登陆注册
15687700000107

第107章 CHAPTER XVI(3)

The Mennonites were originally Dutchmen. Persecuted for their religious views in the sixteenth century, a large number of them accepted an invitation to settle in West Prussia, where they helped to drain the great marshes between Danzig, Elbing, and Marienburg.

Here in the course of time they forgot their native language.

Their emigration to Russia began in 1789.

The fact that these Mennonites and some other German colonies have succeeded in rearing a few sickly trees has suggested to some fertile minds the idea that the prevailing dryness of the climate, which is the chief difficulty with which the agriculturist of that region has to contend, might be to some extent counteracted by arboriculture on a large scale. This scheme, though it has been seriously entertained by one of his Majesty's ministers, must seem hardly practicable to any one who knows how much labour and money the colonists have expended in creating that agreeable shade which they love to enjoy in their leisure hours. If climate is affected at all by the existence or non-existence of forests--a point on which scientific men do not seem to be entirely agreed--any palpable increase of the rainfall can be produced only by forests of enormous extent, and it is hardly conceivable that these could be artificially produced in Southern Russia. It is quite possible, however, that local ameliorations may be effected. During a visit to the province of Voronezh in 1903 I found that comparatively small plantations diminished the effects of drought in their immediate vicinity by retaining the moisture for a time in the soil and the surrounding atmosphere.

After the Mennonites and other Germans, the Bulgarian colonists deserve a passing notice. They settled in this region much more recently, on the land that was left vacant by the exodus of the Nogai Tartars after the Crimean War. If I may judge of their condition by a mere flying visit, I should say that in agriculture and domestic civilisation they are not very far behind the majority of German colonists. Their houses are indeed small--so small that one of them might almost be put into a single room of a Mennonite's house; but there is an air of cleanliness and comfort about them that would do credit to a German housewife.

In spite of all this, these Bulgarians were, I could easily perceive, by no means delighted with their new home. The cause of their discontent, so far as I could gather from the few laconic remarks which I extracted from them, seemed to be this: Trusting to the highly coloured descriptions furnished by the emigration agents who had induced them to change the rule of the Sultan for the authority of the Tsar, they came to Russia with the expectation of finding a fertile and beautiful Promised Land. Instead of a land flowing with milk and honey, they received a tract of bare Steppe on which even water could be obtained only with great difficulty--

with no shade to protect them from the heat of summer and nothing to shelter them from the keen northern blasts that often sweep over those open plains. As no adequate arrangements had been made for their reception, they were quartered during the first winter on the German colonists, who, being quite innocent of any Slavophil sympathies, were probably not very hospitable to their uninvited guests. To complete their disappointment, they found that they could not cultivate the vine, and that their mild, fragrant tobacco, which is for them a necessary of life, could be obtained only at a very high price. So disconsolate were they under this cruel disenchantment that, at the time of my visit, they talked of returning to their old homes in Turkey.

As an example of the less prosperous colonists, I may mention the Tartar-speaking Greeks in the neighbourhood of Mariupol, on the northern shore of the Sea of Azof. Their ancestors lived in the Crimea, under the rule of the Tartar Khans, and emigrated to Russia in the time of Catherine II., before Crim Tartary was annexed to the Russian Empire. They have almost entirely forgotten their old language, but have preserved their old faith. In adopting the Tartar language they have adopted something of Tartar indolence and apathy, and the natural consequence is that they are poor and ignorant.

But of all the colonists of this region the least prosperous are the Jews. The Chosen People are certainly a most intelligent, industrious, frugal race, and in all matters of buying, selling, and bartering they are unrivalled among the nations of the earth, but they have been too long accustomed to town life to be good tillers of the soil. These Jewish colonies were founded as an experiment to see whether the Israelite could be weaned from his traditionary pursuits and transferred to what some economists call the productive section of society. The experiment has failed, and the cause of the failure is not difficult to find. One has merely to look at these men of gaunt visage and shambling gait, with their loop-holed slippers, and black, threadbare coats reaching down to their ankles, to understand that they are not in their proper sphere. Their houses are in a most dilapidated condition, and their villages remind one of the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet. A great part of their land is left uncultivated or let to colonists of a different race. What little revenue they have is derived chiefly from trade of a more or less clandestine nature.*

Mr. Arnold White, who subsequently visited some of these Jewish Colonies in connection with Baron Hirsch's colonisation scheme, assured me that he found them in a much more prosperous condition.

As Scandinavia was formerly called officina gentium--a workshop in which new nations were made--so we may regard Southern Russia as a workshop in which fragments of old nations are being melted down to form a new, composite whole. It must be confessed, however, that the melting process has as yet scarcely begun.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 武者规则

    武者规则

    狂放不羁的小王爷意外身亡,穿越到武者大陆,开启漫长的武者修炼之途。武者修炼,是武者大陆上的主旋律,成为高阶武者,也是也是这里所有人的毕生追求。武童,武士,武师,大武师,武灵,武尊,武宗,武王,武皇(上、中、下),武神,直到最后的肉身成圣。千百年来,人们一直沿着这条路,前赴后继,永不停歇。狄青,同样在朝着那个目标迈进。由自我禁锢到欣然接受,由弱小无助到逐渐强大,踏碎满路荆棘,和血狂奔...但是,他却发现,自己从一开始便被卷入了一场暗流涌动的争斗之中。他能否主宰自己的命运?前世的经历又会给他带来什么...
  • 梦幻系列之双城

    梦幻系列之双城

    一座城,一扇门,追溯远古时代,人和兽的纠葛纷争!乱世贤才,主人公黑陶陶、易星辰如何通过困难险阻最终一统人兽两极,其中的人性善恶、爱恨情仇淋漓尽致,魔法的博大精深以及神器时代的人族、兽族、仙族、魔族纷争割据局势,还听我一一道来。
  • 十年顾梦

    十年顾梦

    连顾凡自己也不知道他为什么会喜欢上那个叫林梦栀的女孩,可是,他就是纠缠了她十年,可是,十年哪够啊。十年前,他在栀子花开的季节里重新遇见了那个如栀子花般的女孩。十年后,在栀子花开的季节里和那个如栀子花般的女孩一起看栀子花开。还记得栀子花的花语吗,愿得一人心,白首不相离,如果爱,即珍爱。
  • 网络帝国的王者:青年恺撒马克·扎克伯格传奇

    网络帝国的王者:青年恺撒马克·扎克伯格传奇

    互联网行业、通讯行业、媒体行业的从业者和创业者的必读书!Facebook是全球最大的信息发布平台,也是互联网上最大的分享网站。这个网站的创始人却是一位从大学辍学的80后。一个沉默寡言、言行举止都令人琢磨不透的“社交障碍者”。《青年恺撒马克·扎克伯格传奇:网络帝国的王者》是一本全方位解密Facebook商业秘密及马克·扎克伯格成功幕后的书,看他怎样实现从0到百亿元的疯狂。
  • 重生之鬼修仙途

    重生之鬼修仙途

    (本书无男主)她本是世家嫡女,修仙之才,何奈母亲软弱,庶姐不喜,亲爹遭嫌,从此,明珠蒙了尘,光芒渐暗,谁知遇到了他,心里灰暗的一角重新燃起的火焰和爱的深渊,为情覆灭,为爱惨死。一朝初醒,恍若黄粱一梦,却惊醒梦中人,从此明珠耀风尘,修仙步步来,女配不减当年风采。欺她无依无靠,没有本命法宝,更无师尊教导,她便告诉你什么叫真的的无依无靠,没有本命法宝,更无师尊教导!总之女配升级路漫漫,过程及其虐心,她会让你见识什么叫做实力!什么叫做倔强!什么叫做傲骨!
  • 浴火逆苍天

    浴火逆苍天

    废材少年得机缘,三尺青锋可斩仙。浴火重生化修罗,倒提长锋弑苍天。仙道路漫漫,谁人定正邪是与非?吾道吾心定,我命我主宰!脚踏仙路,意不灭,掌破乾坤,命改写!我名李天,注定我生来就当逆天!
  • 重生之丑女变校花

    重生之丑女变校花

    我长得不漂亮但是我学习好不过也招来了嫉妒,我这个有点太随便了大家可以看看谢谢了
  • 优秀小学生的100个学习好方法

    优秀小学生的100个学习好方法

    《优秀小学生的100个学习好方法》由鲁鹏程主编,《优秀小学生的100个学习好方法》从学习能提升竞争力,预习让你领先一步,向40分钟要听课效益,把作业当考试对待,让自己“过目不忘”等12个方面,全面总结了优秀小学生应该掌握并应用的100个学习的好方法。这些方法简单、有 趣、实用、有效,能帮助小学生轻松、迅速地提升学习成绩,适合小学生及有关教师学习参考。
  • 魔灵之传说
  • 30天精通儿童心理学

    30天精通儿童心理学

    本书融专业性、知识性、可读性和趣味性于一体,全面介绍了儿童心理学知识,书中援引了大量典型的故事和案例,贴近现实生活,将晦涩的专业知识寓于轻松的故事中,让你在轻松愉快的阅读中快速了解和掌握儿童心理。