RUSSIA, EMPIRE OF, extending over a large proportion of the northern regions of the globe, includes the eastern part of Europe, the whole of northern Asia. and a part of central Asia. Lat. 38° 30' to 78° n.; long. 17° 19' e. to 190° e. (170° west). The por tion of North America which formerly belonged to Russia was ceded to the United States in 1867. Russia is bounded on the n. by the Arctic ocean; on the e. by the Pacific ocean; on the s. by the Chinese empire, Turkestan, Caspian sea, Persia, Asiatic Turkey, and the Black sea; and on the w. by Roumania, Austria, Prussia the Baltic, and Sweden. The area of Russia amounts to more than 8,000,000 sq.m., and is more than double the entire area of Europe. The empire thus covers nearly of the surface of the globe, and more than h of the land superfieies of the planet. The population of this vast area was in 1870 estimated to amount to upward of 86,000.000. The following table does not take account of the territories acquired by Russia in 1878, Roumanian Bessarabia, and part of Turkish Armenia: the Russian Sea-board.—The northern shores of the Russian territories, which are washed by the Arctic ocean, are deeply indented. The White sea (q.v.), au immense arm of the Arctic ocean, penetrates 350 miles into the main-land, and is subdivided into the gulfs of Onega and Archangel or Dwma. The other chief inlets on the n. of Russia are the Kara Sea and the gulfs of Obi and Yenisei. Westward from Nova Zemla (usually, but less correctly, spelled Zenibin), the Arctic ocean is navigable for three months of the year; e. from that island, the sea, even at the mildest season, is encum bered with floating icebergs. The chief islands in this ocean are the Kolguef, Waigatz, Nova Zemla, and Spitzbcrgen isles. The eastern shores of Russia are washed by the Pacific, subdivided into the Behring, Okhotsk, and Japan seas; and the islands belong ing to this country in these seas are Sakhalin, and the northern part of the Kuriles. On the s. are the Black sea (q.v.), and the sea of Azov (q.v.), the latter communicating with the former by the strait of Kertch, and so shallow that it is navigable for small craft only. Of the Caspian sea, Russia commands the whole, with the exception of the s. shore, which belongs to Persia. The northern and eastern banks of the Caspian are the seats of the chief fisheries of the empire. On the n.w. of Russia is the Baltic sea, with the gulfs of Riga, Finland, and Bothnia; and in these waters the islands of Aland, Esel, and Dago belong to the empire. The freezing of the water near the shores of alp Baltic renders the navigation of this sea impracticable during five months of the year, although a few ports arc accessible throughout the whole year. Possessing means of easy communication with the most fertile governments of the interior, and sustaining chiefly the commerce of the Russian empire with the other parts of Europe and with America, the Baltic is of the highest commercial importance.
Surface, Hydrography, and Soil.—Europeau Russia consists of a vast plain bordered with mountains. On the c. are the Ural mountains (q.v.), forming a broad range of no great elevation, ending on the n. on the shores of the Arctic ocean, and on the s. in a range of elevated plains on the left bank of the Volga. On the s.e. of the great plain is the lofty range of the Caucasus (q.v.), crossed by the pass of Derbend and the so-called military Georgian road. The Crimean mountains, a continuation of the Caucasian chain, rise to 5,000 ft. in their highest summit. The districts in the s.w. of Russia, between
the Vistula and the Pruth, are covered by hilly ranges from the Carpajhian mountains (q.v.) which in Poland are known as the Sandomir mountains. The Finland mountains, on the n.w. are ranges of granite rocks, embracing numerous lakes, and not rising higher than GOO feet. The Alaunsky table-land, which connects itself with the Ural mountains by a chain of hills in lat. about 62° n., is the key to the configuration of European Russia. From this tableland, with an elevation of about 1200 ft., the coun try. with gradually declining slopes, falls away in four directions—n. to the Arctic, n.w. to the Baltic, s. to the Black, and s.e. to the Caspian seas. The sloping country on tho n. of the Alaunsky heights is called, from its eastern and western limits, the Ural-Baltic table-land; that on the s. of the same dividing heights is called, for the same reason, the Ural-Carpathian table-land. The Alaunsky heights form the great water-shed, and regu ltte the course of all the great rivers of the Russian empire. To the n. they throw off the Potchora, the northern Dwina, and the Ouega; to the s., the Dniester, Bug, Dnieper, Don, and Koubau; to the s.e., the Volga, with its great affluents the Oka and Kama. The western Dwina, the Niemen, and the Vistula fall into the Baltic sea. The impor tant rivers of Russia receive separate notice under their own names. At the foot of the n.w. r1ope from the central terrace is the lake-country of European Russia, and the great lakes (which are noticed separately) are Ladoga, Onega, Ilmen, Pcipus, and Pskov, The pla:n. of European Russia naturally divides itself into three tracts or zones, each of which differs from the others in the nature and quality of its soil. The northern zone extends between the Arctic ocean and the Ural-Baltic table-land, the middle zone between the Ural-Baltic and the Ural-Carpathian table-lands, and the southern zone between the Ural-Carpathian table-land and the Black and Caspian seas. The soil of the northern zone is marshy, and the climate inclement. In its middle part, between the rivers Oncga and 3Iezen, and especially along the banks of the northern Dwina, forests of fir-wood and large tracts of fodder-grass occur. Toward the e. of this tract the woods disappear, and vast marshes, frozen the greater part of the year, cover the coun try. The middle zone reaches s.w, to the government of VoIhynia and the s. of Poland, and n.e. to the Ural mountains. In the w. it consists of an extensive hollow, covered with woods and with marshes, the chief of which are those of Pinsk (q.v.). In the mid dle part of this zone the soil is partly heavy and covered with mold, and toward the n., sandy. Beyond the Oka, luxuriant meadows abound; and on the 0., beyond the Volga, this tract forms an extensive valley, covered with a thick layer of mold, abound ing in woods, and rising into hills in the vicinity of the Ural range. The southern zone consists of steppes extending alone the shores of the Black and Caspian seas. The steppes of the Black sea have mostly a moldy soil, covered with grass; but in the s.e., shifting sands and 'salt marshes predominate. The steppes of the Caspian consist of sand, salt marshes, and salt lakes—the Elton lake, yielding nearly 4,000,000 Innis (about 1,290,000 hundred-weights) of salt annually, being the most remarkable.