Ukraine, the land and its people

by Stepan Rudnytskyi

In the Government of Kursk the Ukrainians (670,000) comprise over 22% of the population and inhabit the following districts: Putivl (55% Ukrainians), Hraivoron (61%), Novo Oskol (56%), and the southern parts of Sudga (44%), Rilsk (33%), Korocha (35%), Bilhorod (24%). Besides that, the Ukrainians are scattered in large and small language islands over the Districts of Oboian (12%), Stari Oskol (9%), and Lhov (5%). The area of the compact Ukrainian territory in the Government of Kursk may be estimated at 12,000 square kilometers. The only neighbors and co-inhabitants of the Ukrainians here are the Russians, who, even in many cities of the purely Ukrainian territory, comprise majorities. However, there are a number of Ukrainian cities in the Kursk country. Miropilia has 98%, Sudza 65% Ukrainians, Hraivoron and Korocha are half Ukrainian.

In the next following border region, the Government of Voroniz (65,000 square kilometers, 3,360,000 inhabitants), the Ukrainians inhabit the Districts of Ostrohosh (94% Ukrainians), Bohucha (83%), Biriuch (70%), Valuiki (53%), and the southern parts of Pavlovsk (43%), Bobrovsk (17%), Korotoiak (17%), Novokhopersk (16%). Ukrainian language islands are found chiefly in the District of Semliansk (4%). The total percentage of Ukrainians in the Government of Voroniz is 36%, their number over 1,210,000, the surface they inhabit 29,000 square kilometers. The only neighbors of the Ukrainians here are the Russians, who also comprise the majority in all cities. Only in Biriuch, Bohuchar, Ostrohosh, do the Ukrainians predominate.

In the Government of the Don Cossack army (164,000 square kilometers, 3,500,000 inhabitants) the relation of the Ukrainians to the population is similar to that in the Governments of Kursk and Voroniz. Just as the Ukrainian districts there border on the adjacent central Ukrainian [[138]]lands of Poltava and Kharkiv, so the Ukrainian parts of the Don country touch the central Ukrainian lands of Kharkiv and Katerinoslav. The Ukrainians (980,000) comprise 28% of the population of the Don country and inhabit 45,000 square kilometers. Most thickly populated by Ukrainians are the southern districts: Tahanroh (69%), Rostiv (52%), the western half of the Donetz District (40%). The statistics show far less Ukrainians in the Districts of Cherkask (23%) and Sal (31%). In the Districts of Don I (12%), Don II (4%), Ust Medvedinsk (11%), Khoper (7%), the Ukrainians form language islands in the midst of a Russian population. In the District of Sal the relative majority is credited to the Kalmucks (39%), but beyond that only Russians are the neighbors of the Ukrainians. But all this data is not unobjectionable. It has long been an established fact that the lower “Don Cossacks” are for the most part of Ukrainian nationality. At the same time we see, from the official census of 1897, that none of the Don Cossacks were counted as members of the Ukrainian nation. In the cities of the Don country the number of Ukrainians is very small, e.g., in Rostiv hardly greater than one-fifth. Only the city of Osiv (Azof) is predominantly Ukrainian.

The Kuban country (92,000 square kilometers, 2,630,000 inhabitants) has a relative Ukrainian majority (over 47% = 1,250,000), along with 44% Russians and 9% Caucasus races.

In this land the purely Ukrainian country embraces over 56,000 square kilometers. Three of the districts have an absolute Ukrainian majority: Yask (81%), Temriuk (79%), and Katerinodar (57% Ukrainians, 27% Russians, 11% Circassians). In the Caucasian District there are 47% of Ukrainians and as many Russians, in the District of Maikop 31% Ukrainians, 58% Russians, 6% Circassians, 2% Kabardines, in the Labinsk District [[139]]28% Ukrainians, 77% Russians, in the District of Batalpashinsk 28% Ukrainians, 39% Russians, 13% Karachaians, 5% Abkhasians, 4% Kabardines, 3% Nogaians, 2% Circassians. It should be observed, however, that perhaps nowhere have so many Ukrainians been entered as Russians in the census as in these very Caucasian lands. For this reason the entire Kuban country may be considered Ukrainian territory, except the chains of high mountains.

In the Government of Stavropol (60,000 square kilometers, 1,230,000 inhabitants) the Ukrainians comprise 37% (450,000). They inhabit a region of nearly 22,000 square kilometers in the west and south of the Government, where the border of the Ukrainian settlements, which reaches the Caspian Sea, begins. The District of Medveza has 48% Ukrainians (in the west), the District of Stavropol 13% (in the extreme south), the District of Olexandrivsk 40%, Novotvihoriiosk 54% (chiefly in their southern halves). The neighbors here are Russians and Nogaians.

In the Terek region (69,000 square kilometers, 1,183,000 inhabitants) the Ukrainians officially comprise only 5% of the population (50,000), altho it is generally known that an appreciable part of the Terek Cossacks belongs to the Ukrainian nation. A large percentage of Ukrainians (14%) is found only in the District of Piatihorsk; outside of that the Ukrainians are united in a narrow seam of settlements extending to the Caspian Sea. 29% of the population in the Terek region is Russian; the absolute majority is made up by various Caucasian races (Kabardines, Tatars, Ossetians, Ingushians, Chechenians, Avaro-andians, Kumikians, Nogaians).

The small Government of the Black Sea (7000 square kilometers, 130,000 inhabitants) has only 16% Ukrainians who live, 10,000 in number, in the northwestern part of the extended coast region. In the District of Tuapse there are 27% Ukrainians; in the District of Sochi 8%. Their [[140]]neighbors are Russians, who do not form an absolute majority at any place, then Armenians, Circassians, Greeks, Turks, etc.

The most important border country in the south, however, is, without doubt, the Government of Tauria (60,000 square kilometers, 1,800,000 inhabitants). The Ukrainians here comprise the relative majority of the population (42%—790,000), with 28% Russians, 13% Crimean Tatars, over 5% Germans, about 5% Jews, about 3% Bulgarians, about 1% Armenians, etc. The Ukrainians comprise an absolute majority in the Districts of Dniprovsk (76%), Berdiansk (64%), and Melitopol (57%), and large minorities in the Districts of Eupatoria (27%) and Perekop (24%), the northern parts of which they inhabit. The entire mainland part of the Government and the northern part of the Crimean peninsula, consequently belong, without doubt, to the compact Ukrainian national territory, while the number of Ukrainians in the southern regions of Crimea appears much smaller (District of Feodosia 13%, Simferopol 10%, Yalta 2%). The chief foreign element in Tauria is composed of Russians (Dniprovsk 16%, Melitopol 32%, Berdiansk 18%, Perekop 24%, Eupatoria 17%), and Tatars (Yalta 71%, Simferopol 51%, Feodosia 45%, Eupatoria 40%, Perekop 24%). To the extent that the Tatars emigrate to Turkey, however, the settled area and the number of the Ukrainians of Tauria constantly increase, so that the time does not seem far off when the Ukrainian element will have gained the entire Crimean peninsula for its national territory. Besides, one must entertain strong doubts concerning the actual number of the Russians mentioned in the statistics, for the Rittich map of 1878 gives almost no Ukrainians in Tauria, and calls even the mainland parts of Tauria Russian. And twenty years later came the just-mentioned figures of the official statistics. We may then, confidently [[141]]consider the entire Government of Tauria a Ukrainian district, with considerable colonization by foreign-speaking people. The most important of the foreign settlers are without a doubt the Germans. They are 24% of the population in the District of Perekop, 12% in Eupatoria, 8% in Berdiansk, 5% in Melitopol; the Bulgarians make up 10% of the population in Berdiansk.

Next to be considered, after these borderlands, are the four central regions of the Ukraine which lie on the left bank of the Dnieper. In the Government of Katerinoslav (63,000 square kilometers, 3,060,000 inhabitants) the Ukrainians 2,110,000 in number, comprise 69% of the total population, with 17% Russians, 5% Jews, 4% Germans, 2% Greeks, 1% each of Tatars, White Russians and Poles. Detached districts of the land have very high percentages of Ukrainians, e.g., District of Novomoskovsk 94%, Verkhnodniprovsk 91%, Olexandrivsk 86%, Pavlohrad 83%. In the large cities the number of the foreign elements is very great, hence, the District of Katerinoslav has 74% Ukrainians, and when the city is counted in, only 56% Ukrainians, with 21% Russians, 13% Jews, 6% Germans, 2% Poles. The smallest percentage of Ukrainians is found in the southeastern districts of the region, where populous settlements of foreign elements exist. The District of Bakhmut, for instance, has 58% Ukrainians with 32% Russians, the District of Slavianoserbsk 55% Ukrainians besides 42% Russians, the District of Mariupol 51% Ukrainians besides 20% Greeks. In the City of Katerinoslav the Ukrainians comprise barely one-seventh of the population, while in Olexandrivsk, Verkhnodniprovsk, Novomoskovsk and Bakhmut, they predominate over the Russians, and are equal to them in Slaviansk and Pavlohrad.