Russia under the Old regime

5

France, lies in the zone of mixed forests. Until the middle of the sixteenth century, Russians had been virtually confined to this area, because the steppe with its coveted black earth was under the control of hostile Turkic tribes. Russians began to penetrate the steppe in the second half of the sixteenth century, but they became masters of it only towards the end of the eighteenth when they at long last conclusively defeated Turkish power. During the formative period of their statehood they had to live between 50 and 60 degrees of northern latitude. This is approximately the latitude of Canada. In drawing comparisons between the two countries, however, several differences must be kept in mind. The bulk of the Canadian population has always resided in the southernmost part of the country, along the Great Lakes and the St Lawrence River, i.e. at 45 degrees, which in Russia corresponds to the latitudes of the Crimea and the central Asian steppe. Nine-tenths of the Canadian population lives within two hundred miles of the United States border. North of the 52nd parallel Canada has little population and hardly any agriculture. Secondly, throughout its history Canada has enjoyed friendly relations with its richer southern neighbour, with which it has maintained close economic relations. (It remains to this day the largest single recipient of US capital investments.) And finally, Canada has never had to support a large population; those of its people whom the economy could not employ have been in the habit of moving, seasonally or permanently, to the United States. None of these advantages exists in the case of Russia: its neighbours have been neither rich nor friendly, and the country has had to rely on its own resources to support a population which already in the middle of the eighteenth century was larger than Canada's is today.

The principal consequence of Russia's location is an exceedingly short farming season. In the taiga, around Novgorod and St Petersburg, it lasts a mere four months in the year (frorn mid-May to mid-September). In the central regions, near Moscow, it stretches to five and a half months (mid-April to end of September). In the steppe, it lasts six months. The remainder of the Russian year is altogether unsuitable for agricultural work, because the soil is as hard as rock and the land is covered by a deep blanket of snow. In western Europe, by contrast, the growing season lasts eight to nine months. In other words, the western farmer has at his disposal anywhere from 50 to 100 per cent more time for field work than the Russian. Furthermore, in parts of Europe where the winter is mild, the winter months can be employed for occupations other than field work. The economic and social consequences of this simple climatic fact will be elucidated below. The brief growing season, and its corollary, a long and hard winter,