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 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
Ukrainians have thousands of shops, large commercial co-operative
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 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
sectarians, 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 prevents 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.
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 decades
has the modern commercial organization begun slowly to take in the
Ukraine. The exchanges in Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa, Kreminchuk, Mikolaiv,
Tahanroh, Rostiv, 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
hinterland 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-Hungary the Austrian Ukraine
plays the same part on a small 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 Kharkiv, 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 exportation. 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. 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 11% 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, 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 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 (plai), accessible only to foot passengers 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 Peremishl, Ternopil, Kolomia, Buchach,
Horodenka, etc. In the Russian Ukraine, on the other hand, the only
macadamized roads that deserve the name, are the road from Homel to
Kiev, the road from Kiev to Berestia (by way of Zitomir,
Novhorod-Volinsky, 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 Ukrainian railway system
is its tariff regulations, the purpose of 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 adjacent 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
Ukrainian 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, Kharkiv-Sevastopol (with a branch to Kerch),
Katerinoslav-Berdiansk, Donetz Plateau-Mariupol, Donetz
Plateau-Tahanroh, Katerinodar-Novorossysk. Direct railroad 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-Berdichiv-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-Romni,
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.
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 waterways
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 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
Government 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 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 merchant-marine.
Besides this, the Dnieper and its tributaries are navigated 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.
In general, river navigation in the Ukraine is on a very moderate
scale. The negligence of the Russian Government 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 seclusion,
the lack of good harbors, and an abundance of dangerous 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 predominantly 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 transportation 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 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
Constantinople, from Odessa one to Alexandria and Vladivostok.
Despite this miserable condition of Pontian navigation, from a European
point of view, it still has greater significance than navigation on
other seas of Russia. Near the end of the past century, 70% of the
total oversea exportation 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 over 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 Tahanroh 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 ruinous effect of the
economic policy of the Russian Government 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 development of the central provinces, we become able
to understand 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 independence 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 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 Carpathian region
of the Ukraine, as a result of its easy communications constitutes not
only a physico-geographical, 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, Alföld, Banat, etc.
All is centered in Budapest. Even the boundaries of the autonomous
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 scattering
allotment, the Ukrainians of Hungary possess no political 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 constituting 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 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, together 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 Governments 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 Governments
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 consideration. Then there is the
additional circumstance that these 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 independent position. A good division
also comes from M. Drahomaniv, but it is not suitable for a
geographical description.
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 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
Hungarian 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 Prut (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 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 (Pidhirye) 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 petroleum
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 (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, Yaroslav 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 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. Truskavetz 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 Transversal 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. Stanislaviv (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
Transversal railroad, the South Polish Railroad and the Hungarian
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 surpassed 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 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 Prut 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 Prut, 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 Sadahora,
well-frequented annual fairs take place. The cities carrying on a
lively trade, Seret, Storozhinetz (10,000 pop.), Radivtzi (17,000
pop.—the city with the great breeding-stud), and Suchava (12,000 pop.),
all lie on the boundary of the Ukrainian and Roumanian-speaking
populations. Katshka 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 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 Lemberg 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 Lemberg, only small
towns: Zovkva, Yavoriv (10,000 pop.), 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 predominate. 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 considerable commerce, Berestye has
great historical reminiscences 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
lies Kobrin (10,000 pop.), and in the neighborhood of the Bilovez
Forest, the ancient Kamenetz-Litovsky and Bilsk.
The neighboring Ukrainian country in the east is the 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 preponderance 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, above all, 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 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 regard to the manner of settlement, Volhynia still
has a suggestion 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
smuggling; Pochayiv, a famous place of pilgrimage, and simultaneously 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 considerable 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
Ostrohsky, 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 cañon 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 insignificant 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 (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 cañon there is
only one important place. Salishchiki, with considerable fruit-culture.
All the cities of Galician-Podolia are bridge cities, and lie at
convenient crossings over the left tributaries 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 campaign (1653). On the Dniester, whose
entire valley is covered with fruit orchards and vineyards, lies the
important 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 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 Khmelnik (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. Agriculture 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 commercial 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, 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 Orhüv (13,000 pop.), and the dirty city of Biltzi
(19,000 pop.), with a large grain and cattle trade. The capital of
Bessarabia, 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, picturesquely located,
consisting of whitewashed, straw-covered clay huts, lie on the rivers
and creeks, usually on wide valley bottoms or slightly inclined valley
sides, surrounded 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 unpaved,
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 monuments, 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 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 geographical 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
receiving 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 considerable 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 insignificant 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, inhabited 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 Bila Tserkov (61,000 pop.), famous for the
treaty of Khmelnitsky 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
organization 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 conditions 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 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 picturesquely 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
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, Borsna (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 Trubaylo has become shallow, the railroad
line has left the city lying to one side and Pereyaslav has lost all
significance. 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 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 Charles XII. 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 Samarchik (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, 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 “Manchester 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 industry 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 industry (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.), 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 considerable 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 Vovchansk (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 tobacco industry; the insignificant town of Novi-Oskol, Valuiki,
Urasova (13,000 pop.), with grain trade, tanneries 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: Buturlinivka (38,000 pop.), with
important annual fairs, with brick-kilns, tanneries, alcohol-stills, as
well as very considerable 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. 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 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.
Almost all these cities lie on the sea, or at the river outlets. The
Pontian Plain embraces the southern parts of Bessarabia, 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. Akerman (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 expensive constructions, the unprotected harbor of Odessa was
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
seaport 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 very important naval and
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 Dnieper 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
industry. 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 accessible to large sea-vessels by the dredging of the
ship-canal of 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 Kinburn.
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 considerable 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 vineyards. 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 important 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 Sea of Azof, has some grain export, and is a not
insignificant 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 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 industry, 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, transplanted 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, also exports much grain. On the Bila 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. Enciklopedícheski Slavar. Petersburg, 1st ed.
beginning 1890. 2nd ed. in course of publication.
Carte géologique 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 Länderkunde von
Europa. Part I, Hannover 1914.
Guide des excursions du VII Congrès géologique internationale.
Petersburg 1897.
Geologícheski Komityét. Carte géologique générale. Petersburg 1897 ff.
Karpinsky. Übersicht der phys.-geogr. Verhältnisse Russlands während
der verflossenen geologischen Perioden. Beiträge zur Kenntnis des
russischen Reichs. 1887.
—— Sur les mouvements de l’écorce terrestre dans la Russie d’Europe.
Annales de Géographie. 1895–6.
Kehnert & Habenicht. Map of Russia (Scale: 1–3,700,000) in Stieler’s
Handatlas. No. 46, 47, 48, 49.
Kohl. Reisen in Südrussland. Berlin 1841.
Krassnov-Voyeykov. Russland (In: Kirchhoff’s Länderkunde von Europa,
Vol. III, Leipzig 1907).
Krassnov. Travyánye styépi syévyernavo polysháryia. Moscow 1894.
(Russian).
Murchison, de Verneuil, Keyserling. Geology of Russia. Petersburg 1846.
Österreichisch-ungarische Monarchie in Wort und Bild. Wien 1877 ff.
Übersichtsband. Galizien, Bukowina.
Philippson. Landeskunde des europäischen Russlands nebst Finnlands.
Leipzig 1908.
—— Geographische Reiseskizzen aus Russland. Zeitschrift der
Gesellschaft für Erdkunde. Berlin 1898.
Reclus. Nouvelle géographie universelle. Vol. V. Paris 1876. Russian
translation with supplementary volume. Petersburg 1884.
Rehmann. Ziemie davnej Polski. I, II. Lemberg 1895, 1904. (Polish).
Rossíya, yeyá nastoyáshcheye i proshédsheye. A volume consisting of
articles collected from Brockhaus-Efron. Petersburg 1900 (Russian).
Rudnitsky. Korotka geografia Ukrainy. I, II. Lemberg, Kieff.
(Ukrainian).
—— Der östliche Kriegsschauplatz. Jena 1915.
Sibirtseff. Etude des sols de la Russie. Petersburg 1897.
—— Pochvénnaya karta evropéiskoi Rossíyi. Scale: 1–2,520,000.
Petersburg 1902.
Siemiradzki. Geologia ziempolskich. Lemberg I. 1903, II. 1909.
(Polish).
Semyonov. Rossíya. Pólnoye geogr. opisánye atyéchestva, 22 vols.
Petersburg 1899 ff. Vol. II, VII, IX, XIV. (Russian).
Suess. Antlitz der Erde. Bd. I–III. Wien, Leipzig 1883–1909.
Tanfilyev. Die Waldgrenzen in Südrussland. Petersburg 1894. (Russian,
with a résumé in German).
Tillo. Gipsometrícheskaya kárta yevropéiskoi Rossíyi. 1st ed.
Petersburg 1889, 1:2,520,000. 2nd ed. Petersburg 1896, 1:1,680,000.
Uhlig. Bau und Bild der Karpathen. Wien 1903.
PERIODICALS
Izvéstya Imp. rússkavo geograficheskavo óbshchestva. Petersburg 1865
ff. (Russian).
Izvéstya geologicheskavo komityéta. 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, Petersburg, etc.
(Russian).
Sbirnyk mat.-pryr. nauk Tovarystva im. Shevchenka. 15 vols. Lemberg
1897 ff. (Ukrainian).
Trúdy geologícheskavo komityéta. Petersburg 1883 ff.
Zyemlevyedyénye. Moscow 1894 ff.
II. ANTHROPOLOGY AND OTHER AUXILIARY SCIENCES
Aitoff. Carte de l’extension du peuple ukrainien. Paris 1906.
Akademya naúk imperatórskaya. Ob atmyénye styessnényi malorússkavo
yazyká. Petersburg 1905. (Russian).
Andree. Die Ruthenen. Globus 1870.
Annales des nationalités. Paris 1913. No. 3 and 4.
Antonovych. Try natsionalni typy. Pravda 1878 (Ukrainian). German
translation in Ukrainische Rundschau. Jahrgang V.
—— Monográfiyi po istóryi západnoi i yúgozápadnoi 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 österreichischen Monarchie. I–III. Wien
1855–57.
—— Ethnographische Karte der österreichischen Monarchie. Wien 1855.
Drahomanov. Politícheskaya sochinyényia. I, II. Paris 1905–6. I. Moscow
1908. (Russian).
Engel. Geschichte der Ukraine. Halle 1796.
Evarnitzky. Istóriya zaporózhskikh kazákov. I–III. Petersburg 1892–97.
(Russian).
Goebel. Russische Industrie. Berlin 1913.
Haxthausen. Studien über die inneren Zustande Russlands usw. I–III.
Berlin 1847–52.
Hettner. Das europäische Russland. Leipzig 1905.
Hoetzsch. Russland. Berlin 1913.
Hrushevsky. Geschichte des ukrainischen Volkes. Leipzig 1906.
—— Ócherk istóryi ukraínskavo naróda. Petersburg. 3rd ed. 1911.
(Russian).
—— Ilustrovana istorya Ukrainy. Kieff 1911. (Ukrainian).
—— Die ukrainische Frage in historischer Entwicklung. Wien 1915.
Ivanovsky. Ob antropologícheskom sostávye nasyelyénya Rossíyi. Trudy
antr. otdyel óbshchestva liubítelyei yestyéstvoznánya. Vol. CV (XXII).
Moscow 1904. (Russian).
K. Die Hauptstämme der Russen. Karte 1:3,700,000. Petermanns
Mitteilungen. 1878.
Ko-yi. Natsionalno-teritorialni mezhi Ukrainy. Lit. nauk. Vistnyk 1907.
(Ukrainian).
Kostomarov. Dvyé rússkiya naródnosti. Petersburg 1863. (Russian).
French translation in Revue ukrainienne. Lausanne 1915.
—— Sobránie sochinyénye. Petersburg I–VIII, 1903–6. (Russian).
Kovalevsky. Die Produktivkräfte Russlands. Leipzig 1898.
—— L’Agriculture en Russie. Paris 1897.
—— La Russie à 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 développement économique de la Russie. Paris 1902.
Melnik. Russen über Russland. Frankfurt a. M. 1906.
Myezhov. Literatúra rússkoi geográfiyi, etnográfiyi, statístiki.
Petersburg, 9 vols. closing 1880. (Russian).
Pypin. Istóriya rússkoi etnográfiyi. III. Petersburg 1891. (Russian).
Pabst. Der Ausbau der russischen Seehandelshäfen. Weltverkehr und
Weltwirtschaft. 1914–15.
Rambaud. La petite Russie, etc. La Russie épique. Paris 1876. (Revue
politique et littéraire).
Recensement général de l’Empire. 1897. Óbshchi svod po impériyi etc.
Petersburg 1905. (Russian).
Rittich. Ethnographie des russischen Reichs. Karte 1:3,700,000.
Petermanns Mitteilungen. Ergänzungsheft 54. 1878.
—— Etnografícheskaya kárta yevrop. Rossíyi 1:2,520,000. Petersburg
1875. (Russian).
Rudnitsky. Ukraina und die Ukrainer. Wien 1914. 2nd ed. Berlin 1915.
Russov. Kárta razselyénya ukraínskavo naróda. Ukraínski vyéstnik 1906.
(Russian).
Russ’ka istorychna biblioteka. Vols. I–XXIV. Lemberg 1886–1904.
(Ukrainian).
Stockyj-Gartner. Grammatik der ruthenisch-ukrainischen Sprache. Wien
1913.
Schulze-Gävernitz. Volkswirtschaftliche Studien aus Russland. Leipzig
1899.
Statistícheski yezhegódnik. Petersburg, beginning in 1912. (Russian).
Supan. Ergebnisse der Sprachenzählung im russischen Reiche 1897.
Petermanns Mitteilungen 1905.
—— Die Bevölkerung der Erde. XIII. Petermanns Mitteilungen.
Ergänzungsheft 163. 1909.
Tomashivsky. Etnografichna karta uhorskoi rusy. 1:300,000. Petersburg
1910. (Ukrainian).
Tomashivsky. Die weltpolitische Bedeutung Galiziens. München 1915.
Trúdy etn.-stat. ekspedítsiyi v západno russkyí krai I, II, IV, VI,
VII. Petersburg 1872–78. (Russian, with Ukrainian language texts).
Ukraínsky naród v yevó próshlom i nastoyáshchem. Vol. I. Petersburg
1914.
Ukraínsky voprós. Izdánye red. zhurnála Ukraínskaya Zhizñ. Petersburg
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.
Zepelin. Die Küsten und Häfen 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 Zhizñ. Moscow, beginning 1912. (Russian).
Yefimenko. Istóriya ukrainskavo naróda. 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).
NOTE
[1] 1 crown (1 krone) = 20 cents (U. S. A.)