Near the Gulf of Riga, a great deal of flax is grown for shipment to other coun tries. (Fig. 337.) In the south, you remember, a great deal of wheat is raised. Before the World War, Russia exported more wheat than any other country. This is not only because Russia grows so much wheat, but also because the Russian people themselves eat rye bread so that they can sell much of their wheat. They do this because they can get more money for wheat than for rye.
Near Kief, many sugar beets are grown; but the fields there do not yield as much as the beet fields of Belgium or Germany, where there are better methods of cultivation.
In southeastern Russia, near the Caspian Sea, the country is like parts of our Plateau States, too dry for farming. Here we find level pasture plains called steppes, over which the Russian cow boys, or Cossacks, drive their flocks of cattle and sheep. These cowboys are the finest riders in the world. Many of them served as soldiers in the Russian army, and the people fear them very much.
400. does not have as many minerals as Spain or the United States. However, gold and a still more precious white metal, platinum, are mined in the Ural Mountains. The Russian oil fields on the Caspian Sea were for years second only to those of the United States. There is a pipe line for this oil from Baku on the Caspian Sea, to Batum on the Black Sea. There is some coal near the Black Sea, but since the people are so ignorant, there is very little manu facturing.
401. Foreign present, Russia is like Argentina or Nebraska, an agricul tural country. It has long sent food and raw materials to the countries in western Europe and received manufactures in return. Most of the trade goes through Petrograd and Riga on the Baltic, and Odessa and other ports on the Black Sea. in winter, when the Baltic freezes, some Russian trade goes through Poland and Germany.
402. People and government. — For many years before the World War most of the Russian people were kept poor and ignorant by their government. The laws
were made by the Czar and a few of his friends. There were many cruel laws that oppressed the people very much. If any one dared to complain and suggest a better way, he was sent thousands of miles away into Asia to a country called Siberia, which is colder than Russia. There these exiles had to live in the woods as best they could. The song called "The Siberian Wail" was not allowed to be sung in Russia, because it is like one long groan in various tones, and, of course, it made people think of the cruelty of the old government. Under the Czars the Russian people had to pay heavy taxes. Tax money is supposed to be used for the good of all the people, but in Russia most of the tax money was stolen by the Czar's friends, so there was little left to be used for roads or colleges or schools. Thus you see why the roads were bad and the people were ignorant, poor, hungry, and unhappy. Travelers tell us that they have found • the Russians to be a kind and friendly people. There have been many great writers and musicians among those who have been educated. During the World War they fought against Germany and Austria, and millions of them were killed. Then the people had a revolution and tried to set up a republic.
The Russians, like most other people, want to have a good government that will give justice to all the people, so that they can go to work and have better crops, better roads, better houses, good schools, and a much happier time than they did under the Czar. The people of western Russia are not the same race as the other Russians. After their revolution they wanted to be independent. So they set up four new states called the republics of Lithuania, Esthonia, Latvia, and the Ukraine. They all lie in the great flat plain of Russia (Sec. 396), and most of the people live by faerming.