Читать книгу The Awakening of the East: Siberia—Japan—China - Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu - Страница 6

Table of Contents

Antiquity of Russian expansion in Asia, which is contemporary with that of Western Europe in the New World—Analogy between the North of Asia and the North of America—The three natural Zones of Siberia—Their climate, extent and capabilities—The Polar Zone is absolutely sterile and uninhabitable—The Forest Zone—The Meridional Zone, which is both cultivable and colonizable.

No sooner had Russia shaken off the yoke of the Tatars which weighed upon her for three centuries, and left its mark so deeply impressed as to be still visible, than, reformed and united, she began to expand beyond her natural confines. In this she only imitated the example of Spain, which a short time previously had been delivered from the Moors and united under the sceptre of Ferdinand and Isabella. Being essentially a continental country, without easy access to the sea, and having no difficult frontier to bar her expansion to the East, Russia turned her attention in that direction, and, defeating her old masters, annexed the Tatar kingdoms of Kazan and Astrakhan. This conquest extended her frontier to the immediate neighbourhood of the Ural Mountains. In the second half of the sixteenth century Tsar Ivan the Terrible found himself possessor of vast but sparsely-peopled regions, at a great distance from his capital, and extremely difficult of direct administration.

It is a remarkable coincidence that under these circumstances an organization should have been formed in Russia almost spontaneously with others of the same kind which were to prove of such great utility in the West—i.e., a great colonizing company, under Imperial charter. The Strogonofs, very rich merchants, who had extended their sphere of trading operations as far as the basin of the Kama, the great affluent of the Volga, addressed in 1558 a petition to the Tsar, in which they demanded a concession of the lands in that region, promising at the same time, in consideration of the grant, to build a city, develop the resources, and defend the country against the attacks of savage tribes. Ivan the Terrible acceded to their request, accorded them divers trading privileges, and conferred upon them the right to administer justice and to levy troops. Thus was organized a regular chartered company analogous with the East India Company and with those more recently formed in South Africa and on the banks of the Niger. The company in question began the conquest of Siberia.

The Strogonofs, once established on the Kama, experienced, as generally happens when a civilized people finds itself in contact with barbarous tribes, the necessity of extending further eastwards at the expense of their Tatar neighbours, if only to protect themselves from their depredations. In 1581 the Tsar gave them permission to employ a celebrated Cossack pirate, Ermak Timoféef,^[7] who seized the city of Sibir, or Isker, then capital of Khan Kuchun, the principal Tatar chief of Western Siberia. Six years later the present city of Tobolsk rose on the site of Sibir.

We will not attempt to narrate the history of the conquest of Siberia, which strongly resembles the taking of North America by French pioneers at about the same time. When the Tatar tribes of the West had been driven towards the Southern Steppes, the Cossacks encountered little opposition from the poor hunters and fishermen whom they found in the district. In summer these Cossack adventurers navigated the rivers in canoes, whilst their winters were spent in block-houses, or ostrogs, surrounded by palisades not unlike the forts erected by the Hudson Bay Company. Soon they became very numerous, being attracted from the more civilized parts of Russia by the growing profits of the fur trade. In 1636 they had reached the mouth of the Yenissei, and a year later arrived on the banks of the Lena. In less than two years—that is, in 1639—they had discovered the shores of the Okhotsk, and fifty years later the whole continent had been traversed from end to end. In 1648 the Cossack adventurers Alexief and Dezhnief doubled the eastern extremity of Asia, and arrived at Kamtchatka, and in 1651 the Ataman Khabarof established himself on the Amur, where he discovered other adventurers, who had already descended this river in 1643. At this juncture the Russians found themselves face to face with the Manchus, who had just conquered China, and notwithstanding the heroic defence of their fortress at Albazine on two occasions, they were obliged in 1688 to abandon the middle and lower basins of the Amur to the Sons of Heaven in accordance with the treaty of Nertchinsk, a territory which they only reconquered from the degenerate Chinese in 1858.

To the west as well as to the east of Siberia the Russian frontiers remained scarcely altered until about the middle of the present century. It was only in 1847 that the Tsar’s troops were able to cross the arid zone of the Kirghiz Steppes. The policy of Peter the Great was directed towards Europe, and his dream was to extend Russia towards the West by the conquest of Constantinople—a fact which accounts for the extinction of zeal on the part of Russia with respect to her Asiatic possessions, which were now treated merely as penal settlements or as fields for scientific investigation, whenever the Sovereigns took it into their heads to become specially interested in such matters. The increase of Imperial authority and the more regular organization of the State had in the meantime subdued the adventurous and enterprising spirit of the Cossacks, and that particular class of men, half soldiers, half brigands, who had proved themselves such hardy pioneers at an earlier epoch, now disappeared, and in the middle of the eighteenth century Siberia was opened as a field of colonization. In spite of the many obstacles which the system of serfdom in Russia placed in the way of peasant emigration, in 1851 the population of Siberia had reached 2,400,000, a figure which, although not very large considering the immensity of the country, was in excess of the population of Canada at the same period, which numbered only 1,800,000 souls. From this point of view the Russians had no reason to be ashamed of their colonization, and, as a matter of fact, have none to-day. According to the census of January, 1897, there were 5,731,732 Siberians living on a territory of 4,812,800 square miles, whereas in 1891 there were only 4,833,000 Canadians inhabiting the 3,721,800 square miles known as the Dominion. The density of the population of Northern Asia is not much inferior to that of British North America, and it must not be forgotten that the conditions of life in Siberia are greatly inferior to those of Canada.

A comparison of the natural conditions existing in the northern regions of the old and the new world shows that they are nearly identical. Both consist for the most part of vast expanses of flat country, often covered with magnificent forests, and quite as frequently barren. Siberia, like Canada, is irrigated by noble rivers, which under a milder climate would constitute a superb network of intercommunication; but unfortunately both countries are hampered by an extremely rigorous climate, which imprisons these fine rivers during many months of the year under an impenetrably thick coating of ice. In the north of Siberia as well as of Canada the country is so intensely cold as to render agriculture impossible. That part, therefore, of both countries which is capable of exploitation is of extremely limited extent, consisting both in Russian Asia and in British North America of a ribbon-like zone some 3,720 miles in length and from 250 to 300 in width.

If Siberia resembles Canada in some things, it must be confessed that the latter country has every advantage in point of beauty and position. In the first place, Siberia is more to the north; that portion which approaches nearest to the Equator is situated about 43° latitude—that is to say, a little more to the north than the extreme south of Upper Canada, and, being on the Pacific, it is most distant from European Russia, whereas the corresponding part of Canada is the nearest to England, and washed by the Atlantic, the St. Lawrence, and the great lakes. On the other hand, that part of Siberia which is closest to Russia is covered to the south by barren steppes or by mountains which confine the centres of civilization between 54° and 57° latitude. Moreover, whereas the coast of Canada on the Pacific enjoys a much milder climate than the country situated on the other side of the Rocky Mountains, the regions of Siberia which border the Great Ocean are just as frigid as the rest of the country. The heights which separate the basin of the Amur from that of the Lena are not sufficiently elevated to form a barrier against piercing north winds, and the Japanese Archipelago interposes itself between the coast and the warm waters of the Black Current, which plays the same part in the Pacific as the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic. Thus it happens that the climate of Trans-Baikalia, where the rivers which, when united, form the Amur take their source, is one of the most rigorous in Siberia, and the sea is covered with ice in the port of Vladivostok, which lies in the same latitude as Marseilles, whereas, opposite on the American coast, seven degrees northward, the winters of British Columbia are not more severe than those of Holland or the West of Germany.

Notwithstanding its terrible climate, Siberia is not entirely uninhabitable; indeed, even on the borders of the Arctic Ocean humanity is represented by a few aboriginal Polar tribes, who wander from place to place in sledges drawn by dogs, and usually followed by a numerous herd of reindeer. The white man, however, cannot endure the conditions prevailing in the extreme north, and it is therefore necessary with a view to colonizing that one must learn to distinguish between the different parts of Siberia.

The country has been judiciously divided into three zones, which are, proceeding from north to south, the Tundra (or Arctic Moss) Zone, the Great Forest Zone, and lastly the Agricultural Zone; the south and south-west of the last-named includes the steppes, as well as the Altai and Sayan Mountains. It would be impossible to trace a line of exact demarcation between these different zones, for the transition is extremely gradual; but, speaking generally, the land situated north of 63° and 64° latitude is barren of all vegetation excepting mosses and lichens. The subsoil is eternally frozen, but the surface thaws in summer very slightly, thereby turning the country into one vast marsh. The rivers remain frozen during nine months of the year. Under these circumstances, cultivation is out of the question. To the south-western limit of this zone, at Beriozof on the Obi, the medium temperature all the year round is 5° C. below zero, and in winter it goes down to 23°. The average in summer is 13·5°, and that of the hottest month 18°, which is about the same as the heat in Paris in July; but the warm weather lasts so short a time as to be useless for agricultural purposes. To the east the climate becomes rapidly severe, and at Verkhoyansk, a village situated in the Yakutsk district, latitude 67°, one of the coldest regions in our hemisphere is reached. The average throughout the year is 17° C. below zero; during the three winter months it is 47°, and in January 49°. The minimum is about 68° below zero. What characterizes this dreadful region is that to the extreme cold in winter succeeds a very short but relatively warm summer. The medium thermometrical reading during the warm season is 13°, which rises to 15° for the month of July, during which the mercury sometimes rises to 25° in the shade. The difference between the temperature of the warmest and the coldest months of the year is about 64°, that is to say, four times what it is in Paris. It is very remarkable that in whatever direction you go from Verkhoyansk, even northward, the climate becomes less rigorous, thanks to the comparative mildness of the winter. As to the summer, it scarcely merits the name, falling to 9° and even to 3° C. on the borders of the Arctic Ocean.

In such unfavourable conditions, it is not surprising that the 1,600,000 square miles which comprise the Tundra Zone only support between 60,000 and 80,000 inhabitants, mostly Samoyeds, Ostiaks, Chuckchis, Lamuts, and other miserable Arctic tribes, among whom live, or rather vegetate, a few Russian officials and a fairly numerous group of exiles. The reindeer, whilst serving as a means of transport, is also used as food, and its hide furnishes the natives with clothing. There is no other domestic animal excepting the powerful Polar dog which drags the sleighs. Whether this part of Siberia will ever become of any ultimate use is at present hard to say, but we may take it for granted that it will only be through the discovery of a mineral wealth, the existence of which is unknown at the present time, that the Polar Zone of Siberia will ever attract even a temporary settlement of colonists.

To the south of the Tundra begin the Great Forests. At first the trees are sparse and stunted, and only an experienced botanist can recognise the distinctive characteristics of the larch; the trees, however, become loftier as the climate moderates and the summer lengthens. The larches, firs and pines rise to a great height, and become at last so thick as to prevent the sun drying the damp soil of the Taiga, or primeval forest. The banks of the rivers are invariably covered by immense marshes, the most extensive of which are those to be met with in the neighbourhood of the Obi and the Irtysh. When the snow begins to melt, the inundations extend to considerably over six miles on either side of the ill-defined river-banks. The climate of this region is extremely severe, the winters frightfully cold, but the summers fairly warm. The frost lasts only seven instead of eight months; the subsoil, however, is eternally frozen, and agriculture is only possible in certain spots and demands constant attention. It is evident, however, that this zone, which covers about 2,320,000 square miles, that is to say about half Siberia, will never be able to support a dense population; still, with its great forests it is much more valuable than the more northern or Polar regions. If it is possible to prevent these Siberian forests from undergoing the same process of devastation which has befallen those of Northern America, they may become of enormous value. Moreover, there exist in their midst some very important gold-mines, especially near the Yenissei and in the basin of the Olekma, one of the tributaries of the Lena, not a few of which are already being satisfactorily exploited. There is therefore hope that in due time these vast regions now covered with forests and marshes may be able to support a much larger population than the actual one, which does not exceed 700,000 souls, mostly Russians and natives.

If we abstract from the total extent of Siberia the 1,600,000 square miles of Tundra, and the 2,320,000 square miles of forest land, there remain nearly 900,000 square miles which form the cultivable zone, the only one which will ever be capable of supporting anything like a dense population. This region is not perceptibly distinguishable from that of the forests by any marked change in the landscape, unless it be to the west, where the great green trees that usually flourish in milder climes form an agreeable contrast to the everlasting pines and firs. Then, again, the presence of cereals is very noticeable, the late summer being of sufficient length to enable wheat, barley and oats to ripen. So long as the seed remains under the snow it matters little how intense the cold may be above; but when once the snow melts it becomes absolutely necessary for the heat to be sufficiently great during a prolonged period to enable the grain to germinate, and above all it is necessary that the autumnal frosts should not occur before the corn has had sufficient time to ripen. At Nertchinsk in Trans-Baikalia the winter is often much more rigorous than at Beriozof on the Obi, and yet corn ripens in the neighbourhood of the first-named town, for the simple reason that the temperature between May and September, although not many degrees higher, remains equable much longer. It is rather to the brief period during which the sun has any power than to the intensity of the heat or the excess of cold that may be attributed the difficulty of rendering these extreme northern regions of any agricultural value. Notwithstanding that the cultivable zone of Siberia is so extremely limited, it covers an area five times the size of France and equal to half the cultivable sphere of Russia in Europe, which is also afflicted with glacial and sterile zones. This more fortunate section of Siberia may, and doubtless will, offer for a long time to come an admirable field for Russian emigration.