Identifier: russia00dobsrich (find matches)
Title: Russia;
Year: 1913 (1910s)
Authors: Dobson, George Grove, Henry M Stewart, Hugh, 1884-1934 Haenen, F. de
Subjects: Soviet Union -- Description and travel
Publisher: London, A. and C. Black
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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too wonderful is the Dnieppr, and there is no suchriver in the world. CHAPTER XXXI THE STEPPE In the south of Little Russia commence the grassytreeless plains that stretch to the Black Sea and theCaspian, and that from the dawn of history haveformed a pasture-ground for the flocks of nomjidpeoples. Over their unbroken expanses havewandered in succession Scythians, Sarmatians.Goths, Hunns, Khasars, and at last, about thesixth century of our era, came settlers, certainSlavonic tribes that moved down the Westernrivers, some of whom burnt while others buriedtheir dead. But almost from the beginning thesewere exposed to the constant raids of light-mountedTurkish nomads, and later on a more formidablerace named Polovtsi. The old chronicles reflectwith a certain bald grimness the dangers anddifficulties that surrounded the colonists life. Inspring the peasant will ride out to plough, and thePolovtchin will come, strike the peasant with anarrow, take his horse, then ride into the village, 428
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A CIRCASSIAN THE STEPPE 429 seize his wife and children and his goods, and setfire to barn and all. Under tliis endless and hope-less struggle the steppes became gradually depopu-lated. The settlers fled to the north behindbarriers of natural and artificial fortifications, andonly a few oases were left along the rivers of theDonets basin. The desolation was completed bythe Tartars. What remained of the populationsought refuge in Muscovite Russia and the banksof the Vistula. The country became once moreempty save for INIongolian watch-fires. The recolonization of the western steppes wasthe immediate result of the social and religiousoppression inflicted on their Russian subjects byLithuania, and especially Poland. To escape fromserfdom, the peasants fled in masses toward theuninhabited prairie, and in that rich but disturbedcountry the peculiar conditions of life bred arace of soldier-settlers. To these was given theTartar name of Cossack, which means, strictly,mounted guerilla troops.

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