SAMARA, a province of Russia, lying east of the Volga river, except for the territory enclosed in the great Volga loop, and south of the Tatar A.S.S.R. Its southern boundary lies between the Great Irgiz and the railway from Saratov to Uralsk, and runs parallel to the latter till it reaches the boundary of the Kazakstan S.S.R., on the Obschiy Syrt plateau. Orenburg province and the Bashkir A.S.S.R., lie to the east.
South of the Volga loop (Samarskaya Luka) is a low flat steppe recently emerged from the post-Pliocene Aral-Caspian basin, while from the Samara river to the Sok are Permian formations. The province is a transition region between the black-earth and the salt steppe types of soil. The most fertile black earth with a humus content of 18% lies to the north-east of the province in the lyesso-steppe area—i.e., steppe with patches of forest, here mainly oak. Between the Samara river and the Mocha, except for a patch north and south along the eastern part of the latter stream, the black-earth is of poorer humus content, of a sandy type, and patches of salted soil appear, especially near the Volga. South of the Great Irgiz river the soil is salt steppe, and there are salt marshes. South of the Samara river there is no forest, but the land in the loop and to the north of it is forested, and there is a patch of forest on the north bank, west of Buzuluk.
The region is undergoing a process of rapid desiccation. It has an arid climate, the rainfall varying from 8 to 16 in., per annum, mostly falling in spring and summer in heavy showers, so that the run-off is excessive and only the surface becomes saturated. The prevailing winds are from the north-east, dry and strong, and blowing with great violence in winter, so that snow does not lie and the ground is exposed to the severe winter frost. The average July temperature at Samara is 70.4° F and January 9.3° F. An added disadvantage is the liability to years of exces sive drought such as 1911 and 1921. Winter lasts for five months and rain falls on an average of 95 days per annum, 34 of which are in June–August. Thunderstorms are frequent in June and July and if accompanied by dry hail may ruin the crops.
Diminution in the spring rainfall causes the disastrous famines to which the region is subject. Of the inhabitants, 9o% are occu pied in agriculture, depending on the crops for sustenance and for purchase of necessities. Bad harvests, therefore, such as those of 1911 and 1921, bring disaster. In 1921 great numbers died of starvation and starvation diseases and others fled from the region, many to perish on the road. Bands of starving children, whose parents had succumbed first in their efforts to feed the children, penetrated even as far as the Caucasus. Livestock diminished and when the weakened survivors of the terrible period faced the next year there was a shortage of everything, from seeds and instruments to working cattle.
The area has revived to an extraordinary degree, an evidence of the fertility of its famous black soil. Attention had been concentrated on the drought problem and the need for more intensive agriculture in Samara as early as 1864, and some efforts were made to improve the type of cultivation. Further evidence
of the crisis of extensive agriculture in the region is the great variation in the harvest, in 1911 not enough to satisfy local needs; in 1913, a surplus of '10,000,00o poods. Six experimental sta tions have been established to study local problems, Besenchuk, Buguruslan, Alekseyev, Bugulma, Buzuluk and one connected with the Samara agricultural school at Kinel.
The main lines along which attempts are being made to im prove agriculture and lessen the chances of famine in the dis trict are the increasing practice of irrigation; a wider range of variety in crops, and especially the sowing of grasses and lucerne, in this respect Samara stands first in the provinces of the famine area ; the preservation of what forest is left, and the planting of more trees, in view of their protective value in a windswept region, and their influence on moisture conditions in the soil; the greater extension of stock raising, in view of the increasing importance of meat, dairy products, fats and wool for the grow ing industrial regions. Though many experiments have been made, no kind of winter corn able to withstand the severe condi tions has yet been discovered, but more drought resisting varie ties of hard wheat, which commands a better market than soft wheat, have been introduced. Efforts are also directed towards co-operative farming, though as yet not very successfully.
About 9o% of Samara province is favourable for vegetation, and of this about two-thirds is ploughed land, about one-tenth is forest and scrub, and the rest is pasture, meadowland or garden. In the stock-raising areas, cattle, sheep and pigs are at pre-1914 level, but horses are still much below that level. Cattle plague often devastates the herds. A few dairy artels have been estab lished. Bee-keeping and poultry raising are subsidiary occupa tions. The manufactures in the region are entirely dependent on local products and include flour-milling, distilling, starch manufacture, tobacco making, confectionery, woollen goods, leather and matches. Most of them are of the small scale, peasant type. Two sugar factories were working before 1914, and there is one factory producing agricultural machinery.
The population in 1926 was 2,409,773, consisting mainly of Great Russians, with Mordvas, Chuvashes, Tatars and Bashkirs. The ethnographic variety is very great and the colonies of Poles, Mennonites from Danzig, and Circassians settled here in 59 by the government added to it. Difficulties of overcoming illiteracy and raising the cultural standard under these conditions are great. The Volga is the great artery of commerce, its tri butaries are shallow and not suitable for navigation, with the exception of the Great Irgiz up to Kushum. Samara is linked by rail with Moscow on the west, and with Ufa, and Orenburg on the east, while a branch line reaches the Sok river. Roads are poor, there are few bridges, and transport difficulties hamper develop ment. The chief towns are Samara, Pugachev, Buguruslan and Buzuluk (qq.v.).