Ukraine - The Land and its People. An Introduction to its Geography

Stepan Rudnyzkyj

• Publisher: Jazzybee Verlag
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9783849661946
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Eastern European History
• Index: History

In fact, before the Russian aggression in 2022, the name Ukraine meant nothing at all to many of us. To dispel this ignorance concerning "the second largest Slavic nation, " this little book was already written in 1910 by the famous geographer of the University of Lemberg. He divides his discussion into two sections: the first a treatise on the physical geography of Ukraine, describing its geographic unity, its general topography, and giving detailed information concerning its streams, climate, flora, and fauna; the second, concerned with the Ukraine's anthropogeography, a clear and concise exposition of those national qualities which entitle the Ukrainians to an independent national existence. Such foundations for national independence are, in the words of the author, "independent anthropological characteristics: a distinct independent language; uniform historico-political traditions an aspirations, and independent culture, and a compact geographical territory." A general survey of the natural and industrial resources of Ukrainia, and a description of her districts and settlements conclude the discussion.

BOOK II. ANTHROPOGEOGRAPHY

Ethnographic Boundaries of Ukraine

Number and Geographical Distribution of Ukrainians

To give the ethnographic boundaries of a Western or Central European nation is very easy, for they have long since been determined and investigated, and it would be hard to find anyone who might try to efface or disregard them, least of all to falsify them. But with the Ukrainians it is quite different. They possess neither political independence, as for example, the Germans, French, Italians, etc., nor political influence, as for instance, the Poles and Czechs in Austria. The Ukrainians inhabit parts of two states, Austria-Hungary and Russia, and have some political significance in the former, while in the latter they are not even recognized as a racial entity.

Accordingly, the real boundaries of the National territory of the Ukraine are insufficiently known. They are best known within Austrian territory, although the statistics, especially those of Galicia, are very poor. Even less exact in respect to the distribution of the Ukrainians are the Hungarian statistics. In Russia the condition is worst of all. The first real census here was taken on January 28, 1897. All earlier calculations and estimates are of very questionable worth. For instance, all the Pinchuks, the Ukrainian inhabitants of the Polissye, have been erroneously counted with the White Russians, the Ukrainians in the vicinity of Mhilin and Starodub with the Great Russians. Besides, very many Ukrainians were registered under the general heading of "Russians."

For this reason, it is impossible at the present time to give the boundaries of the Ukrainian racial territory as exactly as those of the Western and Central European countries. The boundaries here given, however, are drawn from official statistical sources, and only very conspicuous and generally acknowledged errors have been corrected.

The western boundary of the compact Ukrainian national territory begins on the shores of the Black Sea at the delta of the Danube, where part of the descendants of the Zaporogs are still devoted to their traditional vocation of fishing. Here the neighbors of the Ukrainians are the Romanians and Bulgarians. The Ukrainian-Romanian boundary line then goes thru Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Northeastern Hungary.

In Bessarabia the border passes thru Ismail, Bilhorod, the mouth of the Dniester at its liman, then up the Dniester to Dubosari, running in adventurous windings past Orhiev and Bilzi until it reaches the Pruth-Dniester divide, and leaving this province near Novoselitza. Innumerable ethnographic islands lie on both sides of this boundary; Romanians on Ukrainian territory and Ukrainians on Romanian territory. Only within the past centuries has the land been settled more thickly and the main body of Romanians has been so dotted with this medley of races as to form a veritable ethnographic mosaic.

In the Bukovina, the boundary of the Ukrainian territory, running along the national border at first, reaches the cities of Sereth and Radivtzi. Then it turns with a sharp bend to Chernivtsi and passes in a wide curve toward the southwest and west, thru Storozhinetz, Vikiv, Moldavitsia and Kirlibaba to the White Cheremosh, where it extends over into Hungary. In the Bukovina, too, the ethnographic boundary of the Ukrainians is not of great antiquity (the Cheremosh region excluded).

The boundary is all the older in Hungary, for the Ukrainian people have had a place here since the early middle ages. This boundary extends along the Visheva, and then the Tissa, past Sihot to Vishkiv. At this place the border crosses to the left bank of the river and, passing along the Gutin Mountain Ridge, reaches the river Tur near Polad. Here the Romanian-Ukrainian boundary ends and the neighboring country of the Magyars begins.

The boundary of Ukrainian territory here runs in a generally northeast direction, touching Uylak, Beregszasz, Mukachiv (Munkacs) , Uzhorod (Unghvar) , Bardiiv (Bartfa) , Sabiniv (Kis Szeben), Kesmark. At Lublau the boundary crosses the Poprad River and reaches Galicia. Between Unghvar and Bartfeld, the Slovaks become the neighbors of the Ukrainians. The boundary between Slovaks and Ukrainians is very indistinct, and only the investigations of Hnatiuk and Tomashivsky have succeeded in determining it and in proving that thru the centuries the borders of Ukrainian territory have been subject to comparatively slight changes.

In Galicia, the Ukrainians are neighbors to the Poles. The Polish rule of over 500 years' duration, has forced the Ukrainian element eastward to a great extent into the hill country and the plain. Only in the mountains has the Ukrainian element preserved itself and the Ukrainian territory here forms a peninsula extending far to the west.

The Ukrainian-Polish boundary in Galicia begins at the village of Shlakhtova, west of the Poprad Pass, and extends eastward, touching the small towns of Pivnichna, Hribov, Horlitzi, Zmigrod, Dukla, Rimanov, Zarshin, as far as Sianik, whence it follows the general direction of the San as far as Dubetzco. Here it turns toward the northeast, reaches the San River again near Radimno, and runs along the left shore past Yaroslav, Siniava, Lezaisk, reaching Russian-Poland at Tarnogrod.

In Russian Poland, the Ukrainians inhabit the newly-created Government of Kholm, and for five centuries they have had to ward off the eastward expansion of the Poles. Nevertheless, the Polonizing of the country began to progress under Russian rule, as a result of the inconsiderate Russification policy of the authorities and the sympathy of the Ukrainian population with the Greek-Catholic faith, ruthlessly suppressed by the Russians, to which the Ukrainians of the Kholm country still belonged half a century ago, a sympathy which is not yet extinct.

The boundary line between Poles and Ukrainians in the Kholm country has, on both sides, a more or less wide zone of a mixed population and numerous ethnographic islands. It passes thru Tarnogrod, Bilhoray, Shteshebreshin, Zamostye, Krasnostav, Lubartiv, Radin, Lukiv, Sokoliv, Dorohichin and Bilsk, reaching the Narev River in the Government of Grodno. Here the borders of the Ukrainian and the Polish national territory meet the White Russian border and the northern border of the Ukraine begins.

The Ukrainian-White Russian boundary extends thru the Governments of Grodno and Minsk, at first along the Narev River, up to its source in the Biloveza Forest. Then the line passes Pruzani over to the Yassiolda River, turning off near Poriche toward the northeast and reaching the lake of Vihonivske Ozero. From here it turns toward the southeast and reaches the Pripet River at the mouth of the Zna. Then this river forms the boundary up to where it joins with the Dnieper. Only below Mosir the White Russians push forward in an obtuse salient to the right bank of the Pripet. It should be observed that the White Russians along the boundary described form a transition in respect to language and ethnology between the real White Russians and the real Ukrainians, who, in this region, are called Pinchuki. The transition zone is 30 to 50 kilometers in width.

The Dnieper forms the boundary of the Ukraine only along a short stretch in the Government of Chernihiv, from the mouth of the Pripet to the mouth of the Sol near Louv. Then the border runs northeast past Novosibkiv, Nove misto and Suraz, as far as Mhlin, where the White Russian country ceases and the Russian begins.

To sketch accurately the boundary of the Ukraine toward Muscovy is not easy, even though there is by no means a gradual transition here, as there is on the White Russian border. The boundary of the Ukraine is even much more sharply defined here than in the region where it separates the Ukrainians from the Poles, Romanians and Magyars. But it is hard to determine without detailed investigation on the spot, for the official Russian statistics have been compiled very much in favor of the ruling race. In addition, it must be observed that the districts along this border were not thickly settled until the 17th and 18th Centuries. The settlers came from the Ukraine on the one side and from Muscovy on the other, and established themselves in separate settlements. To this day a purely Ukrainian village or small town often borders on one made up entirely of Russians, and the number of ethnographic islands is rather large on both sides.

The boundary of the compact Ukrainian territory in the Governments of Kursk and Voronizh passes thru Putivil, Rilsk, Sudza, Miropilia, Oboian, the sources of the Psiol, and Vorskla, Bilhorod, Korocha, Stari Oskol, Novi Oskol, and Biriuch, and reaches the Don River near Ostrohosk. The Don forms a smaller part of the border of the Ukraine than the Dnieper. The boundary line leaves the river at the mouth of the Icorez, cuts the Bitiuh River and, passing Baturlinivka and Novokhopersk, reaches the Khoper River in the country of the Don Cossacks. Here begins the eastern boundary of the Ukrainian country. It extends first along the Khoper River southward, crosses the Don perpendicularly at the mouth of the Khoper, passes along the Kalitva and the Donets, crossing the Don for the third time near Novocherkask, and, pursuing a wide curve along the Sal River, reaches Lake Manich. Right opposite, on the left bank of the Don, the Ukrainians confront the Kalmucks, the advance guard of the sub-Caucasian and Caucasian medley of races. Among these thinly scattered and culturally inferior tribes, a strong flood of Ukrainian and Russian colonization has been pouring in the course of the past century. The Ukrainian element is gradually predominating in the entire region of Ciscaucasia and is constantly pushing forward toward the east and southeast. New islands of Ukrainian-speaking people are forming and are growing constantly and uniting to form larger complexes.

From Lake Manich, the border of the Ukraine country runs southward thru the district of Medveza of the Government of Stavropol, as far as the sources of the great Yahorlic. Then it turns eastward past Stavropol, Alexandrivsk and Novohrihoryvsk. In a narrow strip the Ukrainians here reach the Caspian Sea. It was only suggested in the census of 1897, but proved beyond doubt by the reports of the new settlements of the Ukrainian element in these regions, that the Ukrainian area here shows a great increase.

The southern boundary of the Ukraine in the Caucasian lands passes thru the Terek, Kuban and Black Sea Governments by way of Nalchic, Piatihorsk, Labinsk and Maikop, reaching the shore of the Black Sea between Tuapse and Sochi. In this region the Ukrainians have as neighbors besides the Russians, the Kalmucks, Kirgizians, Norgaians, Chechenians, Cabardines, Circassians, Abkhasians and Caucasian Tartars.

The further course of the southern border of the Ukraine, as far as the delta of the Danube, is indicated on the whole by the coasts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azof. Only Crimea has, until recently, remained outside the ethnographic confines of the Ukraine. To the extent that the Crimean Tartars have begun to emigrate to Turkey, however, the Ukrainian element has gained strength thru constant reinforcements from the Central Ukrainian districts, so that today only the mountain region and the south coast of Crimea are considered Tartar country.

These boundaries enclose the compact country which is inhabited by the Ukrainians. This country includes North and West Bukovina, Northeastern Hungary, East Galicia and the southwestern part of West Galicia, the newly-created Government of Kholm (the eastern districts of the Governments of Lublin and Sidlez in Russian Poland), the southern part of Grodno and Minsk, all of Volhynia, Podolia, Kiev and Kherson, besides the southeastern and northwestern districts of Bessarabia. To the left of the Dnieper, the borders of the Ukraine include the Governments of Chernihiv, Poltava, Kharkov, Katerinoslav, Tauria (with the exception of the Yaila) and the entire Kuban region, the chains of high mountains excepted. In addition, the following belong to the territory of Ukraine: The southern third of the Government of Kursk, the southern half of Voroniz, the western third of the Don Cossack country, the southern half of Stavropol, the northern border of the Terek region, and, finally, the northwestern part of the Government of the Black Sea. For Europe it is a very spacious territory, being second in size only to the Russian (Muscovite) national territory. The area of the Ukrainian national territory is 850,000 square kilometers, of which only 75,000 square kilometers lie within the borders of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the remaining country of 775,000 square kilometers being subject to Russian rule.

Beyond this compact Ukrainian national territory, the Ukrainians live in numerous great homogeneous patches, scattered over wide areas of the Old and New Worlds. In Bessarabia we meet with a whole series of these Ukrainian language areas or islands along the Pruth River and the Russian-Romanian boundary, in the Romanian Dobrudja, and in the delta of the Danube. In the Bukovina there are Ukrainian language islands at Suchava and Kimpolung, in Hungary in the Backza, at Nyregihatza, Nagi-Caroli, Gollnitz, etc., in the Kholm country between Lukov and Zelekhov, between Sidletz and Kaluszin, and near Sokolov. Along the White Russian border, where the transition is gradual, no real language islands are found in the intervening zone before mentioned. We find all the more of them in Ukrainian-Russian borderlands, where the two nationalities are very sharply separated and there are no transitions. In the Government of Kursk we find a whole chain of well-defined Ukrainian language islands in the midst of the Russian territory; at Fatiez, between Dmitriev and Oboian, and also at the sources of the Sem. In the Government of Voroniz there are several language islands at Siemlansk and Borisoglebsk. A few scattered Ukrainian settlements extend to the district of Tambov and Yelez. The Don country, for a long time practically closed to settlers because of its Cossack organization, was a valuable thoroughfare for the Ukrainian colonization movement in its expansion in the central Volga district. Here there lived (1910) over 600,000 Ukrainians in the Governments of Saratov, Samara and Astrakhan. Here lie, in closest proximity to numerous German colonies, great Ukrainian language islands, near Balashov, Atkarsk, Balanda, on the Eman and Medveditza, at Nikolaievsk, Khvalinsk, Samara and Boguruslan. From Khvalinsk on, the Ukrainian colonies on the left bank of the Volga take up as much space as the Russian. We find the Ukrainian colonies here opposite Saratov, Kamishin, Dubivka, Chorni Yar, and at Zarev. Besides these there are, at a greater distance from the Volga, Ukrainian language islands in the country around the source of the Yeruslan and the Great Usen, on Lakes Elton and Baskunchak, on the Ilovla and the Yergeni hills. In the Orenburg Government, on the Ural River, more than 50,000 Ukrainian colonists now dwell. In general, the Ukrainians in the year of 1897 comprised 13% of the population of the Government of Astrakhan (District of Zarev 38%, Chornoyar 43%), more than 7% in the Government of Saratov, nearly 5% in Samara. At present, considering the active Ukrainian colonization of the past decades, these percentages must be much greater.

In the Caucasus lands we likewise find a goodly number of Ukrainian Colonies. According to the results of the census of 1897 the Ukrainians comprised 17 to 19% of the "Russian" population in the Governments of Erivan, Kutais, Daghestan and Kars, 7,5% in Tiflis and 5% in Yelisavetpol and in Baku each.

Thru the Volga and Caucasus lands, the tide of Ukrainian emigrants reached Russian Central Asia. The establishment of Ukrainian settlements in this region only began toward the end of the past century and has continued to this day. In the year 1897 the Ukrainians already comprised 29% of the "Russian" population in the province of Sir Daria and 23% in the province of Akmolinsk. In the Provinces of Transkaspia, Siemiriechensk, Turgai, Samarkand and Ferghana, the Ukrainians comprised 10% to 20% of the "Russian" population; in the Province of Siemipalatinsk, 5%.

But Ukrainian colonization in Siberia appears on the largest scale of all. In a long line of thousands of kilometers, Ukrainian language islands and detached colonies stretch along the southern border of this land of tomorrow.

The highest percentages of Ukrainians are found among the "Russian" population of the coast province near Vladivostok (over 29%) and the Province of Amur (over 20%), the greatest absolute numbers in the southern districts of the Governments of Tomsk, Tobolsk and Yeniseysk.

Besides these colonies and language islands in Eurasia, we find settlements of considerable size in America. More than half a million Ukrainians are scattered in small groups over the spacious area of the United States. They are, for the most part, mine and factory workers, who usually return, with the earnings they have saved, to their fatherland. Pennsylvania is especially rich in Ukrainian emigrants, who sometimes take root here, but usually lose their nationality in the second generation. Agricultural colonies have been established by the Ukrainians in Canada. Here we find Ukrainian language islands of some size in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, and smaller groups of settlements in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia. The number of the Ukrainians in Canada exceeds 200,000, and the steady character and compactness of the settlements preserve the Ukrainian element from rapid denationalization. The same kind of agricultural colonies have been established by the Ukrainian peasants in Brazil. They are located chiefly in the State of Parana, also in detached groups in Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina and Sao Paulo, as well as in the adjacent lands of Argentina. These rapidly increasing settlers, about 60,000 in number, form an important cultural element here among the indolent Luso-Brazilians.

But we do not desire, in this small work, to write a geography of the Ukrainian colonies. All are branches severed from the mother-tree, which, considering the low grade of culture of the settlers, must sooner or later be assimilated by the foreign race. Only the Asiatic colonies have some (though rather slight) prospects of preserving their national individuality into the remote future. The constant addition of new arrivals from the home country, as well as the higher culture of the Ukrainian people as opposed to the Russian masses, will preserve the Ukrainian colonists in Asia from rapid denationalization.

What is the total number of Ukrainians, and how many...