Samarkand, since it has become the administrative centre of Uzbekistan, is regaining some of its former importance. An interesting effect of the 1917 revolution has been to give an im petus to those towns which became the centres of administrative units with local autonomy. The housing shortage in Russian towns is acute : many towns suffered war damage and in addition wooden houses were torn down for fuel during the disastrous 1920-1922 period. Climatic conditions sharply limit the building season and add to the difficulties caused by lack of capital and shortage of building materials. In the case of areas where no town settlement existed e.g., the Karachaev, the Central Gov ernment provided funds for building a town. Modern sanitation and good water supply are still lacking in most Russian towns and in some of the smaller towns the streets are not even swept. Many small villages remote from the railway, and on such bad roads that communication is difficult, remain in a very primitive condition and are popularly known as "bear corners." Incidentally bears and wolves are still a menace in districts not far removed from Leningrad, and their numbers increased during the war and famine. Semenov divides rural settlements into three main groups. Those in the northern zone stretch in ribbons along the river valleys and the shores of lakes and seas, and leave the peat-bog watersheds uninhabited. On glacial soils settlement tends to be on the clayey morainic hills, since the valleys are damp and frosty because of inversion of temperature. In the steppe blackearth zone settlements strongly reflect historic conditions ; nomad raiders grazed their flocks on the watershed and the Slays took to the wooded valleys. These settlements are large and stretch in almost continuous belts along the higher banks of the streams; another factor in this valley settlement was the difficulty of sinking wells on the watershed. Though settlements in the north-west are smaller and the region is less densely peopled, yet they are always compact, partly because of the necessity for warmth and partly through the need of co-operation against wild beasts.
• . • Russia is essentially an agricultural country, about 83% of the population being non-urban, and about 7.5% being engaged in large-scale factory industry. Cattle-breeding and dairying are poorly developed, though the growth of the dairy industry since its introduction into Siberia in 1893 has been phenomenal. With bet ter transport facilities many meadow land areas could develop into dairying regions. Improvement of communications, increasing social and economic exchanges, have been a condition precedent to most of the greater developments of social and economic life in the past and is now of more importance than ever. Owing to poor transport conditions lumbering is little developed in spite of Rus sia's great forest wealth in the taiga belt and the mixed deciduous region to the south of it, in the Caucasus and in the Far Eastern Area. Many stretches of forest have been wasted through forest fires and through neglect, leading to disease and decay. Since 1921 active policies of railway repair and construction, of improvement of waterways, of re-afforestation, especially in belts round the drought areas and in the upper courses of streams have been car ried out. Legislation for the prevention of forest fires has been introduced and the great development of electrification and of the use of peat fuel has lessened the use of wood fuel and so freed timber for export. In 1926-7 the income from timber export had reached five times that of 1913, in spite of the loss of some valu able timber-bearing regions in the west.
much hunting and trapping is carried on by the Russians them selves, though the natives still take their share and in 1925 a con gress of native hunters in the Far East met to discuss better methods of hunting and of barter. In some regions hunting is a supplementary winter occupation for the peasant cultivator, e.g., Cherepovetz and Tomsk; in others it is the main support of the Russian settler, e.g., Tobolsk. The furs of greatest trade impor tance, in order of total value, are squirrel, wolf, ermine, hare, fox, skunk, bear, marten, Siberian skunk, lynx, wild cat and sable. Beavers and seals are also hunted. It will be noted that the sable, once so numerous, has been almost exterminated by ruthless ex ploitation. Closed seasons are now enforced and a farm for fur bearing animals has been established in the Far Eastern Area on American lines. Wild birds are numerous in the marshes and round the lakes and form a supplementary article of diet, as do the fish in the lakes and streams.
Fishing.—The Caspian fishing industry is still important, caviare forming an export article, but it has much declined owing to ruthless capture of young fish and destruction of roe for caviare. Many unemployed fishermen from the Caspian have been settled in the Far East and are combining winter lumbering with summer fishing. The Pacific fisheries suffer from lack of refrigerators and ice trains. The North Sea cod and cod-liver oil export is developing, and since the construction in 1917 of the railway to Murmansk the difficulties of migration northwards for seasonal fishing have been diminished and it is hoped that here too lumbering may develop as a winter occupation for the fishermen. The fact that 88% of the fish is salted or dried, 2% canned and only io% frozen militates against its export value.
Bee-keeping, like hunting and fishing, is an ancient occupation and, recently, Russian settlers have introduced it into the Far Eastern Area. About two-thirds of the honey and bees-wax pro duced reach the market, the rest being consumed by the producers.
The Soviet government has classified the regions of Russia on an economic basis.
(I) In the North-West Area of Russia, which includes Mur mansk, the Karelian Republic, Leningrad, Cherepovetz, Nov gorod and Pskov provinces, there is little agriculture owing to unsuitable soil and climate ; and the population relies mainly on lumbering, saw-milling, hunting and fishing. But these are not sufficient to maintain the peasants all the year round, and many migrate southwards seasonally to work at the river ports as freight hands during the open navigation season. Peasant indus tries supply local needs of homespun, leather and wooden articles, and pitch and tar are extracted in a primitive way. Agriculture is poorly developed and relies mainly on the old three field system, rye, oats, barley, potatoes and flax being the chief crops. Cattle, horses, sheep and pigs are bred. Bog-iron ore is worked and bauxite for aluminium near Tikhvin, but otherwise no mineral wealth is exploited. Flax production is specially developed in Pskov and cabbages and root crops are everywhere grown, cabbage soup forming a staple article of peasant diet. Experiments at the Murmansk Institute of Applied Botany show that potatoes and turnips thrive well north of the Arctic circle. The diminishing yield is inducing peasants to take to manuring and more intensive agricultural systems. Near the town of Leningrad vegetable grow ing and cattle breeding to supply the town meat market have developed. Factory industry is confined to the town of Leningrad (q.v.). Flax production, which demands heavy labour, is not de veloped near the town, since surplus labour is attracted to the factories.