FOOTNOTES:
[48] Colonie straniere nel territorio politico. La Geogr., Vol. 3, 1915, May-June, pp. 222-224.
[49] L. Fune: Les parlers populaires du Département des Alpes-Maritimes, Bull. Géogr. Hist. et Descrip., 1897, No. 2, pp. 298-303.
[50] Op. cit.
[51] Blocher u. Garraux: Die deut. Ortsnamenformen in Westschweiz, Deutsche Erde, Vol. 5, 1906, p. 170.
[52] The Italian population of Austria-Hungary is estimated at 768,422 according to the Austrian census of 1910. Italian computations set the total number of Italians living in Austria at 837,000, distributed as follows (Boll. Real. Soc. Geogr., Aug. 1, 1915, p. 897):
| Upper Adige Valley | 25,000 |
| Trentino | 373,000 |
| Triest | 142,000 |
| Austrian Friuliland | 93,000 |
| Istria | 148,000 |
| Dalmatia | 30,000 |
| Fiume | 26,000 |
| Total | 837,000 |
[53] G. de Lucchi: Trentino e Tirolo, Boll. 16, Minist. Aff. Esteri, Rome, 1915, p. 70.
[54] A. Dauzat: Les vallées italiennes de langue allemande, A Travers le Monde, 1913, Sept. 6, pp. 285-286.
[55] O. Noel, Histoire du commerce du monde, Paris, 1891, Vol. 2, pp. 148-168.
[56] B. Auerbach: Races et nationalités en Autriche-Hongrie, Paris, 1898, p. 86.
[57] Scheller, Deutsche u. Romanen in Südtirol u. Venetien, Pet. Mitt., 1877, pp. 365-385.
[58] A. Galanti: I diritti storici ed etnici dell’ Italia sulle terre irredente, La Geogr., Vol. 3, Nos. 3-4, March-April 1915, p. 88.
[59] A. Galanti: I Tedeschi sul versante meridionale delle Alpi, Typ. Acad. Lincei, Rome, 1885, p. 185.
[60] According to press reports in 1915 Dante’s monument was destroyed by the Austrians.
[61] G. de Lucchi: Trentino e Tirolo, Boll. 16, Minist. Aff. Esteri, Rome, 1915.
[62] O. Keude: Italien und die Dalmatienische Inselfrage, Kartogr. Zeits., Vienna, Nov. 15, 1915.
[63] Austrian census returns have been the object of frequent criticism in non-Germanic countries. The political interests of the Austrian government may have led its officials to minimize the importance of the language spoken by dissenting peoples. A tendency to overestimate the spread of German has always been suspected. A common practice consists in forming artificial administrative districts so as to create German numerical superiority within their borders. As a rule an increase of 10 per cent in the number of Slavs, Rumanians and Italians can be safely added to the figures set forth in government statistics. Conversely the same percentage may be subtracted with safety from the totals for Germans and Hungarians.
[64] Italian predominates in both Zara and Spalato, the latter city being second in commercial importance along the Dalmatian coast. It is estimated that, in all, more than 18,000 Italians inhabit Dalmatia.
[65] Triest and its environs are peopled mainly by Italians. The suburbs are inhabited by crowded Slavic settlements. The census of 1910 shows 118,960 Italians, 57,920 Slovenes, 11,860 Germans and 2,400 Croats. For Istria returns of the same date give: Italians 147,417, Serbo-Croatians 168,184, Slovenes 55,134.
[66] M. Wutte: Das Deutschtum in Österreichischen Küstenland, Deutsche Erde, Vol. 8, 1909, p. 202.
[67] G. Canastrelli: Il numero degli Slavi in Friuli, Riv. Geogr. It., Vol. 21, Nos. 1-2, Jan-Feb. 1914, pp. 96-102.
[68] O. Marinelli: Il numero degli Albanesi in Italia, Riv. Geogr. It., Vol. 20, pp. 364-367; A. Similari: Gli Albanesi in Italia, loro costumi e poesie popolari, Naples, 1891.
[69] Annuario Statistico Italiano, 2d series, Vol. 4, 1914, Roma, 1915, p. 28.
[70] The Italian practice of computing by families is a result in this instance of the official standpoint which recognizes foreign languages as prevailing only in home life.
[71] G. Lukas: Die Latinität der adriatischen Küste Österreich-Ungarns—Geographische Vorlesungen, Pet. Mitt., Vol. 6, Nov. 1915, pp. 413-416.
[CHAPTER V]
SCANDINAVIAN AND BALTIC LANGUAGES
Scandinavia’s remoteness from the center of European political strife has not saved the region from the inconveniences arising from linguistic clashes. Especially is this true where political and linguistic boundaries do not coincide. The Danish-German frontier has been marked by antagonism between Danes and Germans. Denmark’s hold on Schleswig-Holstein prior to 1866 had engendered bitter feeling among Germans, who considered the subjection of their kinsmen settled on the right bank of the Elbe estuary as unnatural. After Prussia had annexed the contested region, it was the Danes’ turn to feel dissatisfied and to claim the districts occupied by their countrymen.
The problem of Schleswig-Holstein is a direct consequence of Germany’s geography. By its position in Europe the Teutonic empire is essentially a land power. Its maritime development began in the midst of adverse natural conditions in the northern confines of the country. The southern Baltic and the North Sea are both shallow. Sandbanks and winter ice hamper navigation in the easternmost stretch of these waters. An outlet exists only in the round-about and rock-studded Danish straits. The Oder, Elbe and Ems are constantly discharging material collected from the mountainous heart of Europe. The harbors of the northwestern shore are artificial and require ceaseless watching, for all of which German navigation pays a heavy annual tax.
The Danish tongue of land which divides Germany’s northern sea boundary into two separate regions contains in its eastern and northern coasts the very advantages which Germany cannot find on its northern frontier. Eastern Jutland boasts a few natural harbors located at the head of the indentations which impart a fiord-like aspect to this coast and which in course of time have grown into centers of commercial activity. German shipping circles would consider the annexation of the Danish peninsula to Germany as a measure leading to high economic advantages, even though the construction of the Kiel canal has materially changed conditions which affected the Danish-German situation when the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein were annexed in 1866.
The present Danish-speaking population of Schleswig-Holstein is variously estimated at between 140,000 and 150,000. These subjects of the Kaiser occupy the territory south of the Danish boundary to a line formed by the western section of the Lecker Au, the southern border of the swampy region extending south of Rens and the northern extension of the Angeln hills. Between this line and the area in which German is spoken a zone of the old Frisian tongue of Holland survives along the western coast of the peninsula from the Lecker Au to the Treene river.[72] Frisian is also spoken in the coastal islands.
The degree to which linguistic variations adapt themselves to physical configuration is admirably illustrated in this case, by the southerly extension of Danish along the eastern section of the peninsula where persistence of the Baltic ridge appears in the hilly nature of the land. The Low German of the long Baltic plain also continued to spread unimpeded within the low-lying western portion of the narrow peninsula, until its northward extension was arrested by uninhabited heath land. The presence of Frisian along the western coast is undoubtedly connected with the adaptability of Frisians to settle in land areas reclaimed from the sea.
The province of Schleswig began to acquire historical prominence as an independent duchy in the twelfth century. Barring few interruptions its union with the Danish crown has been continuous to the time of the Prussian conquest. In 1848 both Schleswig and Holstein were disturbed by a wave of political agitation which expressed itself in demands for the joint incorporation of both states in the German Confederation. To what extent the mass of Danish inhabitants of the duchies took part in this movement is a matter of controversy. Holstein was an ancient fief of the old Germano-Roman Empire. Its population has always been largely German. But the duchy of Schleswig is peopled mainly by Danes. By the terms of the treaty of Prague of August 23, 1866, both Austria and Prussia had agreed to submit final decision on the question of nationality to popular vote.[73] The provisions of the clause dealing with the referendum, however, were not carried out, and on Jan. 12, 1867, Schleswig was definitely annexed by Prussia.[74]
Incorporation of the Danish provinces was followed by systematic attempts to Germanize the population[75] through the agency of churches and schools. In addition a number of colonization societies such as the “Ansiedelungs Verein für westliche Nordschleswig,” founded at Rödding in 1891,[76] and the “Deutsche Verein für das nordliche Schleswig” were formed to introduce German ownership of land in the Danish districts. The final years of the nineteenth century in particular constituted a period of strained feeling between Danes and Germans owing to unsettled conditions brought about by duality of language and tradition.
Fig. 34—Sketch map of Schleswig-Holstein showing languages spoken. According to the German viewpoint. Scale, 1:1,200,000. (Based on maps on pp. 59, 60, Andree’s Handatlas, 6th ed.)
At present the problem of Schleswig is considered settled by the German government. A treaty signed on January 11, 1907, between the cabinets of Berlin and Copenhagen defined the status of the inhabitants of the annexed duchy. The problem of the “Heimatlose” or citizens without a country[77] was solved by the recognition of the right of choice of nationality on their part. The German government considered this measure as satisfying the aspirations of its subjects of Danish birth. Nevertheless, although the Danish government appeared to share these views, the acquiescence of Danes living in Germany to any solution other than the restoration to Denmark of the Danish-speaking sections of Schleswig remains doubtful. That suspicion of the loyalty of the Schleswig Danes is still entertained in Germany is shown by statements like that made by Henry Goddard Leach, Secretary of the American-Scandinavian Foundation, when he asserted[78] that Roald Amundsen, discoverer of the South Pole, was prevented from lecturing in Norwegian, in the town of Flensborg, because the language resembled Danish.
Fig. 35—Sketch map of Schleswig-Holstein showing languages spoken. According to the Danish viewpoint. Scale, 1:1,200,000. (After Rosendal based on Clausens and Heyers.)
In Norway the linguistic problem goes under the name of Maalstraev. The question of language in that country was debated with marked fervor[79] during the years prior to the separation from Sweden. “Freedom with self-government, home, land and our own language” was the plea of Mr. Jörgen Lövland, subsequently Premier of Norway, in an address to the Norwegian youth in 1904. “Political freedom,” then said Mr. Lövland, “is not the deepest and greatest. Greater is it for a nation to preserve her intellectual inheritance in her native tongue.”
Norwegian history is not continuous, complaisant historians to the contrary. A long break occurs from the Union of Kalmar in 1397, when the country ceased to exist as a political entity, to 1814. During this period of extinction, Norway was a mere geographical shuttlecock tossed between Sweden and Denmark. The latter country as a rule obtained the upper hand in its dealings with Norway. This relation accounts for the analogies in the languages of the two nations. But although Norway had seceded from Denmark in 1814, the Danish language, representing the speech of the more energetic and better educated Danes, remained official. Four and a half centuries of union between the two countries had made Danish the medium of intellectual development throughout Norway. But this linguistic invasion was accompanied by a notable modification of Danish. Norwegian intonations and sound articulations became adapted to it and the Norwego-Danish language, which is spoken today, gradually came into use.
This hybrid language, however, does not prevail exclusively. About 95 per cent of the Norwegians speak, according to districts, different dialects derived from the Old Norse. The Norwego-Danish, or Riksmaal, is the language of polite society and the one which a foreigner naturally learns when in Norway. The language of the land, or Norsk as it is called by the Norwegians, has the merit of being more homogeneous than either Danish or Swedish.
Nationality and language have grown apace in Norway. Prior to the nineteenth century the use of words taken from the Norwegian dialects was considered bad form. The granting of a constitution to the Norwegians, in 1814, created a strong feeling of nationality throughout the land. This spirit was reflected in active research for every form of Old Norse culture. Hitherto despised patois words were forced into prose or poetry by the foremost Norwegian writers, a movement to Norsefy the Riksmaal thus being originated.
As a result of these endeavors a new language, the “Landsmaal,” or fatherland speech, came into being about the middle of the nineteenth century. The name of Ivar Aasen will always be linked with it. This highly gifted peasant devoted his life to the idea of a renaissance of the Old Norse language through the unification of the current peasant dialects. Scientific societies, urged by patriotism no less than by genuine scholarly interest, granted him subsidies which enabled him to carry on his studies. Two of his works—“The Grammar of the Norwegian Popular Language,” published in 1848, and a “Dictionary of the Norwegian Popular Language,” in 1850—virtually established a new medium of speech in Norway.
Landsmaal was happily introduced just about the time when a sense of national consciousness began to dawn on Norwegian minds. By a number of enactments of the Storting the study of the new national tongue was made compulsory. This body first acted in May 1885 by requesting the Government “to adopt the necessary measures so that the people’s language, as school and official language, be placed side by side with our ordinary written speech.”[80] Then, in 1892, the following law for elementary schools was framed: “The school board (in each district) shall decide whether the school readers and text-books shall be composed in Landsmaal or the ordinary book-‘maal’ and in which of these languages the pupil’s written exercises shall in general be composed. But the pupil must learn to read both languages.” Finally, in 1896, the study of Landsmaal was made obligatory in the high schools.
After Norway secured complete national independence, in 1905, the Landsmaal advanced rapidly. Its use was permitted in university examinations. By 1909 one hundred and twenty-five out of six hundred and fifty school districts had adopted “New Norse” as the medium of instruction.[81] In the bishopric of Bergen the new language came to stay in 56 out of 101 country parishes. The issue between Landsmaal and Riksmaal being closely linked with nationalism in Norway, many Norwegians have now come to look upon the Danish tongue as a sign of former vassalage. New Norse, on the other hand, embodies the newly acquired national independence. In the eyes of patriots it is the language which is most closely allied to the saga tongue of their Viking ancestors. And yet it is stated that less than a thousand persons in Norway actually use New Norse in their conversation.[82] The supplanting of Norwego-Danish by the made-to-order Landsmaal bids fair to take time. But the process of welding Norwegian dialects into a single national language is going on. In this must be sought the significance of Norway’s language agitation. A Norwegian tongue which will be spoken within Norwegian boundaries is being formed. In recent years it has been customary to publish all acts of Parliament both in Norwego-Danish and in Landsmaal.
The Swedish language differs from Norwegian by a typical accentuation. The growth of the language to its present form may be traced back to the Runic period of the thirteenth century. At that time Swedish was free from foreign admixture. The influence of Latin and of Middle and Low German was felt later. The language passed successively through the period of Old Swedish (1200-1500) and Early Modern Swedish (1500-1730). Its present form belongs to the Later Modern School, although it is spoken now without much change from the language of the middle eighteenth century.
The eastern half of the European Continent contains a zone of excessive linguistic intermingling along the line where Teutonic and Slavic peoples meet. From the shores of the White Sea to the Baltic and thence to the coast of the Black Sea an elongated belt of lowland was ill fitted to become the seat of a single state because nature has not provided it with strongly marked geographical boundaries which might have favored the development of nationality. Hence it is that before the eighteenth century we do not find a single nation in possession of this region. On the other hand, it is the site on which three religions met in bloody fray in modern times. At the beginning of the modern era its northern sections became the theater of wars between Protestants and Catholics, while to the south, Christians arrayed against eastern infidels were obliged to war for centuries before the danger of the invasion of central Europe by Mohammedan hordes was totally removed.
The Finns, occupying the northernmost section of this elongated belt, are linguistically allied to the Turki. Physically they constitute the proto-Teutonic substratum of the northern Russians with whom they have been merged. Their land was transferred from Sweden to Russia in 1808. Autonomy conceded by the Czar’s government provided the inhabitants with a tolerable political status, until it was rescinded by the imperial decree of February 15, 1899. The opening years of the present century marked the beginning of a policy of Slavicization prosecuted with extreme vigor on the part of the provincial administrators.
The Finnish peoples of Russia must be regarded as autochthons who have been subjected to the inroads of both Slavic and Tatar invasions. In the ninth century A.D. they formed compact populations on the European mainland directly south of Finland, where their descendants now group themselves in scattered colonies. Except in Finland they are being Slavicized at a rapid rate and the Slav population is now imposing itself on the Tatar which had once swamped the indigenous element.
Early mention of these Finns shows them divided into several tribes. The Livs and Chuds, who dwelt mainly around the gulfs of Livonia and of Finland, were the forefathers of the present inhabitants of northern Livonia as well as of Esthonia.[83] The Ingrians and the Vods inhabited the basin of the Neva. The Suomi tribes, of which the Kvens, Karels, Yams and Tavasts were the most important, occupied the Finnish territory held at present by their descendants. Every river valley of northwestern Russia was in fact a tribal homeland. The term Finnish as applied to these tribes refers to their culture, which was Asiatic throughout. Racially, however, they consist of Nordics with a strong addition of Tatar blood.
The area of Finnish speech forms a compact mass extending south of the 69th parallel to the Baltic shores. Its complete access to the sea is barred in part by two coastal strips in the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland in both of which Swedish predominates in varying percentages.[84] The group of the Aland Islands, although included in the Czar’s dominions, is also peopled by Swedes all the way to the southwestern point of Finland.[85] This broken fringe of Swedish is conceded to be a relic of the early occupation of Finland by Swedes.[86] One of its strips, the Bothnian, is remarkably pure in composition. The band extending on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, however, contains enclaves of the Finnish element. This is ascribed to an artificial process of “fennification” resulting from the introduction of cheap labor in the industrial regions of southern Finland. Slower economic development of the provinces of the western coast, on the other hand, tends to maintain undisturbed segregation of the population.
The ties uniting Finland with Sweden are moral and cultural. Swedish missionaries of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were the agents through whom Christianity was introduced into Finland. Together with religion many Swedish customs and laws superseded the primitive social organization of the Finns. The relation established was virtually that of an intellectual minority gaining the upper hand over an ignorant majority. A change in the situation came about in the middle of the fourteenth century when Finland became an integral part of the Swedish kingdom and all civil and political distinctions between the two elements of its populations were abolished.
Fig. 36—View of the Lake country near Kuopi, showing the Kallavesi Sea with low islands and level shores. This is a characteristic Finnish landscape.
Fig. 37—Above the Koivukoski Falls at Kajana. Finnish waterways are the usual lanes of traffic between the inland seas of that country.
Finland’s union with the west failed, however, to bring about Swedish predominance in the land. The Finns preserved their language and tended in fact to assimilate their conquerors. The physical isolation of their country from Sweden contributed largely to foster this incipient stage of Finnish nationality. The Gulf of Bothnia and the frozen solitudes of Lapland proved an effective barrier to the complete fusion of Swedes and Finns. Eastward, however, no natural obstacles intervened between Finland and Russia. The prolonged struggle between the latter country and Sweden hence inevitably led to the Russian conquest of Finland.
The peace of Nystad in 1721 enabled Russia to occupy Finnish territory for the first time. All of the southeastern portion of the duchy then became part of the Muscovite empire. A further cession in 1743 at the treaty of Åbo brought Swedish frontiers as far west as the Kymmens line. The final conquest was ratified by the treaty of peace signed by Swedish and Russian plenipotentiaries on September 17, 1809. Sweden formally renounced its rights over Finland and the duchy became part of Russia.
Today Finland is a country with three languages. Russian is the channel of official activity. Finnish, through a literary revival, has won its right to be the language of the land and this is a symbol of the Finns’ desire for independent national existence. Swedish remains as the age-old medium through which Christianity and western culture were conveyed. It is also to a large extent the business language of the province, especially for communication with western Europe. Competition between the three languages is carried on with unabating energy. The struggle is an outward manifestation of the fight for independence waged by the natives of Finland in the presence of Swedish and Russian efforts to dominate the country. The common danger from Russia has lately drawn the Swedish and Finnish groups together, although the Finns were previously strongly anti-Swedish. The old antagonism still lingers in society life. The Swedish-speaking element rarely mixes with the Finnish-speaking. This is particularly noticeable at Helsingfors, where each language represents a distinct stratum of social life.
In Russia’s Baltic provinces two of the world’s oldest yet absolutely distinct languages are spoken. South of the Gulf of Finland the Esthonians or Chuds still retain a primitive form of Mongolian. In the neighboring Letto-Lithuanian group, on the other hand, a speech which is closely akin to the old Aryan is employed. Almost any Lithuanian peasant can understand simple phrases in Sanskrit. The survival of archaic languages in this section of Europe is the result of isolation provided by a forested and marshy country in which folk-characteristics maintained their ancient forms. From the racial standpoint Esthonians, Letts and Lithuanians are fair, generally tall, narrow-faced and long-headed. In the Fellin district, in southern Estland, a very pure Nordic type is found among peoples of Esthonian speech.
Early Russian chronicles describe the Letts and Lithuanians as divided into several tribes.[87] The Yatvags were scattered along the banks of the Narev. The Lithuanians proper together with the Shmuds peopled the Niemen valley. Very little dialectical differences exist between the two. The Shmuds cluster now in northwestern Kovno without, however, attaining the Baltic shore. The left bank of the Drina was occupied by the Semigals, while on the right dwelt the Letgols who were the ancestors in direct line of the Letts of southern Livonia. The Kors, who lived on the western shores of the Gulf of Riga, were later to impose their name on the province of Kurland.[88]
Two of these tribes, the Shmuds and the Lithuanians, escaped the Teutonic conquest through the inaccessibility of their forested and marshy retreat. Around them the Kors and the Letts, as well as the primitive Slav occupants of Prussia, had been subjugated by the Knights of the Teutonic Order. The only salvation for these tribes from Teutonic oppression consisted in their seeking the natural shelter occupied by the two more fortunate groups of their kinsmen. Behind this natural barrier Lithuanian nationality was born in the middle of the thirteenth century under the leadership of Mindvog, an energetic chieftain who insured his own supremacy by causing the leaders of rival clans to be put to death. With the help of the Poles the Lithuanians eventually checked the easterly expansion of the Teutons.
The region occupied by Lithuanians in former times can be traced today by the distribution of the type of dwelling peculiar to this people. The ancient area exceeds the borders of the present linguistic zone. The earliest examples of Lithuanian houses consist of a single room. The indoor life of a single family was spent within this one apartment. This primitive habitation grew into the modern style by the successive addition of rooms. In course of time a kitchen or a stable was added to the main building. Sometimes the old type of house stands to this day adjoining more modern buildings. In such cases it is used as a barn.
The old Aryan of the Lithuanians is in vogue principally along the Duna and Niemen rivers as well as around Vilna, where this people are settled in compact masses. In spite of the antiquity of their language, no texts prior to the sixteenth century are known. Emigration in the past decade to large Russian cities, and to America, has decreased their ranks appreciably. Their number is now estimated at 3,500,000.[89] In his native land, the Lithuanian is not on the best of terms with neighboring peoples. He looks upon the Russian as his political oppressor and upon the Pole as his hereditary foe. The Lett is regarded with somewhat less animosity as a rival. The Letts spread inland from the shores of the Gulf of Riga and number about 1,300,000. Owing to Polish influences, many Lithuanians are Catholics, but, in the main, both Letts and Lithuanians are stanch Lutherans.[90] Their land is the home of religious free thought within orthodox Russia. German influence prevails among them on this account, although it is doubtful whether it extends to the point of their preferring German to Russian rule. Evil memories of the attempts of the Teutonic Knights to conquer the immemorial seat of the Lettish and Lithuanian populations survive throughout their forests and marshes. Neither people has forgotten that its ancestors were refugees who sought the shelter of their boglands as a last recourse from Teutonic aggression.
Prior to 1876, the Baltic provinces were ruled by a semi-autonomous administration headed by a governor-general whose rôle was more properly that of a viceroy. German was as much an official language as Russian and no restrictions prevented its use in courts. German schools and a German university were widely attended. Since that date, however, the Letto-Lithuanian populations have been deprived of the liberal régime they formerly enjoyed and an official “Russification” has been directed against them. Most of the Lutheran schools were closed by order of the government and the teaching of German in schools restricted or prohibited. But to this day the three Baltic provinces of Kurland, Livland and Estland are considered by German writers as a domain of German culture and Protestant faith controlled by Russian political and ecclesiastical power.
In the province of Kurland the Germans boast 51,000 resident kinsmen. As a rule this section of the population is confined to the cities. Riga, Reval, Libau, Dorpat and Mitau contain notable percentages of Germans among their citizens. The first-named city counts 65,332 of these westerners in its population, or over 25 per cent of the total.[91]
The Letts have settled mainly in the Kurland peninsula and southern Livonia. They are also found in the governments of Kovno, Petrograd and Mohilev. Lithuanians occupy the governments of Kovno, Vilna, Suvalki and Grodno. No definite boundaries between the two peoples can be determined because their intercourse is constant. The only difference between the two languages is found in the greater departure of Lettic from the old Vedic forms.
North of the Letto-Lithuanian group the Esthonians, who are Finns and speak a Finnish language, occupy a lake-covered area similar to Finland. In both a granite tableland is the scene of human activity. In spite of the drawbacks of their natural environment the Esthonians depend chiefly on agriculture for sustenance. This industry has attained a high stage of perfection in their hands and few peoples know how to make their soil yield a higher return than do these virile northerners.
The number of Esthonians is estimated at about one million,[92] distributed as follows: Esthonia, 365,959; Livonia, 518,594; Government of St. Petersburg, 64,116; Government of Pskov, 25,458; other parts of Russia, 12,855. Large colonies of Russians, Germans and Swedes are settled in the Esthonian province. The census of 1897 showed Russians, 18,000; Germans, 16,000; Swedes, 5,800.
The number of Jews settled in the province is not high. The German and Russian elements compose the nobility. The former owned and farmed 52 per cent of the land in 1878. Since that time, however, facilities have been accorded to the peasants of the province, mostly Esthonians, to purchase farms and the proportion of native land holdings is gradually increasing.
Confusion of racial minglings complicates the problem of assigning fixed ethnic place to the Esthonians. That they belong to the Finnish family is unquestionable. Linguistically they belong to the Turkish-speaking peoples. Long-headedness prevails among them.[93] These are also the characteristics of the Livs or Livonians, a Finnish tribe formerly living in Esthonia and north Livonia, now nearly extinct, but still holding a narrow strip of forest land along the Baltic at the northern extremity of Kurland. These Livs are now classed with the Baltic Finns and probably number less than 2,000 individuals. Their language has been almost entirely replaced by a Lettish dialect.
The beginning of their history finds the Esthonians pirates of the Baltic. Danish kings found it hard to subdue them and after two centuries of struggle sold the Danish crown’s rights to the Knights of the Sword in 1346. From this time on German influence was to become paramount in the province. The condition of Esthonians in relation to their Teutonic masters was that of serfs. By the terms of the treaty of Nystad in 1721 Esthonia was ceded to Peter the Great by the Swedes, who then exercised control of the land. Since then it has remained a Russian province. Lutheranism, the religion of its people, however, has been the foundation of much sympathy for German institutions throughout the province. To combat this feeling, as well as to eradicate national aspirations, Russian authorities have resorted to those harsh and repressive measures which both church and government have often enforced throughout the Czar’s country.
The Esthonians are noted for their practical turn of mind. A favorite pastime among them consists of conversing in verse. They cling tenaciously to their language, the study of which is actively maintained throughout the land. Two main dialects are in use. A northern form, known as the Reval Esthonian, is recognized as the literary language. Writers have succeeded in maintaining its perfection and beauty. Through their efforts literature that instills vigor into the national consciousness has sprung into being around the legends and folk-tales of the region.
With the exception of the Finns all the peoples of northwestern Russia are being gradually absorbed by the Slavic mass. The Slav’s ability to fuse with alien peoples is a conspicuous historical fact. In the Baltic provinces he seldom holds aloof as does his German rival. A growing spirit of liberalism in Russia, and the gradual loss of influence of the German nobility, ever ready to stir the opposition of Baltic peoples against Russian institutions, are two factors which have promoted the consolidation of Russian power in its northwesternmost territory. The Slav’s achievement in Baltic regions, during the past three centuries, has consisted in steadily replacing the Teutonic stratum by a layer of his own kinsmen. Swedes and Germans have either fallen back or become lost in the midst of Slavic populations. The movement can hardly be called a migration, but it is a westerly expansion of most persistent and irresistible character although never aggressively manifested. As a consequence Russia’s northwestern boundary with a reconstituted Poland may be foreseen.
TABLE I
Population by Governments in Finland According to Language, 1910[94]
| Finnish | Per cent | Swedish | Per cent | Others | Per cent | |
| Nylands | 212,315 | 85.1 | 149,173 | 11.1 | 1,391 | 3.8 |
| Åbo o. Björneborgs | 413,360 | 66.4 | 63,503 | 33.1 | 240 | 0.5 |
| Tavastehus | 330,190 | 86.6 | 4,356 | 13.0 | 119 | 0.4 |
| Viborgs | 479,120 | 69.7 | 7,872 | 15.9 | 7,116 | 14.4 |
| St. Michels | 191,137 | 96.0 | 670 | 3.5 | 93 | 0.5 |
| Kuopio | 324,553 | 97.4 | 664 | 2.0 | 191 | 0.6 |
| Vasa | 327,828 | 46.4 | 111,094 | 53.0 | 262 | 0.6 |
| Uleaborgs | 292,642 | 88.8 | 1,629 | 5.5 | 1,679 | 5.7 |
TABLE II
Finland: Population According to Language, 1865-1910
| 1865 | Per cent | 1880 | Per cent | 1890 | Per cent | |
| Finnish | 1,580,000 | 57.2 | 1,756,381 | 52.9 | 2,048,545 | 60.7 |
| Swedish | 256,000 | 38.9 | 294,876 | 43.2 | 322,604 | 35.6 |
| Russian | 4,000 | 2.2 | 4,195 | 2.0 | 5,795 | 2.4 |
| German | 1,200 | 0.6 | 1,720 | 0.8 | 1,674 | 0.7 |
| Others | 2,045 | 1.1 | 2,263 | 1.1 | 1,522 | 0.6 |
| 1900 | Per cent | 1910 | Per cent | |||
| Finnish | 2,352,990 | 67.5 | 2,571,145 | 80.2 | ||
| Swedish | 349,733 | 28.9 | 338,961 | 16.0 | ||
| Russian | 5,939 | 2.2 | 7,339 | 2.5 | ||
| German | 1,925 | 0.7 | 1,794 | 0.6 | ||
| Others | 1,975 | 0.7 | 1,958 | 0.7 |
TABLE III
Finland: Distribution of Population by Language and by Religion, December 31, 1910[95]
| Linguistic group | Lutheran | Methodist | Baptist | Greek Catholic | Roman Catholic | Total |
| Finnish | 2,531,014 | 198 | 1,086 | 38,749 | 98 | 2,571,145 |
| Swedish | 335,496 | 362 | 2,780 | 251 | 72 | 338,961 |
| Russian | 67 | 2 | — | 7,156 | 114 | 7,339 |
| German | 1,758 | 1 | — | 10 | 25 | 1,794 |
| Lapps | 1,660 | — | — | — | — | 1,660 |
| Others | 184 | 1 | — | — | 113 | 298 |
| ———— | —– | —— | ——– | —– | ———— | |
| Total | 2,870,179 | 564 | 3,866 | 46,166 | 422 | 2,921,197 |
TABLE IV
Finland: Relative Distribution by Languages of the Urban and Rural Population of the Governments of Nyland, Åbo and Björneborg, and of Vasa, in Percentages[96]
| Urban | Rural | |||||
| Finnish | Swedish | Others | Finnish | Swedish | Others | |
| Nylands | ||||||
| 1880 | 315.7 | 608.2 | 76.1 | 532.8 | 466.6 | 0.6 |
| 1890 | 436.2 | 536.2 | 27.1 | 545.1 | 454.0 | 0.9 |
| 1900 | 489.7 | 488.2 | 22.1 | 570.9 | 428.7 | 0.4 |
| 1910 | 579.7 | 411.8 | 8.5 | 589.1 | 410.6 | 0.3 |
| Åbo and Björneborg | ||||||
| 1880 | 670.4 | 303.0 | 26.6 | 847.6 | 152.3 | 0.1 |
| 1890 | 700.0 | 292.8 | 7.2 | 855.7 | 144.2 | 0.1 |
| 1900 | 757.8 | 239.5 | 2.7 | 864.4 | 135.5 | 0.1 |
| 1910 | 792.8 | 204.4 | 2.8 | 880.2 | 119.7 | 0.1 |
| Vasa | ||||||
| 1880 | 195.7 | 800.5 | 3.8 | 695.3 | 304.7 | [0.02] |
| 1890 | 269.6 | 725.4 | 5.0 | 720.3 | 279.6 | 0.1 |
| 1900 | 359.6 | 637.9 | 2.5 | 738.8 | 261.1 | 0.1 |
| 1910 | 482.4 | 512.5 | 5.1 | 770.9 | 228.9 | 0.2 |