But Russia was not satisfied with political domination
alone. Russia already understood, in the 17th Century,
that the Ukrainians differed entirely from the Russians in
language, customs and views of life. The Russian govern-
ment, therefore, inaugurated a policy of rigid repression
of all these points of difference. As early as 1680 it pro-
hibited any use of the Ukrainian language in ecclesiastical
literature. In 1720, the printing of any Ukrainian books
at all was forbidden. All Ukrainian schools were closed.
In the middle of the 18th Century there were, in the
province of Chernihov, 866 schools that had been founded
during the period of Ukrainian autonomy; sixty years later
not one of these was in existence. This, together with the
attempt to introduce the Russian language, which none of
them understands, is the cause of the overwhelming
percentage of analphabets among the Ukrainians. The
Ukrainian orthodox church, which enjoyed absolute
autonomy, with a sort of loose subordination to the Patriarch
of Constantinople, was made subject to the Patriarch of
Moscow (later to the Holy Synod) and became completely
Russified. The Greek-United faith, which had many
adherents in the Western Ukraine, was completely sup-
pressed by the Russian government, and all who confessed
it were obliged, by the most terrible persecutions, to "return
to the orthodox belief." The Ukrainian people became
completely estranged from their former national church,
which now is a tool wielded for purposes of Russification.

The bloody wars for independence which the Ukrainian

186 UKRAINE

nation waged against Poland and Russia consequently
brought no realization of its political ideals of liberty,
equality, and a constitutional, democratic form of govern-
ment. Instead came a terrible political, social and national
oppression, which threatened to bring about the downfall
of the tortured nation.

But the Russification of the Ukraine seemed to be
making very little headway. To be sure, many educated
Ukrainians, for the sake of personal advantage or for other
considerations, did renounce their nationality, and some
in fact, like Gogol, became great lights of Russian Litera-
ture. Yet there always remained the feeling of national
independence, together with a living historical tradition,
which continued to groan despite all obstacles. The rise of
Ukrainian Literature did most to aid this great movement.

The idea of working for national independence was
revived first in the Russian Ukraine, and found its logical
starting point in the tradition of the one-time autonomy
of the country. As early as the forties of the 19th Century,
the national ideology of the modern Ukrainian movement
was complete in all essential respects. It then made its
way very rapidly to the Austrian Ukraine, and Galicia,
particularly, soon became a national Piedmont to the
Ukrainian people, who were so ruthlessly oppressed in
Russia.

The present-day political efforts of the Ukrainian
nation are a direct continuation of the former efforts, and
a logical result of the historical tradition of the Ukraine.
The ideal of these efforts was, and is, liberty and equality
and the participation of all in government and legislation.
Not until the present time has this ideal ceased to be an
anachronism ; only the present has opened to the Ukrainian
nation a field of political activity; only in the present have
these forms of political life, which the Ukrainian nation
strove for, without success, so many centuries, become the

UKRAINE 187

common possession of the entire civilized world. Hence,
we may look with confidence toward the future. Now, at
last, the times have come in which the Ukrainian nation
may freely develop its political life; the times in which the
political ideals which have been sacred to this nation for
centuries, have become the common goal of civilized
humanity.

The idea of the revival of the Ukrainian state developed
gradually from a movement with modest aims to one of
larger aims. It was generally recognized that the free
development of the Ukrainian Nation could take place
only outside of Russia. Hence, in the 20th Century, an
independent democratic Ukraine, enclosed in its ethno-
graphic boundaries, became the highest national ideal.
Toward this goal all political parties of the Ukraine are
striving today. The path leading to this goal is the fight
for the autonomy of the Ukrainian territory in the frame
of the states dominating it. In Russia, the efforts of the
Ukrainians are almost hopeless. On the other hand, the
Ukrainians place much hope in Austria, who has afforded
her Ukrainians opportunities for political and cultural
development.

The historico-political traditions of the Ukrainians are
entirely different from those of the nations adjacent to
them. The Polish tradition is a tradition of a one-time
great kingdom, which was probably built up upon a local
constitution similar to that of the oldest Ukrainian State.
But fate permitted Poland to live thru the sorrowful
period of partitions and civil wars, while, at the same time,
the old Kingdom of Kiev was destroyed by the Mongols.
Poland consolidated into a strong united kingdom, western
influences destroyed the old local constitution entirely,
the common people became serfs, and the classes of the
aristocracy, nobility and bourgeoisie were formed. Thru
wars, and particularly thru its union wkh Lithuania,

188 UKRAINE

Poland increased considerably in size, for a time including
almost the entire bridge of land between the Baltic and the
Black Seas, and, in the 15th Century, became the most
powerful state of Eastern Europe. At that time the Poles
became the dominant race over the Lithuanians, White
Russians, and Ukrainians. The entire ideology of the
dominant caste became a characteristic of the Poles. In
this very property of a ruling people lies the basis of the
aristocratic nature of the historico-political tradition of the
Poles. This aristocratic quality has a more important
foundation in the historical development of Polish society.
The middle class in Poland declined very rapidly, and the
nobility and the magnates dominated the entire political,
social and intellectual life of the country, so that Polish
society, in the last centuries of the existence of the Polish
kingdom, was purely aristocratic, and was supported on
the backs of the completely submerged peasant and middle
classes. Even tho, in the patrician republic, when the
power of the kings was extremely limited, mobocracy or
even anarchy very often prevailed, these forms also were
aristocratic. This aristocratic tradition is responsible for
the fact that democratic currents still find little encour-
agement among the Poles. Even the social democrats are
obsessed with the Great-Polish state-idea.

From these facts, we perceive that the historico-political
traditions of the Poles are entirely different from those of the
Ukrainians. Just as great is the difference in their present
aspirations. The Poles, with an endurance that is worthy
of admiration, and awakens universal sympathy, are
striving for the reorganization of their independent state.
But not with ethnographic boundaries like the Ukrainians,
but with ancient historical boundaries from the Baltic to
the Dnieper and the Black Sea. To attain this goal, the
Poles are trying, above all, to hinder the adjacent peoples,
the Lithuanians, White Russians and Ukrainians, in their

UKRAINE 189

national progress, and, whenever possible, to assimilate
them. These efforts are responsible for the very sharp
conflicts of the present day between the one-time rulers and
their one-time subjects.

The Russian historico-political traditions are quite as
different from and as opposed to those of the Ukrainians as
the Polish, but in another direction. The Muscovite
State was created out of the petty principalities which the
ancient Kiev dynasty had founded among the Eastern
Slavic races and the Finnish tribes of the north. From the
blending of the Slavs and the Finns came the foundation of
the present Russian or Great Russian (Muscovite) Nation.
The name "Russian" was derived from the name of the
dynasty. But the state was in reality simply Muscovite,
for the Muscovite people gave this state a substance
which was entirely different from the substance of the old
Kingdom of Kiev. As early as the 12th Century we observe
the Muscovite people striving for centralization and
absolute power for the princes in their state. It was to the
advantage of the prince to undermine the influence of the
Boyar nobility and the clergy, and to attain absolute or
even despotic power in the state. Not equal rights and
liberty for all citizens as with the Ukrainians, or for certain
classes as with the Poles, but the despotic authority of the
Great Prince (later Czar), is the basis of the historico-
political tradition of the Russian people. The absolute
power of the ruler, that everlasting bugbear of the Poles
and Ukrainians, becomes a sacred object to the Russian
nation, and makes it possible for them to establish a
Russian Empire which devours Poland and the Ukraine.
For a comparison of the three adjacent states, the second half
of the 16th Century affords the best illustration. At
the same time that the radical-democratic Cossack republic
originated in the Ukraine, and Poland was a paradise of
golden freedom for the aristocrats and the nobility, with a

190 UKRAINE

powerless kingship and a suppressed people, we witness in
Russia the bloody orgies of thedespotism of IvantheTerrible.

The historico-political tradition of the Russian people
places the Czar only slightly below God. The entire people,
without class distinction, are slaves (kholopi) of the Czar,
his property. The individual counts for nothing; everything
must be sacrificed to the general good, which is embodied
in the Czar. The reforms of Peter the Great, altho they
gave Russia the external appearance of a civilized state,
had no significance for the historico-political tradition of
Russia. At most, they even strengthened the prestige of
the absolute rule of the Czar, thru arguments repeated
after the Western European absolutism. Even the Russian
revolution of 1905 could not weaken this historico-political
tradition. At best the revolution undermined its signifi-
cance in some spheres of the Russian intelligenzia (nu-
merically small). And, even in these spheres, it meant
only the modification of the authority for which the
Russian national spirit retains an immutable respect.

The present-day aspirations of the Russian Nation are
hardly definite in their outlines. Nevertheless, it can
already be clearly seen that they will follow the beaten
path of the century-old tradition. The greatest possible
expansion and strengthening of the Empire and the assimila-
tion of all foreign peoples (including the Ukrainians too),
will constitute the main substance of these aspirations.
The Muscovite world has always been extremely intolerant
of divergencies in faith, language and customs. This
intolerance has always existed, and always will exist, even
tho it may sometimes conceal itself behind a very cleverly
adjusted mantle of commonplaces.

Ukrainian Culture

When we speak of culture as a distinguishing mark of
a specific nation, we mean, of course, not culture in the

UKRAINE 191

widest sense of the word, but those well-known cultural
peculiarities which characterise every European nation.

The Ukraine lies wholly within the confines of the
greater European cultural community. But its distance
from the great culture-centers of Western and Central
Europe has, of course, not been without profound effect.
The Ukraine is at a low stage of culture, and must be
measured by Eastern European standards.

The Ukraine, which in the 11th Century caused great
astonishment among travelers from Western Europe,
because of its comparatively high culture, can now be
counted only as one of the semi-cultural countries of
Europe. The very low stage of material culture, to which
the economic conditions of the country bear the best
witness, is characteristic of the Ukraine in its entire extent.
The intellectual culture of the people appears frightfully
low. The number who know how to read are 172 out of a
thousand in Volhynia, 155 in Podolia, 181 in Kiev, 259 in
Kherson, 184 in Chernihiv, 169 in Poltava, 168 in Kharkiv,
215 in Katerinoslav, 279 in Tauria, and 168 in Kuban.
These hopeless figures, to be sure, are only a result of the
exclusive use of the Russian language, which is unintelli-
gible to the Ukrainians, in all the schools. Even in the
first school-year, it is not permitted to explain the most
unintelligible words of the foreign language in Ukrainian.
This frightfully low grade of education of the people
permits of no progress in the economic life of the country.
Even the most well-meaning efforts of the government or
the Zemstvo, break on the brazen wall of illiteracy and
ignorance of the Russian language. And Ukrainian books
of instruction and information are forbidden as dangerous
to the state. No wonder, then, that the Ukrainian farmer
tills his field, raises his cattle, carries on his home industries,
cures his ills, etc., just as his forefathers used to do. There
is a small number of the educated who are still cultivating

192 UKRAINE

literature and art, feebly enough for the size of the nation —
but how could one speak of a distinct, independent culture
here?

And yet it exists. For the low stage of culture which
every foreign tourist, who only knows the railroads and
cities, immediately notices, applies only to the culture
created in the Ukraine by the ruling foreign peoples, to-
gether with the small mass of Ukrainian intelligenzia. (The
intellectual culture of the Ukrainian educated classes will
be discussed later). In the same way, every hasty observer
would consider the Ukrainian peasant as a semi-European,
standing on a very low level of culture. And yet this
illiterate peasant possesses an individual popular culture,
far exceeding the popular cultures of the Poles, Russians
and White Russians. The settlements, buildings, costumes,
the nourishment and mode of life of the Ukrainian peasant
stand much higher than those of the Russian, White Russian
and Polish peasant. Hence, the Ukrainian peasant easily
and completely assimilates all peasant settlers in his own
land. The rich ethnological life, the unwritten popular
literature and popular music which, perhaps, have no
counterpart in Europe, the highly developed popular art
and standard of living, preserve the Ukrainian peasant
from denationalization, even in his most distant colonies.
The power of opposition to Russification is particularly
great. The Ukrainian peasant never enters into mixed
marriages with the Russian muzhik, and hardly ever lives
in the same village with him. The ethnological culture of the
Ukrainian people is, by all means, original and peculiar;
entirely different from the popular cultures of all the neigh-
boring peoples.

Even in prehistoric times, Ukrainian territory was the
seat of a very high culture, the remains of which, now
brought to light, astonish the investigator thru their
loftiness and beauty. In ancient times the early Greek

UKRAINE 193

cultural influences flourished in the Southern Ukraine,
then the Roman, and in the Middle Ages the Byzantine.
Byzantine culture had a great influence upon ancient
Ukrainian culture, and its traces may still be seen in the
popular costume and in ornamentation.

The most important element in Ukrainian culture,
however, is entirely peculiar, and independent of these
influences. The entire view of life of the common man, to
this day, has its roots in the pre-Christian culture of the
ancient Ukraine. The entire creative faculty of the
spirit of the nation has its source there ; all the customs and
manners and very many of the songs and sayings. Christi-
anity did not destroy the old view of life in the Ukraine,
but was adapted to it. This accommodation was all the
easier, because the character of the ancient faith and philos-
ophy of life of the Ukrainian people were not so gloomy
and cruel as was the case with many of the other peoples
of Europe.

Outside of the prehistoric, Byzantine and Christian
body of culture, we observe extremely few foreign influences
in the popular culture of the Ukraine. It is highly inde-
pendent and individualized. The Polish and Muscovite
influences are very insignificant, and appear only here and
there in the borderlands of the Ukraine.

It would require the giving of a detailed ethnological
description of the Ukrainian people if we wished to draw a
complete picture of its peculiar culture. Such a description
has no place in geography, and certainly none in a book of
such general nature as this. Therefore, I shall discuss but
briefly the various phases of the popular culture of the
Ukraine, so that in this respect, too, the independent posi-
tion of the Ukrainians among the peoples of Eastern Europe
may appear in the proper light.

The Ukrainian villages (with the exception of the
mountain villages, which consist of a long irregular line of

194 UKRAINE

farms) are always built picturesquely, in pretty places.
The huts of a typical Ukrainian village are always surround-
ed by orchards, which is hardly ever the case among the
Russians and White Russians, and very rarely so among
the Poles. These neighbors of the Ukrainians plant
orchards only in the few regions where professional fruit-
growing has developed. In a Ukrainian village, the green
of the orchards is considered absolutely necessary. The
Russian will not endure trees in the neighborhood of his
hut; they obstruct his view. In the Ukraine an orchard is
an indispensable constituent part of even the poorest
peasant homestead. And the separate farms, in which
very much of the spirit of the glorious national past still
lives, are hidden in the fresh green of fruit orchards and
apiaries.

The Ukrainian house is built of wood only in the moun-
tains and other wooded areas. In all other regions it is
made of clay and covered with straw. The front windows
are always built facing the south. In this way, different
sides of the houses face the street, and in general, too,
street life does not play so important a part in a Ukrainian
village as it does in Polish, White Russian or Russian
villages. The Ukrainian houses are always well fenced in,
altho not so strongly and so high as the Russian houses in
the forest zone, or as the White Russian houses. They
usually stand (except in Western Podolia) rather far
apart. Thus, the danger of fire is less than in the Russian
villages of the Chornozyom region, where the huts lie very
close together. As a result, the insurance companies, for
instance, charge smaller premiums in the Governments of
Kursk and Voroniz for insuring Ukrainian village proper-
ties than for Russian.

The general external appearance of the Ukrainian
huts, which are always well whitewashed and have flower
gardens before the windows, is very picturesque, and

UKRAINE 195

contrasts to advantage with the dwellings of the neighboring
races, especially the miserable and dirty Russian "izbas."
All the houses of the Ukrainians, excepting, of course, the
poorest huts, are divided by a vestibule into two parts.
The division into two we do not find in the typical huts of
the Poles and White Russians. A further characteristic
in which the Ukrainian house differs from the houses of
the neighboring peoples, is its comparative cleanliness.
Particularly does it differ in this respect from the Russian
izbas, which are regularly full of various insects and para-
sites, where sheep and pigs, and, in winter, even the large
cattle, live comfortably together with the human inhabi-
tants. The well-known authority on the Russian village,
Novikov, relates a very characteristic little story in this
connection. Several Russian families settled in a Ukrainian
village. Naturally, cattle were kept in the living room.
And when the Ukrainian village elders expressly forbade
the keeping of cattle in the huts, the Russians moved out,
because they could not become accustomed to the Ukrainian
orderliness. It happens very seldom that the Russians
live together with the Ukrainians in one and the same
village. In such a case, the Russian part of the village lies
separate, on the other side of a ravine, a creek, or a rivulet.
In the regions of mixed nationality we see, adjoining one
another, purely Ukrainian and purely Russian villages.

The interior arrangement of the houses and the arrange-
ment of the barnyard differentiate the Ukrainian very
sharply from his neighbor. Still more decidedly does he
show his individuality in his dress. The mode of dress is
quite varied thruout the great area of the Ukraine, and yet
we observe everywhere a distinctness of type and individu-
ality as opposed to the dress of neighboring peoples. Only
the dress of the Polissye people bears some trace of
White Russian influence, on the western border of Polish
influence, in Kuban of Caucasian influence (Russian influence

196 UKRAINE

appears nowhere). But all these influences are slight.
Ukrainian dress is always original and esthetic. No one
can wonder, therefore, that the Ukrainian costume is
surviving longer than the Polish, White Russian and
Russian, and is giving way very slowly to the costume of
the cities.

The description of even the main types of Ukrainian
costume would take us too far afield ; similarly, we cannot
discuss the diet of the people in detail, altho in this respect,
too, the Ukrainian race retains its definite individuality,
those cases excepted, of course, in which economic strain
forces the people to be satisfied with "international"
potatoes and bread.

We now come to the intellectual culture of the Ukrainian
people. If the material culture of the Ukrainians, despite
its originality and independence is not at a strikingly
higher level than that of the neighboring peoples, the
intellectual culture of the Ukrainian people certainly far
outstrips all the others.

The Ukrainian peasant is distinguished, above all, by
his earnest and sedate appearance. Beside the lively
Pole and the active Russian, the Ukrainian seems slow,
even lazy. This characteristic, which is in part only
superficial, comes from the general view of life of the
Ukrainians. According to the view of the Ukrainian,
life is not merely a terrible struggle for existence, opposing
man to hard necessity at every turn; life, in itself, is the
object of contemplation, life affords possibilities for pleasure
and feeling, life is beautiful, and its esthetic aspect must, at
all times and in all places, be highly respected. We find a
similar view among the peoples of antiquity. In the present
time, this view is very unpractical for nations with wide
spheres of activity. At all events this characteristic of the
Ukrainian people is the sign of an old, lofty, individual
culture, and here, too, is the origin of the noted "aristo-

UKRAINE 197

cratic democracy" of the Ukrainians. Other foundations of
the individuality of the Ukrainian are the results of the
gloomy historical past of the nation. It is the origin,
first of all, of the generally melancholy individuality,
taciturnity, suspicion, scepticism, and even a certain in-
difference to daily life. The ultimate foundations of the
individualism of the Ukrainian are derived from his his-
torico-political traditions; preference for extreme individu-
alism, liberty, equality and popular government. Pro- -
ceeding from these fundamentals, all the typical char-
acteristics of the Ukrainians may be logically explained
with ease.

The family relations reflect the peculiarity of the
Ukrainian people very clearly. The comparatively high
ancient culture, coupled with individualism and a love of
liberty, does not permit the development of absolute
power in the head of the family (as is the case among the
Poles and Russians). Likewise the position of woman is
much higher in the Ukrainian people than in the Polish or
Russian. In innumerable cases the woman is the real head
of the household. Far less often does this state of affairs
occur among the Poles, and only by exception among the
Russians. A daughter is never married off against her will
among the Ukrainians; she has human rights in the matter.
Among the Russians, this business is in the hands of the
father, who takes the so-called kladka for his daughter,
that is, he sells her to whomever he pleases. Grown sons
among the Ukrainians, as soon as they are married, are
presented by their fathers with a house and an independent
farm. The dwelling under one roof of a composite family
(a family clan), as is usual among the Russians, is almost
impossible among the Ukrainians, and is of exceedingly
rare occurrence. The father has no absolute power in this
case (as among the Russians) to preventjiiscord in the
family.

198 UKRAINE

It is part of the peculiarity of the Ukrainians that they
seldom form friendships, but these are all the more lasting,
altho reserved and rarely intimate. The Russians make
friends among one another very easily, but they separate
very easily, too, and become violent enemies. The Poles
form close friendships easily and are true friends, too.
Enmity is terrible among the Russians; among the Poles
and Ukrainians it is less bitter, and is, moreover, less
lasting. The capacity for association is very considerable
in the Ukrainians. All such association is based on complete
equality in the division of labor and profit. A foreman is
elected and his orders are obeyed, but he receives an equal
share of the profits and works .together with the rest.
Among the Russians, the bolshak selects his workmen
himself, does not work, and is simply an overseer. Still he
receives the greatest part of the profits. Among the Poles
the capacity for association is but slightly developed.

At this juncture we may also discuss the relation of
the Ukrainians to their communities. The Ukrainian
community (hromada) is a voluntary union of freemen for
the sake of common safety and the general good. Beyond
this purpose the Ukrainian hromada possesses no power,
for it might limit the individual desires of some one of the
hromada members. For this reason, for example, common
ownership of land which has been introduced, following the
Russian model, chiefly in the left half of the Ukraine, is an
abomination in the eyes of the Ukrainian people, and is
ruining them, economically, to a much greater extent
than the division of the land in the case of individual
ownership. The Russian "mir" is something entirely
different. It is a miniature absolute state, altho it appears
in the garb of a communistic republic. The mir is complete-
ly a part of the Russian national spirit, and the Russian
muzhik obeys the will of the mir unquestioningly, altho its
will enslaves his own.

UKRAINE 199

The general relation to other people has become a matter
of fixed form to the Ukrainians; a form developed in the
course of centuries. The ancient culture and the individual-
istic cult have produced social forms among the Ukrainian
peasantry which sometimes remind one of ancient court-
forms. The proximity and influence of cities and other
centers of "culture" have, to a great extent, spoiled this
peasant ceremonial. But in certain large areas of the
Ukraine it may still be observed in its full development.
Great delicacy, courtesy and attention to others, coupled
with unselfish hospitality, these are the general substance
of the social forms of our peasants. These social forms are
entirely different from the rough manners of the Polish or
Muscovite peasants, which, in addition, have been spoiled
by the demoralizing influence of the cities.

The relation of the Ukrainian people to religion is also
original and entirely different from that of all the adjacent
nations. To the Ukrainian, the essence of his faith, its
ethical substance, is the important factor. This he feels
deeply and respects in himself and others. Dogmas and
rites are less significant in the Ukrainian's conception of
religion. Hence, despite differences in faith, not the slight-
est disharmony exists between the great mass of the ortho-
dox Ukrainians of Russia and the Bukowina, and the
4,000,000 Greek-Catholic Ukrainians of Galicia and
Hungary. From the ancient culture and consideration of
the individual comes, also, the great tolerance of the Ukrain-
ians toward other religions, a tolerance which we do not
find among the Poles and Russians. The spirit of the
Ukrainians has, likewise, been very indifferent toward all
sects and roskols. Among the Poles, sects flourished very
luxuriantly in the 16th Century; among the Russians,
there are to this day any number of sects, often very
curious ones, and more are constantly arising. Among the
Ukrainians, a single sect has been formed, the so-called

200 UKRAINE-

stunda (a sort of Baptist creed). This sect is not the result
of rite formalism, however, but merely an effect of the
Russification of the Ukrainian national church. In order
to be able to pray to God in their mother-tongue, more than
a million of the Ukrainian peasantry is persevering in
this faith, which came over from adjacent German colonies,
despite harsh persecution on the part of the Russian clergy
and government.

The worth of Ukrainian culture appears, in its most
beautiful and its highest form, in the unwritten literature
of the people. The philosophical feeling of the Ukrainian
people finds expression in thousands and thousands of
pregnant proverbs and parables, the like of which we do not
find even in the most advanced nations of Europe. They
reflect the great soul of the Ukrainian people and its worldly
wisdom. But the national genius of the Ukrainians has risen
to the greatest height in their popular poetry. Neither the
Russian nor the Polish popular poetry can bear comparison
with the Ukrainian. Beginning with the historical epics
(dumy) and the extremely ancient and yet living songs of
worship, as for example, Christmas songs (kolady), New
Years' songs (shchedrivki) , spring songs (vessilni), harvest
songs (obzinkovi), down to the little songs for particular
occasions (e. g. shumki, kozachki, kolomiyki) , we find in all
the productions of Ukrainian popular epic and lyric poetry,
a rich content and a great perfection of form. In all of it
the sympathy for nature, spiritualization of nature, and
a lively comprehension of her moods, is superb; in all of it
we find a fantastic but warm dreaminess; in all of it we
find the glorification of the loftiest and purest feelings of
the human soul. A glowing love of country reveals itself
to us everywhere, but particularly in innumerable Cossack
songs, a heartrending longing for a glorious past, a glori-
fication, altho not without criticism, of their heroes. In
their love-songs we find not a trace of sexuality; not the

UKRAINE 201

physical, but the spiritual beauty of woman is glorified
above all. Even in jesting songs, and further, even in
ribald songs, there is a great deal of anacreontic grace.
And, at the same time, what beauty of diction, what
wonderful agreement of content and form! No one would
believe that this neglected, and for so many centuries,
suppressed and tormented people could scatter so many
pearls of true poetic inspiration thru its unhappy land.

This peculiarity of the poetical creative spirit enables us,
just as do the other elements of culture, to recognize the
vast difference between the Ukrainian and the Russian
people. The Russian folk songs are smaller in number and
variety, form and content. Sympathetic appreciation of
nature is scant. The imagination either rises to super-
natural heights or sinks to mere trifling. Criminal mon-
strosities and the spirit of destruction are glorified as
objects of national worship. The conception of love is
sensual, the jesting and ribald songs disgusting.

Like their popular poetry, the popular music of the
Ukrainians far surpasses the popular music of the neigh-
boring peoples, and differs from them very noticeably.
Polish popular music is just as poor as Polish popular
poetry, and almost thruout possesses a cheerful major
character. Russian popular music has many minor ele-
ments in addition to the major elements. But the Russian
popular melodies are quite different from the Ukrainian.
They are either boisterously joyous or hopelessly sad. The
differences in the character of the melodies are so great that
one need not be a specialist to be able to tell at once
whether a melody is Ukrainian or Russian.

Popular art, in our people, is entirely original and
much more highly advanced than in the neighboring peoples.
The remains of the ancient popular painting are still in
existence in the left half of the Ukraine. Wood carving has
developed to a highly artistic form among the Hutzuls

202 UKRAINE

(there are the well-known peasant-artists Shkriblak,
Mehedinyuk, and others). The chief field of Ukrainian
popular art, however, is decoration. Two fundamental
types are used; a geometric pattern with the crossing of
straight and broken lines, and a natural pattern, which is
modelled after parts of plants (as leaves, flowers, etc.).
In the embroideries, cloths and glass bead -work, we find
such an esthetic play of colors, that even tho each individual
color is glaring, the whole has a very picturesque and
harmonious effect. The decorative art of the Russians is
much lower. It is based on animal motifs or entire objects,
e. g., whole plants, houses, etc., and evinces an outspoken
preference for glaring colors," which are so combined,
however, as to shock the eye. Among the Poles, the art of
ornamentation is very slightly developed. As for colors, they
prefer the gaudy, not many at a time; usually, blue is
combined with bright red.

For the sake of completeness, we must still say some-
thing about Ukrainian manners and customs. In this
aspect, too, the Ukrainian peasantry is richer than its
neighbors. Only the White Russians are not far behind
them. The entire life of a Ukrainian peasant, in itself
full of need and poverty, is, nevertheless, full of poetic
and deeply significant usages and customs, from the cradle
to the grave. Birth, christening, marriage, death, all are
combined with various symbolic usages, particularly the
wedding, so rich in ceremonies and songs, so different in its
entire substance from the Russian or Polish. The entire
year of the Ukrainian constitutes one great cycle of holidays,
with which a host of ceremonies are connected, most of
which have come down from pre-Christian times. We find
similar ceremonies among the White Russians, some also
among the Poles, e .g., Christmas songs, songs of the seasons,
but among the Russians, on the other hand, we find no
parallel to the Ukrainian conditions. Among the Russians,

UKRAINE 203

neither the Christmas songs (kolady) are customary, nor
the ceremonies of Christmas eve ibohata kutya), neither the
midwinter festival (shchedri vechir), with its songs (shche-
drivki), nor the spring holidays (yur russalchin velikden)
and spring songs (vesnianki), nor the feast of the solstice
(kupalo), nor the autumn ceremonies on the feast-days of
St. Andrew or St. Katherine, etc. The entire essence of the
popular metaphysics of the Ukrainians is quite foreign to
the Russians, and almost entirely so to the Poles. Only
the White Russians form a certain analogy, but, among
them, pure superstition outweighs customs and ceremonies
in importance.

Sufficient facts have been given to make clear to the
reader the complete originality and independence of
Ukrainian popular culture. We now come to a brief
survey of the cultural efforts of the educated Ukrainians.

The number of educated Ukrainians is comparatively
small. Hardly a century has passed since the intelligence
of the nation awoke to new life, yet, in its hands lies the
development of the national culture in the widest sense of
the word. The disproportion between the magnitude of
the task and the small number of the workers for culture, is
at once apparent. And yet the results of the work, in
spite of obstacles on every side, have grown in volume.

The Ukraine lies within the sphere of influence of
European culture. This culture has spread from Central
and Western Europe over the territory of the Ukraine and
its neighboring peoples, the Poles, Russians, White Russians,
Magyars and Roumanians. Each one of these nations has
accepted the material culture of Western Europe to a
greater or less degree, and adjusted the spiritual culture
to its national peculiarities. The Ukrainians, for a long
time after the loss of their first state and the decline of
their ancient culture, found no line along which they
could develop their national culture independently. For

204 UKRAINE

centuries they vacillated between the cultures of Poland
and Russia. To this day, now that the conditions are
much better, one may still find among the Ukrainians
individuals who, culturally, are Poles or Russians, and
only speak and feel as Ukrainians. Such a condition is
very sad, and causes the Ukraine untold injury — most of
all in the field of material culture, which, in both these
neighboring nations, is very incomplete. Agriculture,
mining, trade and commerce, are on a much lower plane
among the Poles than in Western Europe. And what is to
be said of the Russians, who are a mere parody of a cultured
nation in almost every field, altho they possess so great a
political organization? No one need be surprised that
material culture is of so low a grade in the Ukraine. On
the other hand, it has become clear to every intelligent
Ukrainian, that the development of material culture is
possible only thru Western European influence, by sending
Ukrainian engineers, manufacturing specialists, merchants
and farmers, to Western and Central Europe to learn their
business.

In the field of Ukrainian mental culture, the chief
influences to be considered are Polish and Russian. In
this field, Polish culture is comparatively very high. It
possesses a very rich literature, considerable science and art,
and very definite principles of life. The influence of Polish
culture is limited almost exclusively to Galicia at the pre-
sent time. But it was very strong until very recent years,
when it began to decrease. At one time, however, the
entire Ukraine, particularly the right half, was emphati-
cally under the influence of Polish culture for centuries
(16th to the 18th Century).

There is one element in the spiritual culture of the Poles
which certainly deserves to be, and is, imitated by the
Ukrainians. It is the tone of national patriotism, the love
for the nation, its present and its past, which is everywhere

UKRAINE 205

evident. Hence, modern Polish literature must be a
model for Ukrainian literature in its tendencies and its
sentiments. But, beyond its patriotic tone, Polish culture
is not appropriate for the Ukrainian people. It is aristo-
cratic, by reason of its descent and its philosophy of the
universe. It is far removed from the mass of the people
it should represent. In spite of all efforts, the Polish
culture of the educated classes has been unable to establish
an organic connection with the common people of Poland.
It has been built up above the masses and has not grown
out of them. To build up Ukrainian culture entirely after
the model of Polish culture, would mean to tear it from
its life-giving roots in the soul of the people. That it
would be deadly to Ukrainian culture, the Ukrainians have
perceived for a long time.

Russian culture is much more dangerous to the Ukrainian
people than Polish. In its material aspect it is of a very
low grade. In the spiritual field it possesses a very rich
literature and a noteworthy science and art. The spiritual
culture of Russia now dominates all of the Russian
Ukraine, and has, to a great extent, become prevalent even
among those educated Ukrainians in Russia who possess real
national consciousness.

This very circumstance constitutes a great danger for
the development of Ukrainian culture. For, let the Mus-
covite conquest extend over the Ukrainians, even in the
cultural field, and there is an end of all the independence
of the Ukrainian element, and its beautiful language will be,
in fact, degraded to a peasant dialect. But a still greater
danger lies in the quality of the Russian cultural influence.
The first evil characteristic of Russian culture is the
complete lack of national and patriotic sentiment, which is
absolutely necessary for an aspiring culture like the
Ukrainian. Russian culture is infecting the Ukrainians
with an ominous national indifference. Another unfavor-

206 UKRAINE

able characteristic of all Russian culture, is the fact that it
is undemocratic thru and thru, and very far removed from
the Russian people. The Russian people did not create
this culture; the educated, in producing it, took nothing
from the people. An intelligent man, brought up in the
atmosphere of Russian culture, is unspeakably distant from
the Russian people, so that it is impossible for him to work
at the task of enlightening them. The views of the Russian
"lovers of the people" (narodniki) , or of a Tolstoy, con-
cerning the common people and its soul, simply offend us
thru their unexampled ignorance of the peculiarities and
customs of the common people,

A culture so far removed from the people as the Russian
can bring no benefit to the Ukrainians. We observe this,
best of all, in the condition of the muzhik, to whom the
educated Russian has never been able to find an approach,
and now the latter looks on indifferently, while the masses
sink deeper and deeper down into the abyss of intellectual
and spiritual darkness. To guide the common people along
the path of organic social-political and economic progress,
is a task which an intellect permeated with Russian culture
can never perform. The last Russian revolution, and the
beginning of the era of constitutional government for
Russia, have furnished the best proof for the truth of this
assertion.

The other chief characteristic of Russian culture is its
manifest superficiality. Hidden beneath a thin veneer of
Western European amenities lies coarse barbarism. The
external manners of the educated Russian very often strike
one by the coarseness, lack of restraint and brutal reckless-
ness accompanying them. We see, then, that even the
external forms of European culture have only been out-
wardly assumed by the Russians. Still poorer is their
condition with respect to the things of the spirit. We
have observed to what a slight degree the Russians have

UKRAINE 207

been able to assimilate the material culture of Europe.
The same holds for spiritual culture. Russian literature,
particularly the latest, has brought ethical elements of the
most questionable worth into the world's literature.
(Artzibashev and others). Russian science, altho it can
point to some great names and has unlimited means at its
disposal, stands far behind German, English or French
science. In Russian science, everything is done for the
sake of effect, without thoroness, without method, hence
fatal gaps appear. Let us consider, for example, our science
of geography. Hardly a year passes in which the Russian
government does not send one or more great scientific
expeditions to Asia or to the North Pole. Each expedition
hands in volumes of scientific results, and, at the same time,
the surface configuration of the most populous and cultur-
ally most advanced regions of European Russia, for example,
is barely known in its main aspects. The best geography of
Russia was written by the Frenchman Reclus. A modern,
really scientific geography of Russia does not exist.

Even more emphatically does the superficiality of
Russian culture appear in social and political questions.
These two directions of human thought have, in most
recent times, become very popular in all Russian society.
But what an abyss separates a European from a Russian in
this field! In Europe the theses of the social sciences or of
politics are the result of life. They are adjusted to life
conditions and treated critically. In Russia they are life-
less dogmas, about which Russian scholars of the 20th
Century dispute with the same heat and in the same manner
as their ancestors, a few hundred years ago, disputed as to
whether the Hallelujah should be sung twice or three
times, whether the confession of faith should read "born,
not created" or "born and not created," whether one should
say, "God have mercy upon us" or "Oh God, have mercy
upon us," whether one should use two fingers in crossing

208 UKRAINE

oneself or three, and so on. Naturally, at that time
religious questions were the fashion. Today it is social
questions. And what does it amount to? Rampant
doctrinism, the eternal use of banal commonplaces, an
immature setting up of principles. And the result is —
extreme unwieldiness of Russian society in internal politics
and in parliamentarism, in social and national work,
together with a deep scorn of the depraved West (gnili
zapad) .

With this superficiality of Russian culture, its most evil
characteristic is connected; the decline of family life and a
certain moral perverseness. This phenomenon is commonly
met with in all peoples who have but recently come in
contact with Western European culture. The bad quali-
ties of a high civilization are always assumed first, the
good qualities slowly. In this field the Russians have far
outstripped their European models.

The above facts suffice to prove that Russian cultural
influences are dangerous for the Ukrainian people. The
severe, rigid materialistic character of the Russian people
will, without any doubt, enable it to outlast the storm and
stress period of the present Russian culture, and guide it to
a splendid future. But for the Ukrainian people, with its
sentimental, gentle character, the assuming of Russian
culture would be a deadly poison. Even supposing that the
Ukrainian people might survive such an experiment, a
thing which is not likely, it would forever remain a miser-
able appendage of the Russian nation.

And besides, such an experiment is entirely unnecessary.
Either we say, "We are Ukrainians, an independent race
and different from the Russians," and build up our
culture quite independently, or we say, "We are 'Little
Russians,' one of the three tribes of Great Russia and of its
high culture," and, in that case, we may calmly lie down
on the world renowned Ukrainian stove. For then it does

UKRAINE 209

not pay even to work at the development of our language.
A third alternative does not exist.

At present, however, the former view is generally
predominant among the intelligenzia of the land, and the
fact that many intelligent Ukrainians are permeated with
Russian culture is due, not to an ideal conviction, but only
to the powerful influence of the Russian schools and the
Russian cities. How do these educated people stand
beneath the Ukrainian peasant who, even on the shores of
the Pacific Ocean, does not exchange his individual Ukrain-
ian popular culture for the Russian, and deserves the
scornful, but in our eyes very commendable saying of the
Russians, "Khakhol vyesdie kharkhol!"

If, then, we are to remain a really independent nation,
there is only one avenue open to Ukrainian culture, and
that is to follow the culture of Western Europe step by
step, to seek its models among the Germans, Scandinavians,
English and French. And this entire development we must
base upon the broad foundation of our high popular culture.
Let us consider with what piety the really cultural nations
of Europe preserve the little remains of their popular
culture. Their few usages or superstitions, their little
body of folk-songs ! How much richer than they are we in all
our misery! The Ukrainian people spoke a mighty first
word thru Kotlarevsky a century ago; it then found the
first diamond upon its path, the pure language of the
people. Unfortunately, no Ukrainian has yet arisen who
could speak just as mighty a second word by finding ways
and means of lifting the treasures of the home culture of
the land, and enabling the entire nation to work at the
task of using them to advantage. This "apostle of truth
and science," as he is called by Shevchenko, has not ap-
peared, altho he has had several ancestors, like Draho-
maniv. But there are already very many Ukrainians who
would place their seal upon the declaration: "that the

210 UKRAINE

Ukraine possesses so rich a popular culture, that by develop-
ing all its hidden possibilities and supplementing them by
elements drawn from the untainted sources of Western
European culture, the Ukrainian nation could attain a
complete culture just as peculiar to itself, and just as
exalted among the great European cultures, as Ukrainian
popular culture is among the popular cultures of other
peoples."

Hence, the way lay clearly indicated for the Ukrainians
of the 19th and 20th Century. Ethnological investigations
and the scientific study of folk-lore have been taken up
very eagerly by Ukrainian scholars, so that in this parti-
cular field, recent Ukrainian science, perhaps, ranks highest
in all Slavic science. In no other cultured nation of Europe
is the life of the educated elements so permeated with the
influences of the nation's own popular culture. The
Ukrainian cultural movement is hardly a century old, and
yet it has results to show which, even today, guarantee the
cultural independence of the Ukrainian nation. Active
relations with Central and Western European cultures have
been established, which may become of incalculable
effect in the further development of Ukrainian culture.

Relations Between the Soil and the People
of Ukraine

The geographical situation of the Ukraine is the same
today as it was a thousand years ago. If the theories which
call the present Ukrainian territory the original home of the
Aryans are true, the Ukrainians must be considered the
primeval autochthones. The limits of the Ukrainian
nation, too, are almost the same today as they were a
thousand years ago, altho, in the meantime, great shifts
have taken place. Only in the west, the Ukrainians have
lost a strip about 30 kilometers wide to the Poles, thru the
Polonization movement, which has been advancing east-
ward since 1340. In this section the Ukrainian element
has survived only in the mountains. The northern border,
next to the White Russians; which, since primitive times,
has consisted of great forests and swamps, has always
remained without changes of any kind. On the other
hand, the part of the northern border east of the Dnieper,
and still more the eastern and southern borders, have been
subject to radical changes in the course of Ukrainian
history.

The old Ukrainian state of Kiev rapidly developed a
far-flung expansive movement, and soon covered almost all
of Eastern Europe. In the south, the old Kingdom of Kiev,
and together with it the southern tribes of East Slavs (the
ancestors of the present Ukrainians) reached the delta of
the Danube and the Black Sea and the foothills of the
Caucasus, where, in the present Kuban district, the old

211

212 UKRAINE

province and petty principality of Tmutorokan was situated "
How far to the north the southern East Slavic tribes then
extended we can not tell exactly. But it is very improbable
that they extended beyond the woods and swamps of the
Polissye.

Even at that time, a thousand years ago, the geograph-
ical position of the Ukraine, on the edge of Europe and
the steppe-country of Central Asia, proved itself dangerous.
From the beginning of the Middle Ages on, innumerable
tribes of Turkish-Tatar origin, came crowding out of the
Central Asiatic steppes westward, thru the steppes of
Southern Ukraine. The Ukraine had to be the first of all the
countries of Europe to withstand the attack of these hordes.
The first Ukrainian conqueror, Sviatoslav, who destroyed the
state of the Khazars and Bulgars and defeated other weak
hordes, was killed in the struggle with the Pechenegs.
Volodimir the Great was forced to fight these nomads
under the very walls of his capital. These wars with
nomad tribes, which began before the Ukraine appeared in
the arena of history, lasted from this time until the end of
the 18th Century, with varying fortunes. At times the
balance of power was on the side of the Ukraine, and then
Ukrainian colonization advanced victoriously to the south
and east as far as the Black Sea. At other times the nomads
were victorious, and the eastern and southern boundaries
of the Ukraine receded north and west. The great chains
of fortifications and border walls erected by the Great
Princes of Kiev, on the southeast borders of the Ukraine,
were of no avail. At the time of the greatest extent of the
Tatar attacks (15th to 16th Century) almost all the left
half of the Ukraine was a wilderness, and in the right half
Kiev was a border fortress. All the southern Dnieper
country, the Boh country and Eastern Podolia, was at that
time a sparsely-peopled borderland, and constantly ex-
posed to the dangers of Tatar attacks. At that time

UKRAINE 213

Ukrainian territory was confined to the Polissye, the
northern part of Chernihiv, Volhynia, Western Podolia,
Eastern Galicia and Podlakhia, and only small, very
thinly populated border strips of the adjacent regions.
These fluctuations in the boundaries of the Ukraine have no
parallel in the history of Europe, and show most clearly in
what difficult straits the Ukrainian nation was forced to
live for centuries.

The proximity of nomadic Asia for a time greatly
weakened the influences of the proximity of another
neighbor — the Black Sea. The Black Sea was, for the
Ukraine, the means of intercourse with Byzantium, the
greatest cultural center of Europe in the Middle Ages.
The Ukraine, because of its waterways, was nearest to
Byzantium of all the European countries. This comparative-
ly short period in which the Ukraine was able to maintain
intercourse with Byzantium, without obstacles, brought
the Ukraine splendid cultural advantages. In a wide
stream the Byzantine material and spiritual culture
flowed into the Ukraine, so that the country from the
11th to the 13th Century stood highest, culturally, among
all the Slavic states and amost equalled the Western
European states. In some respects the Ukraine of those
days was even superior to Western Europe. In those
days Kiev or Halich surpassed London or Paris in wealth
and commercial importance.

The relations with the sea and with Byzantium kept
growing ever more difficult for the Ukraine to maintain,
however, as a result of the ever growing pressure of the
nomad hordes. Finally, in the 13th Century, came the
Tatar invasions. These have best demonstrated the sig-
nificance of the geographical situation of the Ukraine. The
ancient Ukrainian state had to be the first to withstand the
Mongol attack. After the defeat, the Ukraine was the
first of all the countries of Europe to be desolated by fire

214 UKRAINE

and sword. It is true that the strong resistance of the
Ukraine effectively stopped the Tatar pressure, and Eu-
rope has this circumstance to thank for its escape from the
fate of Asia in the 13th Century, three-fourths of which was
conquered by the Mongols of Djingis Khan. The Ukrainian
state fought a whole century longer with the Tatars, but
could not hold their own after that. The Ukraine was sys-
tematically devastated by the Tatars, and in the struggle
with them the entire military power of the Ukraine was
spent. At the same time the neighbors on the north and west
— the Poles and Lithuanians — were able to develop freely be-
hind the protecting back of the Ukraine, and to increase their
powers. Finally the Poles annexed Eastern Galicia, and the
rest of the Ukrainians faced the choice of either joining them-
selves to the Lithuanians, whose upper classes were at that
time, culturally, entirely Ukrainian, or to place themselves
beneath the Muscovite yoke. They chose the first. In 1569
the Lublin Union joined the Ukraine to Poland. All these
things are the unhappy results of the geographical situation
of the land on the threshold of Europe and Asia.

A long time following the loss of Ukrainian political
independence, the sad results of the geographical situation
of the country continued. The constant attacks of Tatars
and Turks, the millions of Ukrainian slaves in the slave-
markets of the Orient, had to continue for many centuries
to be the source of the oriental world, which was fast
hurrying toward its fall. But soon the geographical situa-
tion of the Ukraine began to work positively too. The
geographical situation, together with other natural factors,
became one of the main causes for the formation of the
Ukrainian Cossack organization. This is not the place to
discuss at length the significance of the Cossack organization
for the Ukraine ; we are only emphasizing the fact that the
Cossack organization alone has preserved the Ukraine from
complete downfall.

UKRAINE 215

The Cossack organization, as a product of geographical
situation, has a parallel only in the familiar North American
backwoodsmen, prairie hunters and pioneers who consti-
tuted the advance guard of European civilization on their
continent. Yet this analogy is a very weak and incom-
plete one. The Zaporog Cossacks can in no way be com-
pared either with the Volga, Don or Ural Cossacks, who
were chiefly brigands, or with the Austro-Hungarian border-
soldiers, who were a state organization. The Ukrainian
Cossack organization represented the efforts for liberty and
independence of the entire Ukrainian people, and, finally,
led up to the revival of Ukrainian political life in the form
of an independent hetman state. To be sure, the territory
of this hetman state embraced barely one-half of the Ukraine,
but it constituted a region about which a Piedmont of
independence for the entire Ukraine might grow up.

Since the last decades of the 18th Century, the geo-
graphical situation of the Ukraine on the threshold of two
continents has been growing from an unfavorable position
to one that may be described as very favorable.

It was for the most part with Ukrainian forces that
Russia finally destroyed the nomads of the Ukrainian
steppes. This fact has been of great significance for the
Ukraine. Since that time the vast, tho almost impercepti-
ble, colonization movement of the Ukrainian people to the
east, southeast and south, has been in progress. This
movement extended the Ukrainian boundaries twice
within a single century. For the second time, and in a
peaceful way, the Ukraine reached the delta of the Danube,
the Black Sea, the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea. All this
is only an outcome of its geographical situation. In another
situation the Ukrainians could not so easily dispose of
unsettled lands. This expansion of the Ukrainian people
has by no means reached its maximum, but it has surely
passed its climax. To be sure, the migration of the Ukrain-

216 UKRAINE

ian element to the east and south is still very large, but
there are no longer so many uninhabited districts open to
settlement as in former times, and the emigration in masses
has had to stop.

Nevertheless, the geographical situation opens a very
fine prospect for later Ukrainian colonial expansion.
Ciscaucasia and many regions on the lower Volga and Ural
are, culturally considered, really a bonum nullius. Russian
colonization is directed to other regions, chiefly for climatic
reasons, and other competing races need hardly be con-
sidered because of their smallness. Even at present the
Ukrainians constitute a very noteworthy minority; in
the sub-Caucasian country most probably an absolute
majority. In the course of a few decades of rather unsys-
tematic colonization, extensive regions of the sub-Caucasian
country, with their wealth of natural resources, will become
Ukrainian; the entire Kuban region already is part of the
compact national territory of the Ukrainians, and the
Ukrainian language has become an international language
for the small mountain races of the Western Caucasus.

The geographical situation of the Ukraine on the
threshold of Asia is distinctly favorable to the immigration
of Ukrainians into Central Asia and Southern Siberia.
In a strip of thousands of kilometers, chains of Ukrainian
settlements extend along the southern border of Siberia to
the Japan Sea. Along this immeasurable strip the number
of Ukrainian settlements is continually growing. This
colonization, which leads tens of thousands of Ukrainian
peasant-settlers to the far east every year, has attracted the
attention of wider circles only within the last two decades.
In reality it is much older, for as early as the seventies of the
past century, German explorers found Ukrainian colonies
at the northern base of the Altai and on the Chinese border,
etc. The establishment of these old and new colonies of
the Ukrainians in Asia is proceeding in all quietude, and is

UKRAINE 217

quite analogous to that splendid colonization movement of
the Ukrainians at the begining of the 19th Century, which,
at one time, quite imperceptibly doubled the national
territory of the Ukrainians.

Yet the colonial expansion of the last century brought
the Ukrainian nation many disadvantages along with the
advantages. For more than a century it drained the entire
energy of the nation and deprived it of tens of thousands
of the most active and energetic individuals every year.
All the strength of the nation was turned to the one task
of settling new lands and cultivating them according to
ancient usage. From this cause, the political idea and the
cultural efforts of the Ukrainians have suffered very keenly.

After the Ukrainian territory had again reached the
Black Sea, as a result of colonial expansion, the Black Sea
regained its ancient significance to the Ukrainians. Of
course, there is no longer any such cultural center on the
Pontus as Byzantium once was, and Turkish domination
has deprived the formerly highly cultured districts on the
shores of the Black Sea of all their ancient civilization.
But the sea has retained its capacity for promoting culture,
and, after many centuries, once more gave the Ukrainians
direct connection with the wide world. To be sure, the
Black Sea is closed by nature and by international treaties,
and the Russian Government, intentionally or unintention-
ally, has never particularly encouraged the development
of Pontian navigation; and, to be sure, the Black Sea
lies far distant from the main commercial thorofares of the
world. But all these disadvantages of the Black Sea may
lose much of their weight in a short time. The materializa-
tion of the splendid project to connect the Baltic and the
Black Sea by means of a canal, including the Dvina and the
Dnieper, navigable by large vessels, can not be far off.
After the carrying out of this project the isolation of the
Black Sea will be lessened, and an important channel of

218 UKRAINE

sea-navigation will run across the entire Ukraine. Pontian
navigation must sooner or later experience a great advance,
for it is a natural necessity for the productive hinterland and
for the entire Ukrainian shore people, who have always
exhibited considerable skill as seamen. The Ukrainians
already constitute more than two-thirds of the crews of all
Russian trade and warships on the Black Sea. With the
strengthening of the constitutional regime in Russia, the
obstacles which have been placed in the way of Pontian
navigation by the Russian government in favor of Baltic
navigation must disappear of themselves.

Finally, the great commercial thorofares of the world
are beginning to move nearer to Ukrainian territory as the
cultural development of the Orient advances. As the
European influences in the Iran, in Syria and Mesopotamia
begin to grow, new projects for an overland connection of
Europe with India continually arise. At present the
Bagdad Railroad is the center of interest, and soon the
Persian railroad projects will claim attention. But the
shortest and easiest overland route from Europe to India
must cross the length of the Ukraine, touching Kiev and
Kharkiv, going past the deltas of the Volga and Ural and
the Aral Sea, along the Amu, and thru Afghanistan and the
' Punjab. When this route is once established the Ukraine
will attain a great commercial significance as the right of
way of one of the world's most important commercial
highways. Then, only, will the importance of the Dnieper and
Don, the Black Sea, the Sea of Azof and the Caspian Sea, as
bearers of the main commercial road, be indeed realized.

Everyone can readily understand that in this case the
political significance of the Ukraine would also be very
great. Even now this land is an invaluable possession to
Russia. Only the possession of the Ukraine makes possible
for Russia access to the Black Sea and permits her to
gravitate toward the straits, to win influence on the Balkan

UKRAINE 219

peninsula, to threaten Turkey and the Mediterranean, to
dominate the Caucasus country, to oppress Persia and seek
the nearest way to the Indian Ocean. And when once the
overland route to India goes thru Ukrainian territory, the
Ukraine will command over a thousand kilometers of this
important road and begin to be a prime factor in world
politics. The possession of the Ukraine will then be the
costliest treasure and a life-problem to the state which will
dominate this territory. Or, if the Ukraine, in all its
ethnographic extent, should win its political independence,
it may in time become one of the largest and most powerful
states of Europe.

Another element of the geographical situation of the
Ukraine, which should not be underestimated, is the fact
that the Ukraine is so remote from all the cultural centers
of Europe. We indicated briefly, above, of what great
importance was the short, direct connection of the Ukraine
with the Byzantine cultural center. Only during this
short period did the historical fate of the Ukraine permit the
land to have direct relations with an important culture
center. The wall of barbarian nomad attack separated the
Ukraine very quickly from this culture center, and when it
died the Ukraine suddenly fell into a situation in which it
was far removed from all the cultural centers of Europe.
Only Poland allowed a few elements of Western European
culture to sift thru into the Ukraine. But the lack of
Polish political and social organization did not allow
Western European culture to take firm root in Poland. The
Ukraine could, therefore, receive only a little of the Western
European wealth of culture thru this channel. Until well
into the 18th Century, Russia stood upon a much lower
grade of culture than the Ukraine. And altho Russia very
soon reached and surpassed her rival, the Ukraine has, to
this day, received nothing worth while from Russia. The
Ukraine even suffered great loss, culturally, from its union

220 UKRAINE

with Russia. The White Russians, the Roumanians, the
Slovaks, the Magyars, were never so far advanced, cultur-
ally, as to be able to teach the Ukrainians anything. The
centers of Western and Central European culture — Ger-
many, Scandinavia, France and England — are so far distant
from the Ukraine that they can exert only slight and
indirect influence upon its cultural progress. The low
state of culture of the Ukraine, consequently, springs
chiefly from its geographical situation.

The second geographical element, surface formation,
has had as strong an influence upon the Ukrainian people
as the geographical situation. The chief factor in the
surface configuration of the Ukraine is the great pre-
ponderance of plains and plateaus. These take up nine-
tenths of the area of the Ukraine. The difference in level of
the ground is from 200 to 300 meters. Such slight variations
in height are of great significance as far as anthropogeo-
graphical conditions are concerned. The most important
characteristic of level countries such as this, is the complete
lack of such obstacles as might make good natural boun-
daries. And the lack of good natural boundaries is very
strongly felt in the history of all lowland peoples.

This lack the Ukrainians have always felt very deeply.
With the exception of the Black Sea, which was once the
boundary of the ancient Ukrainian Kingdom of Kiev and
now forms the southern boundary of the Ukraine, and,
with the exception, also, of the forest swamps of the
Polissye, the Ukraine never possessed, and does not now
possess, any good natural boundaries. Neither the Car-
pathians nor the Caucasus have provided the Ukraine
with a distinct natural boundary line. The borders and
borderlands of the Ukraine lie open, were always easily
accessible to all conquerors, and made the defense of their
political independence much harder for the Ukrainians than
it has been for any other nation of Europe. To be sure, the

■UKRAINE 221

lack of obstacles on the borders made it very easy for the
Ukrainian Kingdom to extend its limits, as the rapid and
appreciable growth of the ancient Kingdom of Kiev best
proves. But later, unfortunately, this favorable surface
formation was taken advantage of with much greater gain
by the Tatars, Lithuanians, Poles and Russians, to the
ruin of the Ukraine. The facility of military campaigns
and of territorial conquests, two favorable foundations for
the development of great land-conquering nations, and
at the same time typical authropogeographical character-
istics of low countries, have played an active part in the
history of the Ukraine. The pressure of various races,
which is a characteristic of plain countries, is another
condition the Ukraine had to face. From the Cimmerians
to the Turks, how many races have inhabited the steppes of
the Ukraine!

In the present times of highly developed intercourse,
natural obstacles are losing much of their value, and, for
the same reason, the disadvantages of low countries are
becoming less serious. It is true that the Ukraine is hard
to defend strategically, and an enemy wishing to attack
Russia in the Ukraine would place her in a very precarious
position. But the lack of pronounced natural lines of
defense is also peculiar to the eastern border of Germany,
for example, or the northern border of France. Apart
from these strategic elements, the Ukrainian plain country
and plateau country has nothing but advantages. The
migration of the Ukrainian people has always been very
easy, and the growth of Ukrainian territory has been
unhindered because of the openness of the borders.

The lowland character of the Ukraine is important not
merely in respect to borders. The lack of obstacles within
the country in the way of highlands always favored easy
travel in all directions. The building of the roads met
with no obstacles, and was able to proceed in straight lines.

222 UKRAINE

In the present days of high-roads and railways, this is a
very important characteristic of the land. Unfortunately it
has never been taken advantage of. The railroads of the
Ukraine tend toward unknown Russian centers, without
consideration of the natural centers of the country. Hence
its insufficient importance for traffic.

Another characteristic of all plain countries, and there-
fore of the Ukraine, is great homogeneity. It produces a
great uniformity of living conditions, and gives the Ukraine
great unity of language, customs and standard of living.
The types of buildings, national costume, etc., so varied in
the small area of Germany, extend over hundreds of thou-
sands of square miles in the Ukraine, with only minor
changes. The uniform lowland character of the Ukraine
favored, to a certain degree, the constant preservation of
the old customs and the gradual development of culture.
The lack of natural differences within the country has
brought with it the lack of differences among the inhabi-
tants, and it is well known that such differences enrich the
ability and the character of the entire nation considerably.
Hence, the lack of those necessary conditions of develop-
ment and progress has always had a profound influence in
the Ukraine, while we meet such favorable conditions at
every step in the small areas of Central Europe, with
their smaller supply of natural wealth. Melancholy and
indifference, these typical marks of the lowland peoples,
have always been characteristic of the Ukrainians also.
And these types are not favorable to the development of
culture. Only the present time of easy communications
are capable of weakening the bad influence of the uniformity
of surface of the Ukraine to any marked degree.

Yet, not all the typical characteristics of a lowland
country are common to the Ukrainians. Above all, they
lack, and always have lacked, the capacity for the develop-
ment of great political strength, the capacity for centraliza-

UKRAINE 223

tion; in a word, the capacity for state organizing. This
characteristic of the lowland peoples, which is very strongly
developed among the Russians, more weakly in the Poles,
has always been very poorly bred in the Ukrainians.
The Ukrainians have possessed the tendency, peculiar to all
lowland peoples, to level its aspirations, to divert them to
one side, but never to the subordination of their individual-
ity to the interests of the state. Only when the general
equality of all citizens of the state opens to every man ah
equal field for the activity of his personal ego, have the
Ukrainians been able to do the state-idea justice and to em-
body it very finely. They have given the best proof of this in
the Zaporog Cossack organization. This fact gives us the
only hope that the Ukrainians may yet become an organized
nation in modern times. The present manner of national
life is what the Ukrainians wished to have centuries ago —
much too early, of course.

In view of the great uniformity, every rise of land is
significant. Slight elevations, chains of hills, river valleys,
even swamps and forests appear in the Ukraine as impor-
tant boundaries, lines of defence, foundations for cities
and castles, fortified places, lookout stations, etc. Even
the many barrows (mohili, kurhani) have played an im-
portant part in the history of the Ukraine.

The anthropogeographical significance of the Ukrainian
mountains is in general slight, altho we find all the typical
influences of the mountains in the mountain tribes of the
Ukrainians. Great physical endurance, coupled with a
feeling for liberty and independence, great personal courage,
great love of country, etc., have always distinguished the
Ukrainian mountain dwellers.

The Ukrainian Carpathians are, to this day, one of the
most thinly settled regions of the Ukraine, chiefly for the
reason that it was always a passive region, which was not
considered in political life. Great historical movements

224 . UKRAINE

hardly ever touched the Carpathians. For many centuries
they remained almost devoid of human life. Hence, the
Carpathians played hardly any part as a border defence of
the Ukrainian state organizations. Mountain chains
usually are of very great importance as a defence for
individual tribes or entire races. The Carpathians, with
their great ease of passage, especially in the Ukrainian
part, have been of no significance in this respect. They did
provide effective protection for the Walachian shepherds
thru many centuries. These shepherds led a nomad life
with their flocks on the Carpathian pastures, and left
proof of their presence in numerous names of mountains,
rivers and villages. The Carpathians also provided shelter
for the numerous Ukrainian fugitives who fled from op-
pressive serfdom and formed bands of half-political
freebooters, friends of the lowly, and warriors against the
lords (oprishki). The brigandage peculiar to all mountain
regions flourished also in the Carpathians. But no state
originated in the Carpathians. The Alps were the foun-
dation of Switzerland, and played a part in the formation
of the Austrian state. The Carpathians have given the
Ukraine nothing, apart from occasional passing shelter.

At this point we must emphasize another anthropogeo-
graphical characteristic of the mountains. It is the
general poverty of their inhabitants and their consequent
desire, under compulsion, to seek expansion. The inhabi-
tants of the Ukrainian Carpathians, about the middle of
the 19th Century, were in a serious economic condition
because of the small amount of productive ground. Need
came first to the Lemkos, then to the Boikes, and last to
the Hutzuls. Above all, it partly divested the mountain
population of the then predominating industry of cattle
raising. The Lemkos at first carried on a lively trade in
wagon grease thruout the southern part of Eastern Europe,
then they turned to harvest work, in the surrounding

UKRAINE 225

lowlands, and last to the annual emigration to America.
The Boikes first carried on trade in salt, then changed to
the fruit trade, which they are carrying on today, down as
far as Warsaw and Moscow. Very lately, the annual
emigration to America has been depleting their ranks also.
The Hutzuls have but just begun to resort to emigration.
They hire out less frequently for agricultural work than
for the lumber industry, in which they are very skilful.
Their highly developed domestic industry, which borders
on the artistic, might provide them with rich support,
but it is rather hindered than advanced by the determining
factors of the land.

In presenting the general influence of the ground forma-
tion on the people, we must also consider the anthropo-
geographical significance of the geological conditions of the
country. They should not be underestimated, as one might
expect, while to overestimate them, as some scholars have
done, by even referring anthropological characteristics
back to the geological composition of the country, is quite as
bad; at all events very many of the living conditions of the
inhabitants are dependent upon the geological make-up of
the land. We shall skip over the great importance of the
geological composition of the country for the surface
formations which it determines. We shall pay attention
only to the direct geological influences.

The Ukraine possesses very great mineral treasures.
The most important mineral deposits for the present time,
namely, coal, iron, salt and petroleum, are very large in the
Ukraine. Of all these mineral treasures, however, only
the salt deposits have had an historical significance, since
far back in the period of the Kingdoms of Kiev and Halich
they furthered active trade and commerce, and later
favored the development of the Chumak organization.
The other mineral treasure attained a greater importance
only in the past century. When one considers today that

226 UKRAINE

the Ukraine furnishes almost three-fourths of the coal
and iron output of Russia, one can readily believe that the
Ukraine might some day become as great an industrial
country as Germany, England or Belgium. A single glance
at the mining map of the Ukraine soon shows us, however,
how small the regions containing this abundance of mineral
wealth are in proportion to the entire territory. Then
everyone can understand what the geological composition
of the country means. It condemns the Ukraine forever
to remain an agricultural country, altho it also permits
the development of a considerable industry in several centers.

The same path of future development is outlined for
the Ukraine by its fertile soil. Almost three-fourths of the
Ukrainian territory lies within the Eastern European
black-earth zone. The chornozyom, one of the most fertile
species of earth on the globe, makes the Ukraine the most
fruitful land of Europe. We need not wonder, therefore,
that the Ukrainians have, to this day, remained almost
entirely an agricultural people. The fertility of the soil
must also remain the greatest wealth of the land_ into the
remotest future. Now that the greatest grain lands of the
earth, the American prairies and pampas, the Australian
border-steppes, etc., have been almost entirely subjected
to cultivation, the extensive market production of grain
must, in the nearest future, give way to intensive produc-
tion. Then the importance of the Ukrainian black earth,
which has maintained its great fertility for thousands of
years, will become even greater than it is today; and even
today the Ukraine must be considered one of the main
centers of grain production.

The fertility of the Ukrainian soil has had several
unfavorable as well as favorable results. Like a promised
land, the Ukraine has always lured foreign conquerors and
colonists. Its fertility has brought the Ukraine much war
and trouble. For centuries the fertile ground of the Ukraine

UKRAINE 227

gave its own people only a part of its rich produce. To
this day the foreign landowners and grain merchants
demand the greater part of the harvest, while the native
people of the Ukraine, who have dwelt in the land since
time out of mind, can hardly reserve enough for themselves
to keep from dying of hunger.

The fertile Ukrainian ground has exerted another
important unfavorable influence over the Ukrainian
people. The great fertility of its fields has caused a certain
indifference and carelessness in planting among the Ukrain-
ian peasants. To be sure, the Ukrainian is a better
farmer than the White Russian, Russian or Roumanian.
But for centuries he has been accustomed to depend on the
fertility of his native soil and is, therefore, far behind the
progressive farmer of Central or Western Europe. Anti-
quated methods of planting have until recently prevailed
in the Ukraine without the slightest change. At the same
time the ground has become scant, and progressive methods
of cultivation must be adopted in order to get as much as
possible out of the land and to balance the relative diminu-
tion of the cultivation area.

The geological conditions have also exerted a great
deal of influence over the buildings and roads of the
Ukraine. Clay houses, covered with straw, are still
typical for the Ukraine today. Only in the most recent
times brick houses, covered with shingle, are beginning to
appear in the Ukrainian villages. Stone buildings were
not original with the Ukraine, and were only adopted with
the higher grade of culture. The cause of this is not the
lack of building material. Almost everywhere in the
Ukraine good building-stone is found beneath the thick
cover of loose earth. But the abundance of clay always
showed the nearer and easier way — clay huts. Even this
small matter has had an unhappy influence upon the fate
of the Ukraine. The ancient Ukrainian cities consisted

228 UKRAINE

chiefly of wood and clay buildings and were fortified by
means of earthworks, palisades and clay covered wooden
towers. Walled houses and circular walls were very rare.
This condition made the defence of the cities and castles,
even against the attacks of nomadic tribes, very difficult.
The ancient Ukrainian State would not have been destroyed
so soon if it had had an abundance of strongly fortified
walled cities.

The black earth and clay sub-layer of the Ukraine has,
since the most ancient times, been an unfavorable influence
as far as the quality of its roads are concerned. Outside of
the negligence of the Polish- and the Russian State, which
alternated in the domination of the Ukrainian territory,
natural conditions, too, have had a great deal to do with the
roads in the Ukraine. The stone lay far below the loose
cover of clay; it was used very rarely for building purposes;
hence the idea of plastering the roads with stones could
hardly occur to anyone.

We shall now consider the anthropogeographical
significance of the Ukrainian bodies of water. Of the in-
portance of the Black Sea we have already spoken. The
Ukrainian people lived in close connection with this sea
in the days of the ancient Kingdom of Kiev, as well as in
the days of the Cossack organization. But the lack of
well-developed coast, of harbors and islands, have pre-
vented the development of the Ukrainians into a seafaring
nation, altho favorable tendencies were not lacking. The
smallness and isolation of the Black Sea could not favor the
development of navigation. The frequency of dangerous
storms had a deterring effect, altho they strengthened the
courage of the sailors. Then again, the smallness of the
sea made the use of small vessels sufficient, which could
more readily find shelter at any time or at any point along
the coast, with its few harbors, than larger ships. These
circumstances have hindered the development of extensive

UKRAINE 229

navigation for long distance traffic. Hence, the Ukrainians,
altho in certain periods of their history they gained a not
inconsiderable familiarity with the sea, could not rise to a
genuine seafaring people.

Much stronger ties connect the Ukrainian people with
the rivers of its territory. The rivers have an anthropogeo-
graphical significance chiefly as ways of travel. The
great main streams of the Ukraine, particularly the Dnieper
and the Dniester, have always had the character of a
transition between rivers and arms of the sea. At the
time of the ancient Kingdom of Kiev, seafaring vessels
sailing up the Dniester reached the royal city of Halich,
and, in the time of the Cossacks, the Zaporog boats were
pursued by the Turkish galleys as far as the rapids of the
Dnieper. As far as ancient navigation was concerned,
there was very little difference between river and sea;
rivers were simply the extension of sea routes. In the ancient
Ukraine, the Varangians were the first to use them in this
sense. Their route "from the Varangian Land to Greece,"
which later became one of the. main paths of the old
Kingdom of Kiev, led from the Baltic to the Black Sea
by way of rivers and portages. These wanderings of the
Varangians in the Ukrainian water system are of great
historical significance. For altho we are now almost
certain that the Varangians were not the founders of the
Kingdom of Kiev, it cannot be denied that they played a
great part in the forming of it.

Rivers are natural, and therefore, also the easiest and
cheapest roads. Especially in countries of great area, as
the United States, Russia and the Ukraine, the importance
of rivers as roadways is very great. Rivers connect the
nations. The Dniester and the Dnieper connected the
Ukraine with the sea, with the highly-cultured Constanti-
nople, with the entire Mediterranean and Oriental world of
culture. The Dnieper, thru its much branched water-web,

230 UKRAINE

connected the Ukraine directly with Poland and White
Russia, and indirectly with the Baltic Sea and Northern
Europe. Even today, altho the canals connecting the
Dnieper with the Vistula, Niemen, and Dvina are entirely
neglected, the Dnieper River plays a very significant part
as a great vein of traffic connecting different lands, peoples
and producing regions. It may become more important
still if it is made accessible to sea vessels and connects two
distant seas.

In the Cossack period a considerable portion of the
Ukrainians became a river people. The life and work of
the Zaporog Sich depended entirely upon the Dnieper
River. It protected, fed and clothed them. So strongly
were the Zaporogs bound to the Dnieper, so necessary did
the great river become to them, that all attempts to found
new Zaporog centers on other rivers simply failed. We
need not wonder, then, that the Dnieper is celebrated in all
the Cossack songs as a sacred possession of the nation.

Closely connected with the character of rivers as road-
ways, is their importance as the directing lines of the
movements of races. The history of the Ukraine tells us
how the ancient Kingdom of Kiev penetrated toward the
south along the Dnieper, and how the Kingdom of Halich
reached the delta of the Danube by way of the Dniester
and Pruth. Most likely the first expansion of the Ukrainians
proceeded along the Dniester, Boh and Dnieper, southward.
At the time of the great shifts of the Ukrainian southeast
border, the advance of the Ukrainians was always directed
southeast, their retreat always northwest. The history
of the 16th Century shows plainly how the first pioneers
of the new colonization movement — the Cossacks — pushed
along the Dnieper, toward the southeast, into the steppe
region. Altho it is a commonplace, yet it may be estab-
lished without doubt that the whole Ukrainian nation
took its way southeast along the Ukrainian rivers. To this

UKRAINE 231

day the national territory of the Ukraine is advancing
irresistibly in that direction.

But not only with the southeast has Nature connected
the Ukraine. Important borderlands of the Ukrainian
territory — Central Galicia, the region of Kholm, Podlakhia,
Western Volhynia— with their river system, belong to the
Baltic slope. At the same time, the transition from the
Pontian river system to the Baltic system is very easy, the
divides flat and low. The easy transition from the Dniester
to the San and Buh, from the Pripet to the Vistula and the
Niemen, was of great importance in the past, when western
influences could easily penetrate these Ukrainian border-
lands, and is of great importance in the present. If, in the
near future, the now antiquated canals are improved and
new ones built, the Ukraine will have as good connections
with the west as it has with the east. Then the Ukraine
may, from a hydrographic point of view, gain great impor-
tance as a transition country of important waterways.

By no means accidental is the remarkable fact that the
Ukraine has no hydrographic connection with the north-
east, the real Muscovite country. Of the country drained
by the Don, only the region of the Donetz (which also
flows southeast) and the mouth of the main stream belong
to the territory of the Ukraine, and that only since a rela-
tively short time. Outside of the Don region the Ukraine
has no hydrographic connections with the Muscovite coun-
try, which has always had different directions, different
channels of traffic, and different centers of waterways.

Modern geography does not consider rivers good natural
boundaries, and does not believe in their powers of separ-
ation. In the Ukraine, rivers have played almost no part as
boundaries. Even the Pripet, surrounded as it is with
inaccessible swamps, does not make a good natural bound-
ary between the Ukraine and White Russia. The ethno-
graphic influences on both sides, and even the political

232 UKRAINE

boundaries are hardly considered. Nor could the rivers be
important lasting obstacles; instead of separating they are
more likely to connect individuals, and even whole nations.
Only as passing, momentary obstacles, they were of
importance to the Ukraine in the innumerable wars which
were waged on Ukrainian soil, and much Ukrainian blood
was carried by them to the sea.

We now come to the relations between climate and people
of the Ukraine. The situation of the Ukraine at an equal
distance from the equator and the pole, on the southeast bor-
der of the European continent, which is so very favored
climatically, has given the country one of the finest climates
of the temperate zone. The hot summer permits of an exten-
sive exploitation of the ground, the severe winter hardens
the body and strengthens the soul, strong winds clear the
atmosphere and bring motion into nature. The amount of
rainfall is sufficient for the vegetable world, and is as far
removed from the superabundance of damp Western
Europe, as from the deadly dryness of the Asiatic steppes.

As for the general influence of the Ukrainian climate
upon the people, it is in the main similar to that of Western
and Central Europe. The Ukrainians are one of the north-
ern peoples of Europe, and they show it by the difficulty
with which they become acclimated to the tropical con-
ditions of Brazil and Argentina. There conditions are much
worse for the Ukrainians than for the Spaniards, Portuguese
and Italians, but at least better than "for the English or
Scandinavians. The Ukrainian is already accustomed to a
hot and long summer in his native land. He accustoms
himself quickly and easily to the cold Siberian climate,
because the frosts in the Ukraine, despite the short frost
period, are very severe. For climatic reasons then, the
colonial capacity of the Ukrainians must be even better than
that of most of the peoples of Western or Central Europe.

The climate of the Ukraine, which we have discussed in

UKRAINE 233

a preceding chapter, is very uniform thruout the entire
great territory, with the exception of the southern borders.
This homogeneity is favorable on the one hand, because
it advances the homogeneity of the people, unfavorable
on the other hand, because differences in climate as a rule
enliven and quicken the course of history of a country.
The variations in character of the people and in the mode of
living due to the differences in climate give countless
impulses to development and to progress.

Despite the general uniformity of the climate, we do
find appreciable differences when we compare the northern
border regions of our country with the southern ones.
The Ukraine has the same climatic peculiarity as France on
a small scale, the transition of the temperate to the Medi-
terranean climate without sharply defined boundaries.
In this way some difference of products does arise, which
advances the development of trade and commerce.

In our description of the Ukrainian climate, we em-
phasized its peculiar position as compared with the climates
of the adjacent districts of Eastern Europe. Just beyond
the borders of the Ukraine, to the north and east, the annual
temperature becomes lower and the duration and severity
of the winter suddenly becomes very much greater. The
Muscovite climate and that of the Ukraine would not be
ranked together by anyone who understands anything
about the matter. And yet the renowned historian and
publicist, Leroy Beaulieu, considers a uniform climate as
one of the chief causes of the unity of Russia. In January,
he writes, one may ride in a sleigh from Astrakhan to
Archangel; the Sea of Azof and the Caspian Sea freeze
over just as the White Sea or the Finnish Gulf, the Dnieper
as well as the Dvina; the winter wraps north and south in
one vast blanket of snow every year. Less strong are the
ties formed by the summer, but there is a preponderance
of unifying circumstances.

234 UKRAINE

Such statements can come only from one who has no
conception of climatology and anthropogeography. On
such premises no conclusions may be based, except by
persons who have previously constructed a hypothesis and
now wish at all costs, to prove its validity. For it is certainly
generally known that the same winter covers all Scandi-
navia, Poland, Germany and Northern France together
with the same white mantle. In the winter-time one may
travel by sleigh not only from Astrakhan to Archangel, but
also to Irkutsk in one direction and to Stockholm in the
other, and even to Paris. Not only the Dnieper freezes,
but also the Vistula, the Oder, the Elbe, and sometimes
even the Seine. If we consider ice and snow as the basis of
"unification," very little of Europe remains. For not only
in snow and ice should we seek signs of uniformity in
climate, but in its general character, in the community of
all climatic characteristics. It is true that the Ukraine is
part of the Eastern European climatic province, but in this
province we may also include almost all of Sweden, almost
all of Poland, a part of Austria-Hungary and Prussia, and
Supan adds all of Western Siberia, Caucasia and Turkestan
as well. Every geographer understands that so great a
climatic province must be divided into smaller districts
even in climatology, not to mention the details of daily life.
Every inhabitant of Southern Russia, whether a Ukrainian
or not, feels the difference of the Ukrainian climate from
that of St. Petersburg or Moscow very keenly. There is
hardly a Russian author who does not describe the fine
climate of the Ukraine as wonderfully mild compared to
the inhospitable climate of his native land. How keenly,
then, does a Ukrainian feel the difference in the two climates,
who is forced to live in the cold Muscovite country.

The climatic difference is illustrated more clearly still
when we consider the matter from the climatological side.
Voyekov, the great Russian climato pzeshasiemlogist,

UKRAINE 235

expressly the slight cover of snow in the Ukraine, the
relatively high temperature of the warmer periods of the
winter, and the abnormally warm spring, which is due to
the lightness of the snow-cover, which requires only a little
of the spring warmth to melt it. The snow cover of
Poland, Lithuania or Northeastern Germany is much
more similar to that of Muscovy than the Ukrainian. The
January isotherms in the Ukraine switch over from the
N. to S. direction to the N. W. to S. E. direction. The
isotherm of the typical Russian winter (January — 8 to — 10°)
avoids the region of the Ukraine entirely. It is true that
the Dnieper and Dniester have the same amount of ice as
the Volga or the Dvina. But here the main consideration
should be the period of freezing; the Dvina is covered over
for 190 days, the Volga 160, the Dnieper in the Ukraine
only 80 to 100 days, the Dniester 70 days. These are cer-
tainly greater differences. Still greater differences between
the Ukrainian and the Muscovite climates become evident
when we compare the length of the winter, or the time
suitable for work outdoors. In Great Russia this time is
at most four months; in the Ukraine, at least six and a half;
and in its southern borderlands even nine months. Such
differences play a great part in the life of the people. The
time of the winter obstructions and enforced idleness is
twice as great in Russia as in the Ukraine. The struggle
with the cold takes on forms in the Ukraine which are
entirely analogous to the Western European forms. In
the Muscovite country we observe polar elements in the
winter-life of the people. The Ukrainian winter does not
depress the people, does not bore them to death, but only
steels their bodies in the struggle with the cold and gives
them the desired rest after the summer's heat. The winter
is the time of the most intensive social life among the
Ukrainian peasantry.

The spring of the Ukraine, warm and sunny, has quite

236 UKRAINE

a different influence upon people to that of the cool, damp
Russian or Polish spring. The sunny climate of the spring
and the cloudlessness of the summer have produced in
the Ukrainian a quiet, fundamentally cheerful temper.
Yet, we find in him none of the gaiety which is charac-
teristic of the people of the south as compared with the
people of the north, but rather a quiet melancholy. It is
just the Russians or the Poles that are of a much gayer
sort than the Ukrainians, livelier, more easy-going in their
social life, more frolicsome; not the Ukrainians, but the
Russians and Poles, are the very ones that are vying with
one another for the epithet of the "Frenchmen of the
North" or "of the East," respectively. (This remarkable
fact is due, in the first place, to the unhappy history of the
Ukraine). But, on the other hand, the melancholy of the
Ukrainians is quiet, while the occasional melancholy of
the Russians turns into despair and pessimism.

The Ukrainian summer and fall, warm and beautiful,
has made the Ukrainian, in contrast with the Russian, a
farmer par excellence. The warmth of these seasons is
very similar to Southern European conditions, and gives
to the life of the Ukrainian people many southern charac-
teristics. The life in open communion with Nature, the
accessibility of her organic treasures, is much more pro-
nounced in the Ukraine than in Russia, White Russia or
Poland. In the warm seasons the Ukrainian lives much
of the time outside his house. In the day he works con-
tinuously in the field or in the garden, and even at night
he usually sleeps outdoors in the orchard or the yard.
If the fields are at a distance from the village, a large part
of the population of the place camp out in the open fields
for several days during harvest time. These are all charac-
teristics of the life of the south. Yet we see in our people
no real characteristics of the people of the south. Despite
all this, the Ukrainian is much more domestic than the

UKRAINE 237

Russian, more frugal and more temperate; the "extrava-
gant Russian nature" is entirely foreign to him. We have
already seen that the Ukrainians do not have gay manners,
and in like manner their activity of thought is less than
that of the northern peoples, the Russians and the Poles.
Yet the depth of thought of the Ukrainians is much greater,
and their popular poetry incomparably deeper than that
of the Russians or Poles. Dreaminess and reserve of
character is much greater in the Ukrainians who live in the
south than in the Poles and Russians who live in the north.
All these are the effects of a sorrowful past. Only in one
respect do the Ukrainians bear out their southern type of
character; in their great abilities and their generally rich
intellectual gifts. Every unprejudiced observer must
admit that the Ukrainian peasant, almost the only typical
representative of our nation, surpasses almost all his
neighbors in his natural accomplishments.

The laziness and weakness of will peculiar to the
southern nations compared to the northern, have not
developed into a typical characteristic among the Ukrainians.
The often remarkable indifference of the Ukrainian is
rather an outgrowth of sad historical events than of the
climate and the nature of the land in general. At most
one might blame the great fertility of the black soil. For
the faith in this fertility is almost never misplaced and
favors the indifference of the peasant. On the other hand,
the five hundred years of Tatar oppression were actually
able to produce an inherited indifference. And why strive
and work, when at any moment the Tatar hordes might
come and take or burn everything?

Despite this historically inherited indifference, as we
may call it, the laziness peculiar to southerners cannot be
ascribed to the Ukrainians. They are better farmers than
all their neighbors, with the single exception of those who
adopted progressive farming, as, for example, the Prussian

238 UKRAINE

Poles. Domestic industry is also well developed among
the Ukrainians, and the Ukrainian seasonal workers are
actually sought after, especially in Germany, and earn a
great deal. The Ukrainian harvest-worker is more sought
after and better paid than the Russian. He works slowly
but methodically, and achieves good results. The Ukrain-
ian colonists find tolerable living conditions in places in
which the Russian starves to death or from which he flees.

In like manner weakness of will is not a real peculiarity
of the Ukrainians, in spite of their southern location. The
thousand years' struggle with piratical Asia, the indepen-
dent establishment of t&o great state organizations,
especially the second, after three centuries of slavery, the
new awakening in the 19th Century under such difficult
and hostile conditions, the splendid colonial expansion —
all this speaks rather for great energy than for weakness of
will. It is certainly true that in our people, oppressed by
centuries of serfdom, energy and strength of character
must hide beneath a thick crust of indifference, and our
educated people find their energy weakened by the bad
influence of foreign cultures. But these facts show most
clearly that an enormous amount of energy and will-
power is latent in the Ukrainian people, which, to this day,
however, has not been properly developed.

Among historians and anthropogeographers it is a
much used commonplace that the northern peoples always
appear as conquerors who subjugate the southern peoples,
and that they are always the founders of states in their
particular climatic zones. The Germans overthrew the
Roman Empire, the Northern Frenchmen founded the
French state, the Northern Spaniards the Spanish, the
Northern Italians, the Italian state, and the North Germans
united Germany. It is natural, therefore, that this com-
monplace should be applied also in Eastern Europe. The
"Northern" Russians have, by the natural necessity of

UKRAINE 239

history, "united" the "southern" Russians. The, same
explanation should be accepted as a necessity by the
Ukrainians, and nothing should be done to resist this
condition !

In reality this commonplace, like so many others, is
false. The Ukrainians, as we have already observed, possess
no such characteristics, as opposed to the Russians, as a
southern race possesses with regard to a northern neighbor.
To be sure, the Russian state now dominates the Ukraine.
But the present Russian state is, after all, only a branch of
the ancient Ukrainian Kingdom of Kiev. The ancient
Ukrainian Kingdom subjugated the present Russian
territory, organized it as a state, even partly colonized it,
and gave it a ruling dynasty. The ancient Ukrainian state
tradition was usurped. by the Muscovite states, and gave
them all the prestige which the Muscovite possesses. It
was only the Tatar invasion that entirely held up the
political development of the Ukraine, and, at the same
time, favored the development of trie Muscovite Empire.
Only the Tatar invasion brought Moscow the supremacy
over the Ukraine which Russia still enjoys. It was a
foreign conquest, which has nothing to do with climatic
influences. The very name of Russia only came into use
in the time of Peter the Great!

From this survey of climatic influences, it appears,
unequivocally, that the Ukrainians cannot be classed
with the so-called southern peoples. The Ukrainians have
all the characteristics of the races of the North Temperate
Zone, who are the representatives of the European culture
of today. The growth of national consciousness and of
culture will, without a doubt, raise the Ukrainians to the
standard of the European family of cultured nations. The
nature of the country has, by means of its influences,
given them all the necessary prerequisites.

The significance of the flora and fauna, for a lowland

240 UKRAINE

people like the Ukrainians, should be considered very
great. From the physico-geographical description of the
Ukraine, everyone will observe that the Ukraine may be
naturally divided into two main parts, the forest country
and the steppe country. The mountain formations take up
only a comparatively small part of our territory.

Even among the Ukrainians themselves, the opinion is
very widespread that they are a steppe-people. The
enemies of the Ukraine have largely represented them in
the eyes of Europe as a semi-nomadic steppe-people,
devoid of all culture, which thru their growth and develop-
ment might threaten the' cultural treasures of Europe.
These views, tho based partly upon the great part the
steppe has played in the history of the Ukraine, and partly
upon the unquestionable fact that three-fourths of the
present Ukrainian territory lies within the steppe region of
Eastern Europe, are, nevertheless, incorrect. For, a
glance at the floral map of Europe is enough to show that
the so-called old Ukraine, that is, the original Ukrainian
territory, lies almost completely within the forest region.
That means Galicia, Kholm, Western Podolia, Western
Volhynia, Kiev, Chernihiv, etc. From here the most
ancient Ukrainian colonization advanced to the Black Sea,
only to lose all the steppe districts again upon the sudden
nomad attack. For centuries the steppes of the present
Ukraine were the stamping-ground of Mongolian-Turkish
nomad tribes. The Cossack organization at last wrested
great areas from them, and made these accessible to
Ukrainian colonization. And only the last colonial expan-
sion of the Ukrainians has been able to reach the Pontian
shore again. The Ukrainians, then,, were originally a
forest and wood-meadow people. They have become in
part a steppe people, but only thru their latest colonial
expansion. And, just as today we would not call the
English or the North Americans steppe peoples, merely

UKRAINE 241

because they colonized the American prairies and now
inhabit them, so we can no more call the Ukrainians a
steppe people, merely because they have colonized the
Southern European steppes.

Not the steppe, but the forest and the wood-meadow
are the native floral conditions of the Ukrainian. In the
forest zone and in the adjacent parts of the forest-meadow
zone, the seed of the Kiev State originated. In its expan-
sion, this state first of all embraced the forest regions of
the Ukraine, while the steppe regions were conquered later
and kept under the dominion of the state for a compara-
tively short time only. The second center of the old
Ukrainian historic life also lies within the forest zone of the
Ukraine, namely, the Galician-Volhynian. Even the
center of Ukrainian historical life that extended farthest
into the steppe, the Zaporog Sich, was dependent for its
existence upon the great wooded areas of the Veliki Luh
on the Dnieper and its tributaries, and thus bound to the
forest country.

The pronounced inclination of the Ukrainian people to
agriculture, from the most ancient times down to the
present, is another proof that it is a forest people, para-
doxical tho it may seem. For it is an undisputed fact
that, altho the steppes have apparently been most favorable
to the cultivation of the grain grasses, and altho the
present main centers of the grain production of the world
lie in the steppe country of the prairies, pampas, Ukraine,
yet nowhere in the whole world have the steppes brought
forth an agricultural people. No steppe-people, anywhere,
ever began agriculture of its own accord. The forest
peoples had to teach the steppe-races agriculture in the
first place. Only in case of bitter necessity do the inhabi-
tants of the steppes take to the plough, and never has
agriculture become part of their system to them.

How great was the part of the Ukrainian forest region

242 UKRAINE

in the past life of the nation has already been suggested in
Book I. Only to the forests does the Ukrainian nation
owe its preservation during the Tatar attacks. The forests
were the only refuge of the people, to the forest zone the
inhabitants of the steppes retreated whenever the steppes
were threatened by the nomads, moving back again at a
favorable opportunity.

The Ukrainian forests have also been of great impor-
tance as boundaries. The function of the forest to form
important boundaries for races on a low grade of culture is
familiar to anthropogeography. In Ukrainian history, too,
this characteristic of the forests has appeared prominently.
The forests of the Ukrainian Polissye were of great impor-
tance for the fencing-off of the East Slavic tribes, and by
forming a wide zone, difficult of passage, separating the
East Slavic tribes of the south from those of the north and
west, they have contributed a great deal to the formation of
the three East Slavic nations of today. In the days of the
ancient Kingdom- of Kiev, the centers in which the Mus-
covite nation later developed bore the name of Salissye
(land behind the forest). There was a Pereyaslav Saliski,
Vladimir Saliski, etc.

The significance of the forest as a boundary has also
made itself felt in the internal history of the Ukraine. For
the grade of culture upon which the Ukraine remained
thruout the Middle Ages and in the early centuries of the
modern era, the forests constituted good boundaries. The
forest divided the population into small groups, which
lived apart in separate clearings, every group living its
own life. The forest made communication difficult and did
not permit the organization of a powerful central state.
The forest character of the old Ukraine was the natural
chief cause of the formation of principalities in the ancient
Kingdom of Kiev, and advanced that fateful particularism.
It is not by mere accident that Kiev lies on the border of

UKRAINE 243

the forest zone of the Ukraine. Together with other
causes, the thinner forests were an aid to the more rapid
development of the Kiev principality, and made it the
natural starting point for the great expansion under the
reigns of Oleh, Sviatoslav, Volodimir.

From his original territory the Ukrainian took with
him his great preference for trees, a love of trees which
causes the white huts of a typical Ukrainian village to be
bordered with the fresh green of leaves. The green of the
trees in which the Ukrainian huts disappear, enables us
immediately to differentiate a Ukrainian from a Russian
village, which seems to be afraid of trees.

Consequently, the steppe is not originally native to the
Ukrainian. The words of the Cossack song, "The steppes
so wide, the joyous land" were not composed until the
latter days of the Cossack organization. For centuries the
steppe meant to the Ukrainian the terrible, mysterious,
"wild field," from which at every moment the nomad
hosts, like a swarm of locusts, invaded the Ukraine. The
struggles of the Kingdom of Kiev with the nomads show
an anthropogeographer very plainly the reason of their
final failure. The ancient Ukrainians, being forest dwellers,
simply could not successfully fight the riders on the natural
steppe or the artificial steppe of their own fields. The
ancient Ukrainians did not feel at home in the steppe. A
long evolution was necessary before the Ukrainians adapted
themselves to the steppe, and the beginning of this adapta-
tion was the Ukrainian Cossack organization. Not until
after the formation and development of the Cossack organi-
zation could the Ukrainian people successfully advance into
the steppe zone and colonize it. Yet the denser settlement
of the steppes did not take place until toward the end of the
18th Century. Some of these early Ukrainian settlements
have, to this day, not lost the character of new colonies.
But these steppe districts were colonized by so great a

244 UKRAINE

mass of Ukrainian colonists, and they increased so rapidly
in the fertile country, that today more than half the
Ukrainians live in the steppe zone, and thereby favor the
widespread commonplace that the Ukrainians are a
steppe people.

The wealth of its flora and fauna very soon enabled
the Ukraine to prosper. Very early it was called a land
"where milk and honey flows." This natural wealth of the
organic world possessed the greater worth for the reason
that it was not soon exhausted, and offered, as it still
offers, to the population, an opportunity for constant
work, enduring activity and steady development. The
natural treasures of the Ukrainian territory are not the
treasures of tropical countries which favor laziness, but
the treasures of a more thrifty Nature, which require
constant work to properly exploit them.

Man has changed the natural conditions of the flora and
fauna of the Ukraine to a great extent. These changes are
not as fundamental as in Western and Central Europe,
but they have a great anthropogeographical significance.
The forest zone of the Ukraine is thinned even beyond the
normal and in places destroyed. The artificial steppe of the
cultivated land has penetrated very far to the north and
west. Certain plant species have become rare, others have
entirely disappeared, while, on the other hand, new ones
have been acclimated. The original wealth of game of the
Ukraine is a thing of the past now, and the great abundance
of fish is almost all gone. On the other hand, man has
increased the number of domestic animals enormously.

All these conditions give to the Ukraine characteristics
of a cultivated country. As we shall see further on, the
degree of exploitation of natural resources is still very low,
much lower than in the genuinely cultured countries of
Europe.

Despite all this, the Ukraine must be considered a land

UKRAINE 245

exceptionally endowed with riches by Nature. Up to the
present day this has been a misfortune, for from all sides
strangers have come in to take with full hands of the
riches of the Ukraine.

But the time has come, at last, in which the possibility
lies in the hands of the Ukrainian people to make use in
the future of the rich resources of the Ukrainian land for
themselves.

Economic- Geographical Survey of
Ukraine

To give a lucid economic-geographical view of the
Ukraine today is very difficult — almost impossible. The
Ukrainian territory is divided among three states, and
nowhere does the Ukrainian country form unbroken
administrative units. Consequently, the official statistics
cannot give an exact picture of the economic conditions of
the Ukraine. The following attempt, also, can lay no
claim to accuracy. A very heterogeneous and incomplete
mass of material has made it impossible to attain the
desired accuracy and uniformity.

The Ukraine differs from the cultural countries of
Central and Western Europe first, in that its settlement is
not yet complete, so to say. Only the northwestern
regions of the "Old Ukraine" possess a sufficient density of
population. The entire south and east are thinly, in
places even very thinly, peopled. And the complete
exploitation of the natural resources is still a far way off,
even in the most thickly settled parts of the Western
Ukraine.

In our economic-geographical survey of the Ukraine,
we shall begin with the most primitive branches of the
exploitation of natural resources and proceed from them
to those that are more advanced.

Hunting and Fishing

The most primitive way of exploiting the natural
resources of a country has always, and everywhere, been

246

UKRAINE 247

hunting and fishing. Both played a great part in the
economic life of the Ukraine a thousand years ago. Our
ancient chronicles contain many reports of the great
abundance of game and fish in the Ukrainian land, and of
their great importance for the population. Five centuries
of Tatar warfare effectively interrupted the exploitation
of these natural treasures, and even in the 16th and 17th
Century the Ukraine still aroused the amazement of
travelers from foreign lands, thru its great wealth of game
and fish. In these centuries, hunting and fishing were
among the main branches of industry of the Cossack
border population of the Ukraine. As late as the second half
of the 18th Century, hunting and fishing were still two of the
main sources of industry of the Zaporog Sich. But soon
agriculture began to gain ground in the regions ruled by it,
the density of the population increased, and with it the
fundamental strength of the Zaporog organization. This cir-
cumstance seemed threatening to the Russian government,
and was the chief motive for the destruction of the Sich.
Today hunting has almost no significance in the
economic life of the Ukraine. Altho in the year 1906, in
Galicia, 500 stags, about 10,000 roes, over 2000 boars,
about 90,000 rabbits, over 8000 pheasants, 50,000 partridges,
30,000 quail, 10,000 woodcocks, and 14,000 wild ducks were
killed, the figures for other countries at the same time
were much higher; in Bohemia which is more thickly pop-
ulated there were brought down more than 800,000 rabbits,
1,000,000 partridges, etc. These figures show that in
Galicia the natural wealth of game has declined consider-
ably, while the artificial conservation of game has not yet
begun. In the Austro-Hungarian part of the Ukraine,
hunting has become a mere diversion of the upper classes —
a mere sport. The hunting monopoly of the upper classes
even bring to the country folk serious disadvantages, for
boars and stags cause great damage to agriculture, especially

248 UKRAINE

in the Boiko and Hutzul country, and it is forbidden to
keep them off. This circumstance encourages poaching,
which in many districts is quite common. The extermina-
tion of beasts of prey, bears, wolves, lynx and wildcats is
as a rule, undertaken only in occasional general chases, but
the Ukrainian mountain-dwellers are very well able, despite
all game laws, to defend themselves and their herds effec-
tively from these wild animals. In 1906 more than 9000
foxes were brought down in Galicia.

In the Russian Ukraine the economic importance of
hunting is as slight as in Austria-Hungary. Nowhere in this
region do we find a developed, profitable hunting industry
Even in the Polissye hunting is not very important and is
at most an avocation for a few forest settlers. Here
rabbits, roes, boars, elk, grouse, wild fowl and water-game
are sometimes hunted. Bison and beaver hunting is now
very strictly forbidden. Many foxes and badgers are killed
and a relatively large number of bears and wolves. Volhynia
is much poorer in game, and still poorer are Podolia,
and the districts of Kiev, Poltava and Kharkiv. In all the
places, the most that one can get a shot at, aside from wild
fowl, is rabbits and foxes, and sometimes wolves. In the
forests and swamps of the Chernihov country there is a
somewhat greater abundance of game. Hunting is most
important, relatively, in the southern part of the Ukraine,
on the Black Sea border and in the Caucasus lands.
Besides roes, rabbits, and foxes, there are hunted in the
steppes: wolves, sayga-antelopes and wild dogs; and in
the Caucasus: bison, stags, bears, and lynx. The number
of steppe and waterfowl, e. g., bustards, partridge, quail,
wild geese and wild ducks, and of mountain fowl, as
pheasants, mountain-quail, and grouse, is still considerable.
Collecting the eggs of waterfowl is still a remunerative
occupation. On the shores of the Caspian Sea 130,000
Caspian seals are killed every year.

UKRAINE 249

Of much greater importance than hunting is the fishing
industry. It is only a weak reminiscence of what it once
was, yet it remains to this day an important economic
element. The Ukrainian fishing industry is carried on in
three regions: on the high sea, in the river-mouths, and in
the interior of the land, in rivers, lakes and ponds.

The actual sea-fishing industry attains relatively slight
results, on the average 24J/£ million kilograms a year. On
the Black Sea, along the shores of Bessarabia, Kherson and
Tauria, a great amount of mackerel, sardines, herrings and
sturgeon-like fish are caught. The main fisheries of the
northern Pontian shore are situated at the Kinburn bar,
at the island of Tendva, in the Bay of Karkinit, at Cape
Tarkhankut, at Eupatoria, Balaklava, Yalta, Sudak, and
Theodosia. Fishing on the high seas, because of its great
cost, is undertaken only by the large enterprising companies,
who hire the Ukrainian fishing companies (artili) for the
entire summer. Of late, fishing on a small scale has begun
to develop. The small fishermen catch chiefly mackerel,
which are then salted, or, less often, smoked. They also
go after the small but savory Black Sea oysters, of which
an average number of one million a year are gathered.

Far greater profit is yielded by the fisheries at the
mouths of the rivers, in the limans, and particularly on the
largest liman of all, the Sea of Azof. The annual yield
here attains an average of 140 million kilograms. At the
mouths of the Danube the chief fishing center is Vilkiv.
Toward the end of the 19th century there lived at this
place 900 independent fisherman, who sometimes united to
form artils. Here they catch chiefly sturgeon and other
fish of the sturgeon class (on the average 30,000 a year),
and four and a half million of Pontian herrings. At the
mouths of the Dniester, Boh and Dnieper, chiefly river
fish are caught. Herrings and sturgeon-like fish are of
minor consequence here. The fishermen in this region are

250 UKRAINE

always organized either in artils, in which the profits are
shared equally among the members, or in so-called takhvi,
which are hired by the entrepreneurs. The chief center of
the fishing trade and of the putting up of canned fish, is
Odessa. Yet the Bay of Odessa cannot compare with the
Sea of Azof in fish production. The average value of the
annual haul here exceeded a million rubles in the latter years
of the 19th Century. Over 11 million kilograms of sturgeon-
like fish and other large fish, besides 7 million herrings, were
caught here annually. In some winters more than 70,000
fishermen, with 20,000 to 30,000 horses and oxen, gather
on the frozen Sea of Azof. ' With gigantic nets, which are
sometimes nearly two kilometers long, a very profitable
fishing industry is carried on here. Important fishing
centers, with great freezing plants and works for salting
and smoking, are situated in Osiv (Azof) and Kerch. The
members of the fisher artils come principally from the
Poltava and Kharkiv country.

The Ukrainians may also claim a rather prominent part
in the fishing industry of the Caspian Sea, which yields
more than half a billion kilograms of fish annually. The
Ukrainian Caspian fishermen come from Ukrainian colonies
on the Volga, and from the eastern parts of the Ukraine
proper.

The interior fishing industry on the rivers, lakes and
ponds now has only slight significance. On the Dniester
and Dnieper on the Pripet, Desna, Sula and Orel, and on the
Donetz there still exist here and there fisher-arlils, but the
fish are caught only for local use. In the Polissye region the
fishing industry still yields some profit, e. g., in the District
of Mosir about 40,000 rubles a year, in the District of
Pinsk only 3500 rubles. Lake Knais yields 10,000 rubles
worth of fish annually. All of Galicia yields about 1 ,500,000
kilograms a year, of which two-thirds are contributed by
the Ukrainian part of the country.

UKRAINE 251

In examining the fishing industry of the Ukraine one
cannot escape reminiscences that are painful. Everywhere
a ruthless system of pillage and waste is carried on. The
excessively fine meshes of the nets catch the young broods
of fish with the old, and these are either sold for a few
kopeks a pound or simply thrown away. The fish which
come up the rivers to spawn are ruthlessly intercepted.
A closed season or region barely exists, except on paper.
We need not wonder, therefore, that the abundance of
fish in the Ukraine is rapidly decreasing, and fishing is
losing its importance more and more. Not a soul thinks of
a rational method of breeding fish, of increasing the stock
of fish in the streams. In Galicia a start has been made,
but thus far the results are very slight. And yet the Ukraine,
being an almost exclusively agricultural country, where
there is no factory sewage to poison the rivers, could very
easily recover its fame as a land abounding in fish.

The related industry of crab-fishing is not developed in
the Ukraine, altho the Jewish dealers of Eastern Galicia
send whole wagon-loads of crabs from Galician and Russian
Podolia to the west. The old Zaporog regions have been
famous since ancient times for their abundance of crabs.
In Oleshki there also exists a drying- plant for crabs' tails.

From this short survey of the hunting and fishing
industry of the Ukraine, we perceive that these branches of
industry play only a small part in the economic life of the
Ukrainian population. A further proof of this fact is the
small percentage of the population which engages in this
work. This percentage amounts to 0.2% in the Russian-
Ukraine; in the Austrian Ukraine it must be much
smaller still.

Forestry

How extensive the wooded area of the Ukraine is
cannot be determined exactly without detailed investiga-

252 UKRAINE

tion, for the same reason that statistical figures concerning
the Ukraine in other fields are difficult to determine. An
approximate calculation of the forest surface gives us an
area of over 110,000 square kilometers, that is 13% of
the entire surface of the country. These figures show us
that the Ukraine is one of the more sparsely-wooded coun-
tries of Europe. Of all the larger territories of our continent,
only England, with its 4%, is poorer in forests. There
remain only smaller territories, as Portugal (2.8%), the
Netherlands (8%), Denmark (8.3%), Greece (9.3%).
So old a land of culture as France still possesses 15.8% forest
surface, Germany 25.9%, Hungary 27.4%, Austria 32.7%,
Russia 38.8%. Among the large territories, the United
States stand nearest to the Ukraine as far as their forest
area (10.3%) is concerned.

The causes of the comparative lack of forests in the
Ukraine are to be sought, first of all, in the fact that it
includes large parts of the steppe region of Eastern Europe.
The percentage of forest land in the various regions of the
Ukraine show us this most clearly. The mountain regions
still retain the highest proportion of forest. The Bukowina
has 42% of forest (District of Kimpolung 78%), the Ukrai-
nian region of Northeastern Hungary about 40% (Mar-
marosh 62%). Then come the Ukrainian regions of the
forest zone: Polissye, from Minsk down 38.2%, Volhynia
29.6%, Galicia 25.4%, Grodno 25.5, Podlakhia, starting
from Lublin, 25.1%, from Sidletz 19.8%. In the same class,
as far as forest area is concerned, the Kuban region seems
to stand. Besides the heavily wooded mountain region,
this division includes the luhi in the foothill country and
the treeless steppes; hence the percentage comes out very
small — 19.8%. The transition between the forest and the
steppe zone is indicated by the following series: Kiev 18%,
Chernihiv 15%, Podolia 10.9%, Kharkiv 8.5% of forest
area. The steppe regions of the Ukraine have very little

UKRAINE 253

forest land: Kursk 7.1%, Voroniz 6.8%, Bessarabia 5.8%,
Tauria (Yaila forests 5.7%) Poltava 4.7%, Katerinoslav
2.4%, the Don region the same, Kherson 1.4%, Stavropol
0.3%.

In this distribution of forest we see a certain analogy
between the Ukraine and the United States. Here the
steppes are treeless, there it is the prairies. Here the
forest predominates in the Carpathians, there in the Appala-
chians; here, just as there, we have zones of transition
from forest regions to the steppes. But there is another
point of similarity between the Ukraine and the United
States — the ruthless exploitation and waste in forestry.
This criminal waste is the second main cause for the lack of
forests of the Ukraine. It began in the 16th Century and
it still continues today. Historical sources mention great
forest formations, even in those regions of the Ukraine
which are now poor in forests. The "Great Forest"
(veliki luh) in the Zaporog land, the "Black Forest" at
the sources of the Inhul, the large forests of the Poltava
and Kharkiv region, the Derevlan jungles, the giantic
forests on the Buh and Vislok, in the Rostoche, all have
either entirely disappeared from the earth's surface or
have changed into miserable remnants, which, at any
moment, may fall a final victim to human greed. A host
of geographical names, in regions which are almost entirely
treeless today, point to former forests. Thick, primitive
oak trunks are found in the beds of rivers which flow only
thru the treeless steppe-region. In five decades, in the
second half of the 19th Century, the forest area of the
Government of Kharkiv decreased from 10.9% to 8.5%,
in Poltava from 13% to 4.7%, Chernihiv from 17.1% to
15%. Detailed investigations of the ground have proved
that the forest area of the District of Poltava was originally
34% (now 7%), of the District of Romny 28% (now 9%)
and of the District of Lubni 30% (now 4%). Similar

254 UKRAINE

conditions of forest devastation prevail everywhere in the
Ukraine. Thus, the forest area of Galicia, for example,
has decreased by 2000 square kilometers, i. e., almost
3% of the total surface area of the country, in the course of
the last century.

We have already frequently called attention to the
sad results of this criminal waste for the entire land. But,
because of the low grade of culture of the nations domina-
ting the Ukraine, the Polish nation and the Russian, no
attention is paid to the fatal results of forest destruction.
The forests are recklessly cut down for lumber, and year
by year the scarcity of wood is being felt in most regions of
the Ukraine. Only in Podlakhia, Volhynia, Polissye, and
in the mountain regions of the Ukraine, is there no scarcity
of wood. The three cubic meters of wood which, on the
average, are due every inhabitant of the Ukraine, are not
easily accessible to more than one-fifth of the Ukrainians.
At the same time, the forests of the Ukraine are, as a rule,
badly managed. Even in the Austro-Hungarian parts of
the Ukraine there are very few professional foresters; in
Galicia for example, 250 to 800). Conditions are still
worse in the Russian-Ukraine. Consequently, the forest
does not grow up again very well, and a great deal of wood
is simply ruined. This happens chiefly in the mountain
forests of the Carpathians, where hundreds of thousands of
cubic meters of wood decay every year. In the regions
which are poor in forests, the products of the woods are
carefully and economically used, so that, for instance,
from one hectare of forest in the Poltava region, 11.5
cubic meters of wood are produced every year ; in the region
of Katerinoslav, 7 cubic meters. Of the production of the
Ukrainian forest, building wood constitutes only a com-
paratively small part. There is a crushing preponderance of
firewood, especially in the regions which are poor in forests.
Building wood, in large quantities, comes from the forests

UKRAINE 255

of the Polissye and of the Carpathians only. The export of
building wood from Galicia and the Bukowina reached a
million and a half cubic meters annually at the end of the
century. The export of wood from the Polissye, starting
from Minsk, exceeded 900,000 cubic meters. The complete
production of Galicia in the year 1900 was 3,660,000 cubic
meters of building wood and an equal quantity of firewood.

The reclaiming of forests, even in the Austrian Ukraine,
where it is required by law, is not properly administered. It
is still worse in the Russian Ukraine. Hence, the forest sur-
face of the Ukraine is constantly decreasing instead of re-
maining unchanged or even increasing, as usually happens in
the cultured lands of Europe. And yet, the Ukraine is one of
those countries in which the forest problem is a life probelm.

The Ukrainian people engage in the Ukrainian lumber
industry only as labor-power, while the money profit goes
to strangers — great landowners or middlemen. The forest-
area which is in the possession of Ukrainian peasants is
very small, even in Galicia, where at the time of the
removal of the labor tax system, at least small patches of
forest came into the possession of the peasant communities.
Almost all the forests of the Ukraine belong to the large
landowners, the clergy and the national lands.

The lumber industry and the industrial exploitation
of the forest products engages but a slight part of the
Ukrainian people. In the Russian Ukraine the percentage
of such workers is barely 0.1%. In this percentage, how-
ever, the entire mass of Ukrainian peasants which seeks its
incidental profit in forest work, is not considered. In the
Carpathian regions of the Ukraine this percentage increases
a hundredfold and more.

Agriculture

Since the very first beginnings of the history of the
Ukraine, the main occupation of its people has been, and

256 UKRAINE

has remained to this day, agriculture. To give a complete
picture of Ukrainian agriculture is beyond the scope of our
little book. Even a detailed economic study could not do
justice to this task. Hence, we shall have to limit ourselves
to its most important phases.

Almost nine-tenths of the Ukrainian people are engaged
in agriculture. In the Russian Ukraine, the agricultural
percentage of the population, according to official estimate,
is 86.4%. This figure is probably correct for the Austrian-
Ukraine as well, altho the biassed calculations of Buzek
place the percentage of farmers among the Ukrainians of
Galicia at 94.4%. These figures show us very clearly the
significance of agriculture in the economic life of the
Ukraine. Now, a person seeing these figures and knowing
the fertility of the Ukraine might easily imagine that
agriculture here stands upon a high plane. Such a view,
however, would be entirely false. Agriculture is on a very
very low plane in the Ukraine.

Yet the causes of this sad state of affairs do not lie in the
nature of the land. The climate of the Ukraine favors the
cultivation of grains as no other does. Barely one small
part of the steppe-zone is unfavorable to agriculture,
because of its frequent periods of drought. The soil of the
Ukraine is one of the most fertile on the whole globe.
More than three-fourths of the Ukraine lies in the Black
Earth Region, and many varieties of soil in the northwestern
part of the Ukraine are by no means without value and at
least equal to the best soils of Germany. Not in Nature,
but in the cultural conditions, lie the causes of the low
grade of Ukrainian agriculture.

The first and main cause is the lack of enlightenment
among the people of the Ukraine. The Ukraine peasant
cultivates his field entirely after the manner of his fore-
fathers, which may have proved excellent a hundred years
ago, and actually did make the Ukrainian peasant appear

UKRAINE 257

as the best farmer among his neighbors of other races, but
they fail completely in these days of intensive cultivation
of the soil. The illiteracy of the Ukrainian peasant renders
almost inaccessible to him all the great progress of agri-
cultural science. The old methods of cultivation, the
primitive agricultural implements, waste his energy and
his stock of living resources. The use of agricultural
machines, which may be of great significance even in
intensive farming on a small scale, is almost unknown to the
Ukrainian peasant. The progressive amelioration of the
soil and the national rotation of crops is not at all of wide
application. And all efforts at enlightening the Ukrainian
peasantry are hindered as much as possible by the govern-
ments dominating them, by their Polish and their Russian
masters.

The highest level, relatively, in agriculture, is attained
by the western borderlands of the Ukraine, Podlakhia,
the Khohos country, and Galicia. The poorer quality of
the soil has always required more intensive cultivation
here. Besides, the influences of advanced methods of
cultivation sifted thru more easily here, whether indirectly
thru the Polish territory, or directly thru the influence of
the German colonies. The greater enlightenment of the
Ukrainian peasants of Galicia has brought it about that
they now regularly apply rational rotation of crops and
fertilization of the soil, even with artificial fertilizers,
and possess pretty good agricultural implements. The
three-field system has disappeared almost everywhere in
this region, and continues in use only in the most fertile
parts of Podolia. In the mountains, on the other hand,
making land arable by means of fires followed immedi-
ately by planting, is still a procedure frequently met with.
In the Polissye region burning is still frequently applied,
but the two-field and three-field systems are used more
frequently. On the same principle, agriculture is carried

258 UKRAINE

on in the northern parts of Volhynia, Kiev and Chernihiv.
In the southern parts of these districts, as well as in Podolia,
Poltava and Kharkiv, the three-field system predominates.
Manuring is usually confined to small plots directly
adjoining the farmhouse. Here, too, however, an advance
to rational rotation of crops and to the multi-field system
is undeniable. In the steppe zone the method of cultivation
becomes more careless and the so-called fallow-system
prevails. The steppe soil is cultivated for a number of
years and then left lying fallow for some time. In very
recent years, however, even the steppe-peasant has had to
face the hard necessity of going on to the intensive methods
of cultivation.

The agricultural implements of the Ukrainian peasants
have undergone a great change. The primitive wooden
plough, without metal mounting, has been retained only in
places, in the Polissye region and the Carpathian country,
more as a relic of the fathers than as an agricultural imple-
ment. In the entire central zone of the Ukraine, the typical
Ukrainian plough, made of wood, with strong iron fittings,
is used. Iron ploughs are rapidly coming into use. In the
southern steppe zone of the Ukraine, the peasant has by far
the best implements. Iron ploughs of different kinds are
used here, in imitation of the German colonists, while
sowing, harvesting, and also threshing machines are found
as the property of large farmers or of agricultural co-oper-
ative associations.

It is possible, then, to note a certain progress in Ukrai-
nian agriculture. The Russian and White Russian peasant
is much more badly off, but the Ukrainian peasant, too,
has a long way to go in order to reach the level of even the
Ukrainian large landowners. Various agricultural co-
operative associations are working to raise the standard of
agriculture among the Ukrainian peasantry. One of these
co-operative associations has 90 branches, 1100 local

UKRAINE 259

groups, and 27,000 members — the Eastern Galician "Silsky
Hospodar." Such associations would, if not hindered in
their development (especially by the Russian Government),
become of great importance in raising the level of the
agricultural industry of the Ukraine, that ancient granary
of Europe.

The second cause of the sad condition of Ukrainian
agriculture lies in their unsound property conditions. The
foreign conquerors, who were continually attracted by the
fertility of the Ukrainian land, after taking possession of
the land, divided it among their upper classes. The
foreign conquerors have succeeded in denationalizing the
Ukrainian nobility, have succeeded even in developing
the republican Cossack organization into a new class of
landowners and, very largely in russifying them. Foreign
rule in the Ukraine has always supported foreign ownership
of land on a large scale, and the Ukrainian peasant must
be satisfied with small, mediocre and widely scattered
bits of land.

Now for a few corroborative figures. In the Ukrainian
part of Galicia the large estates embrace 40.3% of the total
area. In the Governments of Chernihiv, Poltava and Khar-
kiv, the proportion of peasant-owned land is still rather large
(53%, 52%, 59%), because here the property of descendants
of the old-time Cossacks is included. Far worse are the
conditions in other parts of the Ukraine. In Volhynia the
peasant-owned land constitutes only 40% of the area, in
Podolia 48%, in Kiev, 46%, in Kherson 37%, in Kateri-
noslav 45%, in Tauria 37%, while in the Polissian Govern-
ment of Minsk the peasants retain only 28% of the land.

The results of such unsound property conditions are
fatal to the ever-increasing density of the peasant popula-
tion. Land-famine has become chronic all thru the Ukraine.
The parcelling out of the large estates which began with
such fine results in Galicia a few years ago has now come to

260 UKRAINE

a halt, and the Stolypin radical agrarian reform in the
Russian Ukraine has thus far only slight results to show.
To be sure, the amount of property of the medium land-
owners is decreasing, but the giant estates are not only not
losing ground, but even show a steady, tho gradual, growth.

As a result of the ever increasing scarcity of land, the
Ukrainian peasants are splitting up their property more and
more, trying to rent as much land as possible from the large
landowners, and seeking subsidiary occupations in do-
mestic work; but a large percentage find it necessary to
leave their fatherland and to seek homes in Caucasia,
Turkestan, Siberia, Canada, Brazil and Argentina. And
this sad fact need not amaze us. For, while the foreign
colonists who settled in Southern Ukraine upon the invi-
tation of Catherine II were given 65 hectares of land per
head, the Ukrainian peasant, after the abolition of serfdom,
in 1861, was given a maximum of 3J^ hectares, and in many
cases only 1J4 hectares per head. In half a century the
rural population has doubled, while the area of cultivation
has not increased perceptibly at all. Thus, there existed
in the Government of Poltava, as early as twenty years
ago, more than 60% of peasant-farms with an area of
cultivation of only 1.3 desiatins, while another four percent
of estates occupied more than 5 desiatins. How can one
speak of progressive farming under such property con-
ditions? Those 60% of peasant farms resemble very
closely the sort of plots occupied by cottagers or squatters.
And the consequence: 62% of the emigrants who emi-
grated to Russian Asia in 1910 came from the Ukrainian
governments, that "granary" of Russia. And not only
from the thickly populated districts of Kiev or Poltava,
but also from the comparatively thinly populated, very
fertile districts of the Ukraine — from Kherson, Katerinoslav
and Tauria.

The third reason for the sad condition of Ukrainian

UKRAINE 261

agriculture, is the community ownership of land estab-
lished in the Eastern Ukraine. The basis of their system,
which is in vogue everywhere in Great-Russia, is that the
land is not owned by the individual peasant, but by the
entire community, which apportions it among its individual
members. This Muscovite property system is unbearable to
the Ukrainian peasant and causes him to neglect his land,
since it does not really belong to him. It does not pay
him at all to cultivate the ground better than his neighbor,
since, in the new apportionment, the carefully improved
patch may fall to someone else.

If, therefore, despite all these unfavorable conditions,
the agricultural production of the Ukraine and its exports
of food stuffs are very great, this fact is due, above all, to
the great fertility of the Ukrainian soil and the economic
policy of the large landowners, who, in spite of the frequent
danger of famine in their own country, continue to export
the products of their great estates beyond the borders of
the land.

After these general observations, we proceed to a short
survey of agriculture in the Ukraine. None of the European
countries (with the exception of Russia) possesses as great
an area under cultivation as the Ukraine. It ammounts
to more than 45 million hectares, that is, more than 32% of
the area of cultivation of European Russia, which is six
times as large as the Ukraine. The proportion of the area
of cultivation in the Ukraine is nearly 53% of the total
area of the country. In this respect the Ukraine is sur-
passed only by France (56%). In Germany, the proportion
is only 48.6%, in Austria 36.8%, in Hungary 43.1%, in
Russia 26.2%. To be sure, the proportion of the cultivated
area is very different in different districts of the Ukraine.
The most agricultural land is found in the steppe and
transition regions: Kherson 78%, Poltava 75%, Kursk
74%, Kharkiv 71%, Voroniz and Katerinoslav 69% each,

262 UKRAINE

Podolia and Tauria 64% each, Bessarabia 61%, Kiev 57%,
Chernihiv 55%. The forest regions possess much less
farm land: Galicia 48%, Grodno 40%, Volhynia 37%.
Minsk 24%, etc. Besides this, the farm land within each
of the above mentioned regions is diversely distributed.
In Galicia, for example, the area of cultivation is appor-
tioned as follows : In Eastern Podolia 75 — 80%, in Western
Podolia 60—75 %,in Pidhirye only 20—30%, in the Hutzul
country only 10%, of the total area. Similar conditions
prevail in the Bukowina, in Upper Hungary, Caucasia.
In the level regions of the Ukraine these local differences are
slighter.

To calculate the general agricultural production of the
Ukraine is difficult, if not impossible. By combining
various reports, we get, for the yearly average in the
beginning of the 20th Century, a grand total of 150 million
metric hundred weights. (This number, however, includes
only the wheat, rye, and barley production.) In this
respect, the Ukraine surpasses all the countries of Europe
except Russia. Its production is greater than that of
Austria, Hungary or of France, to say nothing of other
European States.

Following are several figures about the harvest yield of
the Central regions of the Ukraine in 1910. Volhynia
produced 73.4 million puds (1 pud=16.4 kilograms),
Kiev 113.4, Podolia 115.9, Kherson 188.6, Chernihiv 40,
Poltava 113.6, Kharkiv 95.9, Katerinoslav 194.9, Tauria
138.3, Kuban 214.4 million puds. The total yield of the
central regions of the Ukraine (without the borderlands,
which also produce a great deal, as for example, parts of
Kursk, Voroniz, the Don region, etc.) totalled 215 million
metric hundred weights, and was, consequently, six times
as great as the harvest yield of Russian Poland, and
comprised 39% of the total production of European Russia
and over 33% that of the entire Russian Empire. If we

UKRAINE 263

consider now that the Russian Ukraine comprises only a
twenty-ninth part of the gigantic Russian Empire and
barely one-fourth of its population, we recognize the great
importance attached to the Ukraine as the granary of
Russia.

Among the species of grain grown in the Ukraine, wheat
is without doubt of the first importance. In the Southern
Ukraine wheat takes up half the area of cultivation,
decreasing rapidly toward the north and west. In the
Government of Kherson .the wheat fields cover 51% of the
cultivated surface, in Katerinoslav 50%, in Tauria and in
the Don region 49%, in Bessarabia 36%, in Podolia 30%,
in Kharkiv 29%, in Poltava and in Kiev 22%, in Galicia
14%, in Volhynia 11%, in Grodno 4%, in Minsk 3%, in
Chernihiv only 1%. In Kiev, Podolia, Volhynia, Galicia,
more winter wheat is raised; in the Southern Ukraine,
more summer wheat. The mean annual yield per hectare is
10)^2 hi. for winter wheat and 7J^ hi. for summer wheat.
The mean annual yield of wheat in the first decade of the
20th Century in Russian Ukraine was 68 million metric
quintals, that is, over 46% of the production of European
Russia. (In Eastern Galicia it was 1.9 million q.). The
chief centers of wheat production in the Ukraine are
Kuban (17 million q.), Katerinoslav (12.4 million q.),
Kherson (12.4 million q.), Tauria (9 million q.), Poltava
(6.3 million q.), Podolia (5.8 million q.), Kharkiv (4.9
million q.), Kiev (4.2 million q.), Stavropol (3.3 million q.),
and Volhynia (2.7 million q.). Wheat is one of the chief
exports of the Ukraine.

Rye is cultivated chiefly in the northern and western
districts of the Ukraine, where it is the chief grain used for
breadmaking. In Chernihiv, Minsk and Grodno, rye takes
up 48% of the farm land, in Volhynia 38%, in Poltava 3%,
in Kharkiv 29%, in Kiev 28%, in the Don region 22%, in
Katerinoslav and Podolia 19%, in Tauria 18%, in Kherson

264 UKRAINE

and Galicia 17%, in Bessarabia only 7%. Rye (almost
everywhere winter rye) yields on the average 10}^ hi. per
hectare. The chief districts of production are Poltava
(55 million q..), Volhynia (4.9 million q.), Kiev (4.8 million
q.). The total rye output of the Ukraine is as high as
42 million q., that is, over 20% of the Russian output.

Barley is raised mostly in the Southern Ukraine, where
it takes up 28% of the farm land in Tauria, 26% in Kater-
inoslav, 21% in Kharkiv and Kherson, 18% in Bessarabia,
17% in the Don regions. The chief districts of production
are Katerinoslav (9.2 million q.), Kherson (7.9 million q.),
and Kuban (6.9 million q.) Barley is also an important
export of the Southern Ukraine. In other regions of the
Ukraine less barley is raised, e. g., in Poltava 13%, in
Polissye and in Galicia 9%. The barley production of the
Russian Ukraine amounts to 49 million q., therefore 61%
of the Russian production of barley.

The importance of the remaining grains is, of course,
comparatively slight. Oats take up on the average 16%
of the farm land in the Ukraine (21% in the Polissye region,
17% in Galicia, 16% in Chernihiv, 11% in Kharkiv and
Poltava, 5% in Southern Ukraine). The total production
is 28 million q. Kiev, Volhynia and Poltava take first
rank. As a bread cereal, oats are of some importance
only among the Carpathian people of the Ukraine. The
Eastern Galician oats production amounts to 4.5 million q.
Spelt is raised very seldom and then only along the western
borders of the Ukraine. Buckwheat is of the greatest
importance in the Chernihiv country (about 27% of the
farm area and a yield of 0.8 million q. a year), and Kiev,
Volhynia, and Poltava each produce almost as much. In
other regions of the Ukraine, buckwheat is raised much less
frequently (7% in Polissye, 2% in Galicia), in the southern
part of the Ukraine almost none at all. Millet is raised
chiefly in the Government of Kiev (10% of the farm-land,

UKRAINE- 265

2.3 million q. annual production) and Voroniz (9%). In
Kharkiv and Poltava the amount of land used for millet is
only 4%, in Galicia 1%. In Kherson the cultivation of the
Chugara-millet has been begun. The chief region of
Indian corn cultivation is Bessarabia, where this crop takes
up 32% of the area of cultivation. Indian corn is also
grown in the adjacent regions of Podolia (7%), Kherson
(3%), Galicia (3%), and the Bukowina, playing an impor-
tant part in feeding the population in these regions. The
chief regions of corn production are Podolia (1.8 million q.),
the Ukrainian part of Bessarabia and Kherson (each 1.1 mil-
lion q.) and Southeastern Galicia (0.9 million q.).

Besides grains and cereals, some other species of
plants are of great importance in the agricultural production
of the Ukraine. The first of these is the potato. The fact
that the yield of the potato is six or eight times that of the
other plants makes it a very important staple. Yet this ad-
vantage of the potato is but little exploited in the Ukraine.
Only in Galicia does the potato take up 14% of the farm-
land (annual production in Eastern Galicia 38.7 million q.).
Even in the Polissye region and in Chernihiv, only 6% of
the farm-land consists of potato-fields, in Poltava and
Kharkiv only 3%, in the Southern Ukraine barely 1%.
The total production of potatoes in the Russian Ukraine is
63.2 million q. annually, therefore 22% of the production of
European Russia. The large landowners use the potato for
distilling alcohol (especially in Galicia), or for cattle-feed.

Various species of beans and lentils are raised every-
where in the Ukraine, but on a small scale, chiefly in
kitchen-gardens. In Galicia these vegetables take up 3%
of the farm-land, in Polissye and Chernihiv 2% each, in
the other districts of the Ukraine still less. The culture
of forage (clover, lucerne, fodder-turnip) is still in its
infancy in the Ukraine. Only in Galicia do such plants
take up more than 10% of the farm-land.

266 UKRAINE

The cultivation of commercial plants stands upon a
comparatively low level. Most extensive is the cultivation
of hemp and flax; but it takes up only a tiny part of the
general area of cultivation of the land. Flax is cultivated
chiefly in the Polissye region and in Katerinoslav (3% of
the farm-land). In Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkiv, it takes
up 1 to 2% of the farm-land, in Galicia 1% (together with
hemp). In the Southern Ukraine a short-stemmed variety
of flax, raised only for obtaining oil, is cultivated widely.
Hemp takes up on the average 1% of the farm-land, only
in Chernihiv as much as 4%. All the hemp products are
used in home industry, while the flax products are mostly
exported. Another plant grown for the sake of oil thruout
the Ukraine, but especially in the eastern borderlands of
the country, is the sunflower. Rapeseed is grown only by the
large landowners, chiefly in Kherson, Kiev, Poltava, and
Podolia. Poppy is cultivated everywhere in the Ukraine
even by the peasants. Among the industrial plants of the
Ukraine the sugar-beet plays a very important part. In
the year 1897 Russia had 410,000 hectares of beet-fields,
330,000 hectars of this area being in the Ukraine. The
total Russian production of sugar-beets was 60 million
metric hundredweights, of which 50 millions, that is,
five-sixths, came from the Ukraine. The most important
centers of sugar-beet production lie in the Governments of
Kiev, Kharkiv and Podolia, much less being produced in
Volhynia, Chernihiv and Kursk. In the Austrian Ukraine
sugar-beet culture is developed only in Southeastern
Galicia and Northern Bukowina. Not only the large land-
owners, but also frequently the peasants, engage in sugar-
beet culture with great profit.

Another important commercial plant of the Ukraine
is tobacco, which takes up over 50,000 hectars of farm-land,
3000 hectares of it in Galicia. The chief districts of tobacco
production are Chernihiv, Poltava, Kuban and Tauria.

UKRAINE 267

Much less is produced in the Black Sea region in Podolia,
Volhynia, Bessarabia, Kherson and Kharkiv. The tobacco
production in Russian Ukraine in 1908 amounted to over
660,000 q., that is, 69% of the total production of Russia,
in Galicia 50,000 q. Tobacco culture has a great future in
the Ukraine, because the ground and the climate are
wonderfully fit for it. But first the unfavorable conditions,
which lie chiefly in the poor organization of the tobacco
trade, must be removed.

Hops are raised in the Ukraine to a very slight extent.
In Galicia only the large landowners engage in a little hop
culture on 2300 hectars of ground. In Volhynia the Chekhic
colonists have introduced the cultivation of hops. It com-
prises about 3000 hectares of land and yields over 1 6,000 q. of
hops a year, that is 40% of the total Russian output of hops.

Fruit and Vegetable Raising

Vegetable-culture is very slightly developed in the
Ukraine. Beyond the little vegetable gardens about the
houses and the melon-patches in the steppe we see no
developed vegetable culture even in the neighborhood of
large cities. It is worthy of mention only in the Chernihiv
and Odessa regions, as well as in the old Zaporog country
on the Dnieper (Oleshki, etc.). Here vegetables are
harvested twice a year, in the early summer for exportation
and in the fall for home use. The South Ukrainian melon
plantations (bashtani) annually yield great masses of sweet
melons, watermelons, pumpkins and cucumbers. Here
there has even arisen a special class of bashtanki, who rent
pieces of land for melon patches.

Fruit-culture is much more highly developed in the
Ukraine. The love of the Ukrainian people for trees favors
the planting of orchards. The ignorance of progressive
fruit-culture, owing to illiteracy, as well as the exploitation
of the fruit growers by middlemen is hindering the develop-
ment of Ukrainian fruit-culture, which, nevertheless, has

268 UKRAINE

a great future before it, and even now plays an important
part in the economic life of the Ukraine.

The greatest amount of space is taken up by orchards
in Bessarabia (40,000 hectars), where the more delicate
kinds of apples, pears, plums and walnuts, almonds and
apricots are raised. In Podolia the orchards of the peasants
alone comprise more than 26,000 hectars. Besides apples,
pears and plums, great quantities of cherries are raised here.
The orchards usually lie in the deep river-valleys. The yar
of the Dniester, between Khotin and Yampol, produces
annually half a million metric hundredweights of fruit.
From Podolia and Bessarabia over 800,000 q. of fresh
fruit, 100,000 q. of dried fruit and 20,000 q. of nuts and
almonds are exported annually. The most luxuriantly
growing orchards are those of Tauria, which cover over
7000 hectares on the northern declivities of the Yaila
Mountains. The annual production exceeds 160,000 q. of
fruit and 40,000 q. of nuts. In this region the tenderest
species of apples, pears and plums flourish, besides apricots
(4,000 q. a year) and peaches. About the middle of May the
cherries ripen here. In the middle of June the apricots;
at the end of June plums and early pears; about the middle
of July peaches and early apples; in August we have autumn
pears and apples, and in the first half of September, the
winter apples.

Beyond these districts, fruit-culture is practised on a
large scale in the Kiev region and in Volhynia. Here,
above all, the hardier northern species of apples and pears
are raised, as well as cherries. In Kherson and Kateri-
noslav, too, fruit-raising flourishes; especially in the
Dnieper valley, where apricots also thrive. In the Poltava
country fruit-culture is still important enough, while
in the districts of Kharkiv, Voroniz, Kursk and Chernihiv
it is much less significant, altho we find, even here, a few
centers of intensive fruit-growing; for instance, in the

UKRAINE 269

vicinity of the cities of Kharkiv, Okhtirka, Bohodukhiv.
In Galicia fruit-growing is not especially developed, except
in Pokutia, the vicinity of Kossiv, and the Podolian yari-
valleys, where (near Zalishchiki) even apricots and grapes
are grown.

There is a certain connection between fruit-growing
and viniculture. The northern boundary of the grape in
the Ukraine, coincides approximately with the May iso-
therm of +16° and reaches the 49th parallel. This boundary
line may be drawn from Zalishchiki, past Kamianez and
Katerinoslav, to Astrakhan. In places, however, the
northern boundary of the vineyards extends beyond the
50th parallel; for example, near Bilhorod, in the Govern-
ment of Kursk. Thus, the entire southern part of the
Ukraine may be considered a favorable vine-growing
region. But vine-culture has not developed in the entire
great expanse of the Southern Ukraine; it is confined to
only a few centers. In Galicia the vine is cultivated only
in Zalishchiki, in Russian-Podolia only in a few river-
valleys. Somewhat greater is the wine-production of the
old Zaporog district, where both inclines of the Dnieper
valley are planted with grape-vines. In the Kherson
region the vineyards cover about 7000 hectares. The most
important wine-producing district of the Ukraine is
Bessarabia, where the vineyards take up 75,000 hectares,
that is, a third of the entire Russian wine-country, and
yield over 2J/£ million metric hundredweights of grapes
annually. From this amount usually 870,000 hi. of wine
are obtained, which, despite its fine quality, is so cheap, as
a result of the poor organization of the wine trade, that the
barrel often costs more than its contents. Vine-growing
is but slightly developed in the Don region, where 33,000
q. of grapes are obtained every year, and the familiar
sparkling wines are manufactured. In the Government of
Stavropol we find large vineyards only in the Kuma

270 UKRAINE

and Terek valley. In Ciscaucasia, the vineyards cover
about 19,000 hectars, and nearly 200,000 hi. of wine (of
very good quality) are obtained annually. Grapes nourish
very luxuriantly in the Black Sea region and in Tauria.
Many vineyards are found in Melitopol and Berdiansk,
but the most successfully flourishing vines are those of
Crimea, where tender French and Spanish varieties are also
cultivated. Wine-growing has become an important
branch of industry for the population here. Tauria yields
only 250,000 hi. of wine annually, because of the exclusive
use of raw grapes for medicinal purposes.

Bee-culture has, since ancient times, been carried on in
the Ukraine in very close connection with fruit-growing.
It is very popular thruout the Ukraine, and in some districts
of the country we rarely find a peasant farm without
several beehives. Yet the almost fabulous wealth of
honey which the Ukraine originally possessed is steadily
declining. Deforestation has limited the original forest bee-
culture to the Polissye only. The continued assimilation
of meadows and steppes for agriculture has greatly in-
jured the Ukrainian bee industry, and progressive bee-
culture is spreading very slowly among the Ukrainians,
due to the lack of education and instruction. The chief
producing centers of honey in the Ukraine are Kuban
(326,000 bee-hives), Poltava (305,000 bee-hives), Chernihiv
(283,000 bee-hives), Kharkiv (246,000 bee-hives), Kiev
(242,000 bee-hives), Volhynia and Podolia (each 206,000
bee-hives). The total production of honey of the Russian
Ukraine, in 1910, amounted to 125,900 q., wax 13,700 q.
(38% and 34% respectively of the total production of the
Russian Empire). In Galicia, in 1880, the number of
bee-hives was still as high as 300,000, in 1900 only 210,000.
Nevertheless, the land produced one-half of the honey and
one-eighth of the wax of the entire Austrian production
(25,000 and 350 q. respectively). The damp, cool summers

UKRAINE 271

of the past decades have greatly injured the Galician bee
industry, but, in very recent years, progressive bee-culture
has begun to develop strongly here, and to increase the
honey and wax production of the land.

Silkworm-culture is very slightly developed in the
Ukraine, altho the mulberry trees thrive almost everywhere
in the country, and silkworm-culture requires no great
outlay in money and labor. Attempts are being made in
the Don region, Tauria, Bessarabia, Kherson, Katerinoslav,
Kharkiv, Kiev, Poltava and Chernihiv, but the silk output
is still very small. In the Government of Kiev, in 1907,
barely 1,300 q. of cocoons were obtained.

Cattle Raising

Cattle-raising thruout the Ukraine is closely joined to
agriculture. Only in the Pontian steppes the remains of
the originally extensive cattle industry are left today.
With the prevailing shortage of land, cattle- raising is a
source of industry of the greatest importance to the
Ukrainian peasantry, the most important source of ready
money with which to pay taxes and to invest in farm im-
provements. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian peasantry is
only beginning to understand the importance of progressive
cattle-raising and to introduce it. In Galicia, this move-
ment has already had a good start. In the Russian Ukraine,
only the large landowners (and they but rarely) are carrying
on progressive agriculture. On the other hand, it should
be noted that only extensive cattle-raising pays the large
landowner, hence, cattle-raising by the peasants is of
incomparably higher importance in the life of every
cultured nation. For this reason, cattle-raising in the
Ukraine gives promise of a splendid future, once it is
carried on by an enlightened peasant class.

The total number of cattle in the Ukraine can hardly be
estimated, even roughly. At any rate it is considerably

272 UKRAINE

more than 30 million, of which approximately four million
belong to the Austrian Ukraine. Compared to the adjacent
countries, the Ukraine is very rich in cattle. The Russian
Ukraine, which comprises not quite a sixth part of European
Russia, possesses fully a third of the Russian stock of
cattle; that is, about double the amount it should have
according to the size of the territory. In like manner, the
Austrian Ukraine is important for its exports of cattle to
Western Austria and Germany.

Of all the districts of the Ukraine, the relatively smallest
stock of cattle is found in Galicia, for here there are only
723 head of cattle (116 horses, 372 horned cattle, 60 sheep,
172 hogs) for each 1000 inhabitants. The proportions are
greater in the Russian Ukraine. For every 100 of the
population Volhynia has 19 horses, 32 steers, 18 sheep,
17 hogs. The corresponding numbers for Podolia are 16, 19,
17, 11; for Kiev 13, 18, 17, 10; for Kherson 29, 24, 16, 11;
for Chernihiv 21, 25, 33, 16; for Poltava 14, 22, 27, 11; for
Kharkiv 17, 27, 23, 10; for Katerinoslav 25, 26, 21, 12; for
Tauria 30, 28, 61, 11; for Kuban 34, 54, 80, 21.

We shall begin our survey of the cattle industry with
a consideration of horse-raising. The Ukrainian breed of
horses is widely distributed thruout the entire Dnieper
region, its Chornomoric variety in the Kuban region, its
Don variety in the eastern border districts of the Ukraine.
By far the greater number of the Ukraine horses, however,
are a mixed breed, of small stature, and, despite great
powers of endurance, not particularly strong. Of the differ-
ent breeds of small horses, only the Hutzulian mountain-
breed are important, because of their fine qualities. The
remaining millions of small horses rather mark the low
grade of horse-breeding than real value for the population,
which, in proportion to its economic resources, keeps
entirely too many horses. Very little is being done to
raise the standards of horse-raising in the Ukraine. Breed-

UKRAINE 273

ing-studs are kept up by the large landowners only for
the breeding of race-horses, while nothing at all is done for
the breeding of work-horses. Only in Voroniz a breed of
strong draught-horses is produced (bitiuhi), and a little is
accomplished also by the breeding-studs of Novo-Alex-
andrivsk (Kharkiv region) and in Yaniv (in the Kholm
country). In the Austrian Ukraine the war-department
takes care of the breeding of the Hutzulian breed of horses
with great success.

Horned cattle are of much greater importance to the
Ukrainian people than horses, and the breed is relatively
much better. Thanks to the general distribution of the
native gray breed, the addition of the red Kalmuck breed
of cattle in Eastern Ukraine, and the frequent crossing
with Western European breeds accomplished thru the
agency of the large landowners, the governments and the
agricultural organizations, cattle-breeding in the Ukraine
appears much more advanced than horse-breeding. On the
other hand, dairying in the Ukraine is barely in its be-
ginnings. Only in Galicia has a dairymen's organization
been formed by the Ukrainian peasants, which produce
J^ million kilograms of butter a year.

Sheep-raising in the Ukraine decreased considerably
within the last decades of the 19th Century, as a result of
Australian competition. Formerly, the Southern Ukraine
was one of the most important wool producing regions of the
world. The decline of the sheep-raising industry has been
accelerated a great deal by the transformation of the
steppes into farmland. The immense flocks of sheep
which roamed the Ukrainian steppes under the care of
semi-nomadic shepherds are a thing of the past. Never-
theless, about 10 million sheep can still be found in the
Ukraine. The greatest part of them is raised in the Don
region, the Kuban region, Tauria, Katerinoslav and Bess-
arabia. Just as in the other branches of live-stock-breeding,

274 UKRAINE

so also in the matter of sheep-raising, the most important
part is performed by the peasant. The peasants breed
chiefly coarse-wooled sheep of various breeds. These
sheep can graze three-fourths of the year out in the steppes.
The large landowners raise far less sheep, but these belong
to the fine-wooled Merino breed, the raising of which is
more expensive, but also more profitable. In very recent
years the peasants have at last begun to engage in breeding
the fine-wooled varieties. Sheep-raising is very important
in the districts of Chernihiv, Poltava and Kharkiv, where,
in the year 1900, there were 2>y2 million sheep (3 million
of which belonged to peasants). Here the greatly renowned
Reshetilov breed of sheep is raised. The remaining
districts of the Ukraine carry on very little sheep-raising.
Only in the Carpathians is it an important branch of
industry of the population. Here the coarse-wooled
mountain-sheep graze in the mountain pastures, and bring
almost greater profit thru their dairy products and skins
than thru their wool.

Goats are found very rarely in the Ukraine, almost
exclusively in the Carpathian, Yaila and Caucasus Moun-
tains. Hog-raising, however, is perhaps the most important
source of income of the poorer Ukrainian peasantry, and
as such it is common everywhere in the Ukraine, most of
all in Chernihiv, Volhynia and Kuban. Besides sty-
breeding, extensive breeding is carried on in some districts.
On the lower Dnieper and Dniester large droves of swine
remain in the plavni all summer and fall. Improved breeds
of English hogs (Yorkshire, Berkshire, etc.) are not common
in the Ukraine and easily degenerate, while the most
common breeds, the Russian, the Polish and the southern
curly-haired variety, are very hard to fatten.

Camels are kept only in the southeastern steppes of the
Ukraine (Tauria, Don region, Stavropol), buffaloes only in
Bessarabia, asses and mules in Bessarabia and Tauria.

UKRAINE 275

Having reached the end of our survey of cattle-raising
in the Ukraine, we must turn to poultry-raising, which
constitutes one of the most important sources of the money
income of the peasantry. In view of the truly Spartan
mode of life of our peasants, very little poultry is consumed
by the breeder himself, most of it being sold to the dealers
or in the cities. The balance of the production over the
local consumption is so great that the entire Ukraine has
become an exporting region for poultry, eggs and feathers
to the other districts of Russia, to Western Austria, Ger-
many, England, etc. From the nine governments of the
Ukraine, in 1905, over 600,000 q. of eggs were exported,
90% of which went over the border. These Ukrainian
governments yielded 40% of the total Russian exportation
of eggs, Kharkiv alone giving 8%, Kiev 5%. If we con-
sider the remaining Ukrainian districts of Russia, we can
say, without fear of error, that all the, Russian territory
together that is inhabited by Ukrainians produces more
than half the Russian output of eggs and poultry. Podolia
alone, in 1908, sold nearly 3J^ million fowl, Kharkiv
(1906) \% million. Galicia, about the year 1903, exported
annually eggs to the value of 35 million crowns*, feathers to
the value of 3 million, and poultry to the value of 1J^
million, of which, at least, two-thirds must be credited to
the Ukrainian part of the land.

Every farmer in the Ukraine raises live-stock. The
percentage of exclusive breeders of live-stock is very small ;
in the Russian Ukraine, in 1897, it was hardly 0.4%.

Mineral Production

Altho farming — agriculture and cattle-raising — must,
for the time being, comprise the main source of industry of
the population of the Ukraine, this blessed land does not
lack other resources as well. Very great mineral resources
lie in various districts of the Ukraine; the largest in the

» 1 crown (1 krone)=20 cents (U. S. A.)

276 UKRAINE

Donetz Plateau, in the Carpathians, and in the Caucasus.
There is little prospect, to be sure, that the Ukraine might,
with the aid of its mineral resources, become an industrial
country like Germany or England, yet there does exist
some hope that it will soon be in a position to provide its
own needs in the way of industrial products.

Gold is found in the Ukraine only in traces, hardly
worth mentioning, in the gold-containing quartz of the
Naholni kriaz in the Donetz Plateau. Silver, together with
lead, appears much more frequently, chiefly in the Kuban
and Terek regions of the Caucasus, where, in 1910, about
300,000 q. of lead and silver ore were mined (73% of the
total Russian production), yielding 25.5 q. of silver (90%)
and about 11,000 q. of lead (81%), and also in the Donetz
region and in the Ukrainian Carpathians of the Bukowina
and Northern Hungary. The amount produced outside
of the Caucasus, on the other hand, is very insignificant.
Zinc is found only in small quantities in the Naholni kriaz
Tin, nickel, chromium and platinum are not found any-
where in the Ukraine.

The first in the series of the more important mining
products of the Ukraine is mercury. It is obtained from
the cinnabar mines of Mikitivka, in the Donetz Plateau.
Here, 842,000 q. of cinnabar were mined in 1905, yielding
320,000 kilograms of mercury. Outside the Ukraine, the
Russian Empire has no mercury mines worthy of mention.

Copper ore is found in the Donetz Plateau, in Kherson
and Tauria, in the Bukowina and Marmarosh, yet the
production is comparatively small. Much greater is the
copper production of the Caucasus, where, in 1910, about
2,500,000 q. of copper ore (35% of the Russian production)
and 81,000 q. of copper (31%) were gained.

Much more important is the manganese production of
the Ukraine. Manganese ores are gained chiefly from the
oligocene strata of the Nikopol region (on the lower Dnieper),

UKRAINE 277

and in Eastern Podolia. The production for the year 1907
amounted to 3,245,000 q., or 32% of the total Russian out-
put and about one-sixth of the output of the world.

But all the remaining metal resources of the Ukraine
disappear, as it were, beside the enormous wealth of iron
of the land. Iron ores are found in great quantities in
very many places in the Ukraine; many deposits have not
been sufficiently explored to make exploitation seem advis-
able, and many, for various reasons, are not being exploited.
The iron production of the Ukraine is consequently limited
to a few centers, but in these it is of very great importance.
The most important center of iron mining is Krivi Rih
(Government of Kherson) and vicinity. The annual pro-
duction here (1903 — 1904) amounted to 26J^ million
metric hundredweights. The entire supply of iron ore at
KriviRih is estimated at 870 million metric hundredweights,
but in the immediate vicinity there lie much larger un-
touched deposits. The iron content of the ores (red and
brown iron ore) is 60 — 75%.

Other iron ore deposits of the Ukraine are of much
less significance. Only in the Donetz Plateau and in the
vicinity of Kerch are iron ores still mined in considerable
quantities. The iron ore deposits of the Caucasus, the
brown iron ores and swamp-ores of Volhynia, of the western
Kiev country and of the Polissye, are not exploited, and in
in the Ukrainian Carpathians of the Bukowina and North-
eastern Hungary, iron mining is dying out.

The iron production of the Russian Ukraine in 1907
amounted to 39.9 million q.,that is, 73% of the total Russian
production. The figures for the years following are:
1908—40.3 million q.=74%; 1909—39 million q.=74%;
1910—43.4 million q.=74%; 1911—51.1 million q.=72%.
These figures show clearly enough what a wealth of iron
the Ukraine possesses, and what part the country plays as
the chief producer of iron for Russia.

278 UKRAINE

We now come to the second group of mineral resources,
— the mineral fuels. In this respect, too, the Ukraine is
richly supplied. The Ukraine possesses but one coal-field
in the Donetz Plateau, but this coal-field is one of the largest
and richest in Europe. Its surface area is 23,000 square
kilometers, the annual production (1911) 203 million
metric hundredweights, that is, 70% of the total production
of coal of the entire Russian Empire. Then, the coal-district
on the Donetz is very rich in anthracite. In 1911, approxi-
mately 31 million metric hundredweights of anthracite
were gained here (98.5% of the total Russian production).
For coke-making, practically the only coal that can be
used in Russia is the Donetz coal. In 1911, 33.7 million
metric hundredweights of coke was gained in the Donetz
region; in all the remaining coal districts of the Russian
Empire, barely 13,600 q.

From these figures we see clearly that the Ukraine,
despite its general agrarian character, possesses great
supplies of coal, that indispensable aid in modern industry.
To be sure, the Ukraine takes only seventh rank in the
world's coal production (being preceded by the United
States, Great Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France
and Belgium) yet it is, nevertheless, not to be despised as a
producing district. When we consider the backward
state of material culture in Russia as a whole, the youth of
the Ukrainian coal-mining industry, and the centripetal
railway tariff policy of the Russian Government, we must
come to realize that, with better conditions, a brilliant
future awaits the Ukrainian coal industry.

The brown-coal deposits of the Ukraine are as yet but
slightly explored, and, in themselves, much less important
than the pit-coal deposits. A brown-coal field of 5000
square kilometers is part of the tertiary strata of the
Dnieper Plateau (Kiev- Yelisa vet coal region). Toward
the end of the past century an annual average of 82,000 q.

UKRAINE 279

of brown-coal was mined here (Katerinopol, Zuraska).
Just as unimportant is the brown-coal production in the
Caucasian foothills (Batalpashinsk). In the Carpathian
foothill country and in the Rostoch, in 1901, over 1 million
metric hundredweights of brown-coal was mined; in 1905
barely one-half that amount. Notwithstanding, some
importance must be attached to the brown-coal industry
in the Ukraine for the future.

Large peat deposits are widely distributed in the Polissye,
in Volhynia, Podlakhia, Galicia, Kiev, Podolia, etc., but
extremely little is done in the way of rational exploitation.
Only in the Polissye and in Galicia (40 places in 1905) is
peat cut on a large scale, altho its importance, especially
for the districts of the Ukraine, which have few forests,
should not be underestimated.

In petroleum and ozokerite the Ukraine is the richest
land in Europe. Along the great bend of the Carpathians,
beginning at the Poprad Pass, one petroleum district
crowds close upon the next. They lie almost exclusively in
the Ukrainian territory of Galicia, e. g., Borislav and
Tustanovichi, which, in 1907, yielded about 86% of the
Galician petroleum output, in the Ukrainian District of
Drohobich. The Galician petroleum production in 1911
amounted to 14.9 million metric hundredweights — (in 1907
even 17.5 million metric hundredweights), and takes third
rank in the world's production (being outranked by Russian
Caucasia and the United States). Considerable naphtha
fields are also found in the Ukrainian sub-Caucasian country,
where, in 1910, near Hrosni and Maikop, 12.6 million
metric hundredweights of petroleum were gained. From
the eastern tip of Crimea and the Taman peninsula to the
Caspian Sea immense treasures of petroleum are hidden.

The only place in the world where ozokerite is found
in large quantities is Eastern Galicia. In 1885 Borislav
yielded 123,000 q. of this rare mineral. The unexampled

280 UKRAINE

wastefulness in mining accounts for the fact that, in 1911,
Borislav together with other small sub-Carpathian mines
(Dsviniach, Starunia, Truskavetz) yielded barely 19,400
q. of ozokerite. Ozokerite is also found in the Ukrainian
sub-Caucasus country, but in inconsiderable quantities.
Quite as important as the iron, coal and petroleum
deposits of the Ukraine, are its salt deposits. The Ukraine
has three districts of salt-production — the Carpathian
foothills, the Donetz Plateau, and the Pontian-Caspian
salt-lake and liman region. The sub-Carpathian salt-
mines and salt-works of Galicia (Latzke, Drohobich,
Stebnik, Bolekhiv, Dolina, Kalush, Delatin, Lanchin,
Kossiv) all lie within Ukrainian national territory, with the
single exception of Vielichka and Bokhnia. In 1911 Galicia
produced about 1,440,000 q. of rock salt, most of which, to
be sure, must be credited to Vielichka and Bokhnia. On
the other hand, the 1,690,000 q. of manufactured salt and
brine were produced mainly in the Ukrainian part of Galicia.
In 1908 the salt production of the Ukrainian part of Galicia
amounted to only 540,000 q. In the Donetz region there
are immense deposits of rock-salt in the vicinity of Bakh-
mut (e. g., Branzivka with a deposit of pure rock-salt 100
meters deep). Here, in 1911, about 4.9 million metric
hundredweights of rock-salt were mined (86% of the total
Russian rock-salt production) and the rich salt-springs
and salt-lakes exploited besides. In the Ponto-Caspian
region first place in held by the salt-lakes and limans of
Crimea, then follow the limans of the Kherson region
(Knyalnik, etc.), the Manich lakes, etc. The amount
produced vacillates between 3^ and 5% million metric
hundredweights a year, and depends largely on the degree
of dryness and heat of the summer season. The total
salt production of the Russian Ukraine in 1907 attained
10 million metric hundredweights, or 53% of the production
of the entire Russian Empire.

UKRAINE 281

Nitre salts are found in great quantites only in the
Ukrainian sub-Carpathian country. In 1901 the amount
produced was about 179,000 q.; in the year of 1908 it
decreased to 121,000 q.

Besides the abovementioned most important treasures
of the soil, minerals less important, but yet noteworthy,
are found in the Ukraine. In Podolia and the adjoining
border strips of Bessarabia there lie some rich deposits of
phosphorites (70 — 75% phosphoric acid), out of which, in
1907, over 114,000 q. (72% of the total Russian production)
were mined. In the districts of Katerinoslav, Kherson,
Poltava, Chernihiv, Kiev, Volhynia, in 1907, over 216,000
q. of kaolin were mined. Outside of the Ukraine no kaolin
is found in Russia. Good pottery clays are found thruout
the Ukraine, mostly around Kiev, Chernihiv and Poltava.
Fireproof clays occur in the Donetz Plateau, slate in the
Zaporoze (Katerinoslav), lithographic stone in Podolia
(near Kamianez and Mohiliv), graphite (in inconsiderable
quantities, to be sure) in Volhynia, on the Sluch River, near
Krivi Rih (Kherson), in the districts of Kiev and Kateri-
noslav, mineral paints near Lissichansk (Donetz region),
Krivi Rih, and Yelisavet (Kherson), Stari Oskol (Kursk).
Sulphur is obtained on the upper course of the Kuban
River, pumice stone in the Caucasus, rotten-stone near
Svenihorodka (Kiev). Mill-stones are obtained in many
places, the best variety near Hlukhiv (Chernihiv), whet-
stones especially in the Poltava region and in the Devonian
region of Galician-Podolia (Terebovla). Chalk is widely
distributed in Podolia, Volhynia and Kharkiv, gypsum in
Podolia and Pokutia (beautiful alabasters), as well as in
the Donetz region. Building-stones, lime, sand, loam are
found everywhere in the Ukraine and are of good quality.
The most fit for masonry work are the devonian sandstone
of Podolia, the granite gneisses of the Dnieper Plateau,
and the old eruptive formations of Volhynia.

282 UKRAINE

From this short survey of the mineral resources of the
Ukraine, we perceive that the Ukraine, altho in this
respect it does not compare with the countries of Western
and Central Europe, yet does produce a great deal, and
after a thoro change in the political and cultural conditions,
should be able to occupy an important place in the world's
production of mineral wealth. At present the Ukrainian
people contributes only the poorly-paid labor, while the
profit falls to the foreign rulers.

Industry

The industry of the Ukraine is now in an important
stage of transition. The originally very important home
industries which, until recently, satisfied all the needs of
the peasantry, cannot endure the competition with the
factory system of large-scale industry, which is penetrating
more and more deeply into those regions of the Ukraine
that lie farthest from the highways of the world's trade.
Home industry is declining irresistibly, factory industry is
developing more and more, and, altho the latter is still
young and is retarded, in the textile branches, by the
centralization of industry at Moscow, still the Ukraine
(especially the southern part) is on the way to becoming the
most important industrial district of all Russia.

Ukrainian home industry is just as old and of as high
a grade as all the popular culture of the Ukrainians —
this typical primitive agricultural people. The products
of Ukrainian home industry are characterized above all by
their great solidity and durability. Their distinguishing
feature is in the original ornamentation on all objects,
even those destined for every-day use, noticeable particu-
larly in the products of the textile, wood-carving and
pottery industries. Anyone who knows Ukrainian home
industry is overcome by a sad feeling when he perceives that
this industry, which may really be called a fine art, will

UKRAINE 283

soon be a thing of the past. The foreign rulers of the
Ukraine are hostile, or at best indifferent, to Ukrainian
home industry, and all efforts of the Ukrainians to promote
their very vital native home industry are hindered at
every turn. The middlemen ruthlessly exploit the artisan,
whose earnings are a mere pittance, insufficient even for the
contented Ukrainian. More and more of those who work
at a trade are turning their backs upon their thankless
occupations, if they can only find a means of subsistence
at something else.

The most important branch of Ukrainian home in-
dustry is weaving. It is not confined only to the weaving of
coarse, very durable kinds of linen and cloth; for very
fine, sometimes really artistically ornamented tablecloths,
towels and handkerchiefs, fine woolens, decorative fabrics
with inwoven patterns, gold and silver thread, carpets and
tapestries, too, come out of the primitively equipped
workshops of the Ukrainian weavers. Under very difficult
working conditions, with the most primitive means, genuine
works of art are frequently created. For all that, the
artistic weaver must yield place to factory goods, even in
the Ukraine, and the home weaving industry is surely
hurrying toward extinction.

Yet, to this day, thanks to the persistence of the people
in preserving their national costume, the weaving industry
is still so widespread thruout the Ukraine that there is
hardly a hamlet where there are not some weavers by
trade, or at least such persons as carry on weaving as an
avocation. Home weaving is at its height in the districts
of Poltava, where it occupies 20,000 families (1902),
Chernihiv and Kharkiv. Its chief centers are Krolevetz
and vicinity, Sinkiv,Mirhorod,Zolotonosha (wool -weaving).
In Galicia, the entire Ukrainian Pidhirye is famous for
its home weaving industry; in the mountains it is the
neighborhood of Kossiv, in the low country the districts

284 UKRAINE

of Horodok, Komarno, Halich, Busk, etc., which are
important in this connection. The most beautiful carpets
and tapestries, worked in colors, come from the districts of
Mirhorod and Sinkiv (Poltava), Olhopol, Balta, Yampol,
Bratzlav (Podolia), Sbaraz, Buchach, Kossiv (Eastern
Galicia).

Tailoring is nowhere developed to large proportions,
altho no place, not even the smallest village, is without it.
In Poltava, tailoring and cap-making occupies over 10,000
families.

Rope-making is very common thruout the Ukraine,
mostly in the districts of Poltava, Kiev (Lissianka) and in
Galicia (Radimno). Nets are made in the district of
Lokhvitza (Poltava) and Oster (Chernihiv) on a large
scale.

After the textile industry comes the wood-working
industry. It is common, everywhere in the Ukraine, the
steppe country alone excepted. Almost every Ukrainian
peasant of the Carpathian Mountains, of the Polissye,
Volhynia, Kiev, Chernihiv, knows the carpenter trade.
The best carpenters are the Hutzulians, who, independently,
without drawn plans, build churches of fine style, even for
the most distant villages of the low country.

Ship-building is carried on chiefly in the Polissye
(Mosir, Petrikiv, Balazevichi on the Pripet, and parti-
cularly Davidhorodok on the Horin). On the Dnieper
River, ships are built at Horodnia, small sea-vessels in
Nikopol, Oleshki, Hola Pristan, Kherson; on the Don in
Osiv (Azof). On the Dniester, river-ships are built in
Zuravno, Halich, Zvanetz, Mohiliv, Yampol.

Cabinet-making, altho in general but slightly developed,
still supplies the demand of the peasantry and the common
city-dwellers. Artistic cabinet-making is carried on in the
Hutzul country (Kossiv, Yavoriv, Richka, Viznitza),
where, besides furniture, various kinds of woodwork,

UKRAINE 285

decorated with artistic carvings and with the beautifully
conventionalized specifically Hutzulian bead and brass-
wire ornaments are produced, e. g., canes, boxes, picture-
frames, etc. The furniture industry is common in the
District of Cherkassia (Kiev) and in the entire Poltava
country. Here, too, beautiful and durable wooden chests
are made. Wooden spoons are produced in the districts of
Poltava (Kalaidintzi), Kiev (Chornobil, Hornostapol), in
the Hutzul country (Porohy, Yavoriv), in the Rostoche
region (Yavoriv, Vishenka), and smoking-pipes of wood in
the Poltava region (Velika Pavlivka).

Cooperage and the making of wooden vessels is common
everywhere, but it is most extensive in the districts of
Poltava (3,700 families), Kharkiv (Okhtirka, Kotelva),
Polissye (Mosir), Kiev (District of Radomishl), Chernihiv,
Volhynia and the Hutzul country.

Wagon-making and the making of sleds and wooden
agricultural implements has its chief center in the Poltava
country, where it occupies over 2400 families (Districts of
Sinikiv, Lubni, Hadyach). In the Kharkiv country this
industry is important about Starobilsk, Bohodukhiv,
Isium, Kupiansk, as well. In Ardon (Government of
Chernihiv) beautiful carriages are produced and in Tarash-
cha (Government of Kiev) the world-renowned tarantas.

The shingle industry, charcoal-burning, pitch and
potash-making are met with only in the Carpathians and in
the Polissye region. Yet, not so long ago, these comprised
one of the most important branches of industry of the
forest-dwellers. Basket-weaving is especially developed in
the Poltava region (about 1000 families, chiefly in the
Districts of Lokhvizia and Kupiansk), to some degree
also in Podolia (Districts of Litin and Vinitza), Kherson,
Kiev, Polissye about Mosir. Sieves are made everywhere
the wood industry is established. Bast shoes are made only
in the Polissye region.

286 UKRAINE

Among the branches of industry in which mineral
substances are used, pottery takes first rank. Thanks to
great deposits of splendid pottery clay, the Ukrainian
pottery industry developed very early and now stands
upon a very high plane. Its products usually have fine
form and beautiful ornamentation. Pottery is best
developed in the Poltava region, especially in the Districts
of Mirhorod, Sinkiv (well-known center of Oposhnia),
Romen and Lokhivizia. In the Chernihiv country pottery
is almost as important, especially in the vicinity of Horod-
nia, Krolevetz, Hlukhiv (Poloshki and Novhorod Siversky).
In the Kharkiv region we' find large pottery works in the
regions of Valki, Lebedin, Okhtirka, Bohodukhiv, Isium;
in the Kiev country about Chihirin, Uman, Cherkassia,
Svenihorodka, Kaniv, in Podolia about Mohiliv, Ushitza,
Yampol, and Letichiv. In Galicia the Rostoche region
(Potilich, Hlinsko, etc.), Podolia (Chortkiv, Borshchiv,
Kopichintzi, etc.), and especially the Hutzul country
(Kolomia, Kossiv, Pistin, Kuti) are renowned for pottery
products. In other regions of the Ukraine pottery is less
developed.

The brick-making industry is actively growing all
over the Ukraine, and the introduction of tile-covered brick
buildings has led to the formation of numerous peasant
organizations, for the purpose of making these building-
materials.

The stone-cutting industry is carried on on a large scale
only in the region of Odessa, Olexandrivsk (Kamishevakha)
and Bakhmut.

The metal-working industry is, in general, not highly
advanced. Only the blacksmith trade is carried on every-
where and shows a fine development, especially in the
Southern Ukraine. In the village smithies in Kherson,
Katerinoslav and Tauria, even complicated agricultural
machines are often made. The production of iron ploughs

UKRAINE 287

has for its centers the districts of Starobilsk (the village of
Bilovodsk produces on the average 3% thousand ploughs
a year), Isium and Valki of the Kharkiv country, in the
Chernihiv country (districts of Starodub and Sossnitza),
in the Poltava country (Zolotonosha and vicinity). Artistic
brass-work is made by the Hutzuls of the Kossiv region
(Brusturi, Yavoriv, etc.).

The utilization of animal raw-materials plays an im-
portant part in the home industry of the Ukraine. Sausage-
makers are found in all the towns of the Ukraine, especially
those of the left half, and their products enjoy a
good reputation, even beyond the borders of the land.
Tanning and fur-manufacturing nourish in the Ukraine."
Ukrainian workmen have had no small share in earning
world-renown for the Russian leather industry. The
chief centers of this home industry lie in the districts of
Chernihiv (in the regionsof Chernihiv, Koseletz, Krolevetz),
Poltava (about Sinkiv, Poltava, Reshetilivka with its
famous furriery, Pereyaslav, Kobeliaki), Kharkiv (about
Okhtirka, Valki, Isium, Sumi). In the Government of
Voroniz, the village of Buturlinivka is noted for its leather
industry. Shoemaking engages over 9000 families in
Poltava (districts of Sinkiv, Kobeliaki, Romen, Konstan-
tinohrad, etc.). In the region of Kharkiv, the towns of
Okhtirka and Kotelva are the main centers of the shoe-
making industry, in the Chernihiv country the regions of
Novosibkiv, Borsna and Oster. In the region of Voroniz
(districts of Bobrivsk, Biriuch, Valuiki) there are over
12,000 shoemakers. In the Ukrainian part of Kursk the
chief centers are the districts of Sudza (5000 shoemakers,
3000 of them in Miropilia alone) and Hraivoron. In
Galicia we find a strongly developed 9hoemaking and
tanning industry in Horodok, Kulikiv, Busk, Uhniv,
Stari Sambir, Ribotichi, Nadvirna, Buchach, Potik, etc.

The horn industry, especially the making of horn combs ,

288 UKRAINE

appears in Mirhorod and Sinkiv, in Kharkiv and about
Sumi.

Of the numerous other branches of home industry in
the Ukraine the organized (guild) painters of sacred pictures,
of whom there are over 300 families in the Poltava region,
may be mentioned in passing.

So much for home industry. The factory industry of
the Ukraine is still in its infancy. Notwithstanding, it is
already producing so much, despite its youth, that Southern
Ukraine, in particular, is on the way to becoming the most
important industrial < center of all Russia. Large-scale
production in the Ukraine is carried on almost exclusively
by foreign (Russian, Jewish, English, French and Belgian)
capitalists — the Ukrainians contribute only the poorly-
paid labor. Ukrainian large-scale industry must wage a
hard battle against the economic policy of the Russian
Government, which aims to stop the declining preponder-
ance of the Moscow and St. Petersburg centers of industry,
and to prevent the industrial rise of the south.

The total value of the industrial output of the Russian
Ukraine, in 1908, was approximately 870 million rubles, or
19% of the total Russian large-scale production. The
production of the Austrian Ukraine amounts to not even
one-tenth of this amount. The main centers of large-scale
production are Katerinoslav (166.2 million rubles),
Kiev (143.5), Kherson (127.5), and Kharkiv (98.7).
Ukrainian large-scale industry concerns itself chiefly with
the manufacturing of the mineral products of the land
and the preparation of foods. The textile industry is
artificially suppressed in the interests of the Central
Russian industrial districts.

The cotton industry is confined to only a few small
factories in the Don region (Rostiv, Nakhichevan) and
Katerinoslav (Pavlokichkas). The woolen industry is
less limited (Chernihiv country, especially Klinzi, then

UKRAINE 289

Kharkiv, Kiev, the Don region, Volhynia). The linen
and hemp industry is well developed only in the Chernihiv
country (Pochep, Mhlin, Starodub, Novosibkiv) and in
Kherson (Odessa) jute factories are also found. The
clothing industry is worthy of mention only in Kherson and
the larger cities of Eastern Galicia.

Of the many branches of the food industry, the first to be
mentioned is the manufacture of sugar. The sugar refineries
of the Ukraine, more than 200 in number (most of them in
the territories of Kiev, Kharkiv, Podolia, Kherson),
produce annually (1904) over 6.6 million metric hundred-
weights of raw sugar and 3.9 metric hundredweights of
refined sugar. These figures represent 76% and 68%
respectively of the total Russian output. It is remarkable
that in the Austrian Ukraine, where the sugar industry
has the finest possibilities of expanding, it is entirely
undeveloped (only two factories). The milling industry,
which, in general, is carried on chiefly in small water and
wind-mills, possesses also some large mills operated by
steam (Kharkiv, Kiev, Poltava, Kreminchuk, Odessa,
Mikolaiv, Melitopol, Lviv, Brody, Ternopil, Stanislaviv,
Kolomia, etc.). Another important industry is alcohol-
distillation, which is well advanced in all parts of the
Ukraine, but particularly in Russian and Galician Podolia
(Galicia has 800 stills), Kharkiv and Kiev. The beer-brewing
industry is but slightly developed, and the only districts
in which it yields a product of some quality are Galicia
and the Bukowina. Mead brewing, also a common industry,
is carried on on a large scale only in the Kharkiv country
and in Eastern Galicia. Oil-pressing is important in the
territories of Kherson (Odessa), Kiev, Chernihiv (Pochep,
Novosibkiv), in Kharkiv and in Kreminchuk. The impor-
tant tobacco industry is carried on to a considerable degree
in 100 factories in the Russian Ukraine (Kiev, Kharkiv,
Odessa, Zitomir, Poltava, Kreminchuk, Romen, Kater-

290 UKRAINE

inoslav, Mikolaiv, etc.) as well as in three government
factories in Galicia (Vinniki, Monastiriska and Zabolotiv).

The lumber industry embraces large saw-mills in the
Carpathian mountain districts of Galicia, the Bukowina
and Northeastern Hungary, as well as long the Pripet and
Dnieper Rivers (Mosir, Kreminchuk, Katerinoslav, Kher-
son, etc.,). The cork industry is established in Odessa, the
paper industry in Rostiv, Odessa, Kharkiv, Poltava.

The most important branch of Ukrainian large-scale
industry is the metal-industry. The Ukrainian iron in-
dustry, despite its youth, has rapidly surpassed the Polish,
Moscow and Ural industry, and would be even more
advanced if the economic policy of the Russian Govern-
ment had not taken measures for the protection of the
Moscow and Ural industry from the industrial competition
of the Ukraine. Hence, the Ukrainian metal industry
must furnish chiefly semi-manufactured goods, which are
afterwards worked into finished goods in the center of the
Empire.

In 1911, there were obtained in the Ukraine, 24,625,000
q. of cast iron, that is, 67.4% of the total Russian produc-
tion; in 1912 the percentage is said to have reached 70%,
while the rest, 30%, is accredited to Poland, Great-Russia
and Russian-Asia. In 1911 the Ukraine produced 18.8
metric hundredweights (55.6% of the total Russian
production) of wrought iron and steel, and in the year 1912,
it attained the same percentage. The significance of these
figures is at once apparent.

The iron works of the Ukraine lie chiefly near Krivi
Rih, in Katerinoslav and vicinity, Olexandrivsk, the
Donetz Plateau and the adjacent districts (Yusivka, Hru-
shivka, Tahanroh, Mariupol, Kerch, etc.). The nail and
wire industry has its center in Katerinoslav, machine-
manufacturing in Katerinoslav, Kiev, Kharkiv, Yelisavet,
Odessa, Olexandrivsk, Mikolaiv and Berdiansk. The

UKRAINE 291

iron steamship building industry has its seat in Rostiv and
Mikolaiv. In Galicia we find only a very small iron
industry, and at best a few railway supplies, factories and
workshops are worthy of mention, e. g., those in Sianik
(car factory), New Sandetz and Lemberg.

Of the other branches of industry which manufacture
mineral products, the petroleum refineries must be men-
tioned above all, particularly those of the Carpathian
foothill country (Horlitzi, Drohobich, Kolomia) and at the
foot of the Caucasus (Hrosni). The factory industry of
pottery is carried on in Lviv and Kharkiv; porcelain and
chinaware manufacture in the Kharkiv region (Budi,
Slaviansk) and in Odessa; cement manufacture in the Black
Sea region, in Odessa and in the Bukowina; brick and tile
manufacture in all the large cities of the Ukraine. Glass
manufacture, once very extensive in the forest regions of
the Western Ukraine (Rostoche, Volhynia), is now con-
fined to the neighborhood of Kharkiv, Horodnia and Bakh-
mut. Of the different branches of the chemical industry,
the manufacture of matches is important; its seat is in the
Chernihiv country near Novosibkiv, and in the Galician
sub-Carpathian country (Striy, Skole, Bolekhiv, etc.).

This does not exhaust the branches of industry of the
Ukraine, but, because of their comparative insignificance,
we must desist from describing them. Having now come
to the end of our presentation of Ukrainian industry, we
have still to consider what percentage of Ukrainians engage
in industrial pursuits. According to official Russian esti-
mates of the year 1897, the percentage is barely 5% (in
Galicia, according to Buzek's biassed calculation, 1.4%).
The smallness of the figures would surprise us if we did
not know how the Russian and Polish nationality "make"
their statistics; nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the
Ukrainian people still engage too little in industry. Among
the Ukrainians who seek their subsistence in industry,

292 UKRAINE

the greatest number (14%) engage in the making of clothing;
then follow, in order, the building, metal, lumber and food
industries, linen-weaving and pottery.

Trade and Commerce

The mercantile movement in the Ukraine, as, in fact,
in all of Eastern Europe, is comparatively slight. To give
an exact picture of Ukrainian commerce is much more
difficult than to describe its agricultural and industrial
production. The great exchanges of goods in the interior,
the commercial relations of. the Ukraine with the other dis-
tricts of Russia and Austria-Hungary, its part in the export
trade of these states, — all this matter awaits working up on
the part of competent economists and geographers.

The Ukrainian people take but little part in the com-
mercial activity of their country; the Ukrainian peasant
simply considers trade an occupation very little in accord
with the rank of a landed proprietor, and the middle class
has only begun in the last decades to recover from the
suppression of centuries. Hence, Ukrainian commerce lies
almost wholly in the hands of the foreign races — the
Russians, Jews, Armenians and Greeks.

The causes of this condition are usually sought and
found by the foreign (Russian and Polish) "standard-bearers
of culture" in the indifference and incapacity for culture
of the Ukrainians. This explanation, however, can be
objected to when we recall the great commercial importance
of the ancient Kingdoms of Kiev and Halich, as well as
the long perseverance of the Ukrainian trade down into
the 16th Century, despite its systematic suppression by the
Polish Government. Naturally, the five centuries of
Tatar invasion caused severe injuries to Ukrainian
trade. And when the commercial activity of the Ukraine
of the hetmans began to flourish in the 17th and 18th
Centuries, it was systematically suppressed by the Russian

UKRAINE 293

Government, following the ill-fated rebellion of Mazeppa.
Then we must consider the difficulties of competition with
the Russians, a very talented commercial race, with the
Jews, the Armenians and the Greeks. Most keenly,
however, the calamitous lack of education is being felt.
Wherever the education of the people is more advanced,
as, for example, in Eastern Galicia, there is a revival of the
commercial spirit in the Ukrainians. The Galician Ukrain-
ians have thousands of shops, large commercial co-opera-
tive organizations (Narodna Torhovla, with seventeen
branch warehouses and several hundred shops, Soyuz
tohorvelnick spilok, Soyuz zbutu khudobi, etc.), with the
large annual turnover (large for Galician conditions) of
25 million crowns. The enlightened peasantry of Sinevidsko
and vicinity (Boiko country) carries on an active fruit-
trade far beyond the Austrian borders. Even in the
Russian Ukraine trade is coming to life in all places. The
co-operative movement has taken such a bound in advance,
in spite of the frightful illiteracy, that in 1912 there were
over 2500 such organizations, while all of Russia (including
the Ukraine) had 5260, and Poland only 920. From these
facts we may safely conclude that, with the elevation of
the grade of culture, the former commercial spirit of the
Ukraine is reawakening. To be sure, the sturdy, upright
nature of the Ukrainian, which abhors every form of
dishonesty, will not lend to this new commercial spirit a
world-conquering character, but it will, on the other hand,
increase the influence of the Ukrainian merchant in the
commercial world.

The present condition of commerce in the Ukraine is
still very primitive; first, because of the generally low grade
of culture; second, because of the very primitive traffic
conditions of Eastern Europe.

The first mark of the primitive condition is probably
the existence of countless annual fairs in the Ukraine — a

294 UKRAINE

relic of medieval trade conditions. The number of annual
fairs in the Russian Ukraine exceeds 4000, altho it is
far out of proportion to the great number of annual fairs
in Great Russia. But out of twenty-two grand annual
fairs of Russia, eleven fall to the Ukrainian territory —
four in Kharkiv, two in Romny, one in Poltava, Kursk,
Kolevez, Yelisavet and Sumy, respectively. In addition,
there are the once famous Kiev "kontrakti" (now declining),
and the smaller annual fairs in Berdichiv, Zitomir, Dubno,
etc. The greatest exchanges of goods take place in the
Yordan fair in Kharkiv (January 20th), and the Elias fair
(August 2nd) in Poltava. Here the wholesale dealers sell
their goods to the retailers (Ofenyi — Russians from the
Governments of Vladimir and Slobozani — Russian sec-
tarians, colonists from the Chernihiv country, Jewish
retailers who sell in the right half of the Ukraine), who buy
or supplement their stock of goods during the annual
fairs. In these wholesale transactions, the so-called prassoli
— Russian barterers — also engage, dealers who travel all
year thru the villages of the Ukraine, exchange the wool,
bristles and flax of the peasants for hardware, and sell the
collected raw materials to the wholesalers. In this annual
fair system, the Ukrainians have, until recently, played an
important part as paid drivers, who drove the goods on
their oxcarts from fair to fair. These drivers at one time
formed a sort of class of their own — the "chumaki" — and
even engaged independently in the trading of the Crimean
salt and the dried fish of the Sea of Azof. The railroads
have put an end to the former importance of the chumaki,
yet the scanty length of the Ukrainian railway system pre-
vents this carting industry from disappearing altogether.
In the eighties of the past century there were counted in
the districts of Poltava, Kharkiv and Chernihiv, 210,000
chumaks; in the year 1897, in Kherson, Katerinoslav,
Tauria and Don, about 100,000 of these hired drivers.

UKRAINE 295

The fair system of Ukrainian trade is carried on not
only by means of great annual fairs, which, by the way, are
decreasing in importance year by year, but also by means
of an enormous number of smaller annual fairs in the cities,
towns, and even villages of the Russian Ukraine, which
take care of the retail trade. In the Austrian Ukraine the
annual fairs (as for instance, the once famous fairs of
Tarnopol, Ulashkivtzi, Czernowitz) have lost all significance
since the modernization of the country's commerce.

World-commerce has, until very recently, left the
Ukraine almost untouched. This is one of the reasons why
the primitive forms of commerce were able to last so long in
the Ukraine. Until recently, world-commerce has taken
the Ukraine merely for a producing and exporting country
of raw materials, and left the supplying of local demands to
the traditional forms of trade. Only within the last de-
cades has the modern commercial organization begun
slowly to take in the Ukraine. The exchanges in Kiev,
Khatkiv, Odessa, Kreminchuk, Mikolaiv, Tahanroh, Ros-
tiv, the chambers of commerce in Lviv and Brodi, are
organizing the export of raw materials from the Ukraine,
and the flooding of the country with the products of foreign
industry is becoming more and more intensive.

In spite of all we have mentioned, the significance of
the Ukraine in the internal commerce of Russia and in
world-trade is very great. The natural resources of the
country, its situation on the threshold of Asia and the
Mediterranean world, its property of being a direct hinter-
land of the Black Sea, give to the Ukraine a commercial
importance with which that of any other individual
district of European Russia, the Baltic lands and Poland
not excepted, can never compare.

In the internal commerce of Russia, the Ukraine figures,
first of all, as purveyor of foodstuffs, and in Austria-Hun-
gary the Austrian Ukraine plays the same part on a small

296 UKRAINE

scale. To represent these relations in figures encounters
great difficulties, and the figures can be only approximate.
In 1895 the Ukraine exported over 1.5 million metric
hundredweights of grain to Lithuania and White Russia,
about 1.7 million metric hundredweights to Poland, and
about 0.9 million metric hundredweights to Central Russia.
In 1905, two Ukrainian districts alone, Poltava and Khar-
kiv, exported over 0.7 metric hundredweights of grain to
Central Russia. These figures must be much greater today.
And the grain exportation of the Austrian Ukraine to the
interior of Austria must be relatively as great. As a
matter of fact, Galicia produces one-third of the total
Austrian output of oats and wheat, and almost half the
output of potatoes.

Quite as important is the Ukraine's exportation of
live-stock. In the years 1902 — 1904, the Ukraine exported
80,000 head of cattle to Central Russia, and the part
played by Galicia as purveyor of live-stock for slaughter is
well-known. Equally important is the exportation of small
cattle, poultry, eggs and butter. The exportation of wool
from the Southern Ukraine plays an important part in the
internal commerce of Russia. The Polissye, Carpathian and
Caucasus regions furnish great quantities of lumber for ex-
portation. The mineral products of the Ukraine are used
for the greater part outside the country— Caucasian and
Carpathian petroleum, the iron ore of Krivi Rih, the salt,
the manganese, the coal of the Donetz Plateau. Of the
entire yield of coal of the Donetz basin in 1905, barely one-
third was used up in the factories of this region; the other
two-thirds were to serve the advancement of Central
Russian industry. All these products are the object of an
active export trade.

In comparison with the exports, the imports of the
Ukraine cannot be very large. The imports embrace,
almost exclusively, products of foreign manufacturing.

UKRAINE 297

In view of the general poverty and the very limited
wants of the Ukrainian peasantry, these imports must be
small, since home industry still covers the greatest part of
the demand.

The part of the Ukraine in the external commerce of the
Russian State is very important, while the Austrian Ukraine
plays a very subordinate part in this respect. The ten
central regions of the Ukraine furnish over 60% of the
total grain export of Russia. In the customs districts of
the Ukrainian part of the western border of Russia, 28.6
million rubles' worth of goods was exported, 14.3 million
rubles imported. The customs districts of the Pontian
and Azof coast within the borders of the Ukraine passed
245 million rubles in exports, 64.8 million rubles in
imports. Over the borders of Russian Ukraine passed 33%
of the Russian exportation and only 1 1% of the importation.
This shows us how much the Ukraine contributes to the
balance of trade in favor of Russia.

Traffic in the Ukraine is very slightly developed.
Altho the natural conditions for traffic are very favorable,
the historical fortunes of the country took such a course
that we cannot wonder at the present state of intercourse.
The Ukraine was for a long time under the domination of
Poland, which never cared for the condition of the roads;
then the country fell under the rule of Russia, which to this
day stands upon a very low level as far as traffic conditions
are concerned. The Austrian Ukraine has the greatest
number and the best roads, but they are found especially
in Bukowina and Northern Hungary. For in Galicia,
where most of the roads are under the management of the
autonomous Polish authorities, the condition of the roads
is sad enough.

The overwhelming majority of Ukrainian highways
are unpaved. All that the Russian geographer, Krassnov,

298 UKRAINE

has said in general about the highways of Russia, applies
in its fullest extent to the unpaved, unmacadamized roads
of the Ukraine. These roads are among the worst in the
world. In the summer they are enveloped in clouds of
dust; in the spring and fall, as well as in rainy weather,
they are strips of bottomless mud, in which even the light
farm-wagon sinks to its axles. Wherever it is at all
possible, vehicles drive across the fields along the roadway.
Worst of all are the f ways in the vicinity of and within
villages and small towns. Drains and bridges are either
unknown, or else there are not enough of them. The kind
of roads just described are known in the entire right half
of the Ukraine by the traditional name of "Polish roads."
Still worse are the cane and corduroy roads of the Polissye ;
riding over these a long time becomes a positive torture to
the traveler. In the Hutzul country most of the roads are
ordinary bridle-paths {plat), accessible only to foot passen-
gers and bridle-horses.

In Galicia, only villages and hamlets are connected by
unpaved roads; in the Russian Ukraine even large cities.
Not a single macadamized road leads to cities like Poltava,
Kreminchuk, Katerinoslav, Rostiv, Kherson. That such
negligence of the government should cause the Ukrainian
peasantry incalculable damage, and actually hinder trade
and commerce, is obvious at once.

Macadamized roads are very scarce in the Ukraine as a
whole. The Austro-Hungarian part of the Ukraine, altho
in this respect it is far behind the cultural countries of
Europe, possesses a greater absolute number of macadamized
roads than the Russian Ukraine, which is ten times as
large in area. All cities and towns of the Austrian Ukraine
are connected by macadamized roads. Eight such roads
meet at Lemberg, seven in Czernowitz, six each in Peremi-
shl, Ternopil, Kolomia, Buchach, Horodenka, etc. In
the Russian Ukraine, on the other hand, the only macada-

UKRAINE 299

mized roads that deserve the name, are the road from
Homel to Kiev, the road from Kiev to Berestia (by way of
Zitomir, Novhorod — Volinski, Rivne, with branches to
Dubno and to Kremianetz, Lutzk, Kovil), the road from
Tomashiv to Lublin, the road from Starokonstantiniv
to Kamenetz, the road from Kursk to Kharkiv, and the
mountain-road in the Yaila Mountains in Crimea. The
remaining "great tracts" and "post-roads" (altho they
sometimes figure as macadamized roads) are in such a
miserable condition, that even in the large cities they look
more like moraines than streets in a civilized city.

Quite analogous conditions prevail, also, in the railroad
traffic of the Ukraine. In this respect, too, the Austrian
Ukraine surpasses the Russian Ukraine by far, despite the
backward condition of the former. Galicia, for instance,
has 5 kilometers of railroad for 100 square kilometers of
surface, the Russian Ukraine barely 1 kilometer. Besides
the loose mesh of the railway-net of the Ukraine, there is
the additional disadvantage that its lines tend toward
foreign centers, and consider the local needs of Ukrainian
traffic only in rare cases. Galicia, separated from the rest
of Austria-Hungary by the natural boundary of the
Carpathians, has had to develop an independent system of
railways, with the main junction at Lemberg. In the
Russian Ukraine all the main lines were built only for the
convenience of the Moscow center and the Baltic ports.
Hence, there is no direct railway line between Kiev and
Odessa, for instance, or to Kharkiv, while there exist
almost straight line connections between Romen and Libau,
between Sevastopol and Kharkiv and Moscow. Besides
that, strategic factors were the deciding ones in the building
of the railroads (particularly in Western Ukraine), and
the economic life of the country often has had to suffer for it.

A third disadvantageous aspect of the Russian Ukrain-
ian railway system is its tariff regulations, the purpose of

300 UKRAINE

which is to concentrate the greatest possible amount of
traffic on the railroads of Central Russia and the Baltic
provinces, and thus redound to their advantage. As a result
of this tariff policy of the Russian Government, it happens
that it is sometimes cheaper to transport goods from the
Ukraine to the most distant Baltic ports, than to the ad-
jacent ports of the Black Sea. Thus, the tariff rates for grain
from Romen to Libau (1077 versts) are 21 kopeks per pud,
from Romen to Mikolaiv (429 kilometers) 18 kopeks. It
costs more money and trouble to transport coal from the
Donetz region to the Black Sea ports than to the ports of
the Baltic, which, of course, are far more distant. Naturally
Pontian navigation suffers above all from this cause, but
all Ukrainian trade in general suffers likewise.

As a result of the loose web of the net of railroads,
and the destination of all the railroad lines in the Ukraine
to foreign centers, there are almost no important railway
centers in the Ukraine. The only center of European
proportions is Lemberg, where nine main and local lines
meet. Striy, Stanislaviv, Kolomia and Ternopil are
smaller junctions, with five converging lines. In the
Russian Ukraine, only Berestia and Kharkiv deserve the
name of railway junction, in the strict sense of being a
point of intersection of at least two main lines ; the same is
true of Poltava and Rostiv. The dependence of the Ukrain-
ian railway lines upon foreign centers is the cause of the
fact that frequently very important crossings lie beyond
large towns, near to some miserable little village, as for
example, Sarni, Bakhmach, Kosiatin, Zmerinka, etc. The
only concentrated district of the Ukrainian railroad system
with numerous local junctions, lies in the Donetz Plateau.

We shall now enumerate several railroads of the Ukraine
which are most important for the traffic of the country.
The Ukraine is connected with the Black Sea by means of
seven main lines: Lemberg-Odessa, Znamenka-Mikolaiv,

UKRAINE 301

Kharkiv-Sevastopol (with a branch to Kerch), Kat-
erinoslav-Berdiansk, Donetz Plateau-Mariupol, Donetz
Plateau-Tahanroh, Katerinodar-Novorossysk. Direct rail-
road connections with Roumania exist via Tiraspol to Yassy,
and from Lemberg by way of Czernowitz to Bukarest.
The following lines lead into Hungary: Stanislaviv-Sihot,
Lemberg-Mukachiv, Lemberg- Uzhorod-Peremishl-Uihely.
The connection with Austrian-Poland (Western Galicia)
is formed by the Lemberg-Cracow and Stanislaviv-New-
Sandetz lines, the connection with Russian-Poland by the
lines of Kovel-Lublin-Warsaw and Berestia-Sidletz- Warsaw.
The lines of Berestye-Bilostok, Rivne-Vilna, and Romen-
Minsk-Libau lead north to White Russia, Lithuania and
the Baltic. The Ukraine is connected with the north and
northeast (Great Russia) by the lines of Kiev-Kursk,
Kharkiv-Moscow, Kupiansk-Penza-Samara, and Donetz
Plateau-Voroniz. Eastward, the railroad lines run from
the Donetz region and Katerinodar to the bend of the
Volga, and from Rostiv along the Caucasus to Baku.

In the Ukraine itself, the main lines of the railroads
should run in a direction west and northwest to east and
southeast. Hence, the main paths of traffic should be the
following lines: Czernowitz-Odessa, Berestye-Rivne-Ber-
dichiv-Uman, Kovel-Kiev-Poltava-Donetz region-Rostiv,
Fastiv - Katerinoslav, Novosibkiv - Sumi -Kharkiv-Donetz
Plateau, etc. As a result of the railroad policy of the Russian
Government, the north and south lines, which lead directly
or indirectly to the Muscovite centers, are held to be more
important, as for instance, the following: Berestye-Minsk-
Moscow, Lemberg- Rivne-Vilna, Novoselitza- Kiev-Kursk,
Vapniarka-Cherkassi-Piriatin, Mikolaiv-Kreminchuk-Ro-
mni, Balta-Kreminchuk-Kharkiv-Kursk, etc. Of greatest
importance are, also, the industrial railroads which connect
the iron mines of Krivi Rih with the coal-fields of the Donetz
region, via Katerinoslav.

302 UKRAINE

The waterways of the Ukraine were at one time the main
roads of trade and commerce. The great cultural mission
of the Ukrainian waterways is familiar from history; thru
the course of long centuries they were the only convenient
thorofares thru the difficult forest regions and the pathless
steppes of the Ukraine. Traffic on the Ukrainian water-
ways was, in former times, much more important than at
present, not only because of the lack of other convenient
pathways, but also because of their former greater length
and capacity. Deforestation has decreased the normal
level of the rivers; mill-dams have cut off the once navigable
stretches of water.

The Ukraine possesses almost no artificial waterways.
The only ones in existence — the Orginski Canal (Yassiolda-
Vihonivske ozero-Shchara, 54 kilometers of canal, 124
kilometers of connected watercourses) and the Dnieper-
Buh Canal (Pina-Mokhavez, 81 kilometers of canal, 134
kilometers of connected watercourses) — were built back
in the days of Polish rule. They are antiquated, shallow
and neglected, so they can serve only occasionally, and
then only for log-floating.

The total length of Ukrainian waterways exceeds 7000
kilometers, which is just as much as the length of the
waterways of Austria or of England, but only one- tenth
that of European Russia. In this figure, sections of rivers
are included which are navigable only for smaller river
vessels.

The statement of the navigability of individual rivers
of the Ukraine is contained in the section which deals with
the rivers of the Ukraine (v. p. 70 ff .) .

The most important waterway of the Ukraine is the
Dnieper system. The main river is navigable in its entire
Ukrainian section by the largest river vessels. In the entire
Russian river system the Dnieper system constitutes 11%
of the length, 10% of the total navigable length, 16% of

UKRAINE 303

the length navigable by steamship-lines. The rapids
section, however, as a result of the incomprehensible
negligence of the Russian Government, is, to this day,
accessible only to the smaller ships and rafts, and then only
for sailing downstream. The canals built by the Govern-
ment in the Porohi (1843 — 1856) are so badly placed that
navigation, to this day, must still keep largely to the
natural ancient "Cossack paths." In the years 1893 — 1895,
investigating engineering commissions determined that it
was possible, without great cost, to make the Porohi section
completely navigable. But the thing never went any
further than that. At the beginning of the 20th Century,
English engineers worked out a plan for the complete
regulation of the Pohori section and the construction of a
waterway, accessible even to sea-going ships, which should
connect the Baltic with the Black Sea by means of the
Dvina and the Dnieper. The realization of this plan,
which would be of the very greatest importance to the
Ukraine, is still distant, and there is no hope that the
Russian Government will attack it very soon.

Thus, the rapids hinder Dnieper navigation to this day,
and not least for the reason that the insurance companies
will not insure vessels for the rapids section. For this
reason, the river fleet of the Dnieper is separated into
two parts. Above the rapids (in 1900) 208 steamboats and
1002 other ships, below the rapids (together with the inlets
of the Boh) 148 steamboats and 1203 other ships were
plying. The number of steamboats increased threefold
above the rapids and doubled below the rapids during the
last sixteen years of the last century. The total horse power
in 1900 was over 16,000. In 1906 the number of steamers
of the Dnieper region was 382, the number of other ships
2218.

The Dnieper ships, propelled by sails and oars, which
carry lumber, grain, fruit and other goods, are of various

304 UKRAINE

types. The largest are called "honchaki," and have a
tonnage of up to 1400; then come the "barzi" and "barki"
(900—1300 tons), "berlini" (800—1140 tons), which are
the most useful, "baidaki" (650 tons), "trembaki,"
"laibi," "dubi" (130—160 tons), "lodki" (80 tons),
"galari" (50 tons), and "chaiki" (30 tons). The tonnage
of the river fleet of the Dnieper (not counting steamers), in
1900, was approximately 500,000 tons, hence not much less
than the tonnage of the present Austro-Hungarian mer-
chant-marine.

Besides this, the Dnieper and its tributaries are navi-
gated by a great number of rafts. In 1910 the number of
them was 15,676.

Of the river harbors of the Dnieper system, Kherson
carries on the greatest exchange of goods (10 million q. in
1910). Then follow Kiev (5.3 million q.), Katerinoslav
(3.1 million q.), Cherkassi (2.1 million q.), Niznodniprovsk
(1 million q.), Chernihiv (0.6 million q.), and Pinsk (0.5
million q.).

Navigation on the Don, as a result of the small volume
of water, is much slighter than the Dnieper navigation,
despite the absence of rapids. In 1900, the number of
steamboats on the Don was 189, with 10,000 horse- power
(in 1906 it was 382); the number of other ships 488, with
200,000 tonnage (in 1906 only 471 ships). The main river-
harbor is Rostiv, which handles goods to the amount of
7.5 million q. annually.

A good deal smaller still is the navigation of the Dniester.
Here, in 1900, there were only 9 steamers, with 200 horse-
power (16 steamers in 1906), and 187 ships of other kinds
with a tonnage of 22,000 tons (277 of them in 1906).
The harbors of the main stream are Benderi (handles 0.7
million q. of goods) and Maiaki (0.5 million q.). On the
Kuban River 69 steamers (counting in those of the Kura)
and 131 other ships plied in 1906.

UKRAINE 305

In general, river navigation in the Ukraine is on a very
moderate scale. The negligence of the Russian Govern-
ment and the low grade of culture limit the development
of Ukrainian interior navigation. Thru the regulation of the
Dnieper rapids and the connection of the river systems of
the Dnieper and Dniester with the Baltic waters, by means
of practicable canals, the waterways of the Ukraine could
attain a wonderful importance.

Having come to the end of our description of Ukrainian
traffic, we must still devote some attention to Ukrainian
sea-navigation. Its present condition is as lamentable
as the general condition of Ukrainian traffic. Of course,
there is no doubt that the Black Sea has many qualities
unfavorable to the development of navigation — its seclu-
sion, the lack of good harbors, and an abundance of danger-
ous storms. Yet, what are these disadvantages against
modern engineering? To assign all the blame to the low
grade of Russian industry, as the Russian publicists are in
the habit of doing, will not do. The causes of the slight
development of Pontian navigation should be sought in the
low cultural conditions of the ruling Russian nation and in
the indolence of the government, which is not properly
encouraging this navigation. The Russian steamers do
not enjoy a good reputation on the Black Sea. Pontian
coastwise navigation, which at the beginning of the 19th
Century had a splendid start, and was carried on pre-
dominantly by Ukrainians, has not been able to develop
properly under the heavy fist of the government. Today,
conditions on the Black Sea are such, that the transporta-
tion of a unit by weight of goods from one Pontian harbor
to another, costs just as much as the transportation of the
same unit from the same port to England.

The number of steamers which sail the Black Sea under
the Russian flag was, in 1901, only 316, with a tonnage of
187,000 tons, that is, 42% of the number and 52% of the

306 UKRAINE

tonnage of the entire steamship fleet of Russia. In 1912
the figures were 410 steamers, 223,000 tons, the percentages
being 42% and 47%. The number of sailing vessels in
1901 was 635, with a total tonnage of 47,000, and in the
year 1912 there were 827 sailing vessels, with over 53,000
tons. The development of Pontian navigation is thus
going a very slow, if not a retrogressive course.

The Russian Black Sea steamers maintain a more or
less regular service between the most important Black Sea
ports — Odessa, Mikolaiv, Kherson, Sevastopol, Rostiv,
Novorossysk, etc. From Sevastopol a line goes to Con-
stantinople, from Odessa one to Alexandria and Vladivostok.

Despite this miserable condition of Pontian navigation,
from a European point of view, it still has greater signifi-
cance than navigation on other seas of Russia. Near the
end of the past century, 70% of the total oversea exporta-
tion of Russia by weight, and 65% by value, went thru the
harbors of the Ukrainian coast. To be sure, in 1896, only
7.5% of the ships which visited these ports sailed under the
Russian flag. In the year of 1911 it was not much different ;
of the outgoing ships only 11.4%, and of the incoming
ships only 13.9% carried the Russian flag!

Among the Black Sea ports, Odessa, now, as ever, takes
first place. The imports of Odessa, in 1911, amounted to
19.2 million q., the exports 26.2 million q. This, by the
way, is an example of the great preponderance of
exportation oyer importation. In other ports the disparity
is even greater. Thus, the imports of Mikolaiv amount to
only 2.3 million q., the exports 22.8 million q. For Tahan-
roh the respective figures are 1.9 and 19.5, for Novorossysk
1.5 and 18.3, for Mariupol 3.1 and 16.2, for Kherson 1.1
and 11.3, for Feodosia 0.6 and 4.8, for Rostiv 2.1 and 2.4,
for Berdiansk 0.3 and 3.9, for Eupatoria 0.8 and 2.9, for
Akerman 0.4 and 2.0.

These figures once more bring before our eyes the

UKRAINE 307

ruinous effect of the economic policy of the Russian Govern-
ment upon the Ukraine. The natural resources of the
Ukraine are exported in enormous masses, without
consideration of the needs of the Ukrainian population;
the imports are to a great extent directed to other far
distant coasts of the Russian Empire, and Great Russia
gets the advantage of them, while the Ukraine is flooded
with the inferior goods of Central Russian industry. If we
consider, further, that an annual customs balance of 200
million rubles goes to the central government from the
Ukraine, an amount which is then used for the develop-
ment of the central provinces, we become able to under-
stand under what unfavorable conditions the economic
life of the Ukraine must develop, and how dearly its progress
must be paid for.

The Districts and Settlements of Ukraine

For centuries robbed of its political independence, the
Ukraine today simply vegetates, instead of living in a
state of full development. The fatal results of its lack of
independence are visible in every aspect of the material
and spiritual life of the country.

The present political-administrative division of the
Ukraine is also a result of the want of political indepen-
dence of this nation. This division corresponds neither
to the natural nor to the anthropogeographical conditions,
and to a great degree represents only entirely antiquated,
now worthless remnants of the statesmanship of former
centuries.

Even the state boundaries are very unnaturally drawn
in the Ukrainian territory. The Austrian crown-province
of Galicia embraces parts of Rostoche, Volhynia, Podolia,
Pokutye, while other parts of this natural territory lie
outside the state border, in Russia. The topography and
the people are the same on both sides of the cordon; only

308 UKRAINE

the state authorities, and the ruling races are different.
The Carpathian boundary between the Austrian and
Hungarian parts of the Ukraine, to be sure, seems a good
natural boundary, but in reality it would be that only if it
ran along the southern foot of the range. For the Car-
pathian region of the Ukraine, as a result of its easy
communications constitutes not only a physico-geographi-
cal, but also an anthropogeographical unit. On both sides
of the border live the same Lemkos, Boikos and Hutzuls.

More glaringly still does the unnaturalness of the
present political division of the Ukraine stand out, when
we view the administrative units in the framework of
the states which at present dominate the Ukraine. In
Hungary, the Ukrainian part of the land is united into one
great whole, together with Slavonia, Transylvania, Alfold,
Banat, etc. All is centered in Budapest. Even the boun-
daries of the antonomous countries are so constructed that,
besides a piece of Ukrainian territory, they embrace an
equally great or even greater, but, at any rate, heavily
peopled piece of a foreign national territory, e. g., of the
Roumanian, Magyar, Slovenian. As a result of this scatter-
ing allotment, the Ukrainians of Hungary possess no politi-
cal influence.

The same is the case in the Austrian parts of the
Ukraine. Galicia proper, which is inhabited by Ukrainians,
the nucleus of the ancient Ukrainian Kingdom of Halich,
which, in its physico-geographical aspect, is wholly a part
of Eastern Europe, is welded together with the so-called
Western Galicia, properly a part of Little Poland (grand-
duchy of Cracow) , which is inhabited entirely by Poles and
belongs physically to Central Europe, both halves consti-
tuting together one administrative unit. The result of this
unnatural union is the bitter racial struggle of century-long
duration between the Poles and Ukrainians, a struggle
which is still going on without prospect of peace, and is

UK A I N E 309

very unfavorable for the beneficial development of the
land. The Ukrainians are fighting for equal rights and
against Polonization ; the Poles, in the name of their
state tradition, for their hegemony in the land and for the
forcible assimilation of the Ukrainians. The only remedy
which presents itself would be the division of the present
crown-province of Galicia into two crown-provinces, an
eastern Ukrainian, and a western Polish province. The
present crown-province of Bukowina also consists of parts
of Pokutye, Pidhirye and the Ukrainian Carpathians, to-
gether with a part of the Roumanian Carpathian foothills.
This circumstance again brings about a national struggle
between the Ukrainians and the Roumanians.

The greatest portion of the country, the Russian
Ukraine, also suffers from an unnatural political division.
The Ukrainian territory is divided into several great
administrative districts, or groups of governments. Parts
of the Ukrainian national territory lie in the Vistula Gov-
ernments in Western, Southwestern, Southern and Little
Russia and Caucasia. The boundaries of the individual
governments everywhere are drawn without consideration
for natural and ethnographic conditions. In this way the
border districts of the unbroken Ukrainian territory have
been united with parts of foreign racial territories into
artificial administrative units, as, for example, the Govern-
ments of Lublin and Sidlez (the present Government of
Kholm), Grodno, Minsk, Kursk, Voroniz, Don region,
Stavropol, Bessarabia, etc. This circumstance being a
result of the poor development of constitutional life in
Russia, has no great significance now, but may in the
future become as unfavorable for the Ukraine as is the
similar condition today in Austria-Hungary.

The anthropogeography of today in describing a land,
very seldom takes such artificial divisions into consider-
ation. Then there is the additional circumstance that these

310 UKRAINE

divisions, as is obvious, have no physico-geographical value.
In like manner, the division of Russia "according to natural
and economic, characteristics," by Arseniev, Semyonoff,
Richter, Fortunatov, etc., are worthless for geographical
purposes. The most suitable of any of them is that of
Richter, which gives the Ukrainian territory an indepen-
dent position. A good division also comes from M. Dra-
hqmaniv, but it is not suitable for a geographical descrip-
tion.

For all these reasons we shall keep to the natural districts
which we described in Book I. Such a division is the only
justifiable one in a country which, like the Ukraine, has
no political independence.

The Carpathian region constitutes the first natural
district of the Ukraine. It is populated by three Ukrainian
mountain- tribes — the Lemkos (from Poprad to the Oslava),
the Boikos (together with Tukholzians, from the Oslava to
the Limnitzia) and the Hutzuls (from the Limnitzia to
the Roumanian ethnographic border). The population is
everywhere thinly strewn, especially in the Boike country.
The agriculture of the region is not sufficient at any point
to nourish even the sparse population. The Lemkos and
Boikos carry on a little farming (oats, potatoes), the Hutzuls
only along the edge of the mountains. Cattle-raising,
with dairying, forestry and lumbering, and among the
Hutzuls their fine home industry as well, constitute the
main sources of sustenance of the mountain dwellers.
Every year a large percentage of the population goes out
for seasonal migrations.

The settlements of the Ukrainian Carpathians all have
the character of villages. The Lemko and Boiko villages
usually form long rows of farms, which extend along the
valley bottom. The Hutzulian villages, on the other hand,
consist of separate farms which lie scattered on valley
sides, valley plains, and even valley spurs. The huts

UKRAINE 311

are everywhere built of wood, and covered with shingles or
boards; only among the Boikos, sometimes, with straw.
The very practical block houses, adapted to the climate,
which are built by the Hutzuls, look very neat.

There are no cities in the Carpathian region, but only
small towns, inhabited for the most part by Jews, and
bristling with dirt. The Lemko country (Lemkivshchina)
has only one larger town, Sianik (11,000 inhabitants),
with railway-car factories. Also noteworthy, on the Hun-
garian side, are the little towns of Svidnik and Strupkiv,
on the Galician side the resorts of Krinitzia, Zeghestiv,
Vissova, Rimaniv. In the little towns of the adjacent
Polish (New Sandetz, Gorlice, Gribov, Dukla) and Slovenian
territory (Bartfeld) the Lemkos supply their needs in
industrial products and grain.

In the Boiko country (Boikivshchina) the towns are
little centers for the retail trade and the lumber industry,
as for instance, Turka on the Striy (11,000 pop.), Lisko on
the San, Stari Sambir on the Dniester, and Skole on the
Opir (match manufacture). The village of Smorze is
noted for its cattle fairs, Sinevidsko for its fruit trade.
Along the Opir valley lie numerous summer resorts (Tukhla,
Slavsko).

In the Hutzul country, too, there are many summer
resorts, particularly in the valley of the Pruth (Dora,
Yaremche, Mikulichin, Tatariv, Vorokhta). The Hutzuls
make their purchases in the little towns which lie at
the exit of the main passes of the range — in Nadvirna
(saw-mills), Delatin (salt-works), in Kossiv, noted for its
mild climate, its flourishing home industry and fruit-
culture and its salt-works, in Kuti, where tanning and
furriery flourish, and in Viznitza (saw-mills and lumber
industrial school). In the center of the Hutzul country lies
the large Hutzulian village of Zabye. There are noted
mineral springs in Burkut and Pistin. On the southern

312 UKRAINE

slope of the range lies the only city of the Hutzul country
(21,000 pop.) and the town of Hust (10.000 pop.), both
important as trade centers of the Hungarian Hutzul
country.

In the southern sub-Carpathian zone the Ukrainian
territory extends forward but a slight distance. The
economic conditions of the mountain range suddenly give
way to agriculture and vine-growing. All the cities of the
region lie on the borders of the Ukrainian territory at the
points of exit of important railroad lines and highroads out
of the mountains. Such is the position of Uzhorod (17,000
pop.) and Mukachiv (17,000 pop.) where the products of
the plain and the mountains are exchanged.

The Galicia-Bukowina sub- Carpathian hill country (Pid-
hirye) forms a gentle transition from the mountains to the
plain. With the great wealth of forest and meadow and a
not very fertile soil, agriculture begins to predominate but
slowly as we depart from the limits of the mountain
district. Besides, the great abundance of salt and petro-
leum demands many hands. The villages of the Pidhirye
are as a rule, not large; the huts are regularly covered with
straw. Here we find the rather unattractive type of the
Galician cities and towns. Their chief characteristic is
unfathomable mud or unfathomable dust on the streets,
depending on the season of the year. Only the suburbs
inhabited by the Ukrainian city-farmer population appear
at all friendly, with their orchards and their little white-
painted houses. The center of the city is regularly taken
up by the Jews. Their houses, as a rule, defy all ideas of
cleanliness and hygiene, and, amid bristling dirt, the retail
trade surges thru miserable booths and shops. Almost
nowhere in the Galician cities do we find wholesale trade or
industry on a large scale, in the European sense. The
Christian middle-class does not exist, and the educated
class of the city population is represented by officials

UKRAINE 313

(usually Poles, and, in decreasing proportions, Ukrainians).

On the western borderlands of the Ukraine,, in this
region, lies the city of Yaroslav on the San (25,000 pop.),
a railway junction in an important strategic position.
Founded by the ancient Ukrainian princes of Kiev, Yaro-
slav was once famous for its annual fairs. Near it, on the
San, lies Radimno with its rope industry. But the most
important city on the San is Peremishl (57,000 pop.), at
once one of the oldest cities of Galicia and the one-time
capital of the Ukrainian dynasty of the Rostislavids.
Peremishl owes its importance to its position as a bridge
city at a point where important roads from the west and
northwest cross the San to the east and south. It lies at the
important junction of the Galician main railroad line, with
the important Lupkov line coming from Hungary, and is
accordingly, as a result of its position, a first-class fortress,
which closes the San valley and cuts off access to the adjacent
Carpathian passes. The commercial standing of the city
is considerable; here, too, a Greek-Catholic bishopric
has its seat, and here there exist numerous Ukrainian
cultural and economic societies.

In the sub-Carpathian Dniester region, which is
traversed lengthwise by the Galician Transversal Railroad,
lie a number of important cities. On the Dniester we find
Sambir (21,000 pop.) at the crossing of the railroads, with
a lumber industry of some size. On the Tismenitza
Railroad lies Borislav (15,000 pop.), but recently a little
Boike village, now, together with the adjacent towns of
Tustanovichi (12,000 pop.) and Skhidnitza, the center of
petroleum and ozokerite production. A forest of artesian
wells, factory chimneys, petroleum reservoirs, have sprung
up amid the famous "Borislav mud," among miserable
dirty houses which shelter so many millionaires and
hungry wretches, so much happiness and misery, crime and
immorality. The refineries for the petroleum that is

314 UKRAINE

gained here are located mostly in the adjacent Drohobich
(39,000 pop.), the seat of the petroleum speculators. Salt
works also are found in this city, still greater ones in the
adjacent Stebnik, where enormous deposits of salt have
been discovered, but thus far not been exploited. Trus-
kavez is a well-known watering-place.

On the Striy lies the important railroad junction of Striy
(33,000 pop.), with a mill, lumber and match industry,
the seat of the Ukrainian dairymen's association and other
Ukrainian organizations; at the mouth of the Striy the
ancient town of Zidachiv. On the sub-Carpathian Trans-
versal Railroad toward the east, lie the following: the
watering-place Morshin, Bolekhiv with salt-works and
match factories Dolina with salt-works and saw-mills,
Kalush with saltpeter-mining and salt-works. Stanis-
laviv (over 60,000 pop.), situated at the junction of the
two Bistritza rivers, is an important railway center in
which the Lemberg-Czernowitz Railroad meets the Trans-
versal railroad, the South Polish Railroad and the Hun-
garian branch railroad to Marmarosh. The city has an
important industrial and commercial activity, and is the
seat of the Greek-Catholic bishopric. Stanislaviv has
inherited the former importance of Halich, the one-time
capital of the Ukrainian Kingdom of the same name,
which, at its highest development, reached the Polissye
swamps on the north, the Dnieper on the east, the
Black Sea and the Danube delta on the south. At that
time (11th and 12th Century), Halich equalled or sur-
passed in size, wealth and commercial importance, most
of the capitals of Western Europe. After a thousand
years of Polish dominion it is now a miserable town in
a beautiful location, important geographically for its
traffic advantages. A side-line here branches off from
the main railroad into Podolia. Attempts are being
made to enliven Dniester navigation, which begins here

UKRAINE 315

and in Zuravno at the mouth of the Svicha. Not far
from Stanislaviv lie Tovmach, Tismenitza (10,000 pop.)
with a leather industry, and Ottinia with a machine
industry of some size.

In the Galician Pruth region, Kolomia (45,000 pop.) is the
most important city, at the junction of sub-Carpathian and
Pokutian railroad lines, with an important commerce and
pottery industry. Further to the east, on the Pruth, lies
Zabolotiv with a tobacco factory and Sniatin (12,000 pop.)
with an active commerce and agricultural production.
Dzuriv and Novoselitza have lignite mines. In the sub-
Carpathian country of the Bukowina, the capital city,
Czernowitz, developed in one century from a miserable
village to a city of 93,000 inhabitants. Czernowitz has
some industry and considerable commerce. Important
railroads lead from here, via Novoselitza to Russia, and
via Itzkany to Roumania. Czernowitz is the seat of the
most eastern German University (but several professors
lecture in Ukrainian), a Greek-Catholic metropolitan,
and numerous Ukrainian organizations. In nearby Sada-
hora, well-frequented annual fairs take place. The cities
carrying on a lively trade, Seret, Storozinetz (10,000 pop.),
Radivtzi(l7,000pop. — thecitywith thegreat breeding-stud),
and Suchava (12,000 pop.), all lie on the boundary of the
Ukrainian and Roumanian-speaking populations. Kat-
shka possesses large salt-works.

The Rostoche, which embraces a part of Northern
Galicia and the southern part of the Government of Kholm
(eastern borderlands of the Governments of Lublin and
Sidletz), is, for the most part, an agricultural country, altho
the forest areas, which are still rather large, have retained
their once flourishing lumber industry. The villages of
this region are large, but consist, as a rule, of scattered
hamlets and lone farms. There are not many cities in the
Rostoche region, but on its southern border we find one of

316 UKRAINE

the most important in the Ukraine, the ancient royal city
of Lviv (Lemberg, 220,000 pop.).

The importance of the geographical position of Lemberg
is in the fact that it lies at the point of the easiest passage
from the low country of the Buh to the west, and into the
Carpathian country across the Ukrainian group of plateaus,
which is narrowest here. Lemberg commands all the more
important roads of the Western Ukraine, and, after their
union, leads them westward. Lemberg is the greatest
railroad center of all the Ukraine; nine railroads as well as
eight highroads converge here from all parts of the continent.
The thing that has contributed most to the remarkable
growth of Lemberg in the last half-century, besides the
railroads, is its position as the capital of Galicia, that
largest of the Austrian crown-provinces. Founded about
the middle of the 13th Century by the Ukrainian princes of
Halich, Danilo and Lev, Lemberg, about the middle of the
14th Century, fell under Polish rule. Here industry and
commerce flourished in the 15th and 16th Centuries,
thanks to the German middle-class of the city; then Lem-
berg declined irresistibly until it came under Austria's
dominion as a little town, from which time on, it flourished
again. At present Lemberg is the trade center of Ukrainian-
Galicia and shows some industrial progress (brick-kilns,
breweries, alcohol distilleries, railroad shops, etc.). As a
result of recent rapid development, the character of the
city is almost wholly modern; the number of historical
landmarks is not large. Lemberg is the seat of three
archbishops, a University with several Ukrainian chairs,
a technical and a commercial college, as well as many trade
schools and intermediate schools. Lemberg is also one of
the chief centers of Ukrainian cultural life, and the seat of
many important Ukrainian societies and institutions.

In the Galician Rostoche region there are besides Lem-
berg, only small towns: Zovkva, Yavoriv (10,000 pop.),

UKRAINE 317

with lumber industry, Rava (11,000 pop.). At the railroad
junction, Nemiriv with mineral springs, Potilich with a
considerable pottery industry. Mosti veliki, the large
village of Kaminka voloska (10,000 pop.), Belz, formerly
a Ukrainian royal residence. On the Buh lie the following:
the old town of Busk, Kaminka strumilova, Sokal, at the
point where more active river navigation begins.

In the Kholm Rostoche, the most important city is
Kholm (20,000 pop.), founded, like Lemberg, by Prince
Danilo, now a Jewish city carrying on a lively trade in the
agricultural products of this fertile region, and the capital
of the Government of the same name. Tarnohorod and
Tomashiv are notorious for their smuggling, Bilhoray is
known for its sieve industry, Hrubeshiv and Zamostye
(12,000 pop.) for their trade in foodstuffs.

A country of similar anthropogeographical character is
the adjacent plain of Pidlassye. This country embraces
the northern part of the Government of Kholm and the
southern part of the Government of Grodno. Fertile
stretches of land, with large villages, here alternate with
large wooded areas (the virgin forest of Biloveza) and
swamp areas, in which small villages and hamlets pre-
dominate. The most important city of the Pidlassye is the
fortress of Berestia (57,000 pop.) on the Mukhavetz, the
eastern base of the fortress quadrangle of the Vistula
region and an important railroad center, where five lines
meet with the Dnieper-Buh Canal. Besides its very con-
siderable commerce, Berestyehas great historical reminis-
cences of the union of the orthodox church with Rome,
accomplished here in 1596. On the left bank of the Buh
lie the commercial cities of Vlodava and Bila (13,000 pop.),
on the Mukhavetz HesKobrin (10,000 pop.), and in the neigh-
borhood of the Bilovez Forest, the ancient Kamenetz-
Litovsky and Bilsk.

The neighboring Ukrainian country in the east is the

318 UKRAINE

Ukrainian Polissye. It embraces the southern part of the
Government of Minsk, on the right shore of the Zna and the
Pripet, and the northern lowland region of the Governments
of Volhynia and Kiev. As a result of the decided prepon-
derance of forest and swamp, agriculture must retire to the
background, and confine itself only to the small number of
higher and more fertile places. There are not such great
obstacles to cattle-raising, but forestry and lumber-
floating play the most important part. The most important
city of the Polissye is Pinsk (37,000 pop.), situated on the
navigable Pina, where the Dnieper-Buh Canal and the
Dnieper-Niemen Canal connect with the Pripet system.
Here begins the regular steamship navigation of the Pripet,
here there are large saw-mills, match factories, shipyards,
beer and mead breweries and tobacco factories, and here
active commerce and lumber-floating flourish. Another
important river port is Davidhorodok on the mouth of the
Horin, the people of which carry on ship-building and
river-navigation and engage in sausage-making and cheese-
making. Farther down the river is the antique Turiv, a
former royal city, now a miserable little town with a
population of farmers and timber-floaters. The equally
antique town of Mosir (12,000 pop.) has retained a greater
significance, with a good river harbor, ship-building
industry and match-making. The last important port on
the Pripet is Chornobil.

In the Volhynian Polissye, Kovel (17,000 pop.), situated
on the navigable Turia, is, aboveall, an important railroad
center, which carries on a considerable trade in agricultural
products and wood. Another important railroad center is
Sarni on the Sluch. The antique town of Orruch on the
Norin is rich in swamp-ores and pottery-clay.

The natural district of Volhynia embraces only the
Volhynian Plateau, together with the wide river plains,
which penetrate far into the heart of the Plateau. To

UKRAINE 319

Volhynia, then, belongs the southern part of the present
Government of Volhynia, as well as a small strip of the
Government of Kiev, on the left bank of the Teterev.
Here agriculture forms the main occupation of the people.
Forestry and lumbering become less important. With re-
gard to the manner of settlement, Volhynia still has a sugges-
tion of the adjacent regions in the west and north, with their
small villages, hamlets and single farms. In the east it
begins to assume the genuine Ukrainian character, with
large villages and country towns. The cities and towns of
Volhynia are, as a rule, not large, inhabited chiefly by
Jews, dirty and neglected, surpassing in this respect even
the typical Galician villages and towns. On the Galician
side there is only one city worthy of mention, namely
Brodi (18,000 pop.), which carries on a considerable trade
in agricultural and animal products, as well as some lively
smuggling. On the Russian side the following may be
enumerated, from west to east: Volodimir volinsky (10,000
pop.), formerly a royal city, now a miserable Jewish town
with some lumber and grain trade and smuggling. Lutzk,
Dubno and Rivne form the Volhynian triangle of forts
directed against Austria. Lutzk (32,000 pop.) is an old
royal city at the junction of roads which cross the navigable
Stir at this point, and carries on a considerable trade, as well
as a cloth and leather industry of some dimensions; Dubno
(14,000 pop.), on the Ikva, is known for its once famous
annual fairs; Rivne (39,000 pop.) carries on a considerable
trade with grain, live-stock, alcohol, etc. Along the
Austrian border lie : Berestechko on the Stir, memorable for
the unhappy battle fought by Khmelnitsky against the Poles
(1651); Radiviliv, opposite Brody, the main seat of smug-
gling; Pochayiv, a famous place of pilgrimage, and simul-
taneously a den of smugglers.

Kremianetz (18,000 pop.) on the Ikva, a strong fortress
in the days of the Ukrainian princes, now carries on a con-

320 - UKRAINE

siderable grain trade. On the Horin, at the point where that
river becomes navigable, lies Ostroh (15,000 pop.), with
many ruins, the former residence of the Princes of Ostro-
hsky, who founded an academy here in the 16th Century,
and made of Ostroh an important spiritual center of the
Ukraine of that time. Zaslav (13,000 pop.), likewise on the
Horin, was once the residence of the Princes of Zaslavsky.
Both cities carry on some trade in grain today. On the
Sluch lie the cities of Starokonstantiniv (17,000 pop.),
founded by the Princes of Ostrohsky, with considerable
export of grain and cattle, and Novhorod Volinsky (Zviahel,
(17,000 pop.), rich in marsh-ore and pottery-clay. Korez
(10,000 pop.) is famous for its porcelain clay. Just on the
border of Volhynia lies its administrative center, Zitomir
(93,000 pop.). This old city lies at the edge of the forest
and agricultural regions, carries on a considerable trade in
grain and wood, salt and sugar, and has an important
clothing, leather and tobacco industry. Downstream, on
the Teterev, lies the little commercial city of Radomishl
(11,000 pop.).

Podolia's natural territory embraces the most eastern
part of Galicia and almost the entire Government of
Podolia, besides the northern borderlands of Kherson.
Podolia is a purely agricultural region; its manufacturing
is limited to home industry, besides some mills, distilleries
and sugar factories. The Podolian villages are large as a
rule, lie in rows in the canon valleys, while, on the height of
the plateau, usually only single farms and hamlets are
seen. The huts are almost all built of loam and covered
with straw. City settlements are rare and small, all insigni-
ficant emporiums for agricultural and animal products.

On the western edge of Galician-Podolia lie Horodok
(13,000' pop.), on a large pond formed by the Vereshitza,
and Lublin, with sulphur baths; on the Hnila Lipa, the
antique city of Rohatin; on the Zlota Lipa, Berezani

UKRAINE 321

(13,000 pop.), with a large pond; on the Koropetz River
there are Pidhaitzi and Monastiriska, with a tobacco
factory; on the Stripa River, Zboriv, memorable for the
decisive victory of Khmelnitsky over the Poles and for the
treaty of 1649 following, which allowed the Ukraine almost
complete autonomy — within the framework of the Polish
state. Downstream, on the Stripa, lies the commercial
city of Buchach (14,000 pop.). On the northern boundary
of Podolia, already in the Buh region, lie Zolochiv (13,000
pop.) and Sassiv, with a paper and pottery industry. On
the Sereth, and in its district, lie Zbaraz, memorable for the
victory of Khmelnitsky (1648); Ternopil (34,000 pop.),
the most important railroad center and commercial city
of Podolia, with a large grain, cattle and alcohol trade;
Terebovla, a former Ukrainian prince's residence; Chortkiv,
a center of Podolian local railroads. On the Sbruch, the
only town worth mention is the border town and border
station of Pidvolochiska-Volochiska. In the Dniester canon
there is only one important place. Salishchiki, with consider-
able fruit-culture. All the cities of Galician-Podolia are bridge
cities, and lie at convenient crossings over the left tribu-
taries of the Dniester. All these crossings were once
guarded by castles, about which cities were later developed.
In Russian-Podolia the number of cities and towns is
still smaller. The capital of the Government of Kamenetz
Podilsky (50,000 pop.), lies on the Smotrich, and was at
one time an important border-fortress against the Turks.
To this day the city has no railroad connections, hence its
commercial importance is very slight. The adjacent
Zvanetz is memorable because of the Khmelnitsky cam-
paign (1653). On the Dniester, whose entire valley is
covered with fruit orchards and vineyards, lies the impor-
tant river port of Mohiliv (33,000 pop.), with considerable
lumber, grain and fruit trade; Ushitza with a fruit trade;
the river part of Yampol on the Dniester rapids. In the

322 UKRAINE

region and the valley of the Boh lie Proskuriv (41,000 pop.),
a genuine village-city with considerable trade; Pilavtzi,
memorable because of the complete defeat suffered there
by the Poles (1648); Meziboz, in an important strategic
position against the Austrian border; Letichiv and Khme-
lnik (11,000 pop.), surrounded by orchards; on the Shar R.,
Litin (10,000 pop.); on the Rivi the once famous Bar
(11,000 pop.), now a miserable town; further downstream
on the Boh, Vinnitza (48,000 pop.), once a Cossack city,
memorable because of a defeat of the Poles (1651), now a
lively commercial city. The former capital of the palatinate
of Bratzlav is now entirely insignificant, likewise the new
Olhopil on the Savranka. The only commercial city of
any importance in Southern Podolia is the muddy Balta,
which, in its famous annual fairs, trades in grain, cattle,
bacon and skins, but especially pumpkins and melons, and
has a soap and candle industry of some importance. The
adjacent city of Ananiiv (17,000 pop.) also carries on
considerable trade in agricultural products.

The Pokutian-Bessarabian Plateau embraces a narrow
zone of Southeastern Galicia and the Northern Bukowina,
as well as the northern part of the Russian Government of
Bessarabia. The manner of settling is similar to the
Podolian, with large villages and few small cities. Agricul-
ture and wine-growing are the most important occupation
of the people; toward the south cattle-raising is becoming
of greater importance. Home industry is insignificant, of
factory industry there is almost none. In Galician-
Pokutye the only cities worthy of mention are Horodenka
(11,000 pop.), in a very fertile region, and the old commer-
cial city of Sniatin (12,000 pop.), and in Bukowina-Pokutye
the commercial town of Kitzman. In Bessarabia we find,
on the Dniester, the former fortress of Khotin (18,000 pop.),
memorable for two Turkish battles (1621 and 1673), now
a river port and the seat of an active grain and fruit trade,

UKRAINE 323

as well as a notorious nest of smugglers. The second
Dniester port of Bessarabia, Soroki (15,000 pop.), serves
principally the export trade. At some distance from the
course of the Dniester lies the insignificant town of Orhuv
(13,000 pop.), and the dirty city of Biltzi (19,000 pop.),
with a large grain and cattle trade. The capital of Bessara-
bia, Kishiniv (125,000 pop.), lies outside of the Ukrainian
territory.

The Dnieper Plateau is important, not only because of
its agriculture, cattle-raising and fruit-culture, but also
because of a considerable cultivation of commercial
plants, because of a developed home and factory industry,
and because of a comparatively lively trade. It is one of
the central districts of the Ukraine, with typical conditions
of settlement. Large agglomerations of dwellings, pictur-
esquely located, consisting of whitewashed, straw-covered
clay huts, lie on the rivers and creeks, usually on wide
valley bottoms or slightly inclined valley sides, sur-
rounded and dotted with the fresh green of orchards. On
the plateau, which is one great wave of never-ending
grain-fields, there lie only a few scattered manors of large
landowners, single farmhouses, bee orchards, adjoining little
woodlands and groves. The number and size of the cities
is not great. The prevailing type is that of the village city —
a great village with an area of buildings in the middle, which
have a city-like character. The streets are broad and un-
paved, the green of the gardens being apparent even in the
center of the city. Where the northeastern spurs of the
Dnieper Plateau reach the Dnieper River, lies the natural
capital of the Ukraine, the former "mother of the Ruthenian
cities," Kiev (506,000 pop.). Its great history finds
expression in an enormous number of architectural monu-
ments, especially churches and convents. (Lavra Pecherska,
the Church of Sophia, the Church of Andreas, the Tithe
Church, the Golden Gate, etc.). Kiev was the capital of the

324 , UKRAINE

ancient Ukrainian Kingdom and its spiritual center ; today
it is called the "Ukrainian Jerusalem," and is visited by
hundreds of thousands of pilgrims every year. Besides its
historical importance, Kiev possesses also a great geograph-
ical significance. Its picturesque position on the lofty
right-hand bank of the Dnieper, which is cut up into
beautiful erosive hills, offers great geographical advantages.
Here, opposite the Desna outlet, the Dnieper, after receiv-
ing its two largest tributaries, completes its transformation
into the second largest river of Eastern Europe. The
waterways of the Pripet, the upper Dnieper and the Desna
here form a junction, the importance of which is heightened
by the junction of railroads and highways at the same point;
such thorofares have always found in Kiev the most
convenient crossing over the Dnieper River into the
Western Ukrainian lands. This junction of roads favors
the rapidly progressing development of Kiev's commerce,
which concentrates in the "lower city" (Podil) and in its
great river harbor. Kiev is the most convenient emporium
for the forest and grain regions of the Ukraine, which
border on one another here. In the last decades a consid-
erable factory industry has developed in Kiev, embracing
all possible branches of industry. Above all, the sugar
industry has its center here. Kiev has a Russian University
and a technical college. Ukrainian cultural life, which has
always had its main headquarters in Kiev, has experienced
an unexpected rise here since 1905.

Not far from Kiev, which is an important fortress today,
there lie many places of historical significance, among them
the convents of Vidubitsky and Mezihirsky. Rzishchiv is
a river port with some grain exportation. On the Stuhna
lies the old city of Vassilkiv (18,000 pop.), with an insignifi-
cant trade, from a modern point of view. At the point
where the borders of the Governments of Kiev, Volhynia
and Podolia touch, lies Berdichiv, a city of 83,000, inhabit-

UKRAINE 325

ed mostly by Jews, after Kiev the most important emporium
for cattle and grain in the country. The products of the
industry of this place are offered for sale by Jewish
peddlers thruout the entire right half of the Ukraine.
In the river region of the Ross we find several cities which
are local centers of the sugar and alcohol industry: Skvira
(16,000 pop.), in a region covered with ancient walls, with
pottery and cap manufactures; the old Cossack city of
BilaTserkov (61,000 pop.), famous for the treaty of Khmel-
nitsky with the Poles (1652), now a lively commercial city,
with sugar and machine manufactures; Tarashcha (11,000
pop.), with a considerable wagon industry (the familiar
tarantasses are made here) . Korsun is noteworthy because
of the victory of Khmelnitsky over the Poles (1648).
Nearby lie the villages of Kirilivka and Morintzi.the home
of the greatest Ukrainian poet, Taras Shevchenko.

The entire plateau zone along the right Dnieper bank is
full of old monuments of Ukrainian history, of walls,
ancient fortifications, ruins and barrows. Along the Dnieper
lie in succession: Trekhtimiriv, Kaniv, Cherkassi, once
the most important center of the Ukrainian Cossack organ-
ization. Near Kaniv, elevated on the lofty right bank of
the Dnieper, is the mound of Shevchenko, visited every
year by numerous companies of pilgrims of all classes of the
Ukrainian nation. Kaniv is now a little town with an
insignificant river harbor. Cherkassi (40,000 pop.), on
the other hand, thanks to its large river harbor and the
railroad which crosses the Dnieper here, has developed into
a lively commercial city (wood, iron, sugar and salt trade,
lumber and sugar industry). By the example of Cherkassi
or Kreminchuk, we are shown how the poor villages and
towns on the Dnieper could be developed if cultural con-
ditions were favorable. A fine example of such a neglected
town is Chihirin (10,000 pop.), on the Tiasmin, the former
residence city of the Ukrainian hetmans. Situated, as tho

326 i UKRAINE

by a wonderful coincidence, in the center of the present
Ukrainian territory, Chihirin is hardly more than a large
village, with crooked, muddy streets, a slight lumber and
grain trade, remains of the Chumak organization, and an
insignificant stonecutters' trade. In Subotiv, nearby,
Khmelnitsky was buried, but his grave was destroyed by
the Poles a short time after. At the Tiasmin outlet lies the
river port of Kriliv (12,000 pop.), with lumber and cattle
trade; further downstream, Verkhnodniprovsk, with an
iron industry. At the source of the Inhuletz is Olexandria
(14,000 pop.), noteworthy for some milling industry.

On the southwestern and southern border of the
Dnieper Plateau, which is really part of the country
drained by the Boh, there lie several smaller towns, e. g.,
Lipovetz, Haisin, Novomirhorod, with some grain and
cattle trade. In this respect, Zvenihorodka (17,000 pop.)
is of greater importance. Nearby lies Katerinopol, with its
lignite mines. Uman (42,000 pop.) is known because of its
associations with the Haydamak times, its great park, and its
considerable grain trade. The largest city of this strip of
borderland, Yelisavet (76,000 pop.), at the source of the
Inhul, carries on a considerable trade in grain and wool,
and possesses an important factory industry.

The Dnieper Plain, in its northern part, reveals quite a
Polissian character. But in the north we note the first
differences too — the highly developed home industry and
agriculture much more highly developed than in the
Polissye region. On the left Desna bank, lumbering
declines gradually, and the villages of the Polissian type
give way to the typical Ukrainian villages, consisting of
neatly whitewashed, straw-covered huts, which lie pictur-
esquely among fruit-gardens. The towns and suburbs here,
as in fact everywhere in the left half of the Ukraine, have
an entirely rural appearance. The cities have very wide
streets and squares. There are very few connected rows

UKRAINE 327

of houses, and the single houses are surrounded by gardens
and large yards. The Dnieper Plain embraces the greatest
part of the Governments of Chernihiv and Poltava, and
the northern edge of Katerinoslav.

The chief city of the northern half of the section is
Chernihiv (33,000 pop.), an old city, perhaps as ancient
as Kiev. It lies at the crossing of the main road leading
to Muscovy, across the navigable Desna. In the city and
its vicinity we find many historical monuments, churches,
walls and barrows ; but the present commercial importance
of the city is very slight. Konotop (20,000 pop.) , surrounded
by swamps, and at one time a strong fortress, famous for
the victory of the Cossack hetman, Vihovsky, over the
Russians (1659), now carries on a considerable commerce,
thanks to its railroad junction, and has large peat deposits.
Bakhmatch, which lies nearby, is an important railroad
junction. On the Sem lies the commercial town of Baturin,
the former hetman residence, whose population was
completely slaughtered by Menshikov in 1709. Sosnitza,
Borzna (12,000 pop.) and Berezna (10,000 pop.) carry on
an insignificant grain and cattle trade. On the navigable
Oster lies Nizin (52,000 pop.), an old city of the time of the
Ukrainian princes, in the 17th Century a Greek colony
carrying on a lively trade, later famous for its great annual
fairs. Just now the tobacco and grain trade of the city is
increasing considerably. There is also a philological
academy here. Further downstream, on the Oster, we
find two old towns, Koseletz and Oster, with a river harbor
and a considerable net industry. On the Trubaylo and on
the Alta lies the ancient city of Pereyaslav (15,000 pop.),
founded by Volodimir the Great, noteworthy for the victory
of the Cossack hetman, Taras Triasilo, over the Poles (1630).
Here the unfortunate treaty of 1654 was enacted, joining
the Ukraine, which had just been freed from Polish rule, to
Russia, as an autonomous vassal state. The once navigable

328 i UKRAINE

Trubaylo has become shallow, the railroad line has left
the city lying to one side and Pereyaslav has lost all sig-
nificance. Equally insignificant is the adjacent town of
Zolotonosha.

In the Sula region, on the verge of the Dnieper Plain,
lies Romen (Romni, 33,000 pop.), with annual fairs that
are important even today, the center of the judicial district
of Romni-Libau, which transports the products of the
Ukraine to the distant Baltic ports. Romen has a soap
industry and tobacco factories, and here and in the adjacent
town of Lokhvitzia, fruit and tobacco culture flourish.
The center of Ukrainian tobacco-culture is Priluky (31,000
pop.), on the Udai, which carries on the greatest tobacco
trade in all Russia, exporting half a million puds of it
annually. On the Udai also lies the old Cossack city of
Piriatin, now an important railroad center. Below the
outlet of the Udai into the Sula, lies ancient Lubni (10,000
pop.), with its great fruit-gardens and tanneries.

In the region drained by the Psiol, we find on the
Khorol, the old Cossack city of Mirhorod (10,000 pop.),
so masterfully pictured by Gogol, with its industrial
school and its great home industry. Mirhorod was once
an important center of the Chumak organization. Not
far from it lies the railroad center of Romodan and the
antique town of Khorol. Hadyach is noteworthy because
of the treaty of the Cossack hetman, Vihovsky, with
Poland (1658), which was to join the Ukraine as the third
autonomous unit to the Polish-Lithuanian state. Sinkiv
(10,000 pop.) is an important center of a versatile home
industry; Rashivka, a center of the Prassoli societies;
Sorochintzi, the birthplace of Gogol, has grain and cattle
markets; Reshetilivka is famous for its sheep-raising and its
leather industry. Above the outlet of the Psiol into the
Dnieper, lies the chief river port of the region, Kreminchuk
(99,000 pop.), an important bridge city, where numerous

UKRAINE 329

highways and two railroads cross the navigable Dnieper.
Kreminchuk trades, particularly in lumber and grain,
is an emporium for lumber, coal and salt, and has machine,
tobacco, carriage and leather factories, and large saw-mills.
The city is subject to many floods and conflagrations,
but is growing constantly. Half of the population is
comprised of Jewish merchants and business men. In the
spring the population of the city is regularly doubled.
On the opposite Dnieper bank lies the river port of Krukiv
(10,000 pop.), almost a suburb of Kreminchuk.

In the river region of the Vorskla, on the northeastern
boundary of the plain, lies Oposhnia, widely known for its
pottery. Farther downstream lies the city of Poltava
(83,000 pop.), the chief city of the southern part of the
left half of the plain, notable for the unfortunate battle
(1709) in which Peter the Great, with Polish help, destroyed
the plan of the dashing hetman, Mazeppa, to free the
Ukraine from Russian dominion, with the aid of CharlesXII.
of Sweden. Today Poltava is a rising industrial city, with an
important railroad junction and great annual fairs, chiefly
for wool and horses. Kobeliaki (12,000 pop.), situated
downstream on the Vorskla, has a cloth industry of some
dimensions, as has also the district of Konstantinohrad, in
the river region of the Orel. On the southeastern border
of the plain, where it joins the Pontian plain in the region
of the Samara, lie the old Zaporog settlements of Samar-
chik (Novonoskovsk, 13,000 pop.) and Pavlohrad (41,000
pop.), with a considerable grain trade and a large mill,
leather and wax industry.

The spurs of the Central Russian Plateau, which lie
within the borders of the Ukrainian national territory
offer an almost complete anthropogeographical analogy
to the above discussed district. In the north the Polissian
character is still apparent. In the south agriculture and
home industry are well developed. Traffic is more difficult,

330 UKRAINE

because of the greater distance to the navigable Dnieper,
but is rather active with the Muscovite country. The
left plateau district embraces the northwest frontiers of
the Governments of Chernihiv and Poltava, all of the
Government of Kharkiv and the adjacent districts of
Kursk, Voroniz and Don.

The northernmost town of the Ukraine is Mhlin, with its
important annual fairs. In the vicinity lies Pochep, with
some textile industry and Klintzi (12,000 pop.), the "Man-
chester of the Chernihiv country," with spinning-mills,
cloth, leather and metal factories. The inhabitants of
nearby Ardon engage in carriage-making, and carry on
peddling thruout the entire Ukraine. Considerable indus-
try and trade is carried on also by Novosibkiv (16,000 pop.)
and Klimiv. Starodub (13,000 pop.), the old Cossack
city, on the other hand, is rich in historical reminiscences.
The ancient town of Novhorod Siversky,on the Desna, and
Korop, downstream, are insignificant today. Kluhiv
(15,000 pop.) carries on a considerable grain trade. In the
vicinity lies Shostka, with a powder factory which supplies
all the powder factories of Russia with salpeter. Krolevetz
(10,000 pop.) still has important annual fairs, the old town
of Putivl some trade in grain and flax, Bilopilye (15,000
pop.), important annual fairs and a great grain trade.
In the country about the source of the Sula lies Nedrihailiv;
at the source of the Psiol is Sudza (13,000 pop.), with a
large grain, honey and fruit trade. Miropilye (11,000 pop.),
has an important shoe industry, Sumi (52,000 pop.),
situated at a railroad junction, has an important factory in-
dustry (especially sugar factories) and important annual fairs.
The old Cossack city of Lebedin (14,000 pop.), famous
because of the atrocities of Menshikov (1708), now carries
on a considerable grain trade.

In the region of the source of the Vorskla lies the
town of Hraivoron, downstream Okhtirka (32,000 pop.),

UKRAINE 331

a much frequented place of pilgrimage, with considerable
fruit-culture and lumber, fur, shoe, pottery and milling
industries. Considerable fruit-culture is carried on also by
Bohodukhiv.

The farther part of the left plateau lies in the region
drained by the Don. On the small rivers, Kharkiv and
Lopan, lies the capital of the region, Kharkiv (248,000
pop.). Founded as a Cossack hamlet in the 17th Century,
Kharkiv has grown very rapidly, thanks to its geographical
position at a convenient crossing point from the Dnieper
region into the Don region, between the interior and the
sea. Here was once a crossing of Chumak roads, and is now
a railroad junction. Hence the importance of Kharkiv lies
in commerce. Four great fairs, whose business still amounts
to 80 million rubles a year, on an average, are especially
important for trade in grain, horned cattle, horses, wool and
manufactures. Besides, Kharkiv has a considerable
factory industry (linen, cloth, soap, candle, sugar, alcohol,
tobacco, brick, ceramic, machine, boiler and bell factories).
Kharkiv is the seat of a Russian University, and one of the
chief centers of Ukrainian cultural life.

In the east of the Donetz course lie several small cities,
e. g., Zolochiv, with its annual fairs; Valki, with a consi-
derable home industry and large fruit-gardens. In the
country about the source of the Donetz, on the border of the
Ukraine, lies Bilhorod (22,000 pop.), a commercial city with
a woolen industry. Downstream, on the Donetz, lie Vov-
chansk (11,000 pop.), Chuhuyiv (13,000 pop.) and Smiiv.
Korocha (14,000 pop.) carries on grain, cattle and fruit
trade in its annual fairs, and has some industry (oil-pressing,
alcohol-distillation, and albumen manufacture). On the
Oskol lie the following: Stari-Oskol (17,000 pop.), with a
considerable trade and with a leather, wax, mead and to-
bacco industry; the insignificant town of Novi-Oskol,
Valuiki, Urasova (13,000 pop.), with grain trade, tanneries

332 . UKRAINE

and rope factories; Kupiansk at a railroad junction. On
the Tikha Sosna lies Biriuch (13,000 pop.), with annual
fairs and oil factories, Olexiyivka, known for sunflower-
culture and painters' guilds, and Ostrohorsk (22,000 pop.),
with a large grain, cattle and bacon trade, and soap, wax
and tobacco industry, once a center of the fish trade.
Starobilsk (13,000 pop.) has lively annual fairs.

On the Don, within the province of the plateau, there
are no larger cities. Korotoiak (10,000 pop.) carries on an
active trade, Pavlovsk has soap factories, fat-extraction
and oil-presses, and is an important river-port, from which
the regular Don navigation begins. Altogether, on the
eastern border country of the Ukraine, there are no larger
cities or even towns. Only a few isolated large villages
gain greater significance thru their markets and industry.
One of these is the largest village of the Ukraine: Butur-
linivka (38,000 pop.), with important annual fairs, with
brick-kilns, tanneries, alcohol-stills, as well as very con-
siderable furriery and shoemaking.

The Donetz Plateau is, from an anthropogeographical
point of view, a very remarkable country, which has its
closest analogy in the North American mining districts.
Only the northern edge of the country on the Donetz has
an appearance analogous to the adjacent Kharkiv country,
with large, typically Ukrainian villages and village-towns.
All the remaining region of the Donetz Plateau is a naked
steppe. Here and there factory chimneys, isolated or in
groups, rise, surrounded by factory buildings and laborers'
huts. The settlements come into existence and grow with
true American speed. The Donetz Plateau embraces
parts of the Governments of Kharkiv, Katerinoslav and
Don.

One of the farthest advance guards of the typical
Ukrainian settlements is Isium (23,000 pop.), on the
Donetz, one of the chief centers of the pottery industry.

UKRAINE 333

Slaviansk, once Tor (20,000 pop.), on the Torez, has large
salt mines and salt lakes, with bathing pavilions, which
draw many guests in the summer, large salt-works and a
number of mills, porcelain and metal industries. Besides,
Slaviansk has important horse-markets. Nearby, on the
chalk-cliffs of the Donetz, lies the famous convent of the
Holy Mountains. On the eastern border of the Ukraine,
on the Donetz, lies the river port of Kamenske (51,000 pop.),
with a great grain trade and glass-works.

In the mining and factory district of the Donetz Plateau
there lie, besides innumerable small industrial towns, a
number of more important centers. Luhan (60,000 pop.)
has a large metallurgical industry with foundries and
hammer-works, machine-factories, numerous alcohol-stills,
breweries, tanneries, soap and tile factories. Bakhmut
(33,000 pop.) has large salt mines and salt-works and
considerable trade; the adjacent town of Mikitivka,
mercury and coal mines. Yusivka (49,000 pop.) is the
chief center of the coal mines, iron and steel factories;
Hrushivka (46,000 pop.) the center of the anthracite mines.

The Pontian Plain gives us an anthropogeographical
picture which is different from that of the thus far described
sections of the Ukraine. Here, in the newly settled steppe
region, the type of the Ukrainian settlements gradually
disappears. The Ukrainian type of the large villages
remains, to be sure, but these villages are, by their position,
dependent upon the water as well as other conditions of a
practical nature, such as roads, mines, etc., which tempt a
great number of people to settle in the district. The huts
here and there bear the marks of provisional buildings, are
not always whitewashed, are covered with reeds, and in
some places even earthen huts have been preserved. As a
rule, however, the typical Ukrainian whitewashed and
straw-covered clay hut advances farther and farther, and
is sometimes even prettier and better equipped here than

334 ■ UKRAINE

in Northern Ukraine, thanks to the greater prosperity of
the peasant. In the last few years more and more brick
houses have been built, covered with tiles. Extensive
steppe agriculture and steppe cattle-raising have, to this time,
been the chief occupation ; on the coast, salt-extraction and
navigation. Typical Ukrainian towns are rare here, but in
the once wild steppes, on the other hand, large commercial
and industrial cities have shot up, which possess a much
more European appearance than- the Russian cities. Al-
most all these cities lie on the sea, or at the river outlets.
The Pontian Plain embraces the southern parts of Bessara-
bia, Kherson, Katerinoslav, the mainland part of Tauria,
the southwestern part of the Don region and the northern
part of the Kuban region.

On the Kilia arm of the Danube delta lie the following
important river ports, at the same time the centers of the
Danube trade and of the sea-fishing industry: Ismail
(36,000 pop.), Kilia (12,000 pop.) and Vilkiv. Akkerman
(40,000 pop.), on the Dniester liman, rich in historical
memories, is an important harbor for smaller ships, and
carries on a considerable salt, fish, bacon and woolen
trade. On the lower course of the Dniester lie the river
ports of Dubosari (13,000 pop.), located in the midst of
vineyards and fruit-gardens and tobacco fields, with a
considerable tobacco, wine, cattle and grain trade; Benderi
(60,000 pop.), a strong fortress with a considerable trade,
surrounded by fruit-gardens, vineyards and melon-patches
and Teraspol (32,000 pop.) with a large grain trade. Here
the goods shipped down the Dniester are unloaded, to be
sent by rail to Odessa.

Odessa (620,000 pop.), the largest city and the most
important port of the Ukraine, is situated 32 kilometers
north of the Dniester outlet, and opposite the Dnieper
liman, on a deep but open roadstead. By means of expen-
sive constructions, the unprotected harbor of Odessa was

UKRAINE 335

considerably improved. It now has six protected harbor
basins for ships. In some winters the harbor does not
freeze over, at other times remaining frozen from 31 to 67
days, but then it can be kept open without difficulty by
ice-breakers. The city itself is built up on the high and naked
steppe plain, where orchards can be planted and taken care
of only with the greatest difficulty. The city has an
entirely European appearance, with broad, straight streets
and fine houses. There are almost no historic landmarks
in Odessa, since it was founded as late as 1794. The city
grew very rapidly, especially in its free-harbor period
(1817 — 1859). Today Odessa is the most important sea-
port of the Russian Empire, after St. Petersburg, and even
surpasses the latter in exports. The exports from Odessa
are made up chiefly of grain, also cattle, wood, sugar,
fishing products, fats and alcohol. These exports go to
England, Germany, France, Italy, Holland, Belgium and
the far east. The imports of Odessa are disproportionately
smaller than the exports, and are made up chiefly of coal,
rice, tropical fruits, tea, etc., the benefit of which goes
mostly to the cities of Central Russia. Outside of this
commercial activity, which is directed by the stock exchange
and the numerous banks, Odessa also possesses a well-
developed factory industry (mills, sugar, oil, macaroni,
canned-goods, alcohol, metal, ceramic, and chemical
factories). About the year 1900, the annual productive
value was 70 million rubles. Odessa is also a university
city, and one of the intellectual centers of the Ukraine. In
the vicinity of Odessa are the famous limans of Kuyalnik
and Khadzybei, with their sanatoriums.

On the Boh, at the point where the river becomes
navigable, lies Vosnesensk, an important river port, with
some industry and considerable wood and grain trade.
On the deep Boh liman, at the mouth of the Inhul, lies
Mikolaiv (103,000 pop.), a verv important naval and

336 « UKRAINE

commercial harbor, which has the greatest exportation of
grain, after Odessa, and large shipyards, foundries and
machine-shops. Krivi Rih (15,000 pop.), on the Inhul,
has 33 iron mines, and is the center of Ukrainian iron
mining.

On the Dnieper, on the border of the Pontian and Dnie-
per Plains, lies the city of Katerinoslav (218,000 pop.),
hardly more than a century old. Katerinoslav owes its
great importance to its position on the Dnieper at the
beginning of the rapids section, and at the end of the upper
steamboat navigation, where an important railroad line
crosses the river, connecting the iron mines of Krivi Rih
with the coal fields on the Donetz. Hence, Katerinoslav is,
above all, an industrial city with large foundries, forges
and machine shops. Katerinoslav carries on the greatest
lumber trade in the entire Ukraine. Its grain and coal
trade is very important too. Below the rapids, in the old
Zaporog country, sacred to every Ukrainian, lies the rapidly
rising city of Olexandrivsk (51,000 pop.), an important
river port and railroad junction, with a metal and milling
industry. Nikopol (17,000 pop.), the point of crossing of the
old commercial road over the Dnieper into Crimea, is the
center for manganese mining, and has some milling indus-
try. Its harbor is exceptional in that it is reached by
smaller sea-vessels, which, however, sail up the Dnieper
only as far as Berislav (12,000 pop.), where the grain is
transferred from river boats to sea-vessels. On the left
Dnieper bank, opposite Berislav, lies the important river
harbor of Kakhivka. Oleshki has considerable vegetable,
fruit and melon-culture, fishing and crab-fishing.

Not far from the outlet of the Dnieper into its liman,
lies the government capital, Kherson (92,000 pop.), like
Odessa, Mikolaiv and Katerinoslav, a young city of the
end of the 18th Century. Its harbor was first made accessi-
ble to large sea-vessels by the dredging of the ship-canal of

UKRAINE 337

Otshakiv in the Dnieper liman (1887), and since then the
city has been growing rapidly. Kherson carries on a very
important lumber and grain trade, and has large saw-mills,
grain-mills, soap and tobacco factories. Two fortresses
defend the entrance to the Dnieper liman, Ochakiv (12,000
pop.), with an insignificant harbor for coast vessels, and
Kinburu.

In the narrow strip of low country on the north shore
of the Black Sea, all the larger cities keep close to the coast.
Melitopol on the Molochna (17,000 pop.), carries on con-
siderable trade in cattle, lumber, skins, eggs and wool, and
has large mills, alcohol-stills and factories, which make
agricultural machinery. Berdiansk (36,000 pop.), despite
its poor harbor, exports much grain, and has machine
factories, mills, breweries, and fine fruit gardens and vine-
yards. The former great importance of Berdiansk has
been inherited by Mariupol (53,000 pop.), with a good
harbor at the mouth of the Kalmius, a city which possesses
some factory industry, and carries on an active export trade
in coal, coke, metal and grain. Still more important are
the harbors at the mouths of the Don. Opposite the Don
delta lies Tahanroh (75,000 pop.) with a leather and metal
industry, as well as an extensive trade in grain, fish, beef,
oil, bacon, leather and fruit, the most important grain
exporting harbor of the Ukraine, after Odessa and Mikolaiv.
In the Don delta lies Rostiv (172,000 pop.), the most im-
portant commercial city of Southeastern Ukraine, with
an extensive trade in grain, cattle, wool and flax, large mills,
shipyards, tobacco and machine factories. The Armenian
city of Nakhichevan (71,000 pop.) forms the suburbs, as it
were, of Rostiv, taking considerable part in its industrial
and commercial activity. The historically memorable
city of Osiv (Azof, 31,000 pop.) is an important center of
the Don and Azof fishing industry, and has some grain
trade. Yesk (51,000 pop.), on the eastern shore of the

338 ' UKRAINE

Sea of Azof, has some grain export, and is a not insig-
nificant importing city.

The mountains and hill country of the Crimea are not
properly a part of the Ukrainian territory, altho the
Ukrainian element flows into the villages and cities of the
land in an uninterrupted stream, while the Mohammedan
Tartar population emigrates to Turkey. In the northern
part of the Crimean peninsula, the economic and settlement
conditions are the same as in the Pontian lowland. There
is an especially important cattle-raising industry. In the
southern, mountainous part of the peninsula, agriculture
and cattle-raising lose their predominating importance,
and fruit, wine and vegetable-cultivation, navigation
and salt-making, which flourishes along almost the entire
coast of the Crimea, comprise the chief occupations of the
population. The chief center of salt-manufacture lies
on the salt lakes and limans of Eupatoria (30,000 pop.),
where also famous sanatoriums are located. In the northern
foothills of the Yaila lies the ancient capital of the Khans,
Bakchisarai (13,000 pop.), which has entirely preserved its
oriental character, as well as the new capital of Tauria,
Simferopol (71,000 pop.), the center of the fruit and wine-
culture and of important fruit-canning factories. An
extensive fruit trade is carried on also by Karasubazar
(15,000 pop.).

At the gates of the Crimean Riviera is the city of
Sevastopol (77,000 pop.), world renowned since the Crimean
War, a great sea-fortress and the strongest naval port of
the Russian Empire in Europe. The commercial harbor
of the city has been without importance for the last twelve
years. In the vicinity, on a beautiful bay, lies Belklava,
known for its fisheries. On the southern coast is the
following chain of watering-places and summer-resorts:
Alupka, Livadia, Yalta (23,000 pop.), Orianda, Alushta,
Hursuf. In the summer patients and vacationists come

UKRAINE 339

here from all the cities of Russia, and the Riviera of Crimea
is also growing continually in importance as a winter resort.

On the eastern spurs of the Crimean peninsula lie two
large cities. Feodosia (formerly Kaffa, 40,000 pop.) is the
largest commercial port of Crimea, with a considerable
grain and fruit export. Kerch (57,000 pop.) also has a
commercial port, used especially by large ships, which
must avoid the shallow Sea of Azof, but the city derives a
much greater importance from its extensive fishing indus-
try, its fish-canning and milling industry, and in recent
years its metallurgical industry, which exploits the large
mineral deposits of the region.

The sub-Caucasus country of Kuban, colonized a
century ago by the posterity of the Zaporogs, offers, in its
western part, an anthropogeographical picture quite
analogous to the other central regions of the ancient
Ukraine. It is actually a piece of the old Ukraine, trans-
planted to the foot of the Caucasus Mountains, with its
large villages, farms (khutori), its important agriculture
and extensive cattle-raising. Fishing, lumbering and
hunting play an important part in its economic life,
besides fruit and wine-culture. The mining industry is
showing great promise.

The eastern and southern part of the sub-Caucasus
country, which, besides parts of Kuban, embraces also
parts of the Government of Stavropol and of the Black
Sea and Terek regions, is a land newly settled by the
Ukrainians, and has a still imperfect anthropogeographical
type.

The center of the land and of the Ukrainian cultural
life is Katerinodar (100,000 pop.) on the Kuban, the capital
of the Kuban Cossacks. It carries on an active trade in
agricultural products. The main port of the region is the
rising city of Novorossysk (61,000 pop.), with a large grain,
wool and petroleum export. Temriuk, in the Kuban delta,

340 UKRAINE

also exports much grain. On the Bi!a lies the commercial
city of Maikop (49,000 pop.) ; on the Luba, Labinsk (33,000
pop.), both important for the exchange of products of the
plains and the mountains. On the Stavropol Plateau lies
Stavropol (61,000 pop.), with an important grain and cattle
trade, Praskoveya (11,000 pop.), with considerable wine-
culture, and Olexandrivsk (10,000 pop.). At the foot of the
mountain range lies the renowned mineral spring region
around the commercial city of Piatihorsk (32,000 pop.).

List of Books on the Ukraine

I. GENERAL WORKS. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

Atlas Climatologique de l'empire de la Russie. Petersburg 1900

(Russian) .
Atlas geologiczny Galicyi. Cracow 1882 ff. (Polish).
Beauplan. Description de l'Ukraine. Rouen 1660.
Bonmariage. La Russie d'Europe. Brussels 1903.
Brockhaus-Efron. Enciklopedicheski Slavar. Petersburg, 1st ed.

beginning 1890. 2nd ed. in course of publication.
Carte geologique internationale de l'Europe. Berlin. D IV, D V>

E IV, E V, F IV, F V.
Dokutchaev. The Russian Steppes. Petersburg 1893.
Encyklopedia Polska. Vol. I, Cracow 1912. (Polish).
Friederichsen. Methodischer Atlas zur vergleichenden Landerkunde

von Europa. Part I, Hannover 1914.
Guide des excursions du VII Congres geologique internationale. Peters-
burg 1897.
Geologicheski Komitydt. Carte geologique generate. Petersburg

1897 ff.
Karpinsky. tTbersicht der phys.-geogr. Verhaltnisse Russlands

wahrend der verflossenen geologischen Perioden. Beitrage zur

Kenntnis des russischen Reichs. 1887.
— Sur les mouvements de l'ecorce terrestre dans la Russie d'Europe.

Annales de Geographic 1895-6.
Kehnert & Habenicht. Map of Russia (Scale: 1—3,700,000) in Stieler's

Handatlas. No. 46, 47, 48, 49.
Kohl. Reisen in Sildrussland. Berlin 1841.
Krassnov-Voyeykov. Russland (In: Kirchhoff's Landerkunde von

Europa^Vol. Ill, Leipzig 1907).
Krassnov. Travyanye stydpi syevyernavo polyshdryia. Moscow 1894.

(Russian).
Murchison, de Verneuil, Keyserling. Geology of Russia. Petersburg

1846.
Osterreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild. Wien 1877 ff.

Ubersichtsband. Galizien, Bukowina.

342 UKRAINE

Philippson. Landeskunde des europaischen Russlands nebst Finnlands.
Leipzig 1908.

— Geographische Reiseskizzen aus Russland. Zeitschrift der Gesell-

schaft fur Erdkunde. Berlin 1898.
Reclus. Nouvelle geographie universelle. Vol. V. Paris 1876. Russian

translation with supplementary volume. Petersburg 1884.
Rehmann. Ziemie davnej Polski. I, II. Lemberg 1895, 1904. (Polish).
Rossiya, yeya' nastoyishcheye i prosh^dsheye. A volume consisting

of articles collected from Brockhaus-Efron. Petersburg 1900

(Russian).
Rudnitsky. Korotka geografia Ukrainy. I, II. Lemberg, Kieff.

(Ukrainian).

— Der ostliche Kriegsschauplatz. Jena 1915.
Sibirtseff. Etude des sols de la Russie. Petersburg 1897.

— Pochvennaya karta evrop&skoi Rossiyi. Scale: 1 — 2,520,000.

Petersburg 1902.

Siemiradzki. Geologia ziempolskich. Lemberg I. 1903, II. 1909.
(Polish).

Semyonov. Rossiya. P61noye geogr. opisanye atyechestva, 22 vols.
Petersburg 1899 ff. Vol. II, VII, IX, XIV. (Russian).

Suess. Antlitz der Erde. Bd. MIL Wien, Leipzig 1883-1909.

Tanfilyev. Die Waldgrenzen in Sudrussland. Petersburg 1894.
(Russian, with a resume1 in German).

Tillo. Gipsometricheskaya kArta yevropfiiskoi Rossiyi. 1st ed. Peters-
burg 1889, 1: 2,520,000. 2nded. Petersburg 1896, 1 : 1,680,000.

Uhlig. Bau und Bild der Karpathen. Wien 1903.

PERIODICALS

Izvestya Imp. riisskavo geograficheskavo 6bshchestva. Petersburg
1865 ff. (Russian).

Izvestya geologicheskavo komity6ta. Petersburg 1882 ff. (Russian).

Kosmos. Lemberg 1875 ff. (Polish).

The Zapiski (Transactions) of the Russian universities and learned
societies of Kieff, Kharkov, Odessa, Warsaw, Moscow, Peters-
burg, etc. (Russian).

Sbirnyk mat.-pryr. nauk Tovarystva im. Shevchenka. 15 vols.
Lemberg 1897 ff. (Ukrainian).

Trudy geologicheskavo komity6ta. Petersburg 1883 ff.

Zyemlevyedy6nye. Moscow 1894 ff.

II. ANTHROPOLOGY AND OTHER AUXILIARY SCIENCES

Aitoff. Carte de l'extension du peuple ukrainien. Paris 1906.
Akademya nauk imperatorskaya. Ob atmydnye styessnenyi maloniss-

kavo yazyka\ Petersburg 1905. (Russian).
Andree. Die Ruthenen. Globus 1870.

UKRAINE 343

Annates des nationality. Paris 1913. No. 3 and 4.
Antonovych. Try natsionalni typy. Pravda 1878 (Ukrainian).
German translation in Ukrainisehe Rundschau. Jahrgang V.

— Monografiyi po ist6ryi zapadnoi i yiigozapadnoi Rossiyi. I. Kieff

1885. (Russian).

Antonovych i Drahomaniv. Istoricheskiya pyessni malorusskavo

naroda. I, II. Kieff 1874-5.
Bedwin Sands. The Ukraine. London 1914.
Bodenstedt. Die poetische Ukraine. Frankfurt a. M. 1845.
Czoernig. Ethnographie der osterreichischen Monarchie. I-III.

Wien 1855-57.

— Ethnographische Karte der osterreichischen Monarchie. Wien 1855.
Drahomanov. Politicheskaya sochinyenyia. I, II. Paris 1905-6.

I. Moscow 1908. (Russian).
Engel. Geschichte der Ukraine. Halle 1796.
Evarnitzky. Istoriya zapor6zhskikh kazakov. I-III. Petersburg

1892-97. (Russian).
Goebel. Russische Industrie. Berlin 1913.
Haxthausen. Studien iiber die inneren Zustande Russlands usw.

I-III. Berlin 1847-52.

Hettner. Das europaische Russland. Leipzig 1905.

Hoetzsch. Russland. Berlin 1913.

Hrushevsky. Geschichte des ukrainischen Volkes. Leipzig 1906.

— Ocherk ist6ryi ukralnskavo naroda. Petersburg. 3rd ed. 1911.

(Russian).

— Ilustrovana istorya Ukrainy. Kieff 1911. (Ukrainian).

— Die ukrainisehe Frage in historischer Entwicklung. Wien 1915.
Ivanovsky. Ob antropologlcheskom sostavye nasyelyenya Rossiyi.

Trudy antr. otdyel obshchestva liubltelyei yestyestvoznanya.

Vol. CV (XXII). Moscow 1904. (Russian).
K. Die Hauptstamme der Russen. Karte 1:3,700,000. Petermanns

Mitteilungen. 1878.
Ko-yi. Natsionalno-teritorialni mezhi Ukrainy. Lit. nauk. Vistnyk

1907. (Ukrainian).

Kostomarov. Dvye nisskiya nar6dnosti. Petersburg 1863. (Russian).
French translation in Revue ukrainienne. Lausanne 1915.

— Sobranie sochinyenye. Petersburg I-VIII, 1903-6. (Russian).
Kovalevsky. Die Produktivkrafte Russlands. Leipzig 1898.

— L' Agriculture en Russie. Paris 1897.

— La Russie a la fin du XIX siecle. Paris 1900.
Leroy-Beaulieu. L'Empire des Tsars. I-III. Paris 1881.
Lipinski. Zdziejow Ukrainy. Cracow 1912. (Polish).
Machat. Le d<5veloppement economique de la Russie. Paris 1902.
Melnik. Russen Uber Russland. Frankfurt a. M. 1906.

344 UKRAINE

Myezhov. Literatura nisskoi geogr&fiyi, etnogrdfiyi, statistiki. Peters-
burg, 9 vols, closing 1880. (Russian).

Pypin. Istoriya nisskoi etnogrifiyi. III. Petersburg 1891. (Russian).

Pabst. Der Ausbau der russischen Seehandelshafen. Weltverkehr und
Weltwirtschaft. 1914-15.

Rambaud. La petite Russie, etc. La Russie epique. Paris 1876.
(Revue politique et litteraire).

Recensement general de l'Empire. 1897. Obshchi svod po imperiyi
etc. Petersburg 1905. (Russian).

Rittich. Ethnographie des russischen Reichs. Karte 1:3,700,000.
Petermanns Mitteilungen. Erganzungsheft 54. 1878.

— Etnograffcheskaya karta yevrop. Rossiyi 1:2,520,000. Petersburg

1875. (Russian).
Rudnitsky. Ukraina und die Ukrainer. Wien 1914. 2nd ed. Berlin

1915.
Russov. Kdrta razselyenya ukrainskavo nar6da. Ukrainski vyestnik

1906. (Russian).
Russ'ka istorychna biblioteka. Vols. I-XXIV. Lemberg 1886-1904.

(Ukrainian).
Stockyj-Gartner. Grammatik der ruthenisch-ukrainischen Sprache.

Wien 1913.
Schulze-Giivernitz. Volkswirtschaftliche Studien aus Russland.

Leipzig 1899.
Statisticheski yezheg6dnik. Petersburg, beginning in 1912. (Russian).
Supan. Ergebnisse der Sprachenzahlung im russischen Reiche 1897.

Petermanns Mitteilungen 1905.

— Die Bevolkerung der Erde. XIII. Petermanns Mitteilungen.

Erganzungsheft 163. 1909.

Tomashivsky. Etnografichna karta uhorskoi rusy. 1:300,000. Peters-
burg 1910. (Ukrainian).

Tomashivsky. Die weltpolitische Bedeutung Galiziens. Munchen 1915.

Trudy etn.-stat. ekspeditsiyi v zapadno russkyi krai I, II, IV, VI, VII.
Petersburg 1872-78. (Russian, with Ukrainian language texts).

Ukrainsky nar6d v yev6 pr6shlom i nastoyashchem. Vol. I. Peters-
burg 1914.

Ukrainsky vopnis. Izdanye red. zhurn&la Ukrainskaya Zhizn. Peters-
burg 1915.

Velitchko. Narodopysna karta ukrainskoho narodu. 1:370,000.
Lemberg 1896. (Ukrainian).

Vovk. Antropometrichni doslidy ukrainskoho naselenya etc. Lemberg
1908. (Ukrainian).

Wallace. Russia. London"1912.

UKRAINE 345

Zepelin. Die Kiisten und Hafen des russischen Reiches. Berlin.
Zherela do istoriyi Ukrainy. I-XII. Lemberg 1895-1911.

PERIODICALS

Etnografichni Sbirnyk. Lemberg, beginning 1895. 30 vols. (Ukrainian).
Kieffskaya Starina. Kieff. 1882-1905. (Russian).
Literaturno-naukovy vistnyk. Lemberg, Kieff, beginning 1898.

17 vols. (Ukrainian).
Materialy do ukrainskoyi etnologiyi. Lemberg, beginning 1899. 13 vols

(Ukrainian).
Ruthenische Revue. Wien 1903-5.
Sbirnyk ist. fil. sektsyi nauk. Tov. im. Shevchenka. Lemberg, beginning

1897. 14 vols. (Ukrainian).
Sbirnyk filol. sektsyi nauk. Tov. im. Shevchenka. Lemberg, beginning

1898 13 vols. (Ukrainian).
Studiyi s polya suspilnykh nauk i statystyky. Lemberg, beginning

1909. (Ukrainian).
Ukrainische Rundschau. Wien, beginning 1906.
Ukrainskaya Zhizfi. Moscow, beginning 1912. (Russian).
Yefimenko. IsWriya ukrainskavo nar6da. Petersburg 1906. (Russian),
Yefremov. Istoriya ukrainskoho pysmenstva. Petersburg, beginning

1911. (Ukrainian).
Yezhegodnik Rossiyi. (Annuaire de la Russie). Petersburg, beginning

1904.
Zapisky naukovoho tovarystva imeny Shevchenka. Lemberg, beginning

1891. 120 vols. (Ukrainian).
Zapisky ukrainskoho naukovoho tovarystva v Kyivi. Kieff, beginning

1908. (Ukrainian).

Index

A.

Abkhasians 123,139.

Academy of Sciences of St.

Petersburg 168.
Afghanistan 218.
Africa 149.

Agrarian Reform of Stolypin 260.
Agriculture 255ff.
Aka 82,100, 104.
Akerman 136, 306, 334.
Akmolinsk 126.
Alabaster 281.
Albanians 135.
Alberta 127.

Alcohol, distillation of 289.
Alexandria 135 f., 306.
Alexandriosk 123.
Alfold 308.
Alma 20.
Almond 268.
Alps 36, 224.
Alta 327.
Altai 7, 163, 216.
Alupka 338.
Alushta 338.
America 7, 332.

Americans 167, 215, 225 f., 240.
Amu 218.

Amur, Province of 127.
Amygdalus nana 105.
Ananiv 42, 135 f., 322.
Andreas, Feast of 323.

Andreas, Church of 323.
Andrussovo 184.
Animal life 111 ff.

— world 111.
Anthropogeography 118.
Antonovich 157, 177.
Anuchin 161 f.
Appalachians 253.
Apple 115, 268.
Apple-tree 115.
Apricots 115, 268.
Apsheron 36.

Aral, Lake 218.

Archangel 233 f.

Ardon 285, 330.

Area of the Ukraine 15, 124.

— of sections 124
Argentina 127, 232, 260.
Armenians 130, 139 f., 292 f., 337.
Army road, Grusinian 36.
Arseniev 310.

Arshizia 30.

Art 201.

Artili 249.

Artzibashev 207.

Ash-tree 30, 100 f .

Asia 14, 35, 150, 207, 213 ff., 232,

238, 260, 290, 295.
— , Central 126.
— , Western 5, 11.
Aspen-tree 100 f.
Ass 274.
Astrakhan 125 f., 142, 233 f„ 269.

UKRAINE

347

Atkarsk 125.

Atlantic Ocean 94.

Australian 226, 273.

Austria 118, 185, 224, 252, 261 f.,

266, 271 {., 275, 296, 302,

307 f., 319.

— Hungary 118, 129, 155, 215,
234, 247 f., 254, 278, 291,
298, 304, 313.

Autumn, Ukrainian 10.
Avars 13.

Avaro-Andians 139.
Avratinian Ridge 23.
Azof 138, 284, 297.

— Sea of 7, 14, 16 ff., 21, 23, 37 f.,

52, 83 f., 104, 107, 124, 218,
233, 249 f ., 294, 337 ff .

B.

Backza 125.

Badger 112, 248.

Baer's Law 9, 74.

Bagdad Railway 218.

Bairaki 105.

Bakalsk 20.

Bakchisarai 338.

Bakhmut 52, 141, 280, 286, 291,

333.
Baku 126, 301.
Balaklava 20, 249.
Balanda 125.
Balashov 125.
Balazevichi 284.
Balka 59, 62 f., 106.
Balkan Mountains 16.

— Peninsula 218.
Balta 135, 284, 322.
Baltic 305.

Baltic Provinces 4 f., 295, 300 f.,
328.

— Rivers 8, 231.

— Sea 64, 152 f., 188, 217, 229 f.,

299, 303.
Banat 308.
Bar 135, 322.
Bardiiv 120.
Barley 114, 262, 264.
Bartfeld 120, 311.
Bashtani 114, 267.
Baskunchak, Lake 126.
Bast shoes 285.
Batalpashinsk 139, 145, 279.
Baturin 327.

Baudouin de Courtenay 168.
Bavaria 150.
Bean 114, 265.
Bear 111 f., 248.
Beasts of prey 111.
Beaver 112, 248.
Bee-culture 116, 270.
Beech-tree 30, 111.
Beer-brewing 289.
Belgium 226, 278, 288, 335.
Belz 317.

Bender (Benderi) 136, 304, 334.
Berdianska 21, 140 f., 270, 290,

301, 306, 337.
Berdichiv 49, 135, 294, 301, 324.
Berdo-Horodishche 44 f.
Bereg 129.
Beregszasz 120.
Berendians 13.
Beresina 72 f .
— Canal 64.
Berezna 327.
Berestechko 319.
Berestia 133, 299 f., 301, 317.
Berestovetz 47.
Bereszani 40, 320.
Berislav 136, 336.
Bershava 28 f., 65.
Beskid 26 ff., 30, 66, 91, 95, 108
Bessarabia 5, 38, 61, 96, 115, 119,

124 f., 136, 144, 249, 253,

348

UKRAINE

262 ff., 265, 267 ff., 271, 273 f.,
281, 309, 322, 344.
Bibrka 131.
Bila 84, 133, 317, 340.
Bila Tserkov 325.
Bilche Solote 44.
Bilhoray 121, 133, 317.
Bilhorod 119, 122, 137, 269, 331.
Bilodyid 161.
Bilopilia 330.
Bilostok 301.
Biloveza, Forest of 12, 54, 100,

112, 121, 317.
Bilovodsk 287.
Bilsk 54, 121, 133, 317.
Biltzi 45, 119, 136, 323.
Biriucha 21, 122, 137, 287, 332.
Bistritza 29, 67, 314.
— Golden 25, 30. *
Bison 111 f., 248.
Bithiu River 83.
Bithiuhi 122, 273.

Blackberry 101.

Black Sea 5, 12, 14, 16 f., 60, 63 f.,
80,87,91, 107, 119, 123 f., 139,
152 f., 161, 188, 211 ff., 217 f.,
220, 228 f., 231, 240, 248 f.,
267, 270, 295, 300, 303, 305,
314, 337, 339.

Black soil, see Chornozyom.

Blagovieshchensk 87.

Blisnizia 29.

Boar 111, 247 f.

Bobovnik 105.

Bobrinetz 136.

Bobrivsk 137, 287.

Bodiaki 105.

Bodrochka 65.

Boguruslan 125.

Boh 8 f., 18 ff., 24, 39, 47 f., 65,

68 f., 71, 104, 113, 212, 230,
322, 326, 335.
Bohemia 247.

Bohodukhiv 269, 285 f., 331.
Bohorodchani 131.
Bohucha 137.
Boikes 224, 248, 293, 308, 310 f.,

313.
Bokhnia280.
Bolekhiv 280, 291, 314.
Borislav 279, 313.
Borisoglebsk 125.
Borshchiv 131, 286.
Borsna 287, 327.
Bosphorus 16.

Boundary, ethnographic, of the
Ukraine 119 ff.

Bourgeois, petty 132.
— , wealthy 132.

Boyar 179.

Bradula 95.

Branzivka 280.

Bratzlav 135, 284, 322.

Brazil 127, 232, 260.

Brick industry 286, 291.

Brody 39, 132, 289, 295, 319.

Broch 168.

Brown coal 278.

Brussels 86 f.

Brusturi 287.

Buchach 132, 284, 287, 299, 321.

Buckwheat 114, 264.

Budapest 308.

Budi 291.

Budilo 78.

Buffalo 274.

Buh 24, 39, 45 ff., 54, 63 f., 69, 80,
100, 231, 253, 317, 321.

Building industry 291.

Bukarest 301.

Bukowina 4, 30, 119, 124 f.,
128 ff., 144, 151, 155, 185, 199,

UKRAINE

349

252, 255, 262, 265 f., 276 f.,

289 ff., 297, 309, 312, 315, 322.
Bulgaria 119, 135 f., 140 f., 150,

168.
Bulgars 212.
Buriani 105.
Burkut 311.
Busk 284, 287, 317.
Bustard 113, 248.
Buturlinivka 287, 332.
Buzek 256, 291.
Byzantine Empire 14, 178, 213,

219.

Cabardines 123, 138, 139.

Cabinet-making 284.

Calnia 105.

Cambrium 5.

Camel 274.

Canada 127, 260.

Canon 41.

Cap-making 284.

Carbon 6.

Carp 113.

Carpathian foot-hills 279.

— mountains 6, 23 ff., 30 ff.,
37, 45, 90, 95 f., 108, 112 f.,
129, 144, 155, 161, 171, 220,
223 f., 253 ff., 258, 264,
274, 276 f., 280, 284 f., 291,
296, 308 ff., 312, 314.

Carpentry 284.

Carpets 283 f .

Carriage industry.

Catherine II 260.

Cattle 272, 296.

— , exportation of 272, 296.

— , horned 115, 272.

— , trade in 272.

— , small 296.

Cattle-raising 271 f.

Caspian Sea 10 ff., 34, 37, 81, 123,
139, 215, 218, 233, 248, 250,
279.

Caucasia 234, 260, 262, 279, 309.

Caucasian foot-hills 211, 279.

Caucasus 7, 12, 14, 19, 21 ff.,34 ff.,
54, 90, 95 ff., 103, 105, 108, 110,
112, 139, 162, 215 f., 218, 220,
248, 274, 276 f., 280 f., 291,
296, 301, 339.

Censorship, Russian 149.

Census 118, 128.

Central Asia 15, 212.

— Russia 7, 335.

— Russian Plateau 24, 329.
Chahari 105.

Chalk 281.

— marl 39.
Charcoal-burning 285.
Charles XII 184, 329.
Chatirdagh 34.
Chechenians 123, 139 f .
Cheremosh 66, 119 f.
Cherkask 138.
Cherkassi 74, 135.

Chernihiv 58, 60, 122, 124, 142 ff.,
167, 185, 171 f., 191, 213, 240,
248, 252 f., 258 f., 262 ff.,
265 ff., 268, 270 ff., 274, 281,
283 ff., 287, 289, 291, 294, 303,
327, 330.

Chernowitz 44, 85 ff., 95, 119, 130,
295, 298, 301, 314 f.

Cherries 268.

Chesaniv 132.

Chichiclea 69.

Chihirin 50, 74, 134 f., 286, 325.

Chornobil 285, 318.

Chornohory 12, 30 ff., 65, 91, 95,
109.

Chornomoria 115, 144, 272.

Chornosyom 43, 104, 114, 194, 226.

350

UKRAINE

Chorni yar 126.
Chortkiv 132, 286, 321.
Christmas Eve 202.

— songs 202.
Chromium 276.

Chumak organization 19, 225,

294, 326 ff.
Circassians 123, 138.
Cinnabar 276.
Ciscaucasia 123, 216, 270.
Civilization; see Culture
Clays 227, 281.
Climate 10, 85, 98, 114, 232 ff.
Clothing industry 289, 292.
Clozove 71.
Coal 225, 278.
Coast, Ukrainian 20 ff.
Coke 278.
Columbia 127.
Composite families 197.
Commerce 292 ff .
Constantinivka 69.
Constantinople 64, 176, 185, 229,

306.
Cooperage 285.
Copper 276.
Cork industry 290.
Corn 114, 265.
Cossack cities 328.

— songs 200.

— trails 77.

Cossacks 22, 70, 107, 115, 122,
137 ff., 151, 181 ff., 189, 214,
228, 230, 243, 247, 259, 303,
322, 331, 339.

Costume 195 f.

Cotton industry 288.

Crabs 251.

Cracow 86, 301, 308.

Crane 113.

Cretaceous 27.

Crimea 14, 20, 24, 33 i., 61, 87,
90 ff., 104 f., 108 ff., 115, 124,
140, 181, 270, 279 f., 294, 299,
336, 338 f.

Crimean Tartars 140.

Croatia 44.

Croatians 166.

Cucumbers 114, 267.

Cultivation, area of 261.

Cultural influences,
ancient Greek 192 f.

— , Byzantine 193.

— , Polish 193.

— , Roman 193.

■ — , Russian 193.

— sections of country 191 f.

Culture 191, 196, 200 ff.

Customs 202.

Czechs 118, 134, 150, 166, 168, 267.

D.

Daghestan 126.

Dahl 168.

Dairying 273.

Dairymen's associations 273, 314.

Danilo 317.

Danube 12, 19, 61, 65 f., 71, 119,

124,211,215,230,314,334.
Dardanelles 16.
Davidhorodok 284, 318.
Davis 9.
Deer 111.
Delatin 280, 311.
Demir-Kapu 34.
Deniker 159, 166.
Denmark 252.
Desna 8, 58 f., 73, 81, 250, 324,

326 f., 330.
Devonian 281.

Dialect, Church Slavonic 174.
Dialects, Ukrainian 171 f.
Diebold 161.

UKRAINE

351

Djd 78.
Diluvium 46.
Djingis Khan 180, 214.
Dmitriev 125.

Dnieper 3, 6, 8 f., 19 f., 24, 48 ff.,
52, 57 ff., 64, 69 ff., 74 ff., 97,

103, 111 ff., 122 ff., 136, 141,
144, 152, 162, 182, 184, 188,
211 i., 217 f., 229 f., 233 ff.,
241, 249, 267 ff., 272, 274, 276,
278, 284, 290, 302 ff., 314,
323 ff., 329 f., 331, 334, 336 f.

Dnieper-Buh Canal 55, 302, 317 f.
Dnieper-Niemen Canal 318.
Dnieper Plain 24, 57 ff., 114 ff.,
161, 326 ff., 336.

— Plateau 38, 48 ff., 61, 100,

104, 114, 161, 281, 323-326.

— Region 141.

Dniester 8 f., 19 f., 24, 28, 39 ff.,
63, 65 ff., 76, 95, 100, 113, 119.
136, 171 f., 180, 229 ff., 249,
274, 284, 304 f., 311, 313 f.,
321 f., 334.

Dniester-Dnieper Divide 39.

Dniester Plain 33, 66 ff., 115.

Dniprovsk 140.

Doboshanka 29.

Dobromil 131.

Dobrudja 125.

Dolina 131, 144, 280, 314.

Don 6, 8 f., 10, 24, 37, 54, 59, 65,
82, 95, 103, 113 f., 122 f., 125,
172, 215, 218, 231, 249, 253,
269, 271 ff., 274, 284, 304, 309,
330 f., 332, 334, 337.

— Government of 294.

— Region 125, 138, 144 f., 162,
164, 171, 262 ff., 288 f.

Donetz 6, 8, 38, 51 f., 59, 83, 89,
123, 231, 250, 331 ff., 336.

— Basin 296.

— District 138, 280 i., 300.

— Mountains 8.

— Plateau 5, 24, 38, 51 ff.,
61 f., 161, 276 ff., 280 f., 290,
296, 300 f., 332 f .

Dora 311.

Dorogobuz 71.

Dorohichin 121.

Drahomaniv 157, 177, 209, 310.

Drohobich 32, 131, 279 f., 291,

314.
Druch 72.
Dsviniach 280.
Dubetzko 120.
Dubivka 126.

Dubno 47, 134, 294, 299, 319.
Dubosari 119, 136, 334.
Dukla 120, 311.
Dukla Pass 26.
Diina, see Dvina.
Dunes 58.
Dvina 64, 71, 217, 230, 233, 235,

303.
Dwelling, Ukrainian 194 f.
Dzuriv 315.

E.

Eagle 112.

Eggs, exportation of 275, 296.

Elbe 234.

Elbrus, Mount 36, 83.

Elk 248.

Elm-tree 101 f.

Elton, Lake 126.

Eman 125.

Embroidery 202.

Emigration 127.

Emme 161.

England 10, 177, 220, 226, 252,

352

UKRAINE

275 f., 302, 335.
English 136, 150, 157, 159, 209,

229, 240, 274, 288, 303.
Erckert 161.
Erivan 126.
Estates, large 259.
Eupatoria 140, 141 f., 145, 249,

306, 338.
Eurasia 127.
Europe 4, 16, 35, 114, 131, 211,

213 f., 218 f., 226, 234, 244,

246.
— , Central 4 f., 9, 15, 86,

94 ff., 98 f., 115, 148 f., 169,

210, 222, 227, 232, 244 f., 282,

308.
— , Eastern 4 ff., 11, 15, 38,

71, 99, 115, 148 f., 151, 153,

156, 169, 233 f., 238, 240, 292 f.

308, 324.
— , Northern 230.
— , Southern 5, 7, 236.
— , Western 4, 14, 86, 94 ff.,

148 f., 169, 190, 209 f., 213,

227, 232, 282, 314.
Exportation 263, 296, 335.
Eyes, color of 64 f .

F.

Factory industry 288.

Fairs, annual 293 ff.

— , system of 293 ff.

Faith, relation of people to 131.

— , persons of other 131.

Farko 32.

Farming 259 f .

— , small 260.

Fastiv 301.

Fatiez 125.

Fauna 99 ff.

Fedkovich 175.

Feodosia 21, 140, 306, 339.

Finland, Gulf of 233.

Finns 162, 164, 189.

Fir-tree 30, 100.

Fishing 112 f., 249 ff.

— , deep sea 249.

Flax 114, 266.

Flax, trade in 266.

Florence 181.

Florinsky 168.

Flysh 27 f.

Folk-lore.

— songs 174.

Food industry 292.

Forest destruction 27, 43.

— , region 99 ff.

Forestry 254.

Forests 102, 105, 251.

Forest, evergreen 101.

— , exploitation of 102, 254.

— , lack of 108, 252.

Fortunatov 168, 310.

Fox 112, 248.

Franko 175.

France 10, 23, 71, 85, 220 f., 233 f.,

252, 261 f., 278, 335.
Frankfort 86.
French 12, 118, 136, 143, 150, 157,

159, 209, 238, 270, 288.
Fruit exchange 267 f., 293.
Fuga 92.
Fur manufacture 287, 311.

G.

Galicia 3 f., 29, 97, 115, 118, 120,
124, 128, 130 ff., 144, 146, 151,
155, 162, 167, 171, 181, 185,
199, 204, 213 f., 231, 240 f.,
248, 250 f., 252, 254 f., 257,
262 ff., 267, 269 ff., 273, 275,
279 ff., 284, 287, 289 ff., 296 f.,
299 ff., 307 ff., 312 f., 316, 319,
322.

UKRAINE

353

Game 111 f.

— , mountain 1 1 1 f .

Gartner 169.

Gelendshik 21.

Geography of Eastern Europe

211 ff.
Geological conditions 225.
German 54, 70, 118, 130, 134 ff.,

140 ff., 150, 157, 159, 173, 200,

209, 216, 238, 257.
Germany 10, 23, 220 f., 225,

234 f., 238, 252, 261, 272, 275 f.,

278, 335.
Glacial period 55 f.
Glass bead-work.
— manufacture 291.
Gneiss 32.
Goat 115, 274.
Gogal 186, 328.
Gold 276.
Gollnitz 125.

Gorgani 29 f., 91, 95, 108 f.
Gorlice 132, 311.
Grain.

— , trade in 297.
— , production of 114, 226, 262.
Granite 41.
Granite-gneiss 5, 47, 49, 52, 69,

75, 281.
Grapes 115, 269.
Graphite 281.
Great Britain 278.
Great Russia 5, 9 f., 235, 290, 294,

301.
Great Russians 9, 119, 153, 168.
Greece 229, 252.
Greek colonies 327.
Greeks 135, 139, 141, 292 f.
Gribov311.
Grodno 121, 124, 133, 144, 252,

262 f., 309, 317.

Grouse 112 f., 248.
Gutin 120.
Gypsum 281.

Hadyach 285, 328.
Hair, color of 164 f.
Haisin 326.
Hala 56.

Halich 28, 68, 146, 169, 180, 213,
225, 229 f., 284, 293, 308, 314.
Hammerfest 86.
Hamy 159, 166.
Hardware 294.
Hares 112.
Harvest 262.
Hawk 112.
Heath fowl 112.
— game 112.
Hegyalia 12, 27.
Hemp 114, 266.
Henichesk 21.
Herodotus 73.
Heron 113.

Hetman state 182, 184, 215.
Hettner 148.
Hilchenko 161.

Hill country, Kremianetz-Ostroh.
— , sub-Carpathian 32 f.
History of the Ukraine 177 ff.
Hlukhiv 281, 286.
Hnatiuk 120.
Hnila Lipa 67, 320.
Hnile More 21.
Hola Pristan 284.
Holland 252, 335.
Holtva 74.
Homel 299.

Honey, production of 270.
— , trade in 270.

354

UKRAINE

Hops 267.

Horin 47 f., 55, 80, 284, 318, 320.

Horlitzi 120, 132, 291.

Horn industry 287.

Horned cattle 272 f.

Hornostapol 285.

Horodenka 131 f., 298, 322.

Horodnia 142, 284, 286, 291.

Horodok 131, 284, 287, 320.

Horoshki 47.

Horses 111, 113, 115, 272 f.

Horst of Azof.

— , Ukrainian 7 f., 11, 47, 49,

53, 58, 69, 75 f.
House, Ukrainian 227.
Hoverla 31, 66.
Hraivoron 137, 287, 330.
Hribov 120, 132.
Hromada.
Hrosni 279, 291.
Hrubeshiv 133, 317.
Hrushevsky 157, 177.
Hrushivka 290, 333.
Hungary 4, 9, 27, 65, 118 ff., 124 f.,

128 ff., 151, 155, 199, 252,

261 f., 270, 277, 290, 297, 301,

308, 311 f.
Hungary, northeastern 129.
Huns 13.
Hunting 247 ff.
Hursuf 338.
Husiatin 132.
Hust 312.
Hutzul country 66, 248, 262,

284 f., 286, 298, 311 f.
— horse 31, 115, 272 f.
Hutzuls32, 162 ff., 201, 224 f.,

284, 287, 308, 310.
Hyena 111.

I.

Idioms 172.

Igor, Epic of 70, 174.

Ikva 80, 319.

Ilarion 174.

Ilovla 82, 126.

Importation 296 f.

India 15, 149, 218 f.

Indian Ocean 219.

Industry 282 ff .

— , domestic 282, 297.

— , factory 282.

Ineu 32.

Ingushians 139.

Inhul 69, 103, 253, 326, 335 f.

Inhuletz 50, 80 f., 103, 326.

Inland sea 6, 16.

Insects 113.

Iran 218, 277.

Irkutsk 234.

Iron, mining, industry 225, 277,

290, 336.
Iron steamboat construction 291.
Irpen 50, 73, 80.
Isa 65.

Isium 51, 285 f., 287, 332.
Ismail 119, 136, 334.
Issachki 8, 61.
Istria 44.

Italians 12, 118, 159, 232, 238.
Italy 335.
Itzkany 315.
Ivan the Terrible 190.
Ivan-Osero 82.
Ivanovsky 161 f.

Japan 216.
Jargon 155.
Jews 130 ff., 140 ff., 251, 288,

292 ff., 311 f., 317, 319, 325,

329.
Jurassic 6 f., 35.
Jute 289.

UKRAINE

355

K.

Kaffa 339.

Kalaidintzi 285.

Kalauss, see Manich.

Kalitva 123.

Kalka 180.

Kalmius 52, 337.

Kalmucks 13, 123, 138, 273.

Kaluga 104.

Kalush 131, 280, 314.

Kaluszin 125.

Kamchatka 155.

Kameni Rosbiniki 79.

Kamanetz 115, 135, 269, 281, 299,

317, 321.
Kamin Bohatir 78.
Kaminka 132.

— strumilova 317.

— voloska 317.
Kamishevakha 286.
Kamishin 87, 126.

Kaniv 8, 50, 90, 135, 144, 286, 325.

Kaolin 281.

Karachaians 139.

Karasubasar 338.

Karkinit Bay 20, 249.

Karpinski 8.

Kars 126.

Kasbek 36.

Katerinodar 86, 91, 138, 301, 339.

Katerinopol 279, 326.

Katerinoslav 8, 50, 74, 78, 86 ff.,
95, 103, 115, 124, 138 ff., 141,
144, 146 f., 167, 171, 191, 253 f.,
259 ff., 263 f., 266, 269, 271 ff.,
281, 286, 288, 290, 294, 298,
301, 303, 327, 332, 334, 336.

Kerch 21, 35, 250, "277, 290, 301,
339.

Kesmark 120.

Khadzyibei 20, 335.

Kharkiv 85 ff., 95, 106, 124, 138,
141 f., 144 ff., 167, 171, 191,
218, 248, 250, 252 f., 257 ff.,
261, 263 ff., 267 f., 270 ff.,
274 i., 281, 283, 285 ff., 288 ff.,
294 ff., 299 ff., 330 ff.

Khazars 212.

Kherson 62, 73, 80, 85, 124, 135 f.,
144, 146, 167, 171, 191, 249,
253, 259 ff., 263 f., 267 ff.,
271 f., 276 i., 280 i., 284 f.,
286, 288 ff., 294, 298, 303, 306,
320, 334, 336 f.

Khmelnik 135, 322.

Khmelnitzki 183, 319, 321, 325 f.

Kholm 63, 121, 124, 133, 171, 231,
240, 273, 309, 315, 317.

Khoper 83, 122 i., 138.

Khorol 74, 328.

Khortizia 79.

Khotin 45, 68, 95, 136, 322.

Khvalinsk 125.

Kiev 21, 50 f., 70, 72 i., 75, 80,
85 ff., 95 ff., 100, 107, 124,
134 f., 144 ff., 150, 167, 169,
171, 174 f., 177 ff., 187, 189,
191, 211 ff., 218, 220 f., 225,
228 ff., 239 ff., 243, 252, 258 ff.,
264, 268, 270 ff., 275, 277 ff.,
281, 284" f., 288 i., 292, 295,
299, 301, 303, 313, 318 i.,
323 f.

— , Kingdom of 100, 107, 124,
134 f.

Kilia 19, 136, 334.

Kimpolung 125, 130, 252.

Kinburu 337.

— , Bar of 249.

King's Canal 64.

Kinska voda 79.

Kirchhoff 148.

Kirghisians 123.

356

UKRAINE

Kirilivka 325.
Kirlibaba 119.
Kisbiniv 86, 90 ff., 95, 103, 136,

323.
Kisly 31.
Kis Szeben 120.
Kitzman 130, 322.
Kladka 197.
Klimiv 330.
Klinzi 288, 330.
Knias 57, 250.
Kobeliaki 287, 329.
Kobiletzka Polana 95.
Kobrin 133, 317.
Kobsar 174.
Kodima 69.
Kolady 200, 203.
Kolomiya 32, 131, 144, 286, 289,

291, 298, 300, 315.
Kolomiyki 200.
Komarno 284.
Konka 76, 79.
Konotop 327.
Konstantiniv 133.
Konstantinohrad 142, 287, 329.
Kontrakti 294.
Kopicbintzi 286.
Korez 320.

Korocha 122, 136, 331.
Korop 330.
Koropetz 321.
Korotoiak 82, 137, 332.
Korovintzi 96.
Korsh 168.
Korsun 49, 325.
Kosachki 200.
Koseletz 287, 327.
Kosiatin 300.
Koasa 19, 21.
Kossiv 131, 144, 269, 280, 283 f.,

286 f., 311.
Kostomariv 157, 177.

Kotelva 285, 287.

Kotlarevsky 175, 209.

Kotsiubinski 175.

Kovil 134, 299, 301, 318.

Krain 44.

Krasnoff, 4, 161.

Krasnostav 65, 133.

Kremincb.uk 58, 61, 73 ff., 142,
289 1., 295, 297, 301, 325, 328 f.

Kremianetz 52, 134, 299, 319.

— Ostroh hill-country 47.

Kriliv 326.

Krimsky 168.

Krinitzia 311.

Krivi Rih 277, 281, 290, 296, 301,
336.

Krna 65.

Krolevetz 142, 283, 286 f., 330.

Krosno 132.

Krukiv 329.

Krutko 78.

Kuban 9, 36, 61, 65, 83 f., 96, 104,
112, 115, 123 f., 138 {., 144,
161 f., 164, 171 f., 191, 195,
211, 216, 252, 262 ff., 266, 270,
272 ff., 276, 281, 304, 334,
339 f.

— region 82, 146.

Kulish 175.

Kuyalnik 20, 68, 335.

Kulikiv 287.

Kuma 10, 37, 63, 270.

Kumikians 139.

Kunduk 19, 66.

Kupalo 203.

Kupiansk 142, 285, 301, 332.

Kupil 69.

Kura 304.

Kurhani 223.

Kursk 86, 90, 124 f., 137, 144, 171,
194, 252, 261 f., 266 ff., 269,

UKRAINE

357

281, 287, 294, 299, 301, 309,

330.
Kutais 126.
Kuti 286, 311.

L.

Laba 84.

Labinsk 123, 138, 340.

Laboretz 26, 65.

Lanchin 280.

Language, Ukrainian 167 ff.

Larch 101.

Latoritzia 27 f.

Lavra Pecherska 323.

Latzke 280.

Lead 276.

Leather industry 287.

— , trade in 287.

Lebedin 286, 330.

Lemberg, see also Lviv 33, 39, 45,
86 ff., 95, 104, 132, 175, 291,
295, 298 ff., 314, 316 f.

Lemkos 26 f., 63, 172, 224, 308,
310 f.

Lentils 265.

Leroy Beaulieu 233.

Letichiv 135, 286, 322.

Level, changes of 18.

Lezaisk 121.

Lhov 137.

Libau 299 ff., 328.

Lignite 326.

Liman 17, 249.

Lime 281.

Lime-stone 41.

Limnitzia 29, 67, 310.

Linen 289.

— manufacture 289, 292.
Lipa Hnila.

— Solota 41.

Lipovetz 135.
Lishni 78.
Lisko 131, 311.
Lisna 65.
Lissianka 284.
Lissichansk 281.
Literature 173.

— of the people 173.
Lithographic stone 281.
Lithuania 150 ff., 169, 187 f., 235,

296, 301.
Lithuanians 180, 214, 221.
Litin 135, 285, 322.
Little Poland.

— Russia 3, 309.

— Russians 3, 153.
Liubachivka.
Livadia 338.
Loam 281.
Locust 113.

Loess 42, 45, 62.

Loiiv 122.

Lokhanski porih 78.

Lokhviza 61, 284 ff., 328.

Lokitki 44.

London 86 f.

Lopan 331.

Lubartiv 121.

Lublau 101, 120.

Lublin 124, 133, 144, 214, 252,

299, 301, 309, 315, 320.
Lubni 253, 285, 328.
Luha 65.

Luhan 86 ff., 95, 333.
Luhansk 52.
Luhi 102 f., 252.
Lukiv 121, 125.
Lupkiv 26, 313.
Luso-Brazilians 127.
Lutzk 48, 101, 134, 299, 319.
Lviv 85, 289.
Lynx 112, 248.

358

UKRAINE

M.

Machine shops 290.

Mackerel 249.

Magura sandstone 28, 31.

Magyars 13 f., 120 ff., 128 ff., 203,

220, 308.
Maiaky 304.
Maikop 123, 279, 340.
Maksimovich 168.
Malinovsky 168.
Mammoth 111.
Manganese 276.
Manich Furrow 37

— Lakes 37, 123, 280.

— River 37, 83, 172.
Manitoba 127.
Maple-tree 101.

Mariupol 52, 104, 141, 290, 301,

306, 337.
Marmarosh 31 f., 129, 252, 276,

314.
Marmora, Sea of 16.
Marmot 114.
Martonne, De 10, 98.
Match industry 291, 314.
Mazeppa, Ivan, Hetman 184, 293,

329.
Mead-brewing 289.
Meadow steppes 104 f.
Mediterranean Sea 16 f., 108, 219,

229, 295.
Medveditza 125.
Medveza 123, 139.
Melons 114.
Metal industry 290.
Mill stones 281.
Megura hills 45.
Mehedinyuk 202.
Melitopol 140 f., 270, 289, 337.
Melon 267.
Mercury 276.

Mesopotamia 218.

Metal industry 286, 292.

Metelitzia 92.

Mezhibizh 69.

Mhlin 119, 122, 142, 288, 330.

Mikhalek 32.

Miklosih 168.

Mikitivka 276, 333.

Mikolaiv 69, 86 ff., 95, 136, 289 ff.,

295, 300 f., 306, 335 f.
Mikulichin 311.
Millet 114, 264.
Milling industry 289.
Mineral products 296,
Mineral resources 276.
Minsk 121, 124, 132, 144, 252,

255, 259, 262 f., 301, 309 318.
Miocene.
— , Upper 16.
Mir 198.

Mirhorod 283 f., 286, 288, 328.
Mirni 175.

Miropilia 122, 137, 287.
Misunka 67.
Mldobori 40.
Mogilev 72 f.
Mohila 223.

Mohiliv 90, 135, 281, 284, 286, 321
Moldava 66.
Moldavitzia 119.
Molochna 21, 337.
Monastiriska 290, 321.
Mongolian 150, 162, 165, 180, 187,

214, 240.
Mord vines 163.
Morintzi 324.
Morshin 314.
Moscow 184 f., 225, 234, 239, 282,

288, 290, 299, 301.
Mosir 80, 121, 145, 250, 284 f.,
&.290, 318.
Mostiska 131.

V K R A I N±E

359

Mosti veliki 317.
Mountain-ash 101.
Mountains, plicate 11, 35 f.
Mukachiv 120, 301, 312.
Mukhavetz 65, 317.
Mules 274.
Murakhva 67.
Muscovy 97, 122, 153, 169 f., 180,

189, 199, 239, 242, 261.
Music of the people 201.

N.
Nadvirna 131, 287, 311.
Nagi Karoli 125.
Naholni Kriaz 276.
Nails, manufacture of 290.
Nakhichevan 288, 337.
Nalchik 123.
Naples 177.
Naptha 279.
Narev 121.

Narodna Torhovla 293.
Narodniki 206.
Narva 65.

Nation, Ukrainian 4.
National literature, Ukrainian 174.

— territory, Ukrainian 127.
Navigability of rivers 304.
Navigation, interior 303,
— , river 229.

— , steamship 303 f.
Nemiriv 317.
Nenassitetz 78.
Nestor, chronicle of 174.
Neva 64, 71.
New Russia 3.

— Sandetz 132, 291, 301, 311.
Nickel 276.

Niemen 64, 230 f.
Nikolaievsk 125.
Nikopol 276, 284, 336.
Nile 73.
Nitzin 327.

Nizniv 67.

Niznodniprovsk 304.

Nobility 155.

Nomads 13, 213, 215.

Norgaians 139.

Norin 318.

Normandy 177.

Northeastern Hungary 130.

Northern Russia 5, 8.

Nove misto 122.

Novhorod Siversky 286, 330.

— Volinsky 48, 299, 320.

Novikov 195.

Novo Alexandrivsk 273.

Novocherkask 123.

Novohrihoryvsk 123.

Novokhopersk 122, 137.

Novomirhorod 326.

Novomoskovsk 141.

Novo-oskol 122, 137.

Novorossisk 21, 86, 91, 96, 301,

306, 339.
Novoselitza 119, 301, 315.
Novosibkiv 122, 142, 287, 289,

291, 330.
Nurez 65.
Nyregyhatza 125.

Oak-tree 100.

Oats 264, 296.

Oboian 122, 125, 137.

Obzinkovi 200.

Ochakiv 136, 337.

Oder 234.

Odessa 16 ff., 86 ff., 95, 135 f., 172,

250, 267, 286, 288 ff., 291, 295,

299 f., 306, 334, 336.
Oginski Canal 64.
Ohonovsky 168.
Oil production 289.
Okhrimovich 131.

360

UKRAINE

Okhtirka 269, 285 ff., 330.

Oleh 243.

Oleshki 251, 267, 284, 336.

Olexandria 326.

Olexandrivsk 139, 141, 286, 290,
336, 340.

Olexiyivka 332.

Olhopil 135, 284, 322.

Oligocene 276.

Olviopol 136.

Ondava 65.

Ontario 127.

Opilye 40.

Opir 27 ff., 67, 311.

Oposhnia 329.

Oprishki 224.

Orel 74, 81, 112, 250, 329.

Orenburg 126, 143.

Orhuv 119, 136, 323.

Orianda 338.

Orient 166, 181, 214, 218, 229.

Orsha 72.

Oskol 331.

Oslava 26, 310.

Ossetians 139.

Oster 284, 287, 327.

Ostroh 134, 320.

Ostroh, Academy of Sciences of

320.
Ostrohosk 122, 137, 332.
Ottinia 315.

Overland communication 300 f.
Ovruch 48, 134, 145.
Oyster 249.
Ozokerite 279 f., 313.

P.
Pacific Ocean 209.
Painters of religious picture? 288.
Paper industry 290.
Parana 127.

Parashka, source of the 46.
Paris 234.

Partridge 113, 247 f.

Patriarch 185.

Pavlohrad 141, 329.

Pavlokichkas 288.

Pavlovsk 137, 332.

Peaches 115, 268.

Pears 115, 268.

Pear-tree 101 f.

Peas 114.

Peasantry, Ukrainian 196 f.

Peat deposits 279, 327.

Pechenegs 13, 212.

Pechenizin 131.

Peklo 78.

Pennsylvania 127.

Pensa 301.

People, Ukrainian 197 f.

Pereyaslav 58, 151, 183, 287,
327 f.

— Saliski 242.

Perekop 140 f., 145.

Peremishl32f., 132, 144, 172, 298,
301, 313.

Peremishlani 132.

Peresip 19.

Permian 6.

Persia 218 f.

Peter the Great 153, 184, 190, 239,

329.
Petersburg, see St. Petersburg.
Petits Russes 157.
Petrikiv 284.

Petrograd, see St. Petersburg.
Petroleum 37, 225, 279, 291, 313.
Petros 31 f.
Petrov 161.
Pheasant 247 f .
Phosphorites 281.
Piatihorsk 37, 123, 139, 340.
Pidhaitzi 132, 321.
Pidhirye 101, 262, 283, 309, 312.
Pidlassye (see also Podlakhia) 24,

UKRAINE

361

46, 54, 89, 171 f., 317.

Pidvolochiska-Volochiska 321.

Piedmont 186, 215.

Pienini 25.

Pietrosu 32.

Pike 113.

Piku28.

Pilavtzi 322.

Pina 55, 302.

Pinchuks 118, 122, 132, 143.

Pina 318.

Pinsk 85, 87, 89, 95, 145, 250, 303,
318.

Pip Ivan 31 f.

Piriatin 301, 328.

Pistin 286, 311.

Pivikha 61.

Plain Zones of the Ukraine 24, 60 f .

Plateau Group, Ukrainian 23 f.,
38 f., 51 f., 60.

— regions 24, 39.

Platinum 276.

Plavni 62, 68, 106, 274.

Plums 268

Pochayiv 319.

Pochep 289, 330.

Podil 324.

Podlakhia 54, 63", 65, 162, 213,
231, 252, 254, 257, 279.

Podolia 5, 7 f., 24, 34, 38 ff., 46,
61, 67, 76,95, 100f., 104, 114 f.,
124, 135, 144 ff., 161 f., 167,
171, 191, 194, 212 f., 240, 248,
251 f., 258 f., 261 ff., 267,
269 f., 272, 275, 277, 279, 281,
284 ff., 289, 307, 314, 320f., 324.

Poetry of the people 200 f.

Pokutia 24, 38, 100, 115, 131, 144,
161, 269, 281, 307, 309, 322.

Polabians 166.

Polad 120.

Poland 4, 10, 54, 121, 124, 145,

150, 152, 181, 184, 187, 204,

219, 230, 234 ff., 262, 290,
295 ff., 301, 308, 328.

Polans 178.

Poles 14, 25, 70, 118, 120 ff.,
128 ff., 136, 141, 150 f., 162 ff.,
166 ff., 180, 182 f., 192 ff.,
196 f., 201 ff., 211, 214, 220,
223, 228, 236 f., 254, 257,
290 ff., 302, 308 f., 312, 319,
321 ff., 327.

Polissye 8, 12, 24, 48, 55 ff.,
80, 89, 96, 100 f., 112, 118,
145, 162, 171, 195, 212 f.,

220, 242, 248, 250, 252, 254 f.,
257 ff., 264 ff., 270, 277, 279,
284 f., 296 f., 314, 318.

Polonina ruvna 28.

Polonini 28, 110.

Poloshki 286.

Polovs 13.

Poltava 85, 88, 90, 95 f., 124, 138,
142, 144 ff., 167, 171, 184,
191, 248, 250 253 f., 258 ff.,
263 ff., 268, 270 ff., 274, 281,
283 ff., 287, 289 f., 294, 296,
298, 300, 327, 329 f.

Poltva 45, 65.

Pontian Steppe 271

Pontus 9 ff ., 14 ff.

Popadia 29.

Popov 161.

Poppy 114, 266. '

Poprad 25 f., 120, 279, 310.

Population, city 135, 146.

— , Ukrainian 133 ff., 143 ff.

— , increase in 140, 167.

Porcelain clay.

— industry 291.

Poriche 121.

Porohy 8, 285, 303.

Portugal 252.

362

UKRAINE

Portuguese 167, 233.

Post-tertiary 8.

Potash manufacture 285.

Potato 114, 265, 296.

Potebnia 168.

Potik 287.

Potilich 286, 317.

Potter's clay 281, 286.

Pottery 291 f.

Poultry 275, 296.

Prague 86.

Praskoveya.

Prassoli 294, 328.

Precipitation 84 ff .

Priluky 328.

Pripat 54, 80, 89, 121, 161, 171,

231, 250, 284, 290, 318, 324.
Prislop Pass 25, 30.
Pritivl 122, 137, 330.
Property, community 261.
— , ownership of 259 f.
— , large estates 259 f .
Proskuriv 135, 322.
Protzenko 161.
Provallia 59.

Prunus chamaecrasius 105.
Prussia 234.
Pruth 24, 29 ff., 45, 65 f., 100, 119,

125, 230, 311, 315.
Prutzan 121, 134.
Psiol 59, 74 f., 81, 122, 328.
Ptich 55.
Pumice 281.
Pumpkin 267.

Q.

Quartz 100.
Quebec 127.
Quicksilver 53.

R.
Races, anthropological 129.

Radautz 130.
Radimno 120, 284, 313.
Radin 121, 133.
Radomishl 134 f., 285, 320.
Rafting 72.
Rakovsky 161.
Railroad junctions.

— policy, Russian 222, 300.

— supply shops.

— system 299.
Railways 222.
Rape-seed 114, 266.
Rapids 68 f, 77 f.
Rareu 32.
Raspberry 101.
Rata 65.

Ratzel 148, 173.

Rava 131, 317.

Reclus 4, 166, 207.

Renan, E. 176.

Reshetilivka 115, 287.

Reut 45.

Rhine 70.

Rhinoceros 111.

Ribotichi 287.

Richka 284.

Richter 310.

Rilsk 122, 136.

Rimanov 120, 311.

Rio Grande do Sul 127.

Rittich 140.

Rivi 322.

Riviera of Crimea 21, 25, 338 ff

Rivne 48, 134, 299, 301, 319.

Roads 228, 297 ff.

— , brush 298.

— , Polish 297.

Rock-salt 280.

Rodna Mountain Range 32.

Roe 111, 247 f.

Rohatin 40, 131, 320.

Roman-khosh 34.

UKRAINE

363

Romen (Romny) 253, 286 f., 289,
294, 299 f., 301, 328.

Romodan 328.

Rope-factories 284, 312.

Roskol 199.

Ross 50, 74, 81, 325.

Rostislavids 313.

Rostiv 138, 288, 290 f., 295, 297,
300 ff., 306, 337.

Rostoche 24, 33, 38, 45 i., 65 f.,
89, 95, 101 f., 131, 253, 279,
286, 291, 307, 315, 317.

Rotten-stone 281.

Roumania 301, 308, 310, 315.

Roumanians 25, 32, 54, 119, 122,
128, 128, 130, 135, 203, 220,
227, 309.

Rudki 63, 131.

Russ 170.

Russki 170.

Russia 5, 15, 63, 94, 98, 104, 118,
121, 132 ff., 145, 149 ff.,
153 ff., 175, 183 ff., 190,
201 ff., 215, 217, 219, 229, 234,
236, 239, 252, 261 ff., 266 f.,
275, 281, 292, 295 ff., 302,
306 f., 315, 327.

Russian Empire 53, 129, 143, 145,
169, 262 f., 270, 278, 335, 338.

— , history, scheme of 151 ff.

Russians 14, 123, 134 ff., 141 ff.,
150, 162 ff., 166, 182, 189.

Russification 121, 151, 155, 185,
200.

Russophilism 155 ff.

Ruthenians 3, 157, 323.

Rye 114, 262 f.

Rzishchiv 324.

S.

Sabiniv 120.
Sabolotiv 290.

Saihaki 113.

St. Petersburg 234, 288.

— , Academy of Sciences of 168.

St. Catherine, Feast of.

Sal 123, 138, 145.

Salishchiky 131, 269, 321.

Salissye 242.

Salpeter 330.

Salt 19, 33, 225.

— brine 280. •

— content 17.

— deposits 280.

— , distillation of 280.

— lakes 280.

— , manufacture of 280.

— marshes 280.

— -, production of 280.

— springs 280.
— , trade in 280.

— works 280, 311.

Samara 51, 75 f., 82, 125 f., 142,
301, 329.

Samarchik 329.

Samarkand 126.

Samashcani 96.

Sambir 32, 131, 313.

San 12, 24, 28, 33, 45, 63, 110, 120,
231.

Sandpiper 113.

Sandstone zone of the Carpa-
thians 27.

Sand 281.

Sandy soil 100.

Santa Catarina 127.

Sao Paulo 127.

Saratov 125 f., 142.

Sarmatian 16.

Sarni 300, 318.

Saskachewan 127.

Sausage-making 287.

Savranka 322.

Saw-mills 311.

364

UKRAINE

Saxony 150.

Sayga antelopes 248.

Sbarazh 132, 284, 321.

Sbruch 23, 69, 89, 321.

Scandinavia 64, 178, 184, 220.

Scandinavians 209, 232, 234.

Sea navigation 228 f., 305.

— vessels 228.

Seals 248.

Sects 131.

Seine 234.

Sem 59, 81, 125, 327.

Semyouoff 4, 310.

Semplen 129 f.

Seniority 179.

Serapion 174.

Serbs 150, 166, 168.

Serbo-croatians 170.

Sereth 40, 65 ff., 119, 130, 321.

Settlements 307.

Sevastopol 20, 86, 91 ff., 299, 301,

306, 338.
Shakhamatov 168.
Shar 322.
Sharosh 129 f.
Shclov 72.
Sheep 115, 272.
— raising 273 f .
Shevchenko, Taras 15, 70, 175,

209, 325.
Shingle industry 285.
Shipyards 284.
Shkriblak 202.
Short-heads 163.
Sianik 120, 132, 291, 311.
Siberia 87, 99, 126, 158, 216, 234,

260.
Sich 79, 182.
Sicily 177.
Sidletz 54, 124 f., 133, 144, 252,

301, 309, 315.
Siemipalatinsk 126.

Siemiriechensk 126.

Sieve industry 285.

Sihit 120, 301.

Silkworm-culture 116, 271.

Silurian 5.

Silver 276.

Simferopol 86, 90, 140, 338.

Sinevidsko 293.

Siniava 121.

Siniukha 50, 69.

Sir Daria 126.

Sivula 29.

Siwash 21.

Skalat 132.

Skole 291, 311.

Skull, shape of 163.

Skvira 135, 325.

Slate 281.

Slaves 214.

Slavianoserbsk 52, 141.

Slaviansk 141, 291, 333.

Slavs 150, 165 ff., 211 f., 242.

Slavsko 311.

Slavutitza 70.

Slobozany 294.

Slovaks 25, 120, 128, 130, 220.

Slovenes 166, 311.

Sluch 48, 55, 80, 281, 318, 320.

Smiiv 142, 331.

Smolensk 72.

Smotrich 67, 321.

Sniatin 131, 144, 315, 322.

Snieva Skela 78.

Sob 50, 69.

Sochi 139.

Societies, co-operative 293.

Sokal 65, 132, 317.

Sokoliv 121, 125.

Sol 122.

Solokia 65.

Soroki 136, 323.

Sorochintzi 328.

UKRAINE

365

Sossnitzia 287, 327.

Southern Russia 3.

Soz 72 i., 81.

Spaniards 12, 159, 167, 232, 238,

270.
Sring, Ukrainian 89, 235 f .
Stalactites 41.
Stanislaviv 132, 144, 289, 300 f.,

314 f.
Stara Ushitza 135.
Starobilsk 142, 285, 287, 332.
Starokonstantiniv 134, 299, 320.
Starodub 119, 142, 287, 289, 330.
Starunia 280.
Stan Oskol 122, 137, 281, 321.

— Sambir 131, 287, 311.
Statistics 291.

— , falsification of 122, 128, 143.
Stavropol 37, 84, 86, 91, 96, 104,

123 f., 139, 144, 253, 263, 270,

275, 309, 339 f.
Stebnik 280, 314.
Steel 290.

Steppes 103, 106 f., 116, 240, 243.
Stir 47, 55, 80, 319.
Stockholm 234.
Stoh 29.
Stokhod 55, 80.
Stolypin 260.

Stone-cutting industry 286.
Storozhinetz 130, 315.
Stotzky 169.
Striy 27 f., 32 ff., 67, 131, 291, 300,

311, 314.
Stripa 67, 321.
Strilcha sabora 78.

— skela 78.
Strivihor 67.
Strupkiv 311.
Strviazh 26, 28.
Stuhna 74, 324.
Stunda 200.

Sturgeon 113, 249.

Sugar-beet 114, 266.

Sugar industry 289, 324..

Sudak 249.

Sudza 122, 137, 287.

Suess, Edward 7.

Sukhovi 89, 93.

Sula 74, 81, 250, 328.

Sulphur 281.

Summer, Ukrainian 10, 89, 236.

Sumi 287 f., 294, 301, 330.

Sunflower 114, 266.

Supan 234.

Supo 74.

Suraz 122, 142.

Surface of the Ukraine 7 f , 24 f .

Sursky porih 78.

Svenihorodka 134 f., 281., 286,

326.
Sviatoslav 212, 243.
Svicha 67, 315.
Svidnik 311.
Svidovez 29 f., 65.
Svonez 78.

Swamp-forests 56, 101.
Swamp meadows 56, 102.
Sweden 182 ff., 234.
Swiss 167.
Syria 218.
Tahanroh 86, 88 ff., 138, 290, 295,

301, 306.
Takhvi 250.
Talabor 29, 65.
Talko Hrincewich 161.
Taman 35 f., 84, 279.
Tambov 125.
Tanneries 287, 311.
Tanva 45 f.
Tarantas 285.
Tarashcha 134 f., 285, 325.
Tarkhankut 95, 249.
Tarnogrod 121.

366

UKRAINE

Tamopol 88, 295.

Tarpani 113.

Tartar oppression 34, 152, 237.

Tasmin 103.

Tatars 13, 123 f., 139 f., 141, 146,

150, 163, 174 ff., 180, 181,

212 ff., 221, 239, 242, 247,

292, 338.
Tatariv 311.
Tatra 12, 25.
Tauria 124, 140 f., 144 ff., 167,

171, 191, 249, 253, 260 ff.,263 f .,

266, 270 ff., 274, 276, 286, 294,

334, 338.
Tavolha 105.
Tavolzanska Sabora 78.
Tectonic disturbances 8, 60.
Temriuk 138, 339.
Tendra 20, 249.
Tepla 65.

Terebovla 132, 281, 321.
Terek 10, 36, 63, 123 f., 139, 144,

270.
— , cossacks 139.
— region 276, 339.
Temopil 85, 88 ff., 132, 144, 298,

300, 321.
Territory, Ukrainian 110, 118,

120, 129, 135, 140.
Tertiary 6, 8, 27, 41, 47.
Teterev 24, 46, 48, 50, 72, 80,

319 f.
Textile industry 288.
Theiss, see Tissa 29 ff., 65.
Theodosia 249.
Tiahinska78.
Tiasmin 50, 74, 81, 325 f.
Tiflis 126.
Tile industry 291.
Tilihul (Tiligul) 20, 68.
Tin 276.

Tiraspol 42, 67 f., 135, 301.

Tirsa 105.

Tismenitza 132, 313, 315.

Tissa 29, 120.

Tmutorokan 212.

Tobacco 114, 266 f.

Tobolsk 126.

Tomakivka 79.

Tomasbiv 133, 299, 317.

Tomashivsk 120.

Tomsk 127.

Tor 333.

Torez 29, 65, 333.

Torissa 26.

Torks 13.

Toutri 40.

Tovmach 44, 131, 315.

Tovsta Mohila 52.

Trachyte 29.

Traffic 297.

Transkaspia 126.

Transcaucasia 36.

Transversal railroad 313 f.

Transylvanians 183, 308.

Trekhtimirev 49 f., 325.

Triassic 6.

Triasilo, Taras, Hetman 327.

Troiaga 32.

Tropical fruits 115.

Trubaylo 327 f.

Trubez 74.

Truskavetz 280, 314.

Tsaritsin 92.

Tuapse 139.

Tukholtzians 310.

Tukhla 311.

Tur 120.

Turgai 126.

Turia 80, 318.

Turiv 318.

Turivsky Kirilo 174.

Turka 131.

UKRAINE

367

Turkestan 234, 260.

Turks 102, 136, 139, 165, 182 ff.,

214, 217, 219, 229, 240, 321.
Tustanovichi 279, 313.
Two-field system 257.
Ubort 55, 80.
Udai 74, 328.
Uhniv 287.
Uhocha 129.
Uihely 301.
Ukraine 3 ff., 10 ff., 23 ff., 33, 37,

57, 63 {., 114 f., 152, 177 ff.,

183, 211 ff., 229 ff.,240 ff., 248,

255 ff., 307 f., 327.
— , name 3 f., 11.
Ukrainians 4, 24, 34, 63, 107,

118 f., 128 ff., 134 ff., 149 ff.,

156 ff., 161 ff., 186 ff., 199, 308.
— , name 4.
Ulashkivtzi 295.

Uman 87, 95, 134 f., 286, 301, 326.
Ungh 129 f .
Unghvar 120.
Union, ecclesiastical with Rome,

181.
United States 229, 252 f., 278 f.
Unity theory, Russian 156.
Ural 5, 38, 45, 126, 215 f ., 218, 290
Urasova 331.
Usen 126.

Ushitza 67, 286, 321.
Ust-Mievieditzk 138.
Uylak 120.
Uz 28, 55, 65, 80.
Uzhorod 120, 301, 312.

Valki 286 f., 331.
Valuiki 137, 287, 331.
Vapniarka 301.
Varangians 117 f., 229.

Vashkivtzi 130.
Vassilkiv 135, 324.
Vegetable-culture 267.
Velika Rika 65.

— Pavlivka 285.

Veliki Luh 76, 79, 241, 253.

Vels.

Vepr 46, 65.

Vereshitza 39, 67, 320.

Verezki Pass 27, 29.

Verkhnodniprovsk 141, 326.

Vertep 44.

Vesnianki 203.

Viche 179.

Viclichka 280.

Vihonivske 57, 121, 302.

Vihorlat 28.

Vihovsky 327 f.,

Vilkiv 249, 334.

Village, Ukrainian 194 ff., 310

Vilna 301.

Vilny Porih 78.

Vinnichenko 175.

Vinitza 285, 322.

Vishenka 285.

Vishennik 105.

Visheva 30, 32, 120.

Vishnia 33, 63.

Vishkiv 120.

Vislok 161, 253.

Vissova 311.

Visso, see Visheva 25.

Vistula Race 166. |

— Governments 309, 317.

— Plain 23, 33, 45 f.

— River 55, 64, 70, 230 f., 234.
Viznitza 130, 284, 311.
Vladimir the Great, see Volodimir.
— , Government of 169, 294.

— , Saliski (on the Kliasma) 242.
Vladivostok 127, 306.
Vlodava 133, 317.

368

UKRAINE

Vnuk 78.

Volcano 29, 35.

Volga 8, 64, 69, 71, 75, 92, 125,
215 f., 218, 235, 250, 301.

Volhynia 7, 38, 46 f., 89, 96 f.,
101 f., 114 f., 124, 134, 144 ff.,
162, 167, 171, 181, 191, 213,
231, 240 f., 248, 252, 254,
258 f., 262 ff„ 267 f., 270, 272,
274, 278 f., 281, 284 f., 289,
291, 307, 318 ff., 324.

Volin24.

Volnovakha 52.

Volodimir the Great 153, 178, 212,
243, 327.

Volodimir Volinsk 134, 319.

Vorokhta 311.

Vororriz 83, 86, 122, 124 f., 137,
144, 171, 194, 253, 261 f., 265,
268, 273, 287, 301, 309, 330.

Voronova Sabora 78.

Vorskla 74, 81, 122, 329 f.

Vosnesensk 69, 136, 335.

Vovchansk 85 ff., 142, 331.

Vovche 66.

— horlo 77, 79.

Vovchok 175.

Vovk 161.

Vovnih 78.

Voyekov 234.

W.

Walnuts 268.

Warsaw 8, 225, 301.

Water-fowl 248.

— game 248.

Weaving 283.

Welker 161.

Western Russia 3.

Wheat 262 f., 296.

Whetstone 281.

White Russia 5, 9 f., 54, 64, 71 1.,

121, 125, 152, 230 f., 236, 296,

301.
White Russians 9, 118 ff., 133 f.,
' 141, 150, 153, 162 ff., 166, 188,

191, 194, 200 ff., 211, 220, 227.
— Sea 233.
Wildcat 112, 248.
Wild dog 248.
Wind conditions 10, 92.
Wine-growing 269 f.
Winter, Ukrainian 10, 88, 235.
Wire factories 290.
Wolf 248.

Wood structures 194.
Wood-working 284.
Wool 283, 296.
Woolen industry 288.
World thorofares 64.

Yablonitza Pass 29.

Yahorlik 20, 67, 123.

— Bay 18.

Yaila Mountains 6, 16, 20, 24 f.,
34 ff., 61, 86, 90, 95, 103, 108,
124, 253, 274, 299, 338.

Yalpukh 66.

Yalta 91, 95, 140, 249, 338.

Yamna sandstone 28 f .

Yampol 68, 135, 284, 286, 321.

Yaniv 273.

Yar 41.

Yaremche 66, 311.

Yaroslav 121, 132, 178, 312.

Yaruha 59.

Yasliska 95.

Yaslo 132.

Yassiolda 55, 121, 302.

Yassy 301.

Yavoriv 131 f., 284 f., 287, 316.

Yazeva Sabora 78.

Yazichia 155.

UKRAINE

369

Yeia 83.

Yelez 125.

Yelisavet 85, 95, 135, 278, 281,

290, 294, 326.
Yelisavetpol 126.
Yelnia 81.
Yenisesk 126.
Yergeni Hills 126.
Yeruslan 126.
Yew-tree 101.
Yusivka 290, 333.
Yumalen 32.

Zabye 31, 311.

Zamostye 121, 133, 317.

Zaporogl7, 19, 34, 70, 77, 79,
113, 115 i., 119, 162, 182 ff.,
215, 223, 229 f., 241, 247, 251,
253, 267, 269, 329, 336, 339.

Zaporoze 58, 183, 281.

Zarev 126.

Zaslav 134, 320.

Zbruch 67.

Zegestiv 311.

Zekoti 109.

Zelekhov 125.

Zerep 109.

Zidachiv 131, 314.

Zinc 276.

Zitetzky 168.

Zitomir 48 f., 134, 289, 294, 299,

320.
Zmigrod 120.
Zna 121, 318.
Zolochiv 132, 321, 331.
Zolota Lipa 67.
Zolotonosha 283, 287.
Zovkva 131, 316.
Zuravno 284, 315.
Zvanetz 284, 321.

PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE
CARDS OR SLIPS FROM THIS POCKET

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY