Evening star., 1942-07-25
Of Stors, Men
And Atoms
Notebook Of Science Progress
In Laboratory, Field
And Study
By Thomas r. Henry.

By Thomas r. Henry.
Russia is young.
More than IS per cent Of It's 200 900 900
people are under 10 years of age
This condition permeates all Of the
so or more nationalities-eight-ten
white-which are included in the Soviet
Union.
Thus the nation as whole has re-
siliency Of youth which was one of the
imponderables which Germany probably
failed to take into account.
| Such is the conclusion of DR.. Ales
Hrdlicka, curator Of physical anthro-
pology of the Smithsonian Institution, In
a handbook on the races of Russia Just
issued.
| At first glance the peoples-with va
rious physical characters, origins, tradi-
tions and languages-may appear
somewhat chaotic mixture. But. DR.,
Hrdllcka points out, they have drifted
toward common pattern through the
| centuries, SO that today, except for
manner of dress and language, few
| strlklngly pronounced differences are
notable to the lay observer.
He probes deeply into the origins of
| the present Russian peoples. They-at
least one element of them-flrst appear
about 900 BIC. as the "Scythians" of the
| Greek historians.
Who were these "Scythians"? Because
OF their supposed fighting qualities and
their contacts with the Greeks few
peoples of antiquity have been subject to
more debate as to their ethnic identity.
But archaeological evidence now makes
fairly certain, Dr. Hrdlicka says, that the
majority of them-especially those in the
eastern half OF their territory-were of
a semi -Mongolold stock belonging to the
same general racial complex as the
present-day Tatars The Greeks were
not anthropologists, however, and doubt
less applied the term to diverse peoples.
| In the western part of their territory
were a great many peoples of undoubted
Slav origin who were destined to become
perhaps the one most essential element
in the future Russia.
These "Scythians' '-Tatar and Slav
alike-were overrun by various invaders.
First came the Goths. They were Scan
dinavians who crossed the Baltic and as
early as the third century AID. had
reached as far as the present Ukraine
and the Black Sea. These Goths brought
their families with them. They came
both as conquerors and as settlers, they
overran large areas. they mixed to some
extent with the Scythians, both Slav
and Tatar and set up somewhat more
stable governments.
Then the Goths themselves were over
run by the great Hun invasion, probably
the most sustained and serious Asiatic
incursion Of all time. It practically
obliterated the old Scythia. The Huns
were typical Mongoloid nomads. From
Southern Russia they extended their
incursions over most Of Western Europe.
But they established nothing permanent
and eventually receded into Asia.
Their contribution, aside from some
racial intermixture, was to drive the
Tatar Scythians eastward, where they
disappear from history, and disperse the
Goths. There remained, however, rem
nants Of the original populations. In
Southern Russia these were infiltrated
by and became more or less amalga-
mated into another race, the Khazars, a
more civilized people, rather closely re-
lated to the present-day Georgians and
Armenians. Repeatedly there were spo-
radio incursions OF Turkish or Tatar
tribes from the East which left their
traces on the ethnic makeup Of the
population.
| But all the time, perhaps rather
| thinly scattered over Central and West
ern Russia, there were various peoples OF
a common blood who considered them
selves the elect Of the earth. They re-
| ferred to themselves as "slava," or
"glorified." Their early history and
origin are lost in the mists Of uncer-
| tainty. A considerable group OF their
| tribes were gathered along the Dnieper
and its tributaries. The Romans did
not dif1erentiate them from the Ger
mans.
A~NO
| Their dissentions finally led to the pro-
posal that they call some prince of for
eign blood, of whom none could be jeal-
Gus, to merge all the subdivisions into
one strong Slav state. The wisdom of
this proposal was admitted and ENJOYS
OF the various tribes called on certain
princes Of the Varangians, a non-Slavic
tribe of Scandinavian origin. There
were three brothers, the oldest of whom
was named Rurik. According to the
legend, the Slav territory was divided
among them. The two younger brothers
conveniently died and Rurik became the
ruler OF the whole Slav complex.
Finally the Scandinavian Varangians
were absorbed in the sea of Slavic blood
but the family of Rurik remained The
Slav element was extremely virile and
tenacious and expanded in all directions
where resistance was not insurmount-
able. This expansion took place chiefly
toward the northeast and northwest,
where gradually the primitive Mongo-
loid strains were replaced or largely alb
\