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There are few lands upon the whole globe so imperfectly
known to geographic science as the one which we shall try
to describe in this little work. The geographic concept of
the Ukraine does not exist in the geography of today.
Even the name has been almost forgotten in Europe in the
course of the last century and a half. Only occasionally on
some maps of Eastern Europe the name "Ukraine" shows
timidly along the middle of the Dnieper. And yet it is an
old name of the country, originating in the 11th Century,
generally known thruout Europe from the 16th to the end
of the 18th century, and then, after the abrogation of the
autonomy of the second Ukrainian state, gradually fallen
into oblivion. The Russian Government has determined to
erase the old name of the land and the nation from the
map of Europe. Little Russia, West Russia, South Russia,
New Russia, were officially introduced in place of the old
name Ukraine, the Austrian part of the Ukraine receiving
the name of East Galicia. The people were named Little
Russians, South Russians, Ruthenians, and all remembrance
of the old name seemed to have been blotted out. But, in
the speech of the people and in the magnificent unwritten
popular literature of the nation, the name of the land could
not be destroyed, and, with the unexpected rise of Ukrainian
literature, culture, and a feeling of national political inde-
pendence in the 19th Century, the name Ukraine came into
its own again. Today there is not an intelligent patriotic
Ukrainian who would use another name for his country
and nation than Ukraine and Ukrainian, and, slowly, these
designations are penetrating foreign lands as well.
The Ukraine is the land in which the Ukrainian nation
dwells a great solid national territory embracing all the
southern part of Russia in Europe, besides East Galicia,
Northwest Bukowina and Northeast Hungary.
This district is a definite geographic unit. A discussion of
its exact boundaries shall be reserved for the anthropo-
geographical part of this book.
A division of Europe into natural regions almost
invariably stops at Eastern Europe. While all the other
portions of our globe have long been the object of the most
detailed classification, Eastern Europe remains, as before,
an undivided whole. To be sure, there have been many
attempts at classification, but they are all based upon a
non-geographical point of view. Only the Baltic provinces
and Poland are, in their present political extent, regarded
as possible geographic units.
These deficiencies in the geographic material relating
to Eastern Europe are due, above all, to our imperfect
knowledge of this great region. Russian science is devoting
far more intensive study to the Asiatic borderlands of the
immense empire than to the European home country.
For this reason, our literary aids in this direction are few
and unreliable. The latter criticism applies even to the
twenty-volume Geography of Russia by Semyonoff and
the Geography of Krassnoff. Apart from the consideration
that it is relatively out of date, the fifth volume of Reclus'
"G^ographie universelle" still offers the best insight into
this unique region of Eastern Europe.
If we glance at the map of Eastern Europe, we perceive
at once that the great uniformity of this immense region
makes it quite impossible to apply to Eastern Europe as
a criterion the division of Western or Central Europe.
It is not seas and mountains that separate the natural
regions and anthropogeographical units of Eastern
Europe, but imperceptible morphological transitions, hydro-
graphic and climatic boundaries, petrologic and floral
conditions.
The Ukraine is an Eastern European country. Its
situation, its decidedly continental character, its geologic
history, tectonic construction and morphologic conditions,
its climate, plant and animal life, its anthropogeography
all are characteristic of Eastern Europe. But within
Eastern Europe the Ukraine occupies a unique position,
which fully warrants our conceiving of this great land as
a geographic unit standing on an equal basis with the
other natural units, as Great Russia, North Russia, the
Ural, White Russia, the Baltic Provinces. But it also forms a
characteristic transition country from Eastern to Central
and Southern Europe on the one side, and to Western Asia
on the other.
The location of the Ukraine causes us necessarily to
consider it as the easternmost of the Mediterranean countries
of Europe. The Ukraine differs from these other Medit-
erranean countries in that it is not hemmed in on the north
by mountains. The back-country of the Black Sea, which
the Ukraine really is, therefore merges gradually into
the lands lying further to the north Great Russia and
White Russia. Of all the regions of Eastern Europe, the
Ukraine alone has access to the Mediterranean.
The geological history of the Ukraine is entirely different
from that of the rest of Europe. The pre-Cambrian core
of gneiss-granite of the Ukraine, unlike other parts of
Eastern Europe, was not flooded by the sea either in the
Cambrian period or the lower Silurian, while in the upper
Silurian the sea covered only a slight part of Western
Podolia and Northern Bessarabia. The Devonian sea
crossed the boundaries of the Ukraine only in the farthest
east (Donetz Plateau) and west (Western Podolia). The
carbon deposits and Permian formations, so widely
distributed in Eastern Europe, are found in the Ukraine
only on the Donetz; triassic rock hardly at all. The
Jurassic Sea confined its action almost wholly to the
plicated borderlands of the Ukraine, altho it actually
flooded great stretches of Eastern Europe. Only the
extension of the chalk seas thru Eastern Europe affected
Ukrainian territory, especially the northern and western
borderlands. The old tertiary sea, on the other hand,
confined itself for the most part to the Ukraine, with the
result that a goodly section of the northeastern boundary
of the old tertiary deposits coincides exactly with the
anthropogeographical boundaries of the Ukraine. The
inland seas of the lower green-sand formation of Eastern
Europe, too, are confined almost entirely to Ukrainian
territory.
The geologic history of the Ukraine in the diluvian
period was also decidedly different from that of the other
districts of Eastern Europe. The Northern European
inland ice covered the northwestern borderlands of the
Ukraine only in the main ice period, for the boundary set
for the glaciation of the north, on the basis of the investi-
gations of Russian scholars, applies in great measure only
to the limits of the distribution of northern glacial boulders,
which were carried to their present site not by ice but by
flowing water. The two indentations of the glaciation-
boundary in the Don and Dnieper district merely mark the
sphere of action of two glacial river systems.
The absence of a one-time inland-ice-cap differentiates
the Ukrainian district very markedly from the other parts
of Eastern Europe. As we perceive, even from this short
description, the Ukraine has had an entirely different
geologic history from the rest of Eastern Europe.
More plainly still, the independence of the Ukraine as a
natural unit is revealed in its contour-line and surface-
relief. The Ukraine is the only portion of the Eastern
European plain which has access to the mountainous
region, for it rests upon the Carpathians, the Yaila Moun-
tains and the Caucasus. Important individual districts
of the Ukraine lie in these mountains and lessen the
Eastern European uniformity of the country. The for-
mation of the Yaila and the Caucasus began at the end of
the Jurassic period its completion and the building up of
the Carpathians occur in the late tertiary period.
The plains and plateau of the Ukraine, while at first
glance quite similar to those of Central Russia, are in
reality very different from these as to structure and
surface-relief. The nucleus of the Ukrainian plateau
group, which is surrounded by the two plain districts of
the Ukraine, consists of the so-called Azof Horst (so named
by E. Suess), which stretches from the banks of the Sea of
Azof in a northwesterly direction as far as Volhynia and
Austrian Podolia. This primeval rock surface, composed of
granite gneiss, is bounded by quarries and edged with
declivities, which are hidden by more recent sediment
deposits. Since this extended Horst stretches thru practi-
cally the whole length of the Ukraine, we shall call it "the
Ukrainian Horst."
This Ukrainian Horst is of great importance for the
entire process of folding, all over the earth. To the west
of this Horst is the immense fold-system of the Altai,
folded far into North America toward the north and
northeast, in direct opposition to the main parts of the
enormous system which lie to the east of it. In the east of
the Horst we see the straight line of the mountain system
of the Caucasus; in the west the winding guide-lines of
Central Europe.
The region of the Ukrainian Horst has influenced not
only the formation of the plicated country. In connection
with it we find, arranged on a grand scale, but not very
intensive, disintegrating lines, which traverse the entire
Ukrainian country from N. W. to S. E. These tectonic
disturbances have led to strong folding and dislocation
of the more recent sedimentary layers which lie close to the
Horst. This folding district can be observed only in the
trunk range on the Donetz and in a few isolated places to
the northwest; beyond this it is buried under the huge cover
of the tertiary layers. The folding process took place in
the Donetz Mountains, continuing with long interruptions
from the end of the paleozoic era to the beginning of the
tertiary period. As pre-tertiary disturbances of this kind
we consider the disturbance of Isatchky, Trekhtimirov,
etc., as well as some dividing lines at the northwestern
extremity of the Ukrainian Horst.
There is no doubt that the Ukrainian Horst was also
the origin of more recent tectonic disturbances tertiary
and post-tertiary. The two main lines of Karpinsky (the
northern Volga, bend of the Don, source of the Donetz,
delta of the Desna, South Polissye, Warsaw; the southern
delta of the Don, end of the Porohy of the Dnieper,
source of the Boh, Western Podolia) for the most part
go back to these more recent post-cretaceous disturbances.
Besides, we are already able, despite our insufficient
morphological data on the Ukraine, to establish the
fact that the entire Ukrainian plateau-group is the
scene of a significant post-glacial elevation. The strikingly
parallel courses of the main streams, the Dniester,
the Boh, the Dnieper as far as Katerinoslav, the
Donetz and the Don, together with the precipices
frequently accompanying them, lead us to infer the existence
of tectonic influences. That the precipices of Podolia are
very recent we may now confidently maintain, and that the
precipitous bank of the Dnieper is quite as recent is shown
by the familiar dislocation near Kaniv, where the tertiary
is affected. Seismic movements of the most recent past
and morphological observations show us that the tectonic
disturbances of the Ukraine are continuing into our own day.
From this tectonic characterization of the Ukraine we
perceive that this country occupies an independent position
in relation to the rest of Eastern Europe. The much
more intensive tectonic disturbances of the Ukrainian region
have produced a greater variety of plateau and plain
country here than in White, Great or North Russia. The
Ukrainian plateaus attain the contour-lines of 400 and even
500 meters and reveal precipices of tectonic origin, which
for a long time were considered proof of Baer's law and
have recently been explained as Davis Cuestas. The
extensive working out of valleys in the Ukrainian plateau
regions, the characteristic canon-like type of the valleys,
the frequent occurrence of hills formed by erosion, lack
of glacial formations and deposits, but evidences of great
erosive and flattening action these are the chief elements
of difference between the plateau lands of the Ukraine and
other Eastern European plateau lands. The plains of the
Ukraine possess similarities to neighboring Central Europe
only in the Northwest. Beyond this, they are all more or
less decided steppes, the like of which are not met with in
Central Europe, Hungary not excepted. At the same time
the character of the steppes of the Ukraine is different
from that of the steppe-region of Eastern Russia as well,
chiefly because of the detail of the country and the peculi-
arities of vegetation, which are occasioned by differences
of climate.
Hydrographically the Ukraine is distinguished by a
web of rivers concentrating in the Pontus. The Ukraine
embraces the river systems of the Dniester, Boh, Dnieper,
Don and Kuban not entirely, to be sure, yet by far the
greater part, leaving only the sources of the two greatest
rivers to the White and Great Russians. Only the most
western borderlands of the Ukraine lie within the water-
sheds of the Baltic Rivers (the Vistula district); only the
most eastern mountain-spurs in the water-shed of the
Caspian Sea (Terek and Kuma). We may therefore, without
hesitation, conceive of the Ukraine hydrographically as
the northern part of the Eastern European water-shed.
In respect to climate, the Ukraine occupies an indepen-
dent position in Eastern Europe. In fact, de Martonne
recently declared "the Ukrainian climate to be one of the
main types of climate of the earth." We shall not go so far
as this, but we must emphasize the fact that the climate of
the Ukraine differs no less from that of Poland, White
Russia and Great Russia than does Germany's climate from
that of England or France. An important wind-partition
crosses the Ukraine in winter from East to West, subjecting
the entire southern part to the sway of the east wind.
Winter in the Ukraine is strictly continental, with a cold-
ness of 30 degrees, but not with the semi-polar character
of the Russian or the Central European character of the
Polish winter. The east and southeast winds by day
prevent the snow-blankets, produced by the moist south
winds of the Pontus, from ever becoming too heavy, especi-
ally in the Southern Ukraine, and cause them to disappear
quickly in the spring. In the spring the temperature
rises very rapidly. The summer of the Ukraine is the hot
continental summer, and despite the predominant Atlantic
west winds and the abundant precipitation, it is not
sultry. Autumn is pleasant and dry.
The climate of the Ukraine, then, is the continental
climate of the Pontus. Toward the west it merges into
the Central European climatic zone at the border of Poland,
into the Eastern European continental climate at the border
of White and Great Russia, into the Aralo-Caspian dry
climate at the eastern border. The southern border-
lands of the Ukraine, like those of France, constitute a
transition to the Mediterranean climate.
In respect to its flora, the unique position of the Ukraine
depends upon the fact that it embraces almost the entire
region of the prairie-steppes of the Pontus, with their
regions of transition to the Northern and Central European
forest zone. Right east of the Don begin the steppes and
desert-steppes of the Caspian region. Consequently, the
Ukraine is the only country in Europe which has the
prevailing character of the steppes. Here, again, this
circumstance is of geographical importance and makes
the Ukraine, in this respect also, a geographic unit.
The most important signs of independence as a geogra-
phic unit, however, are imparted to the Ukraine by its
anthropogeographical conditions, to which we shall turn
our attention in Book II of this little work.
We have now become acquainted with the natural
foundations of the Ukraine as a geographic unit. One
important characteristic of this geographic entity
must especially attract our attention. The name of the
country is Ukraine, which means border-country, march-
land. It is an old historical name which originated in the
course of the centuries and has become customary. And
yet it is significant as hardly another name of a land or
people could well be. For the Ukraine is a true borderland
Europe, between Eastern Europe, and Western Asia. It lies
on the borders of the European plicated mountain-girdle
and of the Eastern European table-land. The Ukrainian
Horst constitutes a tectonic border-post for the development
of the entire European folded area. In the morphological
sense as well, the Ukraine constitutes a decided borderland.
Here the glacial formations give way to the erosive and
flattening formation. Climatologically, too, the Ukraine
is a decided borderland. Yet, most of all, does the char-
acter of the Ukraine as a land of boundaries and transitions
appear in its biogeographical and anthropogeographical
conditions. In the Ukraine are merged the boundaries of
two European forest regions of the sub-steppes, transition-
steppe, prairie-steppe zone, and of the Mediterranean
region. The Ukraine is situated upon the boundaries of
the European family of peoples of Slavdom, of European
culture and, at the same time, upon the boundaries of that
anthropogeographical structure which is so remarkable
and so little known the body social of Eastern Europe.
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