latviski
GEOGRAPHY PHYSICAL AND POLITICAL
Position and Frontiers
The Baltic Provinces, lying between 55° 45' and 59° 45' north latitude and 20° 55' and 28° 15' east longitude, are composed of the three western Russian Governments (gubernii) of Estland, Livland, and Kurland, or, as they are more commonly called, Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland. They also include a whole archipelago of islands upon the north-west coast, of which the chief are Ösel (Ezel), Moon and Runo, belonging officially to Livonia, and Dagö and Wormso (Vorms), belonging officially to Esthonia.
Two-thirds of the total length of the boundaries of the country are formed by sea. This expanse of sea, together with the possession of the ports of Libau (Libava), Windau (Vindava), Riga, and Revel (Reval), constitutes the geographical importance of the Baltic Provinces. They are the nearest Russian points to western trade and civilization, and at the same time lie on the great trade-routes from northern and central Russia and even from Siberia. They control the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, and the east end of the Baltic Sea. Even more than Petrograd, they are the window of Russia towards western Europe, and their loss would very seriously hamper her commercial development.
Esthonia, Estland, or Eestimaa, is bounded on the
north by the Gulf of Finland; on the west by the Baltic
Sea; on the south byLivonia and the Chudskoe or Peipus
Lake; on the east by the River Narova, which divides
it from the Petrograd Government. These are the
official boundaries. The linguistic boundaries, however,
Livonia, or Livland, is bounded on the north by Esthonia; on the west by the Gu^f of Riga; on the south by Courland, the lower Dvina, the Vitebsk Government, and Lake Luban ; on the east by the Vitebsk and Pskov Governments, and the Pskov and Peipus lakes. Linguistically the boundaries of Livonia would include the three western districts of the Vitebsk Government, Dvinsk, Ryejitsa, and Lyutsyn, where the population is almost exclusively Lett.
Courland, or Kurland, is bounded on the north by the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga, the Riga district, and the Dvina ; on the west by the Baltic Sea ; on the south by Prussia and the Kovno Government; on the east by the Dvina. From the linguistic point of view the south-east district of Courland, that of Illukst, presents a curious problem: the north is entirely Lett; the south-west entirely Lithuanian ; the east entirely White Russian.
Surface, Coasts, Islands, and Rivers
Surface
The Baltic Provinces in general form a large lowlying plain, which in the north makes an abrupt drop to the Gulf of Finland, and in the centre, i. e. the southern part of Livonia, is intersected by spurs of hills, which are continuations of central Russian heights.
Esthonia has an area of 7,818 square miles. Its
surface is low, not rising above 185 ft. along the north
coast and on the shores of Lake Peipus, while the
average height of the interior varies from 200 to 300 ft.,
with a maximum of 450ft. in the Wesenberg (Vezenberg)
A considerable area of the Livonian coast, particularly the south-west part of the Riga district, and the island of Ösel, is covered either with sandy soil, not very fertile, or pure uncultivable sand. There are more than 1,000 lakes, of which Lake Peipus and Lake Wirz-Jarw (Virts-Yarv) are the largest. Forests cover about two-fifths of the whole surface ; marshes and peat-bogs fully one-tenth. It is only recently that attempts have been made to cultivate this marshy area. Drainage has been undertaken, with the result that the drained marshes produce excellent hay and grain harvests.
Courland has an area of 10,535 square miles. The
surface is for the most part undulating, rising nowhere
more than 700 ft. above sea-level. The Mitau (Mitava)
plain divides it into two halves, of which the western
is the more fertile and populous. The larger part of
Coasts and Islands
The north coast of the Baltic Provinces lies along the Gulf of Finland. It is the precipitous northern scarp of the great Esthonian plain, composed of cliffs reaching 185 ft., and clothed with luxurious vegetation. With the exception of Revel and Baltisch (Baltiski) Port (used when Revel is frozen), and of the small port of Kunda in the Wesenberg district, this north coast is harbourless and of no use for navigation.
The west coast, as far as the horseshoe Gulf of Pernau
(Pernov), is full of deeply indented bays, capes, and
promontories. The coast consists chiefly of sand and
sand-dunes, with here and there' patches of limestone,
bordered closely by woods and wooded plains. Opposite
this part of the coast lies a quadrilateral of fair-sized
islands, of which Dagö (area 350 sq. miles) and
Wormso (area 34 sq. miles) form the northern extremities, Ösel and Moon the southern. The Sele
Sound, 7 miles across, divides Dagö on the south
from Ösel (area 1,010 sq. miles). Ösel possesses
the only port in the whole archipelago, the capital
town of Arensburg, and is joined to Moon by a mole
across a narrow intervening channel, while Moon is
separated from the Werder (Verder) peninsula on the
Esthonian mainland by the Moon Sound, a long strip
of water 6 miles across, with the island of Shildau in
the middle. There is a fairway of 4 fathoms, but its
value for navigation is lessened by the Ivumorsky reef,
South of Pernau the mainland coast changes its outline. From here to Riga, and along the east, north, and west of Courland, it is, generally speaking, flat, harbourless, and sandy, with tracts of sparsely covered dunes, and wooded uplands frequently approaching close to the water.
It is only in the southern half of the Baltic Provinces that there are coastal plains. They exist at the mouths of the Livonian Aa, the Dvina (of which the delta forms a large, flat, and somewhat marshy plain), and the Windau (Vindava), at Libau, and in the south¬ west portion of Courland adjoining East Prussia. They contain three of the most important ports in the Baltic Provinces, Riga, Libau, and Windau.
Rivers
The river systems can be summed up in one sentence — the region is drained by the Dvina and a number of minor rivers. The Dvina is one of the keys to the commercial prosperity of Livonia and Courland. Esthonia. The chief means of drainage are Lake Peipus and the River Narova. There are many small rivers, of little value for navigation. The Narova performs the important office of connecting Lake Peipus and the vast area which it drains, both in northern Livonia and the Petrograd Government, with the Gulf of Finland.
Livonia. The Western Dvina (Zdpadnaya Dviná),
or Dáugawa as the Letts call it, is the centre of the
Entering the Baltic Provinces between Drissa and Dvinsk, the Dvina flows west to Dvinsk. Here and shortly below Dvinsk it is bridged by the railway from Vilna joining the main Dvinsk—Riga line, which runs along the right bank of the river. The Dvina then flows north-west in a comparatively deep valley, entering Livonia above Friedrichstadt. Above Riga, where the firm rocky soil ceases, and the high banks recede from the river, it divides into several arms, and at Riga the river is crossed by a massive railway bridge as well as by a pontoon structure.
Shipping in the general sense is possible only from Dünamünde (Ust Dvinsk) to Riga. The shifting nature of the sands makes navigation difficult, and necessitates constant charting. The main traffic above Riga is in timber. Smaller craft of all kinds ply up and down.
Other Livonian rivers are the Pernau, the Salis, the Livonian Aa, and the Embakh. All are navigable and are used for timber-rafting. A steamer runs from Dorpat to Pskov by wajr of Lake Peipus.
Courland. — Though Courland rivers are numerous, the Windau, Courland Aa, and Dvina alone are navigable. The Courland Aa flows through the Mitau plain, which divides the Government into two halves. It is bridged twice at Mitau and once at Dünamünde, and is navigable between these two towns.
There is no lack of water in the Baltic Provinces.
The problem is one of further regulation and drainage.
Climate
Owing largely to the proximity of the sea, the climate of the Baltic Provinces is generally temperate, and seasonal changes are gradual. The winters, however, are long and somewhat severe, particularly in Esthonia, which is bleaker than the other two provinces, and suffers from more frequent storms. The geographical position of Ösel and the other islands off the west coast, blocking the mouth of the Gulf of Riga, leads to an earlier freezing of its waters and a later opening for navigation than would otherwise be natural. The Gulf of Riga is icebound, as a rule, from December to March, but in the open Baltic Sea there is very little ice west of Courland. Hence Libau and Windau are ice-free ports. The Gulf of Riga itself has less ice than the Gulf of Finland.
Climatic drawbacks, from the point of view of agriculture, include a cold and dry spring and summer humidity. The summer climate much resembles that of the German coast of the Baltic Sea; it is apt to be moist and cloudy, but in July is warmer than many neighbouring parts of Germany. There is a good deal of damp and fog. For this the sea is partly responsible, and partly the existence of so many lakes and marshy tracts.
The average temperature for January along the
Courland coast from north of Memel to the town of
Windau varies from
Sanitary Conditions
There is naturally a great difference between town and country conditions. The towns compare very favourably with other Russian towns, though, with the exception of Riga, they hardly yet satisfy scientific western standards.
In the country a great variety of conditions obtains. Cleanliness is more characteristic of the Letts than of the Esthonians ; but in the out-of-the-way districts of both Provinces, particularly as regards many of the schools, hygiene and sanitation are extremely bad.
Race and Language
The Esthonians, Esths, Ehsts, or Ests, in nationality, speech, and customs, belong to the Ugro-Finnish family, and therefore to the Ural-Altaic branch of the human race. They first appear in history as a predatory, piratical race in the northern Baltic provinces, who are supposed to have migrated from the interior of Russia to the Baltic coast, before the two Finnish tribes of Tavasti and Koreli (occupying the west and east of Finland respectively). In physiognomy the Esthonians closely resemble the Finns of Tavastland, a Ural-Altaic Mongolian type.
They cling tenaciously to their language, which is
The lower half of Livonia and the whole of Courland are inhabited chiefly by Letts, Latvis, or Latavians, a race which, like its neighbours the Lithuanians, belongs to the Baltic group of the Indo-European stock. In the south and south-east of Courland they are sometimes called Semigallen, while the Russians call them Latyshi. In many respects they resemble Lithuanians in physique.
The Lett language bears much the same relation to Lithuanian as English to German. It possesses an unusually large vocabulary for the world of nature, and is also rich in diminutives and terms of affection, wherein it resembles Russian.
The Livs — Lib as they call themselves, or Live as the Russians call them — gave their name to Livonia. They still live in small numbers in north-east Courland, and were possibly a transition group between Esthonians and Finnish Koreli. They are now indistinguishable from Letts, and may be classed with them.
The Kurs, whose folk-name, like that of the Livs, became an ethnographic name, are an admixture of Livs and Letts, in which the latter now predominate. These Kurs or Kurszei live in small numbers in East Prussia, on both sides of the Kurische Nehrung and on the Memel coast. But a curious survival of their past history is the fact that up to this day the Samogitian peasants in the Government of Kovno call Courland Letts by the name of Kurs. The language of the Kurs is Lett.
Other Races. — Germans, Russians, Jews, and Swedes,
It should be noted that the administrative division into governments does not correspond to the ethnological boundaries. The Provinces, as a whole, fall into a northern Esthonian and a southern Lettish half, the Government of Livonia being occupied by Esthonians in the north and by Letts in the south.
The population was divided up among the following nationalities according to the census of 1897 :
Population
Distribution
According to the Russian census of 1897 the total population of the Baltic Provinces was 2,386,115; a later official estimate, taken from the Russian Year Book, 1916, gives a total of 2,767,900 (for January 1, 1913). The following are the statistics given by the census:
Until quite lately the ruling class, both in town and country, was German. To this class belonged the owners of big estates (more land goes to 688 German land¬ lords than to 31,838 peasant farmers), the commercial magnates, the chief traders and merchants in the larger towns. Germans shared some of the 'highest administrative posts with the Russians, such as those of judges, police, commissaries for managing peasant affairs, and teachers in the educational establishments. The relations existing between the natives and the Germans cannot be said to be good. Race-hatred in the Baltic Provinces is essentially hatred of the Germans, the so-called Baltic barons, and is almost universal. The causes of it are partly historical, partly political, but still more economic (cf. below, pp. 21-24, and 26-28).
The Russians in the country localities consist largely of Government officials and soldiers, and in recent years have included a number of imported agricultural labourers. Many of the highest officials were Russians.
The Jews, particularly in Courland, form a large
proportion of the small merchants, small officials, and
journeymen. They live in considerable numbers in
Riga and in the less important commercial towns.
There are a few thousand Swedes in Ösel, Runo, and
Movement
A distinguishing feature of the Baltic Provinces is the
slow growth of the population. The average annual
rate of increase for the ten years 1891-1900 was
The birth-rate averages 28, the death-rate 20 per 1,000 inhabitants. The mortality in Courland is lower than anywhere else in Russia.
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