. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. CHAPTER IX. VOLGA AND ITliAL BASINS. (OitnAT RrssiA.). ITE river whicli iiitorsocMs Russia obliquely from near the Baltic to the Caspian, and wliicli drains an area tlirice the extent of France, has largely contributed to the political development of the Russian people. The JJnieper showed the liittle Russians tiie route to ^ (Constantinople ; the Vistula, Niémen, and Western Dvina laid open the West to the White Russians and Lithuanians; even the Volkhov and the Neva, by placin- Novgorod in relation with the Hanseatic towns, withdrew it, so to sa
. The earth and its inhabitants ... Geography. CHAPTER IX. VOLGA AND ITliAL BASINS. (OitnAT RrssiA.). ITE river whicli iiitorsocMs Russia obliquely from near the Baltic to the Caspian, and wliicli drains an area tlirice the extent of France, has largely contributed to the political development of the Russian people. The JJnieper showed the liittle Russians tiie route to ^ (Constantinople ; the Vistula, Niémen, and Western Dvina laid open the West to the White Russians and Lithuanians; even the Volkhov and the Neva, by placin- Novgorod in relation with the Hanseatic towns, withdrew it, so to say, from the heart of the land. But the Volg-a and the vast system of its navigable affluents compelled the inhabitants lo devc^loj) tliemselves and create their civilisation on ihc spot. Althougli tlie water liigliways i'acih'tated com- munication in every direction between the various regions of Great Russia, few colonists were attracted to the arid steppes, the salt wastes, and theland-loeked basin of the Caspian in the south-east. Tlie bulk of the people were thus eonlined to the central region, which they gradually brought undcu- cultivation. Coming in contact at a thousand points with the Asiatic tribes pouring in tJiiougli the steppes, the Great Russians intermingled with them, either absorbing or becoming absorbed, and thus by continuous crossings developing that hard}^ race which gradually accpiired the supremacy over all the Eastern Shivs. Through husbandry, canals, highways, railways, henceforth relieved from the old limits imposed by their swamps and forests, they have been able to reverse the flow of migration, sending forth groups of colonists to the remote shores of the Pacific, girdling round Ciiina with a continuous chain of settlements, and thus bringing a great part of the Asiatic continent more and more under Euroi)ean influences. But the Volga and its great head-streams still remain the centre of Great ][ussian nationality; hero they number already upwards
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade18, booksubjectgeography, bookyear1883
