Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1902 — A BABEL OF TONGUES. [ARTICLE]

A BABEL OF TONGUES.

knaaian Empire Composed <rf Mora Than OS Separata People*. The Russian empire contains more than 65 independent racial groups. It is a veritable tower of Babel. Even ' with the omission of Siberia and Central Asia there remain in Russia in Europe and the Caucasus alone 46 different peoples. In the northwest the Finns, in the west the Lithuanians and in the east, on the banks of the Volga, numerous groups of Uralo-Al-taic populations, the Tchermlsa, Mordva, Votiaki and southeast there are the Tartars in Crimea and Greeks on the Sea of Azof. Add to this the sporadic groups of Germans and Jews. All these numerous elements have tn a great measure commingled. The history of Russia is the reverse, properly speaking, of that of the United States. While in America there is an Aryan invasion proceeding from east to west, in Russia there is an Aryan invasion going from west to east. The center from which the Slav emigrations set forth seems to have been the region of the Dnieper and Galicia. The upper tributaries of the Dnieper were settled first. The Slavs then reached the Baltic and founded Novgorod the Great. Later (from the 11th to the 13th centuries) they invaded the basin of the Volga and founded successively Moscow, NljlNovgorod, Saratof and many other cities. This movement is still going on. The American "far west" has a counterpart in the "far east” of Siberia. Nearly 220,000 Russian colonists settle there every year. But, while the Aryans of America have almost extermnlated the population of the redskins, the Russian immigrants have commingled with the ancient populations of eastern Russia. The Russian people are thus in their sum a total mixture of Slavs and Finns.