Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/96

Rh 80 RUSSIA [ETHNOGRAPHY. fully carry on agriculture. Those inhabiting the Crimea speak Tartar, and the few who arc settled in western Russia speak Polish. They are on good terms with the Russians. Of West Europeans, only the Germans attain considerable num- bers (upwards of a million) in European Russia. In the Baltic provinces they constitute the ennobled landlord class, and that of tradesmen and artisans in towns. Considerable numbers of Germans, also tradesmen and artisans, were scattered throughout many of the larger towns of Russia as early as the 16th century, and to a much greater extent in the 18th century, German artisans having been invited by the Government to settle in Russia, and their numbers having steadily increased since. Finally, numbers of Germans were invited in 1762 to settle in southern Russia, as separate agricultural colonies, which gradually extended in the Don region and in northern Caucasia. Protected as they were by the right of self-government, exempted from military service, and endowed with considerable allotments of good land, these colonies are much wealthier than the neighbouring Russian peasants, from whom they have adopted the slowly modified village community. They are chiefly Lutherans, but many of them belong to other reli- gious sects, Anabaptists, Moravians, Mennonites (about 40,000). In certain districts (Akkerman, Odessa, Berdiansk, Kamyshin, Novouzensk) they constitute from 10 to 40 per cent, of the total population. The Swedes, who number about 300,000 in Finland, hardly reach 12,000 in European Russia, mostly in the Baltic pro- vinces. The Roumanians (Moldavians) number not less than 800,000, and are still increasing. They inhabit the governments of Bess- arabia, Podolia, Kherson, and Ekaterinoslaff. In Bessarabia they constitute from one-fourth to three-fourths of the population of certain districts. On the whole, the Novorossian governments (Bessarabia, Kherson, Ekaterinoslaff, and Taurida) exhibit the greatest variety of population. Little and Great Russians, Rouma- nians, Bulgarians, Serbs, Germans, Greeks, Frenchmen, Poles, Tartars, and Jews are mixed together and scattered about in small colonies, especially in Bessarabia. Of course, the Greeks inhabit chiefly the towns, where they carry on trade, as also do the Ar- menians, scattered through the towns of southern Russia, and appearing in larger numbers only in the district of Rostoff (10 per cent, of population). Greo- However great the variety of nationalities inhabiting European graphical Russia, its ethnological composition is much simpler than might at iistribu- first sight be supposed. The Russians Great, Little, and White tion of largely prevail over all others, both numerically and as respects races. the territories they occupy in compact bodies. Central Russia is almost purely Great Russian, and represents a compact body of more than 30,000,000 inhabitants with but 1 to 5 per cent, of admixture of other nationalities. The governments on the Dnieper (Kieff, Volhynia, Tchernigoff, Podolia, and Poltava), as also the adjoining districts of Kharkoff, Voronezh, Kursk, and Don, are Little- Russian, or Ukrainian, with but a slight admixture of White and Great Russians, and some 12 per cent, of Jews. The Poles there number only 3 to 6 per cent, of the population chiefly land- holders and are hated by the Ukrainians. Moghileff, Vitebsk, and Minsk are White Russian, the Poles con- stituting only 3 per cent, of the population (16 in Minsk). In other Bielorussian provinces, the White Russians are mixed either with Lithuanians (Vilna), or Ukrainians (Grodno), or Great Russians (Smolensk), and their relations to Polish landlords are no better than in the Ukraine. The Lithuanians prevail in Kovno, where they are 80 per cent, of the population, the remainder being chiefly Jews (10 per cent.), Poles (3 per cent.), Great Russians (3 per cent.), Germans, &c. In the Baltic provinces (Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland) the prevailing population is Esthonian, Curonian, or Lettish, the Germans (landlords, or tradesmen and artisans in towns) being respectively only 3 '5, 6 j'8, and 7 "6 per cent, of the population. In the three provinces, Riga included, they hardly reach 120,000 out of 1,800,000 inhabitants. The relations of the Esthes and Letts to their landlords are anything but friendly. The northern governments of St Petersburg (apart from the capital), Olonetz, and Archangel contain an admixture of 12 to 28 percent, of Karelians, Samoyedes, and Zyrians, the remainder being Great Russians. In the east and south-east provinces of the Volga (Nijni, Sftnbirsk, Samara, Penza, and Saratoff) the Great Russians again prevail (88 to 65 per cent.), the remainder being chiefly Mordvinians, rapidly Russifying, as also Tartars, Tehuvashes, and Bashkirs, Germans in Samara and Saratoff, and Little Russians in the last-named. Only in Kazafi and Astrakhan do the Great Russians number less than one half of the aggregate population (42-43 per cent.). In the Ural provinces of Perm and Vyatka Great Russians are again in the majority (92 and 81 per cent.), the remainder being a variety of Finno-Tartars. It is only in the southern Ural governments (Uralsk, Orenburg, Ufa) that the ad- mixture of a variety of Turco-Tartars of Kirghizes in Uralsk (23 percent.), Bashkirs in Orenburg and Ufa (22 and 23 percent.), and less important stems becomes considerable, reducing the number of Great Russians respectively to 72, 67, and 32 per cent, of the aggregate population of these three provinces. Of theTurco-Tartars of eastern Russia, the Bashkirs often revolted against Russian rule, and the traffic in Bashkir lands, recently carried on by the Orenburg administration, certainly does not tend to reconcile them. The Tcheremisses have often joined the Bashkirs in their revolts, but are rapidly losing their nationality. As regards the other Turco- and Finno-Tartars, the Mordvinians really have been assimilated to the Russians ; the Moslem Tartars of Kazan lived till recently on excellent terms with their Russian neighbours and would have continued to do so had no attempts been made to interfere with their land-laws. In western Russia, while an antipathy exists between Ukrainians and Poles, the Russian Government, by its harassing interference in religious, educational, and economical matters, has become antag- onistic, not only to the Poles, but also to the Ukrainians ; printing in Ukrainian is prohibited, and "Russification" is being carried on among Ukrainians by the same means as those employed in Poland. The same is true with the Esthes and Letts, whom the Govern- ment, while countenancing them to some extent in their antipathy to the German aristocracy, has not yet found means to conciliate. The relative strength of the different ethnical elements of which Their the population of European Russia and Poland is composed may relative be seen from the following figures (Table IV.). They must be strength. regarded, however, as rough estimates only. They were originally computed by M. Rittich for an aggregate population of 69,788,240, and in the following table they have merely been increased in oro- portion to the actual population of 84,495,000. TABLE IV. Great Russians 41,994,000 Little Russians 17,241,000 White Russians 4,330,000 Russians 63,565,000 Poles 5,750,000 Bulgarians 110,000 Czechs 9,500 Serbs 9,500 Total Slavonians 69,444,000 Lithuanians 987,000 Zhmuds 771,000 Letts 1,243,000 Letto-Lithuanians 3,001,000 Greeks 84.000 Roumanians, and French (about 2000) 795,000 Greece-Romans 879,000 Germans and English 1,165,000 Swedes 12,000 Saxons 1,177,000 Armenians and Georgians 43,000 Tsigans 16,000 Total Aryans 74,560,000 Jews 3,120,000 Karaites 3,000 Total Semites 3,123,000 Karelians 235,000 Esthes 891,000 Lives 2,000 Various. 175,000 Baltic Finns 1,303,000 Lapps 7,500 Samoyedes, 6,500 Northern Finns 14,000 Mordvs 960,000 Tcheremisses 311,000 Votiaks 292,000 Volga Finns. 1,563,000 Zyrians 102,000 Permians 80,000 Voguls 2,000 Ugrians 184,000 Total Ural-Altaians 3,064,000