In order to people Bessarabia after its conquest in the eighteenth century without depriving the Russian landowners of their serfs, several races of foreigners, as Moldavians, Wallachians (Vlachs), Servians, Greeks, Germans, and even Scotch, were freely invited to settle there. The population of the steppe-region exceeds thirteen millions.
Western Russia.—Including the Lithuanian provinces of Kovno, Vilna, and part of Grodno and Vitebsk, drained by the Niemen and the upper Dwina, and other portions of the former kingdom of Poland. Chief town: Vilna.
Here dwell the White Russians, who number about six millions, but they are more mixed with Poles, Jews and Little Russians. In all essentials they are merely “poor relations” of the Great Russian family, living, on the whole, in a more degraded and undeveloped state than any other Russians.
The Baltic Provinces.—The coast-lands of the Gulfs of Finland and Riga. Chief towns: Petrograd (St. Petersburg), Revel, Riga.
These are four Russian governments bordering on the Baltic—viz., Courland, Livonia, Esthonia, and Petrograd; or in a restricted sense, often the first three. The Baltic provinces once belonged to Sweden, except Courland, which was a dependency of Poland. They came into the possession of Russia partly in the beginning of the eighteenth century through the conquests of Peter the Great, partly under Alexander in 1809.
They occupy an undulating plain three hundred to eight hundred feet above the sea. Owing to the influence of the sea, this region enjoys a milder climate than the rest of Russia, and has maintained its excellent forests, chiefly of oak. The soil is of moderate fertility.
The more important non-Slavic peoples of this region are the Lithuanians (one million two hundred and fifty thousand) and Letts (one million five hundred thousand), chiefly in Kovno, Vilna, Grodno, Vitebsk, Courland, and S. Livonia. The Germans (one million five hundred thousand) are mainly descendants of the mediæval conquerors of the east Baltic coasts (Teutonic Knights, Knights of the Sword, and their followers) and of the agricultural colonists brought by Catherine II.
The Grand-Duchy of Finland.—In the northwest, next Scandinavia. Chief towns: Viborg, Helsingfors, Abo.
Finland was ceded by the Swedes in 1809, but still retains an independent administration. The interior, chiefly elevated plateau, consists largely of forest land, and is well supplied with lakes, many of which are united by canals. (See also under Europe.)
Education is highly advanced; Swedish and Finnish are the two languages of the country, Russian being practically unknown. There is an excellent Saga literature, and the beginnings of a modern literature. The Finns came under the dominion of the Swedes in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and were by them Christianized.