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, [[124]]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 Bukowina, 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, Kharkiv, 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. [[125]]
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 Prut River and the Russian-Roumanian boundary, in the Roumanian Dobrudja, and in the delta of the Danube. In the Bukowina there are Ukrainian language islands at Suchava and Kimpolung, in Hungary in the Backza, at Nyregihatza, Nagi-Caroli, Göllnitz, 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 [[126]]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. [[127]]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 São 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 [[128]]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.