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RUSSIA (Rossiya)
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See also:RUSSIA (Rossiya) , the See also:general name for the See also:European and See also:Asiatic dominions of the " See also:Tsar of All the Russias." Although the name is thus correctly applied, both in See also:English and See also:Russian, to the whole See also:area of the Russian See also:empire, its application is often limited, no less correctly, to European Russia, or even to European Russia exclusive of See also:Finland and See also:Poland. The use of the name in its most comprehensive sense See also:dates only from the expansion of the empire in the loth See also:century; to the historian who writes of the earlier growth of the empire, Russia means, at most, Russia in See also:Europe, or Muscovy, as it was usually called until the 18th century, from See also:Moscow, its See also:ancient See also:capital. The origin of the See also:term " Russia " has been much disputed. It is certainly derived, through Rossiya, from See also:Slavonic Rus or See also:Ras (See also:Byzantine 'Pws or 'Pw rot), a name first given to the Scandinavians who founded a principality on the See also:Dnieper in the 9th century; and afterwards extended to the collection of Russian states of which this principality formed the See also:nucleus. The word Rus, in former times wrongly connected with the tribal name See also:Rhoxolani, is more probably derived from Ruotsi, a Finnish name for the Swedes, which seems to be a corruption of the See also:Swedish rothsmenn, " rowers " or " seafarers," I. THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE The Russian empire stretches over a vast territory in E. Europe and N. See also:Asia, with an area exceeding 8,66o,000 sq. m., or one-See also:sixth of the See also:land See also:surface of the globe (one twenty-third of its whole superficics). It is, however, but thinly peopled on the See also:average, including only one-twelfth of the inhabitants of the See also:earth. It is almost entirely confined to the See also:cold and temperate zones. In Novaya Zemlya and the Taimyr See also:peninsula, it projects within the See also:Arctic Circle as far as 770 6' and 770 40' N. respectively; while its S. extremities reach 38° 50' in See also:Armenia, 35° on the Afghan frontier, and 42° 30' on the coasts of the Pacific. To the W. it advances as far as 20° 40' E. in See also:Lapland, 17° in Poland, and 29° 42' on the See also:Black See also:Sea; and its E. limit—See also:East Cape on the See also:Bering Strait—is in 191° E. The See also: New Siberian archipelago, See also:Wrangel Land and See also:Bear Islands, off the Siberian See also:coast; the See also:Commander Islands off See also:Kamchatka; the Shantar Islands and the N. of See also:Sakhalin in the Sea of Okhotsk. The Aleutian archipelago was sold to the See also:United States in 1867, together with See also:Alaska, and in 1875 the Kurile Islands were ceded to Japan. If the border regions, that is, two narrow belts, on the N. and S., be See also:left out of See also:account, a striking uniformity of See also:physical Leading feature prevails throughout the whole vast extent physical of the Russian empire. High plateaus like that of features. Pamir (the " Roof of the See also:World ") and Armenia, and lofty See also:mountain chains like the See also:snow-clad See also:Caucasus, the Alai, the Tian-shan, the Sayan Mountains, exist only on the out-skirts of the empire. Viewed broadly, the Russian empire may be said to occupy the territories to the N.W. of the See also:great See also:plateau formation Plateau of the old See also:continent—the backbone of Asia—which formation stretches with decreasing See also:altitude and width from 0' Asia. the high tableland of See also:Tibet and Pamir to the See also:lower plateaus of Mongolia, and thence N.E. through the Vitimr.egion to the farthest extremity of Asia. Thus it consists of the immense plains and See also:flat lands which extend between the plateau formation and the Arctic Ocean, including the See also:series of parallel chains and hilly spurs which skirt the former region on the N.W. And it is only to the E. of See also:Lake See also:Baikal that it climbs up on to the plateau, from which it descends again before it reaches the Pacific. This plateau formation—the See also:oldest See also:geological continent of Asia—being unfit for See also:agriculture and for the most part unsuited for permanent See also:settlement, while its oceanic slopes have from the See also:dawn of See also:history been occupied by a relatively dense See also:population, See also:long pre-vented Slav colonization from reaching the Pacific. The Russians chanced to See also:cross it in the 17th century at its narrowest and most N. part, and thus struck the Pacific on the foggy and frozen shores of the Sea of Okhotsk; but two centuries elapsed ere, after colonizing the depressions around Lake Baikal, they crossed over the plateau in a more genial See also:zone and descended to the Pacific by the Amur. After that they spread rapidly S., up to the nearly uninhabited valley of the Usuri, to what is now the Gulf of See also:Peter the Great. In the S.W. higher portions of the plateau formation the empire has only comparatively recently planted its See also:foot on the Pamir, and it was only a few years earlier that it established itself firmly on the high-lands of Armenia. A broad See also:belt of hilly tracts—in every respect alpine in See also:character, and displaying the same variety of See also:climate and organic See also:life as alpine tracts usually do—skirts the plateau formation throughout The its entire length on the N. and N.W., forming an inter- alpine mediate region between the plateau and the plains. The belt. Caucasus, the See also:Elburz, the Kopet-dagh and See also:Paropamisus, the intricate and imperfectly known network of mountains W. of the Pamir, the Tian-shan and the See also:Ala-tau mountain regions, and farther N.E. the See also:Altai, the still unnamed complex of the See also:Minusinsk Mountains, the intricate mountain-chains of Sayan, with those of the Olekma, Vitim and Aldan all arranged en See also:echelon—the former from N.W. to S.E., and the others from S.W. to N.E.—all these belong to the same alpine belt that See also:borders the plateau from "end to end of the series. The flat lands which extend from the See also:base of the Alpine foothills to the shores of the Arctic Ocean, assume the character either of dry deserts, as in the See also:Aral-Caspian depression, or of See also:low The flat tablelands, as in central Russia and E. See also:Siberia, of lands. lacustrine regions in N.W. Russia and Finland, or of marshy prairies in W. Siberia, and of tundras in the far N. Throughout the whole of this vast area, their monotonous surfaces are diversified by only a few, and, for the most part, low, hilly tracts. Recently emerged from the See also:Post-See also:Pliocene sea, or freed from their See also:mantle of See also:ice, they persistently maintain the self-same features over immense areas; and the few portions that rise above the general See also:elevation have more the character of broad and See also:gentle swellings than of mountain-chains. Of this class are the swampy plateaus of the See also:Kola peninsula, sloping gently S. to the lacustrine region of Finland and N.W. Russia; the Valdai table-lands, where all the great See also:rivers of Russia take their rise; the broad and gently sloping meridional belt of the Ural Mountains; and lastly the Taimyr, Tunguzka and Verkhoyansk ranges in Siberia, which, notwithstanding their sub-Arctic position, do not reach the snow-line. The picturesque Bureya Mountains above the Amur, the See also:forest-clad Sikhota-ahn on the Pacific, and the volcanic chains of Kamchatka belong, however, to quite another orographical construction, being the border-ridges of the terraces by which the great plateau formation descends to the depths of the Pacific Ocean. It is owing to these leading orographical features—divined by Carl See also:Ritter, but only recently ascertained and established as fact by See also:geographical See also:research—that so many of the great Rivera. rivers of the old continent are comprised within the limits . of the Russian empire. Taking their rise on the plateau formation, or in its outskirts, they flow first along lofty See also:longitudinal valleys formerly filled with great lakes, next they cleave their way through the rocky barriers, and finally they enter the lowlands, where they become navigable, and, describing wide curves to avoid here and there the See also:minor plateaus and hilly tracts, they bring into See also:water-communication with one another places thousands of See also:miles apart. The See also:double river-systems of the See also:Volga and See also:Kama, the Ob and Irtysh, the Angara and See also:Yenisei, the See also:Lena and Vitim on the Arctic slope, and the Amur and Sungari on the Pacific slope, are instances. These were the obvious channels of Russian colonization. A broad depression—the Aral-Caspian See also:desert—has arisen where the plateau formation reaches its greatest altitude, and at the same See also:time suddenly changes its direction from N.W. to N.E. This desert is now filled to only a small extent by the See also:salt See also:waters of the Caspian Aral and See also:Balkash inland seas; but it bears unmistakable traces ott having been during Post-Pliocene times an immense inland See also:basin. There the Volga, the Ural, the Syr-darya and the Amu-darya See also:discharge their waters without reaching the ocean, but they bring life to the rapidly desiccating Transcaspian See also:steppes, and link together the most remote parts of Russia. See also:Geology.—The most striking feature in the geology of Russia is its Boundaries. remarkable freedom from disturbances, either in the form of mountain folding or of igneous intrusions. Over the greater part of the oeuonian See also:Silurian d other Poiesoroic Rocks of the Caucasus -See also:Cambrian MstamorphioSPlutonlo Rocks (. ~.I6 Volcanic Rocks of M. See also:Cauca.,on region See also:country the strata are still nearly as flat as when they were first laid down, and the deposits, even of the Cambrian See also:period, are as soft as those of the Mesozoic and See also:Tertiary formations in See also:England. Only in the Urals, the Caucasus, the Timan Mountains, the region of the Donets coalfield, and the See also:Kielce Hills is there any sign of the great folding from which nearly the whole of the See also:rest of Europe has suffered at one time or another. In the See also:early part of the Palaeozoic era only the gneissic region of Finland and See also:Olonets and probably the Archean See also:mass of S. Russia remained constantly above the sea; but there were several oscillations. Gradually, however, the sea retreated from W. Russia and in the Upper Carboniferous and See also:Permian periods it was confined to the E. At the beginning of the Mesozoic era the whole country became land, bearing upon its surface the salt lakes in which the Trias was laid down. During the See also:Jurassic period the sea again invaded the region, both from the N. and from the S., but still the W. of Russia See also:rose above the waves. In the Cretaceous period the waters with-See also:drew from the N.E., but in the S. they spread W., covering the whole of Poland and finally uniting with the ocean in which the See also:chalk of W. Europe was deposited. The Tertiary era was marked by a See also:gradual See also:extension S. of the N. land-mass. In the later stages arms of the sea were cut off and were converted at first into lagoons and then into brackish or fresh-water lakes which continued to occupy much of S. Russia until the beginning of the See also:Quaternary period.
During the first part of the Glacial period Russia seems to have been covered by an immense ice-See also:sheet, which extended also over central See also:Germany, and of which the E. limits cannot yet be determined.
The Archean rocks have a broad extension in Finland, N. Russia, the Ural Mountains and the Caucasus. In S. Russia they form the See also:floor upon which lies a thin covering of Tertiary beds, and they are exposed to view in the valleys of the Dnieper and the See also:Bug. They consist for the most part of red and See also:grey gneisses and granulites, with subordinate layers of See also:granite and granitite. The Finland rappa-kivi, the Serdobol See also:gneiss, and the Pargas and Rustiala See also:marble (with the so-called Eozoon canadense) yield See also:good See also:building See also: The Ordovician and Silurian systems are widely See also:developed, and it is most probable that, with the exception of the Archean continents of Finland and the S , the sea covered the whole of Russia. Being concealed, however, by more See also:recent deposits, the deposits appear on the surface only in N.W. Russia (Esthonia, See also:Livonia, St See also:Peters-See also:burg and on the Volkhov), where all the subdivisions of the system have been found; in the Timan ridge; on the W. slope of the Urals; in the Pai-kho ridge; and in the islands of the Arctic Ocean. In Poland the rocks of these periods are met with in the Kielce Mountains, and in See also:Podolia in the deeper ravines. The Devonian See also:dolomites, limestones and red sandstones See also:cover immense tracts and appear on the surface over a much wider area. From Esthonia these rocks extend N.E. to Lake See also:Onega, and S.E. to See also:Mogilev; they form the central plateau, as also the slopes of the Urals and the Petchora region. In N.W. and See also:middle Russia they contain a See also:special See also:fauna, and it appears that the Lower Devonian series of W. Europe, represented in Poland and in the Urals; is missing in N.W. and central Russia, where only the Middle and Upper Devonian divisions are found. Carboniferous deposits occur over nearly the whole of E. Russia, their W. boundary being a line See also:drawn from See also:Archangel to the upper Dnieper, thence to the upper See also:Don, and S. to the mouth of the last-named river, with a long narrow gulf extending W. to encircle the plateau of the Donets. They are visible, however, only on the W. borders of this region, being covered towards the E. by thick Permian and Triassic strata. Russia has three large See also:coal-bearing regions—the Moscow basin, the Donets region and the Urals. In the Valdai plateau there are only a few beds of mediocre coal. In the Moscow basin, which was a broad gulf of the Carboniferous sea, coal appears as isolated inconstant seams amidst littoral deposits, the formation of which was favoured by frequent minor subsidences of the seacoast. The coal is here confined to the lower See also:division of the system; the Upper Carboniferous (corresponding with the English Coal-See also:Measures) is exclusively marine, consisting chiefly of Fusulina See also:limestone. The Donets Coal-Measures, containing abundant remains of a See also:rich land-See also:flora, cover nearly i6,000 sq. m., and comprise a valuable stock of excellent See also:anthracite and coal, together with iron-mines. In this basin, as in W. Europe generally, the principal coal seams occur in the Upper Carboniferous, while the Lower Carboniferous is mainly composed of marine deposits, with, however, the first See also:bed of coal near its See also:summit. Several smaller coalfields on the slopes of the Urals and on the Timan ridge may be added to the above. The See also:Polish coalfields belong to another Carboniferous area of See also:deposit, which extended over See also:Silesia. The Permian limestones and marls occupy a strip in E. Russia of much less extent than that assigned to them by See also:Murchison. The variegated marls of E. Russia, rich in salt-springs, but very poor in fossils, are now held by most Russian geologists to be Triassic. The Permian deposits contain marine shells and also remains of See also:plants similar to those of England and Germany. But in the See also:government of See also:Vologda, on the rivers Sukhona and N. See also:Dvina, Glossopteris, Noeggerathiopsis and other ferns characteristic of the See also:Indian See also:Gondwana beds have been found; and with these are numerous remains of See also:reptiles similar to those which occur in the Indian deposits. In the Urals the marine fades is more fully developed and the fauna shows See also:affinities with that of the Productus limestone of the Central Asian mountain belt. During the Jurassic period the sea began again to invade Russia from S.E. and N.W. The limits of the Russian Jurassic system may be represented by a line drawn from the double valley of the Sukhona and Vytchegda to that of the upper Volga, and thence to Kieff, with a wide gulf penetrating towards the N.W. Within this space three depressions, all See also:running S.W. to N.E., are filled up with Upper Jurassic deposits. They are much denuded in the higher parts of this region, and appear but as isolated islands in central Russia. In the S.E. all the older subdivisions are represented, the deposits having the characters of a deep-sea formation in the Aral-Caspian region and on the Caucasus. Cretaceous beds—sands, loose sandstones, marls and white chalk—occupy nearly the whole of the region S. of a line drawn from the Niemen to the upper Oka and Don, and thence N.E. to See also:Simbirsk. Over a large part of this area, however, they are concealed by the later Tertiary deposits, and they are absent over the Dnieper and Don ridge in the Yaila Mountains and in the higher parts of the Caucasus. They are rich in grinding stone, and in phosphatic deposits. The Tertiary formations occupy large areas in S. Russia. The See also:Eocene covers wide tracts from Lithuania to See also:Tsaritsyn, and is represented in the See also:Crimea and Caucasus by thick deposits belonging to the same ocean which left its deposits on the See also:Alps and the Himalayas. Oligocene, quite similar to that of N. Germany, and containing See also: Its S. limits, roughly corresponding with those established by Murchison, but not yet settled in the S.E. and E., are, according to M. See also:Nikitin, the following:—from the S. frontier of Poland to Ovrutch, Uman, See also:Kremenchug, See also:Poltava and Razdornaya (50° N. See also:latitude), with a See also:curve N. to Kozelsk (I); thence due N. to Vetluga (58° N. latitude), E. to Glazova in See also:Vyatka, and from this See also:place towards the N. and W. along the See also:watershed of the Volga and See also:Pechora (?). S. of the 50th parallel appears the loess, with all its usual characters (land fossils, want ofpstratification, &c.), showing a remarkable uniformity of See also:composition over very large surfaces; it covers both watersheds and valleys, but chiefly the former. Such being the characters of the Quaternary deposits in Russia, the See also:majority of Russian geologists now adopt the See also:opinion that Russia was covered, as far as the above limits, with an immense ice-sheet which crept over central Russia and central Germany from Scandinavia and N. Russia. Another ice-covering was probably advancing at the same time from the N.E., that is, from the N. of the Urals, but the question as to the glaciation of the Urals still remains open. As to the loess, the usual view is that it was a See also:steppe-deposit due to the drifting of See also:fine sand and dust during a dry See also:episode in the See also:Pleistocene period. The deposits of the Post-Glacial period are represented through-out Russia, Poland and Finland, as also throughout Siberia and Central Asia, by very thick lacustrine deposits, which show that, after the melting of the ice-sheet, the country was covered with immense lakes, connected by broad channels (the Darden of the Swedes), which later on gave rise to the actual rivers. On the outskirts of the lacustrine region, traces of marine deposits, not higher than 200 or perhaps even 15o ft. above See also:present sea-level, are found alike on the Arctic Sea and on the Baltic and Black Sea coasts. A deep gulf of the Arctic Sea advanced up the valley of the Dvina; and the Caspian, connected by the See also:Manych with the Black Sea, and by the Uzboy valley with Lake Aral, penetrated N. up the Volga valley, as far as its See also:Samara See also:bend. Unmistakable traces show that, while during the Glacial period Russia had an arctic flora and fauna, the climate of the Lacustrine period was more genial than it is now, and a dense human population at that time peopled the shores of the numberless lakes. The Lacustrine period has not yet reached its See also:close in Russia. Finland and the N.W. hilly plateaus are still in the same geological phase, and are dotted with numberless lakes and ponds, while the rivers continue to dig out their yet undetermined channels. But the great lakes which covered the country during the Lacustrine period have disappeared, leaving behind them immense marshes like those of the Pripet and in the N.E. The disappearance of what still remains of them is accelerated not only by the general decrease of moisture, but also perhaps by the gradual upheaval of N. Russia, which is going on from Esthonia and Finland to the Kola peninsula and Novaya Zemlya, at an average See also:rate of about two feet per century. This upheaval—the consequences of which have been See also:felt even within the historic period, by the drainage of the formerly impracticable marshes of See also:Novgorod and at the See also:head of the Gulf of Finland—together with the destruction of forests (which must be considered, however, as a quite subordinate cause), contributes towards a decrease of precipitation over Russia and towards increased shallowness of her rivers. At the same time, as the gradients are gradually increasing on account of the upheaval of the continent, Lhe rivers dig their channels deeper and deeper. Consequently central and especially S. Russia See also:witness the formation of numerous See also:miniature canons; or ovraghi (deep ravines), the summits of which rapidly advance and ramify in the loose surface deposits. As for the S. steppes, their See also:desiccation, the consequence of the above causes, is in rapid progress.' 1 Bibliography: See also:Memoirs, Izvertia and Geological Maps of the See also:Committee for the Geological Survey of Russia; Memoirs and Sborniks of the Mineralogical Society, of the See also:Academy of See also:Science and of the See also:Societies of Naturalists at the See also:Universities; See also:Mining See also:Journal; Murchison's Geology of Russia; See also:Helmersen's and Moller's Geological Maps of Russia and the Urals; Inostrantsev in Appendix to Russian See also:translation of See also:Reclus's Geogr. Univ., and See also:Manual of Geology (Russian). { See also:Semiryechensk Population.—The population of the empire, which was estimated at 74,000,000 in 1859, was found to be over 129,200,000 at the See also:census of 1897, taken over all the empire except Finland. In 1904 it was estimated to be 143,000,000, and in 1906, according to a detailed estimate of the Central Statistical Committee, it was 149,299,300. Thus from 186o to 1897 the population increased 741%, and from 1897 to 1904 26.3, an average See also:annual increase of about 31% as compared with an average annual increase of 21% during the period 186o-97. The increase took place chiefly in the large cities, in Siberia, Poland, Lithuania, S. Russia and See also:Caucasia. The See also:official divisions of the empire are given here, and details are given in separate articles. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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