Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/97

Rh VITAL STATISTICS.] TABLE IV. continued. Tclmvaslies 697,000 Tartars 1,500,000 Bashkirs 903,000 Mescheriaks 167,000 Tcpters 159,000 Kirghizes 197,000 Various 6,000 RUSSIA 81 Kalmucks. . Turco-Tartnrs. Total Turanians. 3,629,000 119,000 3,748,000 Grand Total. 84,495,000! PART III. EUROPEAN RUSSIA STATISTICS. 2 Russia is on the whole a thinly-peopled country, the average population being but 42 to the square mile. The density of population varies, however, very much in European Russia from one inhabitant per square mile in the government of Archangel to 102 in that of Moscow (exclusive of the capital) and 138 in Podolia. Two-thirds of the whole population are concentrated upon less than one-third of the whole surface. The most thickly- peopled parts form a strip of territory which extends from Galicia through Kieff to Moscow, and comprises partly the most fertile governments of Russia and partly the manufacturing ones ; next come a strip of fertile country to the south of the above and the manufacturing provinces of the upper Volga. The black-earth region has an average of 90 inhabitants per square mile ; the central manufacturing region, 85 ; the western provinces, 79 ; the black-earth and clay region, 38 ; the black-earth Steppes, 33 ; the hilly tracts of the Crimea and Caucasus, 31 ; the forest-region proper, 26 ; the Steppes, 9 ; the far north, less than 2. The rate at which the population is increasing throughout the empire is very considerable. It varies, however, very much in different parts, and even in European Russia, being almost twice as high in the fertile tracts of the south as it is in the north (1-8 to TO). The rapid increase is chiefly due to early marriages, the peasants for the most part marrying their sons at eighteen and their daughters at sixteen. The resulting high birth-rate compensates for the great mortality, and the Russian population is increasing more quickly than the Polish, Lithuanian, Finnish, or Tartar. In 1880 the marriages, births, and deaths were returned as follows (Table V.) : Marriages. Births. Deaths. Excess of Births over Deaths. European Russia. . Poland 725,427 62,771 14,283 32,952 3,678,071 294,021 74,469 180,802 2,684,828 189,514 53,777 131,793 993,243 104,507 20,692 49,009 Finland (1881) Siberia Total 835,433 4,227,363 3,059,912 1,167,451 These figures agree pretty nearly with those for a series of years (1871-78), which gave an annual surplus of 945,000 for European Russia alone. In 1882, throughout the empire leaving out of account Caucasus and Turgai the births numbered 4,403,555 and the deaths 3,464,404, for an estimated population of 95,565,100. But the birth-rate and death-rate were very different in Russia proper and in the Asiatic dominions ; in the former J;hey reached respectively 4 '83 and 377, and in the latter u y i 3 /0 and 2 84- The low birt]l - rate in Asia counterbalances the low mortality. So also within Russia proper : in the central provinces the high mortality (35 per thousand) is compensated by a high birth-rate (49), while in the western provinces, where the mortality is relatively small (27), the number of births is also the lowest (37). On the whole, the mortality in Russia is greater than anywhere else m Europe. The lowest figures are found in Courland (20), ~1 Bibliography.-^^ Ethnographical Map of Russia, and Ethnogr. Com- Position (Pemmnoi Sostav) of Russia ; Venukoff, Outskirts of Russia (Russ.); noris of the Expedition to the Western Provinces ; Mem. of the Geogr. Society (Ethnography); Mem of the Moscow Soc. of Friends of Nat. Science (Anthrt Po'ogy)- Pauli, The Peoples of Russia; Narody Rosii, popular edition by M. trantseff, Prehistoric Man on Lake Ladoga; Budilovitch, Primitive Slavonians i ' A- BogdanolTs extensive and most valuable researches in Mem. of Moscow Soc. of Fnends of Nat. Sc.; the researches of Polyakoff and many others in ^aiious scientific periodicals (St Petersburg, Kazan universities); and Reports of the Archxol. Congresses. For subsequent periods, see numerous papers in Me- ^n? 4 * '?-' Mem - Ac - S Seiences > &c., and the works of Russian histo- ans. Mezhoff s Bibltogr. Indexes, published yearly by the Russian Geographical bociety, contain complete information about works and papers published 2 For all statistics for European Russia, see "Recueil of Information" for aE5 rT ia >? 1882 i^r*'* ****>. published in 1884 by the Central heads Committee, and the publications mentioned below under different the Baltic provinces (22), and Poland (30). "Within Russia itself the rate varies between 29 and 49 (30 to 38 in towns). In 1882 the average mortality in the 13 central governments reached the exceptional figure of 62, so that there was a decrease of 1 7 per cent, in the aggregate population. The mortality is highest among children, only one-half of those born reaching their seventh year. From military registers it appears that of 1000 males born only 480 to 490 reach their twenty-first year, and of these only 375 are able-bodied ; of the remainder, who are unfit for military service, 50 per cent, suffer from chronic diseases. Misery, insani- tary dwellings, and want of food account for this high mortality, which is further increased by the want of medical help, there bein^ m Russia with Poland only 15,348 males and 66 female surgeons, 7679 assistants, and one bed in hospital for every 1270 inhabitants. The hospitals are, however so unequally distributed, that in 63 governments having an aggregate country population of about / 6, 000, 000 there were only 657 hospitals with 8273 beds, and an average of two surgeons to 100,000 inhabitants. The rate of emigration from the Russian empire is not high. In Emi<Ta- 1871-80 the average number was 280,700 yearly, and the immigra- tion ' tion 245,500. But within the empire itself migration to South Ural, Siberia, and Caucasus goes on extensively ; figures, however, even approximate, are wanting. During the ten years 1872-81 no less than 406,180 Germans and 235,600 Austrians immigrated into Russia, chiefly to Poland and the south-western provinces. A very great diversity of religions, including (besides numerous Religion, varieties of Christianity) Mohammedanism, Shamanism, and Buddhism, are found in European Russia, corresponding for the most part with the separate ethnological subdivisions. All Russians, with the exception of a number of White Russians who belong to the Union, profess the Greek Orthodox faith or one or other of the numberless varieties of nonconformity. The Poles and most of the Lithuanians are Roman Catholics. The Esthes and all other Western Finns, the Germans, and the Swedes are Protestant. The Tartars, the Bashkirs, and Kirghizes are Mohammedans ; but the last-named have to a great extent maintained along with Mohammedanism their old Shamanism. The same holds good of the Mescheriaks, both Moslem and Christian. The Mordvinians are nearly all Greek Orthodox, as also are the Votiaks, Voguls, Tcheremisses, and Tchuvashes, but their religions are, in reality, very 'interesting modifications of Shamanism, under the influence of some Christian and Mosrem beliefs. The Voguls, though baptized, are in fact fetichists, as much as the unconverted Samoyedes. Finally, the Kalmucks are Buddhist Lamaites. All these religions are met with in close proximity to one another, and their places of worship often stand side by side in the same town or village without giving rise to religious disturbances. The recent outbreaks against the Jews were directed, not against the Talmudist creed, but against the trading and exploiting community of the "Kahal." In his relations with Moslems, Buddhists, and even fetichists, the Russian peasant looks rather to conduct than to creed, the latter being in his view simply a matter of nationality. Indeed, towards paganism, at least, he is perhaps even more than tolerant, preferring on the whole to keep on good terms with pagan divinities, and in difficult circumstances especially on travel and in hunting not failing to present to them his offering. Any idea of proselytism is quite foreign to the ordinary Russian mind, and the outbursts of proselytizing zeal occasionally manifested by the clergy are really due to the desire for "Russification," and traceable to the influence of the higher clergy and of the Government. The various creeds of European Russia were estimated in 1879 as follows : Greek Orthodox and Raskolniks, 63,835,000 (about 12,000,000 being Raskolniks) ; United Greeks and' Armenio- Gregorians, 55,000 ; Roman Catholics, 8,300,000 ; Protestants, 2,950,000 ; Jews, 3,000,000 ; Moslems, 2,600,000 ; Pagans, 26,000. In 1881 the number of Greek Orthodox throughout the empire, excluding two foreign bishoprics, was estimated at 61,941,000. Nonconformity _(Raskoi) is a most important feature of Russian Noncon- popular life, and its influence and prevalence have rapidly grown formists. during the last twenty- five years. When, towards the beginning of the 17th century, the Moscow orincipality fell under the rule of the Moscow boiars (one of whom, jfodunoff, reached the throne), they took advantage of the power thus acquired to increase their wealth by a series of measures affect- ing land-holding and trade ; they sanctioned and enforced by law the serfdom which had already from economical causes found its way into Russian life. The great outbreak of 1608-12 weakened Lheir power in favour of that of the czar, but without breaking it ; and throughout the reigns of Michael and Alexis the ukazes were .ssued in the name of "the czar and boiars." Serfdom was rein- ibrced by a series of laws, and the whole of the 17th century is char- icterized by a rapid accumulation of wealth in the hands of boiars, jy the development of luxury, imported from Poland, and by the struggle of a number of families to acquire the political power already enjoyed by their Polish neighbours. The same tendency XXI. n
 * For Pr 6 ! 11840 . anthropology, see Count Uvaroff, Archxology, i. ; Inos-