Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1915-05-29
GREAT RUSSIA, CRADLE
OF THE REAL RUSSIANS
It's People Has Made the History of
the Mighty SIavonie Empire.
Especial to The BulIetin.)

Especial to The Bulletin.)
Washington, D. c., May 2S.-The
Great Russians are the first of Slanoic
peoples, and the history or their rise
Is the history of the growth OF the
mighty Slanoic Empire. There are
Little Russians, White Russians, Red
Russians, Cossacka, and scores or
widely varying peoples within the con-
fines of the Muscovite realm, but Great
Russia is the cradle of real Russians
and the source of Russian progress
and greatness. OF this kennel people
of the vast modern nation, bulletin
issued by the National Geographic
Society at Washington says:
Before all other Slavonic peoples;
those of Great Russia have succeeded
in building the most powerful, the
most enduring and the most promis-
ing of empires. Great Russia compre-
hends that part of the empire which
is bounded by the Polar Seas upon the
north, by the UraI Mountains upon the
east, NoVgorod and KurSk upon the
south, and the Polish and Baltic Prov
inces upon the west. Within these
confines has grown up the power that,
today, has brought into being the
mightiest of all empires welded behind
one unbFoken border.
THE nucleus of Great Russia in
cluded narrower region, with Kursk,
Smolensk, Novgorod, VOlogda, Mini
Novgorod and Tambov as its bounda-
ries. Moscow is the heart of this re-
gion, the inspiration in the develop
ment of the dominant Russian. From
this central rigion, growing outwards,
the Russian people have developed
slowly, but steadily, through centuries;
much as in the case of the individual
of the north and in strong contra
distinction to the nations of the south,
they have come to their prime late.
Today Russia has reached a ma ority
that is filed with unbounded promise.
THE Great Russian has g. touch Of
Finnish and of Tartar blood. the one
making him a little more phlegmatic,
a little tougher than his other SIa-
vonic brothers, and the other giving
him a quality of thrift, making him a
better housekeeper, than is the free
handed Pole, Little Russian and Ser
Wan. The Firms at one time lived all
along the Volga valley. while the Tar
tars several times inundated Muscow
during Russian infancy.
Great Russia numbers about one
third of the Empires people. With the
exception of Petrograd and Odessa, it
includes the more important, more pro-
gressive cities of Russia, and all Of
the cities whose histories are Russian
history, such as Rostov the Great,
Tver, Moscow, Yaroslav, Vladimir and
lula. Throughout his land long and
to remain inactive several months each
year. During these cold months, the
Russian peasant and his family spend
the time huddled around the great
stoves, or, in very cold weather, rest
ing on top of them.
The peasant home in Great Russia
consists usually of only one room, fif-
teen feet square, built with hunks
around its walls, with, perhaps, a small
loft overhead and a shallow cellar
storeroom. The Great Russian village
is generally two long lines of these
70 nir 81 han
broad street. Theoretically sealed
against the singing winter weather,
the Russian home in winter tends to
make its indwellers stogy, for fresh air
only finds admission with the opening
and closing of the door.
The life fthe Great Russian Ueas-
ant is something far more simple than
that of the poorest of Americas far
| mers. Sour cabbage, black bread and
cucumbers are the staples of his table.
Sour cabbage, put up in casks, slightly
sailed and fermented, is the first
thought of the hungry Great Russian
peasant. This sour cabbage cooked in
soup, with black bread, forms many
and many a meal of the Russian fam
lily. Meat, except during the harvest
festivals is rare at the moujiks table.
Despite simple fare, he, however, is a
| remarkable worker, and also man of
splendid physique.
"A man, woman and a horse form a
Great Russian household The peas
ants harry young. Marriages are
simple ceremonies. The feasts, on the
other hand, last several days, and, in
the years before the war, they were
enlivened with quantities of vodka. In
stead of rice, the Russian showers the
bride and groom with hops. BY the
| rules of the Orthodox Church, a man
may marry three times, but no more,
| and widow may make a second VEN
| ture. There are few beautiful peasant
girls in Great Russia Good looks in
a woman there are more a matter of
| deep chests, muscular arms, and pow
| erful shoulders than one of beauty of
face"