KURSK, a province of the Russian S.F.S.R., lying north of the Ukrainian S.S.R. and bounded by the provinces of Bryansk and Orel on the north and Voronezh on the east. Area 43,166 sq. km. Pop. (1926) 2,903,707. It forms part of the recently created Black Earth area (Central) (q.v.) It occupies the southern slopes of the central Russian plateau (700-1,1oo ft.) and is deeply entrenched by numerous river and stream valleys. Cretaceous and Eocene rocks prevail and chalk, ironstone, potter's clay and phosphates are worked. The magnetic anomaly extend ing in a broad belt running south-eastwards from the north of the province and extending into the south-west corner of Voronezh province, was observed many years ago. Recent in vestigations have resulted in the location near Shchigry at a depth of 160 metres of valuable iron deposits, which may lead to the industrialisation of the province. For climate, difficulties of agriculture and social conditions see VORONEZH, which it closely resembles. A famine (1891) due to the lack of spring rain re sulted in a better railway net being constructed, while a heavy July rainfall in 1882, in which a quarter of the usual annual rainfall fell within an hour, resulted in the destruction of part of the Moscow-Kursk railway built in 1867. The whole province is covered with loess black earth, though in the northern part forest spread on the black earth with moister conditions. This forest has been cut, and the region is now "lyesso-steppe," the soil having a humus content of 4-6% only.
The province forms an interesting transition region between Great and Little Russia. As Byelgorod, lying in a valley that opens towards the southern plain is approached, cloud, sunshine, scenery and people more and more closely approximate to the Little Russian (Ukrainian) type. Byelgorod still enjoys autumn when Kursk is under winter snow, and the picturesque thatched white huts, surrounded by cherry orchards, dotting the area to the south of it, are unknown in the north. The chief crops of Kursk in 1926 were rye and oats. Millet, potatoes, sugar beet, hemp, wheat and sunflower seed were also grown. The number of sheep, cattle, horses and pigs was markedly diminished during the civil war of 1917-20 and the famine following it. Numbers
rose again until 1924, but diminished again to a marked degree between 1924 and 1926, a serious situation in view of the need for manure, and of the value of horses and cattle as draught animals. Sugar beet, fruits, melon, pumpkin and sunflower seed cultivation are the most intense in the south and diminish towards the north, being replaced by oats, buckwheat, potato and hemp cultivation.
Factory industries include flour-milling, oil-pressing, tobacco manufacture, sugar refining, brewing and distilling, the production of chalk, and the manufacture of rope. Iron mining and smelting is beginning in the Shchigry district, which is also noted for horse-breeding. Kustar (peasant) products to supply local needs are common, and toys, caps, vehicles, baskets and pottery formerly widely made for export, are beginning to recover from the depression following the disturbed and exhausting 1914-21 years. A peasant boot and shoe artel in the Miropol-Sudzhansk region has i,000 members, and there are artels for carpet weavers. The population is mainly Great Russian. with Little Russians (Ukrainians) in the south. The literacy rate is one of the lowest in the U.S.S.R.; in 1924 only 16% of the inhabitants of Byelgorod could read and write, and the poor school guarantee for children in rural districts means that the problem of liquidating illiteracy will not be solved in the next generation. The railway and road net is inadequate and many of the streams and rivers are not available for navigation. The general poverty led to the emigra tion of thousands of peasants to Siberia and the south between 1896 and 1914. The outbreak of war was followed by reckless mobilisation of agricultural labourers and commandeering of horses, and this was followed by civil war and by the formation of troops of bandits. The 1921 famine supervening on these conditions still further undermined agriculture and left the sur vivors weakened in stamina as well as reduced to a poverty even lower than the general pre-1914 level.