Page:The Russian Review Volume 1.djvu/274

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
244
THE RUSSIAN REVIEW

noslav has 250,000; that of Samara has 204,000; that of Tambov has 155,000; that of Kharkov has 121,000; that of Saratov has 117,000.

The total number of refugees is, of course, considerably higher than the estimate of the United Committee. The data collected by the Committee covers the period only up to the beginning of November, while the movement of refugees continued all through the month of November and well into December. Moreover, the data of the Committee does not include those refugees who did not apply to it for aid, and there were many such, especially in cities. Thus, in Petrograd, the Committee's estimate of the number of refugees is 31,000, while the number shown by the last municipal census is 84,000. Finally, the statistics of the Committee do not include at all the refugees who are now in Siberia, Finland and Caucasus, as well as in the following eight governments: Archangel, Volyn, Kiev, Liefland, Minsk, Olonetsk, Pskov, and Estland. Yet reports from these parts of the country indicate that there are large numbers of refugees in the above territory. For example, in Riga there were over 50,000 refugees at the beginning of November. Towards the end of November, the Zemstvo Union provided food for over 40,000 refugees daily in the woods of Volhynia. The last municipal census in Minsk showed a population of 250,000, as compared with 120,000 before the War. As regards Siberia, the number of refugees that passed through the city of Cheliabinsk alone, during the first eleven months of 1915, was 164,590. Over 20,000 German colonists were sent to the Turgaisk district. Finally, in the Caucasus, in July, 1915, there were over 260,000 Armenian refugees, who fled to the Government of Erivan, etc. If we add to this that the movement of refugees continues even to the present time, we come to the conclusion that the total number of refugees in Russia is over 3,000,000, not counting those who lost their lives on the way.

The following data has been gathered concerning the nationalistic grouping of this immense number of fugitives. The Lithuanian committee estimates the number of Lithuanian refugees at 300,000. The Jewish committee estimates those that are in need of public support at over 350,000. The Lettish committee places the number of their nationality at 250.000. There is no definite information as to the number of Poles, Ukrainians, and Russians proper, who were forced to flee from the zone of military operations. The indications are, how-