SARATOFF 305 2,049,800. Such is the scarcity of timber that the peasants' houses are made of clay, the corner posts and door and window frames being largely shipped from the wooded districts of the middle Volga. The climate is severe and quite continental. The average yearly tempera- tures are 41 - 5 at Saratoff (January, 12 0- 4; July, 71 0- 5) and 44 -4 at Tsaritsyn (January, 13 '2 ; July, 74 - 6). The average range of temperature is as much as 119. The Volga is frozen for an average of 162 days at Saratoff and 153 days at Tsaritsyn. The soil is very fertile, especially in the north, where a thick sheet of black-earth covers the plateaus ; sandy clay and salt clay appear in the south. The population is very various, emigrants from all parts of Russia being mixed with Finnish and Tartar stems and with German colonists. The Great Russians constitute 75 per cent, of the popu- lation, Little Russians 7 percent., Germans 7, Mordvinians 6, and Tartars 3 '5 per cent. The Tchuvashes may number about 11,000, Mescheriaks about 3000, and Poles about 5000. All are unequally distributed, Little Russians being more numerous in the districts of Atkarsk, Bahishoff, Tsaritsyn, and Kamyshin (18 to 13 per cent.), the Mordvinians in Kuznetsk and Petrovsk (16 per cent.), and the Germans in Kamyshin (40 per cent.). The immigration of the Germans took place in 1763-1765, and their wealth}- colonies have the aspect of minor West-European towns (see SAMARA). Only 285,140 of the population reside in ten towns, the remainder (1,827,937) being distributed over 5602 villages, of which some have from 5000 to 12,000 inhabitants, and no less than 150 reckon more than 2000. The annual mortality is 42 per 1000 (1882), but this high figure is more than compensated for by the births, which in the same year were 51 per 1000. The chief occupation is agriculture. More than one half of the arable land (6,210,000 acres) was under crops in 1881. In 1884 the returns were rye, 3,374,000 quarters (1,608,300 in 1883) ; wheat, 850,700 ; barley, 103,400 ; oats, 1,657,700 (2,432,700 in 1883) ; and various, 764,400. Drought, and sometimes also noxious insects, cause great fluctuations in the harvest ; but nevertheless almost every season leaves a considerable balance of corn for export. Oil-yielding plants are also cultivated ; linseed in all districts except Tsaritsyn ; mustard, both for grain and oil, extensively about Sarepta and in the Kamyshin district ; and sunflower (140,000 quarters) in the northern districts. Gardening is a considerable source of income around Saratoff, Volsk, Atkarsk, and Kamyshin. The molokan dis- senters have great plantations of water-melons, melons, pumpkins, &c. The peasants of Saratoff are no better off than those of the other governments of south-east Russia (see SAMAHA). Years of scarcity are common, and invariably mean ruin for the peasants. Cattle-breeding, formerly a large source of income, is rapidly falling off. Between 1877 and 1882 there was a decrease of 271,000 head, and murrain swept away large numbers of cattle in 1883. Manufactures are developing but slowly, the chief of them, those dealing with animal produce, being checked by the falling off' in cattle-breeding. The 6500 industrial manufacturing establishments of Saratoff employed an aggregate of only 17,500 workmen, with an annual production of but 20,973,500 roubles (2,097,350) iu 1882. The most considerable were cottons, 17,200 ; woollen cloth, 64,480 ; tanneries, 85,830 ; tallow, soap, wax-candles, flour, 1,217,800 ; oils, 125,360 ; distilleries, 255,780 ; iron, 15,390 ; and machinery, 37,195. Various petty trades are rapidly develop- ing among the peasantry. Shipbuilding is carried on in the Volga villages ; wooden vessels and implements are made in the north, and pottery in several villages ; and quite recently the fabrication of lead-pencils has been added at Buturlinovka. Very many peasants have still every year to leave their homes in search of work on the Volga and elsewhere. An active trade is carried on by the mer- chants of the chief towns, corn, hides, tallow, oils, being exported ; the merchants of Saratoff, moreover, are intermediaries in the trade of south-east Russia with the central provinces. The chief ports are Saratoff, Tsaritsyn, Kamyshin, and Khvalynsk. Saratoff is divided into 10 districts, the chief towns of which and their populations in 1882were as follows: Saratoff (112,430 inhabit- ants) ; Atkarsk (7610); Batashoff (10,090) ; Kamyshin (14,460); Khvatynsk (17,650); Kuznetsk (17,930); Petrovsk (15,020); Ser- dobsk (10,360); Tsaritsyn (31,220); and Volsk or Voljsk (34,930). The German colony of Sarepta, although without municipal insti- tutions, is a lively little town with 5650 inhabitants, which carries on an active trade in mustard, woollen cloth, and various manufac- tured wares. Dubovka (13,450 inhabitants) derives its importance from its traffic with the Don ; the villages Samoilovka in the district of Bahoshoff and Kotoyar in Volsk have each more than 11,000 inhabitants ; Batanda and Arkadak are important grain-markets. The district of Saratoff has been inhabited since at least the Neolithic Period ; its inhabitants of a later epoch have left numerous bronze remains in the kurgans, but the question of their ethnological position is still unsettled. In the 8th and 9th centuries the half- nomad Burtases peopled the territory and recognized the authority of the Khazar princes. Whether the Burtases were the ancestors of the Mordvinians as some ethnologists are inclined to admit has not yet been determined. At the time of the Mongolian inva- sion, the Tartars took possession of the territory, and one of their settlements around the khan's palace at Urek, 10 miles from Sara- toff, seems to have had some importance, as well as those about Tsaritsyn and Dubovka. The incursions of the Crimean Tartars devastated the country about the 15th century, and after the fall of Kazaii and Astrakhan the territory was annexed to Moscow. Sara- toff and Tsaritsyn, both protected by forts, arose in the second half of the 16th century; but the forests and deep ravines of the terri- tory continued for two centuries more to give shelter to numerous bands of squatters, Raskolniks, and runaway serfs, who did not recognize the authority of Moscow ; they sometimes robbed the caravans of boats on the Volga and were ready to support the insur- rections both of Razin and of the impostors of the 18th century. Dmitrievsk (now Kamyshin) and Petrovsk were founded about the end of the 17th century, and a palisaded wall was erected between the Volga and the Don, while other lines of military posts were kept in the north and west. A special "voisko" of Volga Cossacks was founded in 1731, but as they also joined the rebellions they were soon transferred to the Terek. Regular colonization may be said to have begun only at the end of the 18th century, when Catherine II. called back the runaway dissenters, invited German colonists, and ordered her courtiers to settle here their serfs-, deported from central Russia. In this way the population of the lieutenancy, which extended also along the left bank of the Volga, reached 640,000 in 1777. It exceeded one million in 1817. In 1851 the territory on the left bank of the Volga was transferred to the new Samara government. (P. A. K. ) SARATOFF, capital of the above government, situated on the right bank of the Volga, 532 miles by rail to the south-east of Moscow, has become one of the most import- ant cities of eastern Russia, and ranks among the very few Russian cities which have more than 100,000 inhabitants. It is picturesquely situated on the side of hills which come close down to the Volga. One of these, the Sokotova Hill (560 feet) is liable to frequent landslips, which are a con- tinual source of danger to the houses of poorer inhabitants at its base. The , terrace on which Saratoff is built being intersected by two ravines, the city is divided into three parts ; the outer two may be considered as suburbs. A large village, Pokrovskaya, with about 20,000 inhabitants, situated on the opposite bank of the Volga, though in the government of Samara, is in reality a suburb of Saratoff. Apart from this suburb, Saratoff had in 1882 a population of 112,430 (49,660 in 1830, and 69,660 in 1859). It is better built than many towns of central Russia. Its old cathedral (1697) is a very plain structure, but the new one, completed in 1825, is fine, and has a striking cam- panile. The theatre and the railway station are also fine buildings. The streets are wide and regular, and there are several broad squares. A new fine-art gallery was erected in 1884 by the Russian painter Bogoluboff, who has be- queathed to the city his collection of modern pictures and of various objects of art. A school of drawing and the public library are in the same building, which has received the name of " Radistcheff's Museum" (in memory of Radis- tcheff, the author prosecuted by Catherine IL). Agriculture and gardening are still the support of a section of the population, who rent land in the neighbourhood of the city. The culture of the sunflower deserves special mention. The local manufacturing establishments do not keep pace with the rapidly increasing trade, and their aggregate production cannot be esti- mated at more than 450,000. The distilleries are first in import- ance ; next come the manufactures of liqueurs (160,000), flour- mills (about ^0,000), oil-works (56,000), and tobacco-factories (about 40,000). The city has not only a trade in corn, oil, hides, tallow, woollen cloth, wool, fruits, and various raw produce exported from Samara, but also a trade in salt from Crimea and Astrakhan, which is in the hands of the Samara merchants, and in iron from the Urals and wooden wares from tho upper Volga governments. Saratoff also supplies south-eastern Russia with manufactured articles and grocery wares imported from central Russia. The traffic of the port was estimated at about 5,700,000 roubles in 1882. The shallowness of the Volga opposite the town, and the immense shoals along its right bank are, however, a great drawback. Vast sand-banks, which formerly lay above the city, have gradually shifted their position, and it is supposed that in a XXL 39
