"the total number of adults of both sexes in the working class is 35,700,000. Of this number 29,000,000 or 81.2 per cent. are engaged in agriculture; 2,000,000 or 5.6 per cent. in forestry and in the carriage of timber by the river routes; 1,000,000 or 2.8 per cent. in hunting, fishing, or in trades, working in towns, on railways, or on vessels; and about 1,000,000, chiefly the nomadic class, in rearing sheep, horses, reindeer, and other stock. Thus 92.4 per cent. of the total number of working adults are employed in rural pursuits of various kinds."1

The total population of the villages therefore far exceeds that of the towns. According to the census of 1897 the town population included only 16,280,978 persons of both sexes, while the rural population reached 110,087,849. These numbers, according to "The Statesman's Year-book," were distributed as follows:

Towns with a population of over a hundred thousand are rare in Russia; there are only nineteen in the whole empire. But large villages-that is, communities of over a thousand inhabitants are very common, while some villages possess a population of twenty or twentyfive thousand. The terms "town" and "village" are therefore of purely technical import, and cannot be used to denote the number of inhabitants. In the above table

1Nicolai-on, " Die Volkswirtschaft in Russland," pp. 32-95. "Report on Labour Question in Russia: Royal Commission on Labour," p. 8. Schulze-Gävernitz, "Volkswirtschaftliche Studien aus Russland," p. 309.

villages are included in the figures giving the number of town dwellers.

The birth rate is decreasing in Russia as in other countries, but it is still as high as 48 per thousand as compared with 28 per thousand in England and Wales. The average birth-rate in towns is 34 and in villages about 49 per thousand. The high proportion of births is counteracted to a great extent by the very high death rate; in rural districts the death rate for the years 1890-94 reached 33 per thousand, a figure which in nearly every other country would have resulted in a decrease of population. In the towns for the same period it was as low as 18 per thousand, the difference being due chiefly to the fact that in many country districts it is impossible to obtain medical assistance. The excess of births over deaths in the six years 1890-95 was 1,124,653 or 1.25 per cent., and in the year 1897 1,753,465 or 1.81 per cent. The average annual increase is about two millions or 1.55 per cent.; the highest figure (20 per 1,000) is reached in New Russia (the steppes bordering on the Black Sea) and the lowest (8 per 1,000) in the Baltic Provinces. The poor quality and often very insufficient quantity of the peasants' food prepares the way for disease, which is further promoted by want of cleanliness and lack of sanitation and medical help. At the best of times the peasants are poorly fed, and are liable to scrofula, anæmia, ophthalmia, syphilis, and phthisis. When scarcity prevails they die in thousands of "hunger typhus," a special form of disease which follows in the wake of famines. During the last epidemic 90 per cent. of the cases ended fatally.

Next to schools, there is great want in rural Russia of doctors, hospitals, and midwives. Infant mortality is as high as 40 or 50 per cent., due mainly to the ignorance of the peasants and to the fact that the mothers return to their work in the fields within a few days of the birth of their infants. Two hundred years ago there was not a single scientifically educated

ar

St

on

doctor in Russia, and at the present day doctors practically inaccessible to the great majority of th population. According to a calculation of the Petersburg Viedomosti for February 1899, the averag number of inhabitants in the rural districts to doctor was 35,000. Statistics of recruits show clearly enough the evil results of the neglect of the physica condition of the people. Numbers of recruits are rejected every year as unfit for service, and constant complaints are made as to the diminished chest measurement and height of those who are accepted. Not only is the splendid physique for which the peasants of Great Russia were once renowned fast becoming a thing of the past, but even the Don Cossacks are showing signs of the poverty that oppresses them. their conditions cannot be ameliorated, it is doubtful whether the "institution of the Don Cossacks maintained.1

If

can be

2. GEOGRAPHICAL AND RACIAL CHARACTERISTICS

In order to understand the conditions of agriculture in Russia it is necessary to understand both the variations in soil and climate included in the vast extent of the country and the different nationalities which inhabit it. Although the area covered by the Russian Empire in Europe alone is no less than 2,100,000 square miles, the surface of the country is broken up by no mountain ranges, and the variations that exist are due to geographical position and the nature of the soil, and not to the configuration of the surface. The whole country, however, falls into two strongly marked and sharply contrasted districts, lying one on either side of a line drawn from south-west to

1 E. v. der Brüggen, "Das heutige Russland," pp. 126-8. "Russie à la Fin du 19me Siècle," pp. 73-5. "Bulletin de l'Institute International de Statistique," vol. xii., p. 88. "Statesman's Year-book," 1903, p. 1004. Times, April 9th, 1901; June 10th, 1902.

north-east, so as to pass through the towns of Kieff, Tula, and Kazan.

Beyond this line lies the forest zone, which stretches northwards until it passes into the desolate region of the polar tundras, where the extreme cold allows of no industries except hunting and fishing. In its northern districts the forest zone is almost entirely covered with forests, rivers, lakes, and marshes, and agriculture plays a very small part in the industry of the inhabitants, who are occupied in forestry and various forms of working in wood. Where the ground is cleared, oats, rye, and flax, are cultivated until the soil is exhausted, when it is left to return to its wild state. In the southern districts the cultivation of flax plays a more important part, sometimes alternating with clover, whilst forestry and working in wood are also carried on. Dairy farming also forms an important industry in some districts, especially near the large towns. In spite of the fertility of certain districts in the forest zone, the inhabitants are as a rule unable to live on the produce of the soil, and are partly dependent upon grain supplies from the south of

Russia.

The country below the dividing line is called the Tchernoziom, or Black Mould zone, from its peculiarly black and extraordinarily fertile soil, and this is the main seat of Russian agriculture. Its northern districts enjoy a temperate climate with abundant moisture and are thickly populated. Agriculture is conducted on the three-field system (Dreifelderbau), and rye constitutes the main crop. Oats, wheat, barley, buckwheat, and millet are also cultivated, but there is little fodder grown, and in consequence little cattle-raising. The southern districts of the Black Mould zone have a hotter and drier climate and are more thinly populated. Wheat is here the principal crop, while clover, sanfoin, and other kinds of fodder are cultivated. These districts furnish the chief part of the grain for exportation, and the system of agriculture generally employed is the

so-called steppe system (Steppewirtschaft). In the south-east is also the chief stock-raising district, from which cattle, horses, wool, tallow, hides, etc., are exported, whilst in the south-west beetroot is cultivated. Further south-east again are the southern steppes, which are still chiefly inhabited by nomadic tribes, and are partly sandy deserts not admitting of cultivation.1

"It has been estimated that the inhabitants of Russia belong to more than 110 nationalities. The majority of these may, however, be classed in one or other of the three large groups of Finns, Tartars, and Slavs. According to M. Leroy-Beaulieu, the Finns or Tchouds appear to represent the most ancient inhabitants of Russia. The ethnology of the Finns is disputed, but it is generally agreed that they have no connection with the Aryan family, from which the Celts, Latins, Germans, Slavs, and most other races in Europe are descended. They are usually classed with the UralAltaic branch of the Touranian or Mongolian race, so called because the various nationalities included under this head are believed to have originally inhabited the region between the Ural and the Altai mountains. At the present day they number about five or six million persons, and are centred chiefly in Finland and in the Volga district. The Tartars, who are more decidedly Asiatic, are of kindred origin with the Turks, the only difference being that they invaded Europe by another route, and did not embrace Islamism until after their invasion. They were almost the sole inhabitants of the Crimea during the last century, and in recent years their numbers have been greatly reduced by emigration.

"The Slavs form the most important element in the Russian population, and it is estimated that about three-fourths of the entire number of inhabitants belong to this race. In spite of the enormous number of

1 Schulze-Gävernitz,

66

"Volkswirtschaftliche Studien aus Russland," pp. 308-14. Report on the Labour Question in Russia: Royal Commission on Labour,” p. 7.