Russia

Lumbering and Peasant Industries.

(5) The Vyatka-Vet luga Area includes Vyatka, the autonomous Votyak and Marii areas and part of Nizhegorod and the neighbouring provinces. Much of it is covered by continuous coniferous forest, with Siberian larch, cedar and silver fir in the east, and there are vast expanses of moss covered bog. Flax, winter rye, oats, barley, buckwheat and potatoes are grown in the small area cleared of forest. Homespun linen of a coarse kind is made into flour sacks for the Nijni-Novgorod fair, but most peasant industries supply local needs only in view of the poor transport conditions and the dis tance from markets. Iron and silver are mined in the east and the working of the phosphorite beds on the upper Vetluga has devel oped markedly in the last few years. Sheep are reared, especially in Vyatka, where pig breeding and bristle export is developing, and there are some horses and cattle.

(6) The Uralsk Area is described in a separate article. Accord ing to the State plan the Bashkir republic and the south-east of the Votyak Area are included in (6). Hunting and lumbering are the chief occupations in the north, where the climate is too severe to admit of agriculture. Among the Finnish Voguls of the forest fringe the primitive system of sowing crops in a clearing till it is exhausted and then migrating still goes on. In the south on the clayey and sandy chernozyom, agriculture is the chief occupa tion, though years of drought bring terrible famines, as in 1921. Winter rye, summer wheat, oats, buckwheat, millet, potatoes, barley and flax are the chief crops. Bee-keeping is everywhere an important supplement to agriculture. Mining and metal work ing are strongly developed in the central region and in some parts of Bashkiria. (See Uralsk Area and Bashkir Republic.) (7) The Central Volga Area includes Ulianovsk (Simbirsk), Penza, part of Nizhegorod and Saratov, the Tatar republic, and the Chuvash republic. Most of the region lies in the fertile chernoz yom belt, though podzol is found in the north, and in the drought area of the south-east the soil is chestnut coloured, fertile if a sufficient water supply is available. Agriculture is the main occu pation. Methods and implements of the peasants in many places are extremely primitive, but the shortage of horses and working cattle after the famine has led to the introduction of tractors in some places. Some model farms have been established and efforts are made to spread new methods and the use of drought-resisting seeds; progress in this respect is slow among the illiterate peasants, though the terrible lesson of the famine has somewhat quickened the change. In good years the region produces a surplus for export. The chief crops are rye, wheat, oats, millet, potatoes, hemp, flax and sunflower seed. The latter is used mainly in oil pressing fac tories, but the chewing of sunflower seeds is a widespread custom among the peasants. The area under potato and sunflower seed has markedly increased since 1921, the potato stands the spring drought well. Apples, cherries, berries and currants are cultivated on the high right bank of the Volga, and melons, watermelons and cucumbers are grown. Sheep and pigs are bred and have

reached pre-war numbers. Factory industry consists exclusively of the making of food products, e.g. flour-milling, distilling, preserve and fruit syrup manufacture, etc., and of products depending on stock raising, leather goods, soap, tallow, etc. Combustible slates are found near Zhigulyakh and asphalt is prepared. The electric station at Syzran works on combustible slate. In summer the peasants are employed on the Volga steamers and as dock hands and fishing then supplements their diet. Poultry breeding is well developed in some parts. Peasant industries include the prepara tion of foodstuffs and leather goods and the making of homespun, especially woollen goods. There is some forest, but lumbering is a minor industry, though the making of wooden goods, partly dependent on imported timber, is a peasant industry to supply local needs. The phosphorite beds of the south and west are be ginning to be exploited to supply the need for manure emphasized by the cattle and horse shortage since 1921.

(8) The Ukraine (q.v.) with the Moldavian A.S.S.R. forms a separate region.

Mining.

(9) The Southern Mining Area includes the eastern half of the Ukraine, the Crimean republic and the Rostov-on-Don district of the North Caucasian Area. The mineral wealth of the region is increasingly exploited and includes the Donetz coal and anthracite beds, the famous Krivoi Rog iron district, and that of Kertch, the rock salt of Artemovsk (Bakhmut), the manganese beds of the right bank of the Dnieper, with some graphite on the Dnieper and mercury at Nikitovka. Smelting and manufactures of metal goods and machinery have developed and there is a large industrial population. Electrification dependent on the falls of the Dnieper is nearing completion, and other electric plants are working on anthracite dust, peat, fuel, etc. But even in this region the majority of the people are engaged in agriculture on the fertile chernozyom and the less fertile, but still productive chest nut-coloured soils of the south. Large scale agriculture with motor driven tractors and up-to-date implements and methods is a feature of the region. The chief crops are wheat, barley, rye, oats, buckwheat, potatoes, maize, millet and sunflower-seed and sugar beet. Fruits, especially the vine, and apricot and peach in the south grow well, the chalk soil of the Crimea is specially favour able to vineyards. Flour-milling, wine-making, drying and preserv ing of fruits, macaroni and tobacco manufacture are extensively carried on, and there is some sugar-refining. Fishing and the prep aration of salt from the limans are carried on in the coastal areas. Most of the steppe has been ploughed, but in the region between Kherson and Perekop the virgin steppe, with its wealth of flora and fauna, remains untouched. Ostriches are bred here. The natural steppe vegetation of much of the area provides grazing for vast flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, and wool, leather and meat are produced in quantity.