Industry
The industry of the Ukraine is now in an important stage of transition. The originally very important home industries which, until recently, satisfied all the needs of the peasantry, cannot endure the competition with the factory system of large-scale industry, which is penetrating more and more deeply into those regions of the Ukraine that lie farthest from the highways of the world’s trade. Home industry is declining irresistibly, factory industry is developing more and more, and, altho the latter is still young and is retarded, in the textile branches, by the centralization of industry at Moscow, still the Ukraine (especially the southern part) is on the way to becoming the most important industrial district of all Russia.
Ukrainian home industry is just as old and of as high a grade as all the popular culture of the Ukrainians—this typical primitive agricultural people. The products of Ukrainian home industry are characterized above all by their great solidity and durability. Their distinguishing feature is in the original ornamentation on all objects, even those destined for every-day use, noticeable particularly in the products of the textile, wood-carving and pottery industries. Anyone who knows Ukrainian home industry is overcome by a sad feeling when he perceives that this industry, which may really be called a fine art, will [[283]]soon be a thing of the past. The foreign rulers of the Ukraine are hostile, or at best indifferent, to Ukrainian home industry, and all efforts of the Ukrainians to promote their very vital native home industry are hindered at every turn. The middlemen ruthlessly exploit the artisan, whose earnings are a mere pittance, insufficient even for the contented Ukrainian. More and more of those who work at a trade are turning their backs upon their thankless occupations, if they can only find a means of subsistence at something else.
The most important branch of Ukrainian home industry is weaving. It is not confined only to the weaving of coarse, very durable kinds of linen and cloth; for very fine, sometimes really artistically ornamented tablecloths, towels and handkerchiefs, fine woolens, decorative fabrics with inwoven patterns, gold and silver thread, carpets and tapestries, too, come out of the primitively equipped workshops of the Ukrainian weavers. Under very difficult working conditions, with the most primitive means, genuine works of art are frequently created. For all that, the artistic weaver must yield place to factory goods, even in the Ukraine, and the home weaving industry is surely hurrying toward extinction.
Yet, to this day, thanks to the persistence of the people in preserving their national costume, the weaving industry is still so widespread thruout the Ukraine that there is hardly a hamlet where there are not some weavers by trade, or at least such persons as carry on weaving as an avocation. Home weaving is at its height in the districts of Poltava, where it occupies 20,000 families (1902), Chernihiv and Kharkiv. Its chief centers are Krolevetz and vicinity, Sinkiv, Mirhorod, Zolotonosha (wool-weaving). In Galicia, the entire Ukrainian Pidhirye is famous for its home weaving industry; in the mountains it is the neighborhood of Kossiv, in the low country the districts [[284]]of Horodok, Komarno, Halich, Busk, etc., which are important in this connection. The most beautiful carpets and tapestries, worked in colors, come from the districts of Mirhorod and Sinkiv (Poltava), Olhopol, Balta, Yampol, Bratzlav (Podolia), Sbaraz, Buchach, Kossiv (Eastern Galicia).
Tailoring is nowhere developed to large proportions, altho no place, not even the smallest village, is without it. In Poltava, tailoring and cap-making occupies over 10,000 families.
Rope-making is very common thruout the Ukraine, mostly in the districts of Poltava, Kiev (Lissianka) and in Galicia (Radimno). Nets are made in the district of Lokhvitzia (Poltava) and Oster (Chernihiv) on a large scale.
After the textile industry comes the wood-working industry. It is common, everywhere in the Ukraine, the steppe country alone excepted. Almost every Ukrainian peasant of the Carpathian Mountains, of the Polissye, Volhynia, Kiev, Chernihiv, knows the carpenter trade. The best carpenters are the Hutzulians, who, independently, without drawn plans, build churches of fine style, even for the most distant villages of the low country.
Ship-building is carried on chiefly in the Polissye (Mosir, Petrikiv, Balazevichi on the Pripet, and particularly Davidhorodok on the Horin). On the Dnieper River, ships are built at Horodnia, small sea-vessels in Nikopol, Oleshki, Hola Pristan, Kherson; on the Don in Osiv (Azof). On the Dniester, river-ships are built in Zuravno, Halich, Zvanetz, Mohiliv, Yampol.
Cabinet-making, altho in general but slightly developed, still supplies the demand of the peasantry and the common city-dwellers. Artistic cabinet-making is carried on in the Hutzul country (Kossiv, Yavoriv, Richka, Viznitza), where, besides furniture, various kinds of woodwork, [[285]]decorated with artistic carvings and with the beautifully conventionalized specifically Hutzulian bead and brass-wire ornaments are produced, e.g., canes, boxes, picture-frames, etc. The furniture industry is common in the District of Cherkassia (Kiev) and in the entire Poltava country. Here, too, beautiful and durable wooden chests are made. Wooden spoons are produced in the districts of Poltava (Kalaidintzi), Kiev (Chornobil, Hornostapol), in the Hutzul country (Porohy, Yavoriv), in the Rostoche region (Yavoriv, Vishenka), and smoking-pipes of wood in the Poltava region (Velika Pavlivka).
Cooperage and the making of wooden vessels is common everywhere, but it is most extensive in the districts of Poltava (3,700 families), Kharkiv (Okhtirka, Kotelva), Polissye (Mosir), Kiev (District of Radomishl), Chernihiv, Volhynia and the Hutzul country.
Wagon-making and the making of sleds and wooden agricultural implements has its chief center in the Poltava country, where it occupies over 2400 families (Districts of Sinikiv, Lubni, Hadyach). In the Kharkiv country this industry is important about Starobilsk, Bohodukhiv, Isium, Kupiansk, as well. In Ardon (Government of Chernihiv) beautiful carriages are produced and in Tarashcha (Government of Kiev) the world-renowned tarantas.
The shingle industry, charcoal-burning, pitch and potash-making are met with only in the Carpathians and in the Polissye region. Yet, not so long ago, these comprised one of the most important branches of industry of the forest-dwellers. Basket-weaving is especially developed in the Poltava region (about 1000 families, chiefly in the Districts of Lokhvitzia and Kupiansk), to some degree also in Podolia (Districts of Litin and Vinitza), Kherson, Kiev, Polissye about Mosir. Sieves are made everywhere the wood industry is established. Bast shoes are made only in the Polissye region. [[286]]
Among the branches of industry in which mineral substances are used, pottery takes first rank. Thanks to great deposits of splendid pottery clay, the Ukrainian pottery industry developed very early and now stands upon a very high plane. Its products usually have fine form and beautiful ornamentation. Pottery is best developed in the Poltava region, especially in the Districts of Mirhorod, Sinkiv (well-known center of Oposhnia), Romen and Lokhvitzia. In the Chernihiv country pottery is almost as important, especially in the vicinity of Horodnia, Krolevetz, Hlukhiv (Poloshki and Novhorod Siversky). In the Kharkiv region we find large pottery works in the regions of Valki, Lebedin, Okhtirka, Bohodukhiv, Isium; in the Kiev country about Chihirin, Uman, Cherkassia, Svenihorodka, Kaniv, in Podolia about Mohiliv, Ushitza, Yampol, and Letichiv. In Galicia the Rostoche region (Potilich, Hlinsko, etc.), Podolia (Chortkiv, Borshchiv, Kopichintzi, etc.), and especially the Hutzul country (Kolomia, Kossiv, Pistin, Kuti) are renowned for pottery products. In other regions of the Ukraine pottery is less developed.
The brick-making industry is actively growing all over the Ukraine, and the introduction of tile-covered brick buildings has led to the formation of numerous peasant organizations, for the purpose of making these building-materials.
The stone-cutting industry is carried on on a large scale only in the region of Odessa, Olexandrivsk (Kamishevakha) and Bakhmut.
The metal-working industry is, in general, not highly advanced. Only the blacksmith trade is carried on everywhere and shows a fine development, especially in the Southern Ukraine. In the village smithies in Kherson, Katerinoslav and Tauria, even complicated agricultural machines are often made. The production of iron ploughs [[287]]has for its centers the districts of Starobilsk (the village of Bilovodsk produces on the average 3½ thousand ploughs a year), Isium and Valki of the Kharkiv country, in the Chernihiv country (districts of Starodub and Sosnitza), in the Poltava country (Zolotonosha and vicinity). Artistic brass-work is made by the Hutzuls of the Kossiv region (Brusturi, Yavoriv, etc.).
The utilization of animal raw-materials plays an important part in the home industry of the Ukraine. Sausage-makers are found in all the towns of the Ukraine, especially those of the left half, and their products enjoy a good reputation, even beyond the borders of the land. Tanning and fur-manufacturing flourish in the Ukraine. Ukrainian workmen have had no small share in earning world-renown for the Russian leather industry. The chief centers of this home industry lie in the districts of Chernihiv (in the regions of Chernihiv, Koseletz, Krolevetz), Poltava (about Sinkiv, Poltava, Reshetilivka with its famous furriery, Pereyaslav, Kobeliaki), Kharkiv (about Okhtirka, Valki, Isium, Sumi). In the Government of Voroniz, the village of Buturlinivka is noted for its leather industry. Shoemaking engages over 9000 families in Poltava (districts of Sinkiv, Kobeliaki, Romen, Konstantinohrad, etc.). In the region of Kharkiv, the towns of Okhtirka and Kotelva are the main centers of the shoemaking industry, in the Chernihiv country the regions of Novosibkiv, Borsna and Oster. In the region of Voroniz (districts of Bobrivsk, Biriuch, Valuiki) there are over 12,000 shoemakers. In the Ukrainian part of Kursk the chief centers are the districts of Sudza (5000 shoemakers, 3000 of them in Miropilia alone) and Hraivoron. In Galicia we find a strongly developed shoemaking and tanning industry in Horodok, Kulikiv, Busk, Uhniv, Stari Sambir, Ribotichi, Nadvirna, Buchach, Potik, etc.
The horn industry, especially the making of horn combs, [[288]]appears in Mirhorod and Sinkiv, in Kharkiv and about Sumi.
Of the numerous other branches of home industry in the Ukraine the organized (guild) painters of sacred pictures, of whom there are over 300 families in the Poltava region, may be mentioned in passing.
So much for home industry. The factory industry of the Ukraine is still in its infancy. Notwithstanding, it is already producing so much, despite its youth, that Southern Ukraine, in particular, is on the way to becoming the most important industrial center of all Russia. Large-scale production in the Ukraine is carried on almost exclusively by foreign (Russian, Jewish, English, French and Belgian) capitalists—the Ukrainians contribute only the poorly-paid labor. Ukrainian large-scale industry must wage a hard battle against the economic policy of the Russian Government, which aims to stop the declining preponderance of the Moscow and St. Petersburg centers of industry, and to prevent the industrial rise of the south.
The total value of the industrial output of the Russian Ukraine, in 1908, was approximately 870 million rubles, or 19% of the total Russian large-scale production. The production of the Austrian Ukraine amounts to not even one-tenth of this amount. The main centers of large-scale production are Katerinoslav (166.2 million rubles), Kiev (143.5), Kherson (127.5), and Kharkiv (98.7). Ukrainian large-scale industry concerns itself chiefly with the manufacturing of the mineral products of the land and the preparation of foods. The textile industry is artificially suppressed in the interests of the Central Russian industrial districts.
The cotton industry is confined to only a few small factories in the Don region (Rostiv, Nakhichevan) and Katerinoslav (Pavlokichkas). The woolen industry is less limited (Chernihiv country, especially Klinzi, then [[289]]Kharkiv, Kiev, the Don region, Volhynia). The linen and hemp industry is well developed only in the Chernihiv country (Pochep, Mhlin, Starodub, Novosibkiv) and in Kherson (Odessa) jute factories are also found. The clothing industry is worthy of mention only in Kherson and the larger cities of Eastern Galicia.
Of the many branches of the food industry, the first to be mentioned is the manufacture of sugar. The sugar refineries of the Ukraine, more than 200 in number (most of them in the territories of Kiev, Kharkiv, Podolia, Kherson), produce annually (1904) over 6.6 million metric hundredweights of raw sugar and 3.9 metric hundredweights of refined sugar. These figures represent 76% and 68% respectively of the total Russian output. It is remarkable that in the Austrian Ukraine, where the sugar industry has the finest possibilities of expanding, it is entirely undeveloped (only two factories). The milling industry, which, in general, is carried on chiefly in small water and wind-mills, possesses also some large mills operated by steam (Kharkiv, Kiev, Poltava, Kreminchuk, Odessa, Mikolaiv, Melitopol, Lviv, Brody, Ternopil, Stanislaviv, Kolomia, etc.). Another important industry is alcohol-distillation, which is well advanced in all parts of the Ukraine, but particularly in Russian and Galician Podolia (Galicia has 800 stills), Kharkiv and Kiev. The beer-brewing industry is but slightly developed, and the only districts in which it yields a product of some quality are Galicia and the Bukowina. Mead brewing, also a common industry, is carried on on a large scale only in the Kharkiv country and in Eastern Galicia. Oil-pressing is important in the territories of Kherson (Odessa), Kiev, Chernihiv (Pochep, Novosibkiv), in Kharkiv and in Kreminchuk. The important tobacco industry is carried on to a considerable degree in 100 factories in the Russian Ukraine (Kiev, Kharkiv, Odessa, Zitomir, Poltava, Kreminchuk, Romen, Katerinoslav, [[290]]Mikolaiv, etc.) as well as in three government factories in Galicia (Vinniki, Monastiriska and Zabolotiv).
The lumber industry embraces large saw-mills in the Carpathian mountain districts of Galicia, the Bukowina and Northeastern Hungary, as well as long the Pripet and Dnieper Rivers (Mosir, Kreminchuk, Katerinoslav, Kherson, etc.). The cork industry is established in Odessa, the paper industry in Rostiv, Odessa, Kharkiv, Poltava.
The most important branch of Ukrainian large-scale industry is the metal-industry. The Ukrainian iron industry, despite its youth, has rapidly surpassed the Polish, Moscow and Ural industry, and would be even more advanced if the economic policy of the Russian Government had not taken measures for the protection of the Moscow and Ural industry from the industrial competition of the Ukraine. Hence, the Ukrainian metal industry must furnish chiefly semi-manufactured goods, which are afterwards worked into finished goods in the center of the Empire.
In 1911, there were obtained in the Ukraine, 24,625,000 q. of cast iron, that is, 67.4% of the total Russian production; in 1912 the percentage is said to have reached 70%, while the rest, 30%, is accredited to Poland, Great-Russia and Russian-Asia. In 1911 the Ukraine produced 18.8 metric hundredweights (55.6% of the total Russian production) of wrought iron and steel, and in the year 1912, it attained the same percentage. The significance of these figures is at once apparent.
The iron works of the Ukraine lie chiefly near Krivi Rih, in Katerinoslav and vicinity, Olexandrivsk, the Donetz Plateau and the adjacent districts (Yusivka, Hrushivka, Tahanroh, Mariupol, Kerch, etc.). The nail and wire industry has its center in Katerinoslav, machine-manufacturing in Katerinoslav, Kiev, Kharkiv, Yelisavet, Odessa, Olexandrivsk, Mikolaiv and Berdiansk. The [[291]]iron steamship building industry has its seat in Rostiv and Mikolaiv. In Galicia we find only a very small iron industry, and at best a few railway supplies, factories and workshops are worthy of mention, e.g., those in Sianik (car factory), New Sandetz and Lemberg.
Of the other branches of industry which manufacture mineral products, the petroleum refineries must be mentioned above all, particularly those of the Carpathian foothill country (Horlitzi, Drohobich, Kolomia) and at the foot of the Caucasus (Hrosni). The factory industry of pottery is carried on in Lviv and Kharkiv; porcelain and chinaware manufacture in the Kharkiv region (Budi, Slaviansk) and in Odessa; cement manufacture in the Black Sea region, in Odessa and in the Bukowina; brick and tile manufacture in all the large cities of the Ukraine. Glass manufacture, once very extensive in the forest regions of the Western Ukraine (Rostoche, Volhynia), is now confined to the neighborhood of Kharkiv, Horodnia and Bakhmut. Of the different branches of the chemical industry, the manufacture of matches is important; its seat is in the Chernihiv country near Novosibkiv, and in the Galician sub-Carpathian country (Striy, Skole, Bolekhiv, etc.).
This does not exhaust the branches of industry of the Ukraine, but, because of their comparative insignificance, we must desist from describing them. Having now come to the end of our presentation of Ukrainian industry, we have still to consider what percentage of Ukrainians engage in industrial pursuits. According to official Russian estimates of the year 1897, the percentage is barely 5% (in Galicia, according to Buzek’s biased calculation, 1.4%). The smallness of the figures would surprise us if we did not know how the Russian and Polish nationality “make” their statistics; nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the Ukrainian people still engage too little in industry. Among the Ukrainians who seek their subsistence in industry, [[292]]the greatest number (14%) engage in the making of clothing; then follow, in order, the building, metal, lumber and food industries, linen-weaving and pottery.