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 Ultimate Node.js for
Cross-Platform App
Development

Learn to Build Robust, Scalable, and

Performant Server-Side JavaScript
Applications with Node.js

Ramesh Kumar

www.orangeava.com
Copyright © 2024 Orange Education Pvt Ltd, AVA™

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in
critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the
accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in
this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author
nor Orange Education Pvt Ltd or its dealers and distributors, will be held
liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or
indirectly by this book.

Orange Education Pvt Ltd has endeavored to provide trademark information

about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the
appropriate use of capital. However, Orange Education Pvt Ltd cannot
guarantee the accuracy of this information. The use of general descriptive
names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names
are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free
for general use.

First published: February 2024

Published by: Orange Education Pvt Ltd, AVA™
Address: 9, Daryaganj, Delhi, 110002

ISBN: 978-81-96815-15-8
www.orangeava.com
 Dedicated To
My beloved parents:
Late Shri Jai Prakash Narayan
Late Shanti Devi
and
My wife Arti, my son Aayansh, and my daughter Anaisha
 About the Author
Ramesh Kumar is currently working as an Engineering
Manager at Moback Technologies India Pvt Ltd. He
possesses over 13+ years of experience in Full-Stack
Development based on ASP.NET, .NET Core, and popular
JavaScript frameworks like Angular/NodeJS. His
responsibilities include managing a team of 15 engineers,
and assisting the team prioritize items and deliver products
to stakeholders.
In addition, Ramesh contributes to development activities,
such as developing features, code reviews, and resolving
technical blockers. worked on building web applications
using Microsoft Technologies like C#, Asp.net Core, GIT, and
SQL Server. He has experience in front-end technologies like
jQuery, Angular, and React.
In a recent project, Ramesh worked on NodeJS backend
development. He has hands-on experience in DevOps tools
such as TFS, Git, Azure DevOps, and Webpack.
His work can be found on GitHub under the username
"rameshksh." He is highly self-motivated and eager to try
newer technologies and use them to build next-generation
software.
Ramesh has extensive experience working on Agile-based
projects and delivering them on time with the highest
quality product and has also worked on different cloud
platforms like Azure and GCP.
 About the Technical Reviewers
Bhargav Bachina is a distinguished figure in the IT
industry, boasting a remarkable 12-year journey marked by
innovation and leadership in software architecture. His
career is a testament to his profound expertise across
technological stacks, from front-end and back-end
development to the complexities of cloud computing.
Bhargav's proficiency in Java, JavaScript, Python, and
Node.js has made him a versatile and adept navigator in the
world of software development.
As a visionary software architect, Bhargav is renowned for
his skill in architecting and implementing comprehensive
end-to-end solutions. His commitment to excellence and a
deep-seated passion for technology have been instrumental
in developing cutting-edge web and mobile platforms. His
approach, consistently driven by a quest for excellence, has
not only led to the success of numerous projects but also
established him as a thought leader in the field.
In his current role as the CTO of a startup in the educational
domain, Bhargav is on the brink of launching an innovative
project, adding yet another milestone to his illustrious
career. Furthermore, his contributions as a fractional CTO
have made him a sought-after guide and mentor in the
startup community. His insights and guidance are highly
valued by emerging startups that connect with him on
LinkedIn for his expertise.
Beyond his technical and leadership roles, Bhargav is a
prolific writer. His journey as a writer began five years ago
on Medium, where he has penned over 700 articles. These
writings have reached an audience of over 8 million
globally, resonating deeply within the tech community. His
articles have been pivotal in guiding and enlightening many,
earning him a significant following of 22k on Medium. His
influence extends to LinkedIn, where his contributions are
frequently lauded for their impact.
Bhargav's commitment to sharing knowledge is further
evidenced by his active presence on GitHub. With around
431 repositories, he has become a resource for many in the
tech community, evidenced by the regular stars and forks
his repositories receive. Bhargav Bachina's journey is more
than a career narrative; it's a source of inspiration and a
roadmap for aspiring IT professionals worldwide.
To learn more about Bhargav, please visit the following
sites:
Medium: https://medium.com/@bhargavbachina
GitHub: https://github.com/bbachi
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@bachinalabs

Vikas Kad is a highly skilled professional boasting a decade

of hands-on experience in the dynamic realm of technology.
Specializing as a full-stack JavaScript developer, he has
cultivated expertise in crafting comprehensive solutions
across various domains. His proficiency extends to working
on both mono and microservices, showcasing a versatile
approach to software development.
Within the intricate landscape of technology, Vikas has
made notable contributions in domains such as CAD, E-
commerce, AIOPS, and blockchain. His technical acumen is
not confined to a specific niche, allowing him to adapt and
excel in diverse environments.
Over the course of his 10-year journey, Vikas has
demonstrated a passion for creating robust and scalable
applications. Whether delving into the intricacies of CAD
systems, navigating the complexities of E-commerce
platforms, leveraging AIOPS for intelligent operations, or
exploring the revolutionary world of blockchain, Vikas has
consistently delivered innovative solutions.
This wealth of experience has positioned him as a valuable
asset in the tech industry, embodying a commitment to
staying at the forefront of advancements. Vikas Kad's
journey reflects a dedication to excellence in full-stack
JavaScript development and a profound understanding of
various domains, making him a sought-after professional in
the ever-evolving tech landscape.
 Acknowledgements
THANK YOU!
First of all, praise and thanks to almighty God for his
blessings during my journey towards writing this book and
successful completion of work. I would like to express my
deep and sincere gratitude to Orange AVA for offering me to
write a book based on the Node.js technology stack. It was a
great privilege and honor to work with such a great
publication and their incredible support for writing this book.
I sincerely thank my wife and entire family for their
cooperation and patience during the overall journey. Without
them, I couldn’t have focused entirely on presenting my
idea.
I am extremely grateful to my parents for their love,
prayers, care, and sacrifices in educating me to such an
extent that today I have become an author.
Special thanks to Sonali and Priyanka for providing their
constant feedback and encouragement on completing my
work. I express special thanks to Bhargav Bachina for the
technical review of my work.
Finally, I would like to thank all the people who directly or
indirectly supported me during this challenging time and
helped to overcome all the obstacles and finish my work.
 Preface
This book covers many aspects of web development using
Node.js. This book also introduces the important concepts of
Node.js which can be used to build real-time web
applications.
This book takes a practical approach for web developers
who want to learn Node.js from scratch and develop a good
understanding of how to develop real-time web applications
using Node.js.
This book is divided into 15 chapters. We will cover most of
the Node.js basic concepts and some advanced concepts
that are used for developing backend applications.
In Chapter 1, we will learn a few terms and concepts that
are crucial to understanding Node.js. Some of the key
concepts will include non-blocking events, event loops,
asynchronous execution, JavaScript runtime environment,
REPL, NPM, and so on. This introduction chapter will help in
getting started with Nodejs and involve activities like
installation, running cli commands, running the first Nodejs
program.
In Chapter 2, we will dive deeper and learn about the core
built-in modules and underlying features that are
responsible for making Node.js a great technology. We will
cover some of the core concepts, including Event Loop,
Asynchronous programming, Event, and callbacks.
In Chapter 3, we will learn about Express and cover topics
like Introduction to Express core concepts, along with
installation on local systems. We will also learn how to
create our first backend server using express.js which
supports routes and middlewares.
In Chapter 4, we're going to take a closer look at the
fundamentals of RESTful services and focus on creating
some of the backend RESTful APIs and handling different
routes. We will learn about request validations and response
transformation, which is an important part of building APIs
using Node.js.
In Chapter 5, we will learn about the NoSQL database that
we can use for a variety of requirements in our application.
This chapter will focus on exploring more MongoDB and
cover basic things about how to install and use MongoDB as
a backend database and perform some basic CRUD
operations using Mongo-cli.
In Chapter 6, we will try to hook Node.js with our backend
database, i.e., MongoDB, and perform some of the CRUD
operations to save and retrieve data from the database
using REST APIs. This chapter deals mostly with storing in
databases and performing data manipulation using
Mongoose.
In Chapter 7, we will learn about template engines that we
used to build and hook frontend web pages and how to add
dynamic content using special syntax. We will explore EJS
template engines and create some dynamic content for
testing purposes.
In Chapter 8, we will learn about middleware and different
types of commonly used middleware inside any real Node.js
application. We will also learn how to create custom
middleware and use it in our application.
In Chapter 9, we will learn how to secure our application
using some popular authentication techniques, such as form
validation, tokens, and cookies. We will also review topics
like role-based Authorizations based on permissions.
In Chapter 10, we will be introducing socket.io for building
real-time applications like chatbots. We will cover the theory
of socket programming and use socket.io for creating simple
chat applications to test communication between client and
server.
In Chapter 11, we will learn how to handle errors and
persisting logs which can be used for further debugging.
This chapter will cover some of the techniques for error
handling and logging them.
In Chapter 12, we will focus on understanding how to write
test cases and perform unit tests using Mocha and chai
tools.
In Chapter 13, we will learn how to debug any Node. js-
related issues in local and production. Here we will explore
some of the widely used tools like REPL, Node Inspector, and
so on.
In Chapter 14, we will discuss topics on performing build
and deploying your node application to a server. We will
cover how to create and publish our package to the NPM
repository so that the module can be used by another team
or developer.
In Chapter 15, we will give a walk-through about some of
the advanced topics that are not in the scope of this book,
such as building highly distributed systems, leveraging
messaging systems like Kafka, Multi-Threaded Systems, and
so on. tandards Recommendations (PSR) to serve data for
your Nuxt app.
 Downloading the code
bundles and colored images
Please follow the link or scan the QR code to download the
Code Bundles and Images of the book:

https://github.com/ava-orange-
education/Ultimate-Node.js-for-
Cross-Platform-App-
Development

The code bundles and images of the book are also hosted
on
https://rebrand.ly/ef14f9
In case there’s an update to the code, it will be updated on
the existing GitHub repository.

Errata
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 DID YOU KNOW
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 Table of Contents
1. Getting Started with Node.js
Introduction
Structure
History of Node.js
Defining Node.js
Features of Node.js
Reasons for Node.js Popularity
Node.js versus Browser JavaScript
Installing Node.js
Installing NVM on Windows
Verifying NVM Installation
Some Core Concepts of Node.js
V8 Engine
Blocking versus Non-blocking Operations
Event Loop
Callback functions
Defining Callback Hell in Node.js
Ways to Avoid Callback hell
Promise
Async and Await
Choosing the Appropriate Approach
REPL Console
Getting Started with the REPL
Using NPM and Package.json
Init
Install
Installing Single Package
Update
Attributes of Package.json
The First Console Application Using Node.js
The First Web Application Using Node.js
 Conclusion
Further Readings
Test Your Node.js Basic Knowledge
Answers

2. Deep Dive into Node.js

Introduction
Structure
Traditional Web Application Architecture
Architecture of Node.js
Event Loop
Phase Methods in Details
Non-blocking or Asynchronous I/O
Bank and Cafe
Core Node Modules
Buffers
Creating Buffers
Writing Buffers
Reading from Buffers
Converting Buffer to JSON
Concatenating Buffers
Comparing Buffers
Copying Buffer
Events
Emit an event with arguments
Detach an event listener
Extend the EventEmitter class
File System
File Reading
File Open
File Information
HTTP
Path
Process
Stream
 Reading from Stream
Writing to Stream
Piping Stream
Chaining Stream
Conclusion
Questions
Answers

3. Introducing Express.js
Introduction
Structure
Express.js Overview
Key Features of Express.js
Benefits of Express.js
Installing Express.js
How Express.js Works
Adding Routes in Express
Request/Response Object
Using Middleware in Express
Application-level middleware
Router-level middleware
Error-handling middleware
Built-in middleware
Third-party middleware
Serving Static Files
Express Application Generator
Conclusion
Questions
Answers

4. Creating REST API and Routing

Introduction
Structure
Introduction to RESTful Services
Benefits of RESTful APIs
 Different Kinds of HTTP Verbs
Idempotency of Different HTTP Verbs
How RESTful APIs Work
Creating the First HTTP Server
Adding Routes
Using Swagger with Node.js
Setting up Swagger in Node.js
Request Validations
Validating Request Body
Request Transformation
Response Transformation
Understanding HTTP Status Codes
CORS Request Handling with Express
Configuring CORS with Express
API Error Handling
Conclusion
Further Readings

5. Working with MongoDB

Introduction
Structure
Introducing Database
Use Case of Database
Types of Database
Advantages of Using Databases
Disadvantages of Using Databases
Database Management System (DBMS)
Usage of DBMS
Types of Data Models in DBMS
Advantages of DBMS
Disadvantages of DBMS
ACID Properties in DBMS
Basics of MongoDB
RDBMS versus MongoDB
Key Components of MongoDB Architecture
 How MongoDB Works
Features of MongoDB
Advantages of MongoDB
Disadvantages of MongoDB
Installing MongoDB on Windows
Creating our First Connection to MongoDB
Mongo Shell for MongoDB
Installing the Mongo Shell
Connecting to MongoDB Database
Running Mongo Shell Application
Basic Commands for Mongo Shell
Introduction to MongoDB Compass
Installation of Compass on Windows
Conclusion
Further Readings

6. Data Persistence
Introduction
Structure
Understanding ORM Tool
Introduction to Mongoose
Characteristics of Mongoose
Advantages of Mongoose
Disadvantages of Mongoose
Key Terminologies
Schema and Model
Connecting to MongoDB through Mongoose
Database connection
Basic Mongoose Operations
Create operation
Retrieve operation
Update operation
Delete operation
Real-world Example
Conclusion
 Further Reading

7. Template Engines
Introduction
Structure
Templating engines
Working of template engines
Advantages of template engines
Disadvantages of template engines
Key components of template engines
HTML rendering with templates
Exploring the EJS template engine
Creating dynamic content using EJS
Conclusion
Further readings

8. Middleware Functions
Introduction
Structure
Introduction to Middleware
Importance of Middleware
Advantages of Using Middleware
Key Components of Middleware
Understanding the Next( ) Function
Using Inbuilt Middleware with Express
Types of Express Middleware
Application-level Middleware
Router-level Middleware
Built-in Middleware
Error Handling with Middleware
Third-party Middleware
List of Third-party Middleware
Creating our First Custom Middleware
Middleware Chaining
Conclusion
 Further Readings

9. Authentication and Authorization

Introduction
Structure
Introduction to Authentication and Authorization
Brief about Authentication
Importance of Authentication
Authentication Types
Popular Authentication Techniques
Password-based Authentication
Passwordless Authentication
2FA/MFA
Single Sign-On (SSO)
Social Authentication
Brief about Authorization
Importance of Authorization
Authorization Techniques
Role-based Access Control
JSON Web Token
SAML
OpenID Authorization
OAuth
Difference between Authentication and Authorization
Securing Real-World APIs
Running Application
Conclusion
Further Readings

10. Socket.IO
Introduction
Structure
Exploring WebSocket programming
Introducing WebSocket
Usage of WebSockets
 Advantages of WebSocket
Disadvantages of WebSocket
WebSocket versus HTTP
Establishing WebSocket Connections
WebSocket Protocol
Using Socket.IO with Express
Communication between Client and Server
Reasons to Choose Node.js and Socket.IO
Creating a Simple Chat Application
Conclusion
Further Readings

11. Handling and Logging Errors

Introduction
Structure
Defining Errors in JavaScript
Types of Errors
Defining Error Handling in JavaScript
Factors Causing Errors in Node.js
Types of Errors in Node.js
Functional Errors
Programming Errors
Understanding Error Handling in Depth
Error Handling Inside Express
Express.js Default Error Handling
Custom Error Handling
Handling Errors Using Middleware Functions
Adding Multiple Middleware Handlers
Building Express Applications with Error Handling
Logging Errors in Node.js Application
Using Winston Logger
Conclusion
Further Readings

12. TDD with Mocha and Chai

 Introduction
Structure
Node.js Unit Testing Concepts
Importance of Unit Testing
Test-Driven Development Fundamentals
Test-Driven Development Workflows
Key Principles of Test-Driven Development
Different Types of Testing Frameworks
Unit Testing key concepts
Advantages of Unit Testing in Node.js
Node.js Unit Test Anatomy
Advantages of using Mocha and Chai
Practical tips for writing unit tests
Methods to write unit tests
Introduction to Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)
BDD and Unit Testing
Key Benefits of BDD
Installation of Mocha and Chai
Hooks used in writing Unit Tests
BeforeEach
AfterEach
Spices
Stubs
Mocks
Async code
Callback and Promise
Conclusion
Further Readings

13. Debugging
Introduction
Structure
Introduction to Debugging
Importance of Debugging
Debugging Strategies
 Debugging Techniques
Using Console.log
Using Node Inspector
Using Node.js debug module
Debugging an Express Application
Creating a Node.js application
Installing the Node.js debugger using “Nodemon”
Start debugging in VS Code
Run the debugger with Breakpoint
Conclusion
Further Readings

14. Build and Deployments

Introduction
Structure
Creating an NPM Package
Initializing Git Repository
Initializing NPM
Creating the First NPM Package
Testing the NPM Package
Running test application
Publishing Your NPM Package
Introduction to Continuous Integration and Continuous
Delivery
Defining Continuous Integration (CI)
Defining Continuous Delivery (CD)
Defining Continuous Deployment (CD)
Defining Continuous Testing (CT)
Key elements of CI/CD
Importance of CI/CD
Deployment Service
Deployment pipeline
Advantages of pipeline deployment
Key components of the deployment pipeline
Stages of Deployment Pipeline
 Introduction of pipeline tools
Deploying Node.js applications Using Docker
Creating a demo project
Creating Dockerfile
Building the Docker image
Running docker image as a container
Kubernetes Introduction
Key Components of Kubernetes
Kubernetes deployment and services background
Deploying Node.js applications to a Kubernetes cluster
Conclusion
Further Readings

15. Future Scope

Introduction
Structure
Distributed Systems
Centralized systems vs Distributed systems
Key Features of Distributed Architecture
Advantages of distributed systems
Disadvantages of distributed systems
Event-based programming
Building event-driven applications in Node.js
Messaging systems like Kafka
Key concepts of Kafka
Running Kafka locally
Multi-threaded system
Advantages of Multithreading
Running parallel child processes in Node.js
Define Worker Threads
Use of worker threads
Child process example
Conclusion
Further Readings
Index
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
 THE
AWAKENING OF THE EAST
PART I.—SIBERIA
 CHAPTER I.
THE ORIGINS OF RUSSIAN EXPANSION IN
SIBERIA AND THE NATURAL
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE COUNTRY
Antiquity of Russian expansion in Asia, which is contemporary
with that of Western Europe in the New World—Analogy
between the North of Asia and the North of America—The
three natural Zones of Siberia—Their climate, extent and
capabilities—The Polar Zone is absolutely sterile and
uninhabitable—The Forest Zone—The Meridional Zone, which
is both cultivable and colonizable.

No sooner had Russia shaken off the yoke of the Tatars which
weighed upon her for three centuries, and left its mark so deeply
impressed as to be still visible, than, reformed and united, she began
to expand beyond her natural confines. In this she only imitated the
example of Spain, which a short time previously had been delivered
from the Moors and united under the sceptre of Ferdinand and
Isabella. Being essentially a continental country, without easy access
to the sea, and having no difficult frontier to bar her expansion to the
East, Russia turned her attention in that direction, and, defeating her
old masters, annexed the Tatar kingdoms of Kazan and Astrakhan.
This conquest extended her frontier to the immediate
neighbourhood of the Ural Mountains. In the second half of the
sixteenth century Tsar Ivan the Terrible found himself possessor of
vast but sparsely-peopled regions, at a great distance from his
capital, and extremely difficult of direct administration.
It is a remarkable coincidence that under these circumstances an
organization should have been formed in Russia almost
spontaneously with others of the same kind which were to prove of
such great utility in the West—i.e., a great colonizing company, under
Imperial charter. The Strogonofs, very rich merchants, who had
extended their sphere of trading operations as far as the basin of the
Kama, the great affluent of the Volga, addressed in 1558 a petition to
the Tsar, in which they demanded a concession of the lands in that
region, promising at the same time, in consideration of the grant, to
build a city, develop the resources, and defend the country against
the attacks of savage tribes. Ivan the Terrible acceded to their
request, accorded them divers trading privileges, and conferred upon
them the right to administer justice and to levy troops. Thus was
organized a regular chartered company analogous with the East
India Company and with those more recently formed in South Africa
and on the banks of the Niger. The company in question began the
conquest of Siberia.
The Strogonofs, once established on the Kama, experienced, as
generally happens when a civilized people finds itself in contact with
barbarous tribes, the necessity of extending further eastwards at the
expense of their Tatar neighbours, if only to protect themselves from
their depredations. In 1581 the Tsar gave them permission to employ
a celebrated Cossack pirate, Ermak Timoféef,[7] who seized the city of
Sibir, or Isker, then capital of Khan Kuchun, the principal Tatar chief
of Western Siberia. Six years later the present city of Tobolsk rose on
the site of Sibir.
We will not attempt to narrate the history of the conquest of
Siberia, which strongly resembles the taking of North America by
French pioneers at about the same time. When the Tatar tribes of the
West had been driven towards the Southern Steppes, the Cossacks
encountered little opposition from the poor hunters and fishermen
whom they found in the district. In summer these Cossack
adventurers navigated the rivers in canoes, whilst their winters were
spent in block-houses, or ostrogs, surrounded by palisades not
unlike the forts erected by the Hudson Bay Company. Soon they
became very numerous, being attracted from the more civilized parts
of Russia by the growing profits of the fur trade. In 1636 they had
reached the mouth of the Yenissei, and a year later arrived on the
banks of the Lena. In less than two years—that is, in 1639—they had
discovered the shores of the Okhotsk, and fifty years later the whole
continent had been traversed from end to end. In 1648 the Cossack
adventurers Alexief and Dezhnief doubled the eastern extremity of
Asia, and arrived at Kamtchatka, and in 1651 the Ataman Khabarof
established himself on the Amur, where he discovered other
adventurers, who had already descended this river in 1643. At this
juncture the Russians found themselves face to face with the
Manchus, who had just conquered China, and notwithstanding the
heroic defence of their fortress at Albazine on two occasions, they
were obliged in 1688 to abandon the middle and lower basins of the
Amur to the Sons of Heaven in accordance with the treaty of
Nertchinsk, a territory which they only reconquered from the
degenerate Chinese in 1858.
To the west as well as to the east of Siberia the Russian frontiers
remained scarcely altered until about the middle of the present
century. It was only in 1847 that the Tsar’s troops were able to cross
the arid zone of the Kirghiz Steppes. The policy of Peter the Great
was directed towards Europe, and his dream was to extend Russia
towards the West by the conquest of Constantinople—a fact which
accounts for the extinction of zeal on the part of Russia with respect
to her Asiatic possessions, which were now treated merely as penal
settlements or as fields for scientific investigation, whenever the
Sovereigns took it into their heads to become specially interested in
such matters. The increase of Imperial authority and the more
regular organization of the State had in the meantime subdued the
adventurous and enterprising spirit of the Cossacks, and that
particular class of men, half soldiers, half brigands, who had proved
themselves such hardy pioneers at an earlier epoch, now
disappeared, and in the middle of the eighteenth century Siberia was
opened as a field of colonization. In spite of the many obstacles
which the system of serfdom in Russia placed in the way of peasant
emigration, in 1851 the population of Siberia had reached 2,400,000,
a figure which, although not very large considering the immensity of
the country, was in excess of the population of Canada at the same
period, which numbered only 1,800,000 souls. From this point of
view the Russians had no reason to be ashamed of their colonization,
and, as a matter of fact, have none to-day. According to the census of
January, 1897, there were 5,731,732 Siberians living on a territory of
4,812,800 square miles, whereas in 1891 there were only 4,833,000
Canadians inhabiting the 3,721,800 square miles known as the
Dominion. The density of the population of Northern Asia is not
much inferior to that of British North America, and it must not be
forgotten that the conditions of life in Siberia are greatly inferior to
those of Canada.
A comparison of the natural conditions existing in the northern
regions of the old and the new world shows that they are nearly
identical. Both consist for the most part of vast expanses of flat
country, often covered with magnificent forests, and quite as
frequently barren. Siberia, like Canada, is irrigated by noble rivers,
which under a milder climate would constitute a superb network of
intercommunication; but unfortunately both countries are hampered
by an extremely rigorous climate, which imprisons these fine rivers
during many months of the year under an impenetrably thick coating
of ice. In the north of Siberia as well as of Canada the country is so
intensely cold as to render agriculture impossible. That part,
therefore, of both countries which is capable of exploitation is of
extremely limited extent, consisting both in Russian Asia and in
British North America of a ribbon-like zone some 3,720 miles in
length and from 250 to 300 in width.
If Siberia resembles Canada in some things, it must be confessed
that the latter country has every advantage in point of beauty and
position. In the first place, Siberia is more to the north; that portion
which approaches nearest to the Equator is situated about 43°
latitude—that is to say, a little more to the north than the extreme
south of Upper Canada, and, being on the Pacific, it is most distant
from European Russia, whereas the corresponding part of Canada is
the nearest to England, and washed by the Atlantic, the St. Lawrence,
and the great lakes. On the other hand, that part of Siberia which is
closest to Russia is covered to the south by barren steppes or by
mountains which confine the centres of civilization between 54° and
57° latitude. Moreover, whereas the coast of Canada on the Pacific
enjoys a much milder climate than the country situated on the other
side of the Rocky Mountains, the regions of Siberia which border the
Great Ocean are just as frigid as the rest of the country. The heights
which separate the basin of the Amur from that of the Lena are not
sufficiently elevated to form a barrier against piercing north winds,
and the Japanese Archipelago interposes itself between the coast and
the warm waters of the Black Current, which plays the same part in
the Pacific as the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic. Thus it happens that
the climate of Trans-Baikalia, where the rivers which, when united,
form the Amur take their source, is one of the most rigorous in
Siberia, and the sea is covered with ice in the port of Vladivostok,
which lies in the same latitude as Marseilles, whereas, opposite on
the American coast, seven degrees northward, the winters of British
Columbia are not more severe than those of Holland or the West of
Germany.
Notwithstanding its terrible climate, Siberia is not entirely
uninhabitable; indeed, even on the borders of the Arctic Ocean
humanity is represented by a few aboriginal Polar tribes, who
wander from place to place in sledges drawn by dogs, and usually
followed by a numerous herd of reindeer. The white man, however,
cannot endure the conditions prevailing in the extreme north, and it
is therefore necessary with a view to colonizing that one must learn
to distinguish between the different parts of Siberia.
The country has been judiciously divided into three zones, which
are, proceeding from north to south, the Tundra (or Arctic Moss)
Zone, the Great Forest Zone, and lastly the Agricultural Zone; the
south and south-west of the last-named includes the steppes, as well
as the Altai and Sayan Mountains. It would be impossible to trace a
line of exact demarcation between these different zones, for the
transition is extremely gradual; but, speaking generally, the land
situated north of 63° and 64° latitude is barren of all vegetation
excepting mosses and lichens. The subsoil is eternally frozen, but the
surface thaws in summer very slightly, thereby turning the country
into one vast marsh. The rivers remain frozen during nine months of
the year. Under these circumstances, cultivation is out of the
question. To the south-western limit of this zone, at Beriozof on the
Obi, the medium temperature all the year round is 5° C. below zero,
and in winter it goes down to 23°. The average in summer is 13·5°,
and that of the hottest month 18°, which is about the same as the
heat in Paris in July; but the warm weather lasts so short a time as to
be useless for agricultural purposes. To the east the climate becomes
rapidly severe, and at Verkhoyansk, a village situated in the Yakutsk
district, latitude 67°, one of the coldest regions in our hemisphere is
reached. The average throughout the year is 17° C. below zero; during
the three winter months it is 47°, and in January 49°. The minimum
is about 68° below zero. What characterizes this dreadful region is
that to the extreme cold in winter succeeds a very short but relatively
warm summer. The medium thermometrical reading during the
warm season is 13°, which rises to 15° for the month of July, during
which the mercury sometimes rises to 25° in the shade. The
difference between the temperature of the warmest and the coldest
months of the year is about 64°, that is to say, four times what it is in
Paris. It is very remarkable that in whatever direction you go from
Verkhoyansk, even northward, the climate becomes less rigorous,
thanks to the comparative mildness of the winter. As to the summer,
it scarcely merits the name, falling to 9° and even to 3° C. on the
borders of the Arctic Ocean.
In such unfavourable conditions, it is not surprising that the
1,600,000 square miles which comprise the Tundra Zone only
support between 60,000 and 80,000 inhabitants, mostly Samoyeds,
Ostiaks, Chuckchis, Lamuts, and other miserable Arctic tribes,
among whom live, or rather vegetate, a few Russian officials and a
fairly numerous group of exiles. The reindeer, whilst serving as a
means of transport, is also used as food, and its hide furnishes the
natives with clothing. There is no other domestic animal excepting
the powerful Polar dog which drags the sleighs. Whether this part of
Siberia will ever become of any ultimate use is at present hard to say,
but we may take it for granted that it will only be through the
discovery of a mineral wealth, the existence of which is unknown at
the present time, that the Polar Zone of Siberia will ever attract even
a temporary settlement of colonists.
To the south of the Tundra begin the Great Forests. At first the
trees are sparse and stunted, and only an experienced botanist can
recognise the distinctive characteristics of the larch; the trees,
however, become loftier as the climate moderates and the summer
lengthens. The larches, firs and pines rise to a great height, and
become at last so thick as to prevent the sun drying the damp soil of
the Taiga, or primeval forest. The banks of the rivers are invariably
covered by immense marshes, the most extensive of which are those
to be met with in the neighbourhood of the Obi and the Irtysh. When
the snow begins to melt, the inundations extend to considerably over
six miles on either side of the ill-defined river-banks. The climate of
this region is extremely severe, the winters frightfully cold, but the
summers fairly warm. The frost lasts only seven instead of eight
months; the subsoil, however, is eternally frozen, and agriculture is
only possible in certain spots and demands constant attention. It is
evident, however, that this zone, which covers about 2,320,000
square miles, that is to say about half Siberia, will never be able to
support a dense population; still, with its great forests it is much
more valuable than the more northern or Polar regions. If it is
possible to prevent these Siberian forests from undergoing the same
process of devastation which has befallen those of Northern America,
they may become of enormous value. Moreover, there exist in their
midst some very important gold-mines, especially near the Yenissei
and in the basin of the Olekma, one of the tributaries of the Lena, not
a few of which are already being satisfactorily exploited. There is
therefore hope that in due time these vast regions now covered with
forests and marshes may be able to support a much larger population
than the actual one, which does not exceed 700,000 souls, mostly
Russians and natives.
If we abstract from the total extent of Siberia the 1,600,000 square
miles of Tundra, and the 2,320,000 square miles of forest land, there
remain nearly 900,000 square miles which form the cultivable zone,
the only one which will ever be capable of supporting anything like a
dense population. This region is not perceptibly distinguishable from
that of the forests by any marked change in the landscape, unless it
be to the west, where the great green trees that usually flourish in
milder climes form an agreeable contrast to the everlasting pines and
firs. Then, again, the presence of cereals is very noticeable, the late
summer being of sufficient length to enable wheat, barley and oats to
ripen. So long as the seed remains under the snow it matters little
how intense the cold may be above; but when once the snow melts it
becomes absolutely necessary for the heat to be sufficiently great
during a prolonged period to enable the grain to germinate, and
above all it is necessary that the autumnal frosts should not occur
before the corn has had sufficient time to ripen. At Nertchinsk in
Trans-Baikalia the winter is often much more rigorous than at
Beriozof on the Obi, and yet corn ripens in the neighbourhood of the
first-named town, for the simple reason that the temperature
between May and September, although not many degrees higher,
remains equable much longer. It is rather to the brief period during
which the sun has any power than to the intensity of the heat or the
excess of cold that may be attributed the difficulty of rendering these
extreme northern regions of any agricultural value. Notwithstanding
that the cultivable zone of Siberia is so extremely limited, it covers an
area five times the size of France and equal to half the cultivable
sphere of Russia in Europe, which is also afflicted with glacial and
sterile zones. This more fortunate section of Siberia may, and
doubtless will, offer for a long time to come an admirable field for
Russian emigration.
 CHAPTER II
THE LAND OF SIBERIA AND ITS
INHABITANTS
Siberia a prolongation of Russia in Europe—Marked resemblance
in scenery and climate between the two countries—
Insignificance of the indigenous population, especially towards
the West—Facilities of colonization—Preponderance of the
Russian element in the agricultural zone—Indigenous
elements: Polar tribes diminishing; Mongol population
increasing, but much more slowly than the Russian—Asiatic
immigration to the east of the cultivable zone—Heterogeneous
elements imported from Europe—Jews and Raskolniks.

After crossing the beautifully wooded valleys and the chain of hills
known as the Ural Mountains, the traveller arrives at Cheliabinsk,
situated in the Great Plain, and can scarcely believe that 1,200 miles
of railway separate him from Moscow, so striking is the resemblance
between the scenery around him and that of Central Russia, notably
in the Governments of Tula and Riazan. In the open spaces rise tufts
of delicate verdure, beyond which, here and there, appear the gray
outlines of some village, consisting of rows of wooden houses
surrounded by fields. The only striking difference between the
appearance of this country and Central Russia consists in the
predominance of the birch between the Ural and the Obi. For nearly
1,200 miles no other tree shades the absolutely flat country. It is the
same with the wild flowers, among which I noticed the Kaborski
tchaï, with its long pink spiral blossoms, which recall those of the
digitalis. It is not surprising that a Russian territory bearing such a
singular resemblance to the mother country should prove attractive
to Russian emigrants. The winter here, however, is undoubtedly both
longer and colder; the summer is a little hotter, and the mosquitoes
much more troublesome; but, on the other hand, land is freer, and
the peasant is no longer confined in the very narrow space granted in
the old country to his father at the time of the emancipation of the
serfs, and which, at his death, he has been obliged to share with his
brothers. If one is surprised to notice during the first few days’
journey by the Trans-Siberian Railway so few villages, the reason is
not far to find. The line passes a little to the south of the colonized
region, and borders the insufficiently-watered steppes where the
Kirghiz graze their cattle. From time to time the traveller perceives in
the plain the circular huts and even the tents of these nomads, and
not unfrequently at the stations he may meet with a number of them,
with their beady black eyes, their yellow complexions, and their
closely-shaven heads contrasting picturesquely with the fair locks
and long yellow beards of the red-shirted Mujiks. A little to the
north, after passing the Obi, the Kirghiz disappear, although the
town of Tomsk still possesses a mosque, said to be the most northern
in the world.
It is estimated that these Tatars do not exceed 90,000. The
majority profess Islamism, whilst a few have been converted to the
Orthodox faith, and a smaller proportion still remain pagans. Only a
fraction dwell in the towns. Besides this Tatar tribe, some 20,000
Mongols, called Kalmucks, inhabit the Altai Mountains. In the north
may still be found other aborigines of a very inferior type, known as
Ostiaks. They are supposed to be of Finnish origin, and do not exceed
40,000 in number, and are exclusively engaged in hunting and
fishing. It is stated that at one time they were fairly civilized, but they
have been gradually driven back by the Russians into the Arctic and
sterile regions, and have become decimated by drink and other vices,
the unfortunate result of contact with a superior race. Further north
of the forest-line and the Tundra region wander a few Polar tribes
called Samoyeds, who, owing to the extremely arid nature of the soil
and the rigour of the climate, have never come into contact with
European civilization. There are about 20,000 of them, and owing to
the unfavourable social and climatic conditions under which they
exist, it is not likely that they will increase. The purely Russian
population, to whom the agricultural zone almost exclusively
belongs, forms about nineteen-twentieths of the 3,356,000
inhabitants of Western Siberia, which itself contains three-fifths of
the population of all Siberia.
 The richest section of the Government of Tobolsk consists of a
narrow band of land running between the marshes of the northern
regions and the sterile steppes of the southern. At Tomsk this
cultivable zone widens when it passes the Obi, and the character of
the scenery changes to pleasant hills and valleys, in which latter the
earth is still sufficiently thick and rich to entirely cover the rocky
formation below. The leaf-bearing trees are finer, and are
interspersed with splendid specimens of Siberian fir and the
extremely picturesque Siberian cedar-tree. Occasionally these trees
group themselves together, and form a sort of wood or plantation; at
other times they grow singly along the roadside, being thus
cultivated in order to supply sleepers for the railway or as superior
fuel. The fields are full of beautiful flowers, and the general
appearance of the country is that of a fine park, forming a very
agreeable contrast to the monotonous Barabinsk Steppe, with its
infrequent and stunted birches. The plateau which stretches between
the two rivers Tom and Chulym, affluents of the Obi, at a height of
between 800 and 900 feet above the level of the plain, is extremely
fertile, the vegetation being most varied, and the whole region is
vastly superior in point of picturesqueness to any hitherto visited.
The valley of the Yenissei, dominated to the east by mountains and
traversed by the magnificent river, is extremely beautiful. The water
runs rapidly, is remarkably clear, and in more than one place the
majestic stream widens to over 1,000 yards.
Once the traveller has passed the Yenissei, he leaves the tedious
plains behind him, and finds himself among pleasant hills and
valleys, which are rapidly becoming highly cultivated. The post-road,
which crosses from the west to the east, from Tiumen, at the foot of
the Ural, to Stretensk on the Amur, sometimes follows the course of
the rivers, and at others rises to a considerable height above them.
On either side rise veritable walls of gigantic Siberian pines, with red
trunks, sombre verdure, interspersed by magnificent larches of a
lighter shade of green and of more regular shape, and by fir-trees and
cedars, whose cones contain those little seeds which the Siberians
are so fond of chewing. On the banks of the more important rivers,
and at every ten to twenty miles’ distance, the traveller now passes
numbers of little towns and villages, surrounded by arable land,
which form, however, but very insignificant oases in the midst of
these interminable forests. It is, however, along this post-road, in the
valley of the Yenissei, and on the banks of two or three other rivers,
that almost the entire population of Central Siberia is concentrated.
Here, as elsewhere, the Russian element predominates; for out of the
570,000 inhabitants of the government of Yenissei there are not
more than 50,000 natives, who, moreover, live principally in the
forests to the north.
The population of the Government of Irkutsk includes about
500,000 inhabitants, of whom 100,000 are Buriats, mostly
shepherds and farmers. They were originally Mongols, and still
practise Buddhism, and live principally on the slopes of the Sayan
chain of mountains, which runs close to the Chinese frontier. To the
east of the great Lake Baikal, which is 440 miles in length by 30 to
60 in width, and which by reason of its mountainous shores recalls
the lakes of Scotland, is a region that contains the only really
beautiful scenery in Siberia. This section of the country has always
entertained close relations with China. Trans-Baikalia in former
times supplied the Emperors at Peking with their finest game. The
whole district of the Verkhne-Udinsk, comprising the basin of the
Selenga, the principal affluent of the Baikal, is frequently and not
inappropriately called Russian Mongolia. On the summit of the
Ahmar Dabam, a chain of mountains which dominates Lake Baikal, I
perceived for the first time a fetish-tree with its branches bedecked
with parti-coloured rags. On the eastern slope I also discovered a
Lamasery. The scantily cultivated plateau to the north, which is
watered by the Vitim, a tributary of the Lena, was, it appears, not
populated at the time of the arrival of the Russians, and even to-day
it only contains a few villages peopled by wretched Mujiks. This
region before the annexation of the right bank and of the lower valley
of the Amur was used as a sort of military encampment. At the
present time it is governed by a military régime, whose
administration is concentrated in the hands of a Governor, invariably
a general in the army. Of the 670,000 inhabitants, one-third are
natives, one-third peasants, or inhabitants of its gloomy little towns,
and the other third consists of Cossacks, who are only
distinguishable from the peasants by wearing a yellow band on their
caps and trousers. Instead of paying taxes, they have to submit to
certain military obligations. Although they are Cossacks by name and
by race, they possess none of the brilliant military qualities which
distinguish their European kinsmen. The two territories annexed by
Russia in 1858 at the expense of China, the Province of the Amur,
and the southern portion of the Littoral Province—the only one
which is of the least value—are scarcely inhabited, and were even less
peopled at the time of the arrival of the Russians, when they
possessed not more than 10,000 Manchus, and about as many
natives, engaged in hunting and fishing, and belonging to several
declining tribes. The Manchus have remained and are prospering;
the other tribes are gradually passing away. Some 20,000 or 30,000
Korean and Chinese emigrants have settled in the neighbourhood of
Vladivostok. The Russian immigration, however, forms at least five-
sixths of the 112,000 inhabitants of the Province of the Amur, and
more than two-thirds of the 214,000 of the coast province, of whom
30,000 natives live in the Arctic regions, where the whites leave
them in peace. The newly-acquired Chinese territory includes at least
140,000 Russians out of the 175,000 inhabitants. It must, however,
be remembered that this remarkable majority is mainly due to the
concentration of troops which has taken place since the Chino-
Japanese War, which so profoundly modified the political condition
of the Far East.
The following table is formed from official sources—chiefly from
the census taken on January 28, 1897, and marks the area and the
total population of the nine Siberian provinces:
Area of
Natives and
Square Total Agricultural
other
Miles. Population. Zone, Square
Asiatics.
Miles.
Tobolsk 536,600 1,438,655
180,000 270,800
Tomsk 328,000 1,917,527
Yenissei 987,400 567,807 45,000
193,400
Irkutsk 280,800 501,237 100,000
Yakutsk 1,535,900 283,954 250,000
Trans-
229,800 669,721 200,000 139,200
Baikalia
Amur 172,900 112,396 18,000 104,000
Littoral 214,940
Island of 741,400 70,000 147,000
25,495
Sakhalin
Total 4,812,800 5,731,732 863,000 854,400
 The southern agricultural region of Siberia, in contradistinction to
the frozen zone to the north, is mainly inhabited by European
settlers. The proportion of these over the native population is
greatest in the west, and decreases towards the east, where, however,
it still remains superior by about two-thirds, so that we need not
hesitate to conclude that out of the 5,000,000 people living on this
long strip of land, more than four million and a half are of European
origin. Nevertheless, it must not be forgotten that the indigenous
Mongol and Turki population, which is immensely superior to the
poor tribes of fishermen and hunters who wander about the northern
zone, does not diminish, but continues to increase, much less
rapidly, however, than the Russians, who are constantly being
reinforced by emigration. Fortunately the feeling between these two
distinct elements is excellent; the Russians, being of Oriental
extraction, do not hold those racial prejudices which are so marked
among the Anglo-Saxons. The religious question, which is of course
an obstacle to any attempt at a fusion between the Orthodox and the
Buddhist population, is also not very intense or intricate. The
Russian is essentially tolerant, in opposition to his Government,
which is the reverse. The Orthodox emigrants have no objection to a
Pagoda or a Lamasery being erected alongside of their own churches
and monasteries. I remember seeing, while travelling, from
Cheliabinsk to Omsk, the Metropolitan of the last-named town, who
happened to be in the train, get out at a certain station to visit a
church which was being built, and to bestow his benediction upon a
crowd of Mujiks who had assembled for the purpose of receiving it.
Whilst the ceremony was in progress, a few feet further on five Tatar
travellers had stretched their carpets, and, with their faces turned
Meccawards, were going through the elaborate gymnastics connected
with Mussulman devotion. The Mujiks, who were crowding forward
to kiss their priest’s hand, never dreamt of disturbing the
Mohammedan worshippers, but watched them quite respectfully. I
doubt very much whether in any part of Europe three centuries ago,
when the populace was not more developed in the intellectual sense
than are these poor Mujiks, such a scene of tolerance could ever have
been witnessed. The Russian Government accords the utmost liberty
to its subjects in Asia in matters of religion. The origin of Russian
official intolerance in Europe is in the main purely political, and if it
considers Buddhists and Mussulmans in Siberia less objectionable
than Catholics and Protestants, it is simply because the followers of
these divergent creeds are the representatives of former and very
dangerous enemies, and are, moreover, perpetually endeavouring to
impose their doctrine upon anyone with whom they come into
contact.
The Russian colonization of Siberia has been carried out without
the aid of any other European nationality. There are only a few
hundred other Europeans settled in the country, the greater number
of whom are French people. I was much amused at the little station
at Sokur, about nine leagues from the Obi, to find a buffet kept by a
Frenchwoman, a peasant who had married a Bessarabian, and who
had only been in Siberia a year, after having, however, spent several
in Southern Russia. Her buffet was arranged with a greater degree of
taste and comfort than those in charge of the Russians, who,
however, keep everything scrupulously neat and clean. The worthy
lady had forgotten her fluent French, but had not yet acquired fluent
Russian. At Tomsk I fell in with another Frenchwoman, who kept a
bookshop, and in nearly all the towns along the great post-road at
Irkutsk, Blagovyeshchensk, Khabarofsk, and Vladivostok, I found
French shopkeepers, some of whom had been thirty years in the
country. They seemed to entertain a distinct preference for
photography.
Now that Siberia is at last thrown open to civilization, foreigners
will, of course, become much more numerous, and already many
engineers are to be found in various parts of the mining districts; but
for all this, I do not think that at any period the Russian colony will
be greatly influenced thereby.
We may, therefore, conclude that, from the ethnological point of
view, as well as from the geographical, Siberia is merely a
prolongation of Russian Europe, or of what is known as Greater
Russia. It is true that a few heterogeneous elements exist of the same
sort as those to be met with in Russia itself: Poles and Germans from
the Baltic provinces, and the descendants of exiles, or even exiles
themselves; and thus it comes to pass that in all the larger towns, at
Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk and Irkutsk, Catholic and Lutheran churches
abound. On the other hand, there are synagogues in nearly all the
secondary towns. Israel is fully represented in Siberia, and the little
town of Kainsk between the Omsk and the Obi is popularly known as
the Jerusalem of Siberia. There are also about 100,000 Raskolniks,
followers of a reform which took place in the liturgy of the Orthodox
Church in the seventeenth century. This, however, is, needless to say,
a purely Russian contingent. The Raskolniks exist in every part of
Siberia, but in the province of the Amur they form about a tenth of
the population, and are also very numerous in Trans-Baikalia. They
are mainly the descendants of people belonging to this particular
sect, who were originally exiled from Russia in the eighteenth
century. Their chief peculiarity consists in their love of temperance
and horror of every sort of innovation. Nothing would induce them
to take even a cup of coffee or tea. In our time the members of
certain curious sects, that of the Eunuchs, for instance, are exiled
into Siberia, and confined to a village in the territory of the Yakutsk,
in the Tundra Zone. According to the belief of these eccentric
persons, Napoleon I. was a reincarnation of the Messiah, and they
believe he rests in the sleep of death on the shores of Lake Baikal
until a time when an angel shall awaken him and place him at the
head of an amazing host destined to establish the reign of God in all
parts of the world. The Raskolniks, owing to their temperate habits
and their industry, are generally considered to be a very valuable
element in the population of the country.
 CHAPTER III
AGRICULTURAL SIBERIA AND THE RURAL
POPULATION
Enormous preponderance of the rural and peasant population in
Siberia—Siberian Mujiks—Their rude and primitive manner of
life—Excellent quality of the land, and backward methods of
cultivating it—Mediocre and irregular manner of raising
cereals—The necessity and difficulty of improving agricultural
operations—The absence of large and enterprising ownership
in Siberia a disadvantage.

Siberia resembles Russia not only in the matter of its immensity,

its loneliness, the duration of its winters, monotonous expanse of its
plains and enormous forest lands, but also in the leading
characteristics of its peasantry; but in Asia and Russia these seem
accentuated, possibly by reason of the peculiarity of the
surroundings among which they are compelled to live. Even more
than in Russia is this class of the people essentially rural; the
exploitation of the gold-mines is the only other industry of any
importance, and it employs relatively few people in comparison with
its yield.
In Siberia great landlords are conspicuous by their absence. The
only nobles mentioned by the official statistics are a few
functionaries whose lands will be found on the other side of the Ural,
and the only rich people in the country are the merchants residing in
the towns, who occasionally add to their incomes, mainly derived
from trade, by a certain interest in mining speculations. Some of
these worthy people build themselves handsome country houses, but
they do not take much interest in agriculture. A few concessions of
land were made in the middle of the century, but they have long
since passed out of the hands of their original owners into those of
the Mujiks, to whom they have been ‘let,’ but these do not appear to
care about their prosperity. All the rest of the land belongs either to
the Government or to small farmers, who rent it from the Crown.
The Siberian peasant lives exactly as do his brethren in Russia, in
villages or hamlets. Isolated houses are rare, the agglomeration of
dwellings being an absolute necessity of the conditions of that
collective and communal proprietorship which prevails throughout
the Tsar’s dominions. A Siberian village is, therefore, a reproduction
of a Russian village. On either side of the road is a succession of low,
one-story houses built of dark wood, and separated from each other
by yards, at the back of which are the stables. The appearance of
these dwellings is exceedingly dreary, for they are invariably built of
rough wood, blackened by age. Occasionally, however, some few
planks are painted a vivid white. The usual doleful aspect of these
villages is sometimes enlivened, especially in the larger ones, by the
presence of a brick church, with cupolas painted a vivid green. In the
hamlets these chapels are only outwardly distinguished from the rest
of the isbas by an iron cross.
If anything, the general appearance of these Siberian villages is
even more dreary and depressing than that of their counterparts in
European Russia, where the houses are often gaily painted. Here
they are built entirely of unhewn wood, like the log-huts of the Far
West. Then, the few domestic animals to be seen wandering about
the roadway are not reassuring, for the dogs look like wolves, and the
enormous black pigs like wild boars. Nevertheless, I am of opinion
that the Siberian peasant is better off than his Russian brother. His
isbas are certainly more spacious, although, to be sure, six, seven,
and even ten, persons are usually crowded into two or three tiny
rooms, the immense stove in the centre of which, in winter, is usually
used as a bedstead by the entire family, whereby whatever air
otherwise might be admitted is hermetically excluded. For all that, I
have never seen in Siberia any of those miserable hovels to be found
in Russia, but undoubtedly the manners and customs of the Siberian
peasants are even more primitive than those of the Russians. They
possess less knowledge of hygiene and cleanliness, and are absolutely
ignorant of everything calculated to render life in the least degree
agreeable or rational. During the six winter months the Siberian
keeps his house rigorously shut, excluding even a breath of air; in
summer he does the same, for the double windows of the two or
three very small sleeping-rooms are never opened on any pretext.
These Siberian peasants are, moreover, astonishingly lazy and
apathetic. Their only pleasure in life consists in dreaming away the
time whilst smoking their pipes, and in drinking vodka, not to
enliven themselves, but simply to get dead-drunk. Whilst the men
are at the public-house the women stand by their open doors, listless
and gossiping, indolently watching their fair-haired children, who,
with only a red shirt on, fabricate the time-honoured dirt-pies of
universal childhood in the mud or else roll about in the dust. Work is
limited to what is absolutely indispensable, and the Siberian peasant
is much happier doing nothing than in working to obtain what his
fellows in other countries would consider the necessaries of life, but
which he looks upon as ludicrously superfluous. Every village
possesses a herd of cows, which you may watch in the early morning
hours straggling off to the pastures, driven along by two or three old
men or urchins, and although you can always get excellent milk,
butter is very scarce, and cheese unknown. As to a garden, even for
the cultivation of necessary vegetables, I have never seen one in the
hundred villages I have visited, excepting, indeed, in Trans-Baikalia,
where I perceived one or two attached to the stanitsas belonging to
some Cossacks. It is not because vegetables will not grow, but
because the peasants will not cultivate them. In the towns in the
Amur district, such as Blagovyeshchensk, Khabarofsk, and a few
others, vegetables are to be obtained, but even these are brought over
by the Chinese from the opposite bank of the river.
In addition to laziness, the Siberian peasant adds the most
surprising obstinacy, which is not precisely a bad quality, when, as in
the case of the English, it serves to increase their dogged activity; but
in Siberia it is simply another incentive to do nothing. Once a
Siberian peasant has made up his mind to play dolce far niente, no
power, Divine or human, will induce him to budge. I have often
heard Europeans say that Siberia is the only country where you
cannot get work done even for money; and this is perfectly true, for
on certain holidays it matters little what you may offer, you will not
get a coachman to take you a five-mile drive. The Siberian would
rather lose money than earn it against his will.
 If inertia is happiness, then the Siberians must be the happiest
people on earth. They disdain progress and would rather die than
better their condition. Their motto is, ‘What sufficed for our fathers
is surely good enough for us,’ and this is the invariable answer a
peasant will give you if you venture to suggest any sort of change for
the better in his condition. His favourite texts from Holy Scripture
are those which flatter his habit of intellectual stagnation, those
which preach resignation and abstention, but certainly not those
which teach action and effort. ‘He who is contented with little will
not be forgotten by God,’ was the text I once saw stuck up in the
waiting-room of one of the dirtiest stations in Trans-Baikalia. It
struck me as being particularly appropriate, both to the place and the
people. The prevailing lack of energy and perseverance, which has
been noticed by travellers in every part of the Tsar’s Empire, seems
to me to be one of the radical characteristics of the Russian nature. It
may possibly derive its origin from the influences of Tatar blood,
which was so largely infused among the lower classes of Russians
from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century at the time of Tatar
domination. Then, again, it must be remembered that extreme cold,
like extreme heat, produces apathy, especially upon the men, who
are thereby condemned to remain for many months inactive, and
whose minds, owing to their excessive ignorance, are a blank.
Siberian peasants are supremely ignorant. In 1894 the
Government of Tobolsk, the most progressive of any in respect of
education, numbered only 19,100 children frequenting the schools
out of a population of 1,400,000 souls. In the towns the proportion
of scholars was 4·63 per 100, but in the country districts it did not
rise to 1·05. One must not, however, be too severe on the Siberians
for showing so poor an educational result, for we must not forget the
enormous distance between village and village, and the difficulties of
obtaining schoolmasters, owing mainly to the excessive ignorance in
which the lower orders of Russians are plunged. Notwithstanding the
very considerable progress which has been made in this direction in
the last few years, there is probably no country in the world where
reading and writing would be of greater advantage, for during at
least one-half of the year the Siberian has literally nothing to do but
to think, or, better, to dream, his life away.
 Serfdom has never existed in Siberia, which accounts for the
Mujiks having a much more independent air than their brethren in
European Russia. They have, however, in common with these latter,
that peculiar sort of charity which has been well called the ‘pity of the
Slav.’ It is, however, not an active virtue, but a sort of dreamy
pitifulness which induces these poor people to help each other, but
does not prevent them from being exceedingly suspicious of
strangers. They will, however, invariably leave on the sill outside
their windows a hunk of bread or a jug of milk for the benefit of some
escaped convict or some wretched outcast. Unfortunately, however,
the extreme ignorance and the innate laziness of these people
prevent their extracting from the soil much that, at a very small cost
of labour, would greatly increase both their wealth and their comfort.
The soil of Siberia is exceedingly rich. The famous tchernozium, or
black earth of Southern Russia, covers a great part of the Meridional
Zone of the provinces of Tobolsk and Tomsk. The upper valleys of the
Obi and the Yenissei, sheltered from the north winds, enjoy a milder
climate than the plains, and are excellent for the growth of all sorts of
cereals. On the borders of the Angara, the great tributary of Lake
Baikal and on that of the Lower Amur, and its tributary rivers and its
affluents, which are marshy, there are enormous tracts of extremely
fertile land, but the methods of cultivation are of the most primitive.
Then, again, the vast majority of the rural population obstinately
refuses to work in the fields. All along the great postal highway,
which stretches from the Ural to the Amur, and beyond to Kiakhta,
the manner in which the peasants earn their living is considerably
modified. They exist by trafficking along this main road, along which
pass manufactured goods imported from Europe, which are
forwarded to Central Siberia, the great caravans of the tea
merchants, the gangs of exiles, and lastly the ordinary travellers. As
this road is the only one which goes from west to east, it is very
animated. Even in summer, when the traffic is not so active—the tea
caravans only pass in winter—I have rarely seen fewer than 100
transports of one sort or another per day. Although every postmaster
is obliged to keep no fewer than forty horses, and each carriage rarely
requires more than three, occasionally it is impossible to secure a
conveyance, and one is obliged to ask the peasants for assistance,
which they are very ready to afford, making you pay from three to
four roubles (six to eight shillings) for a relay of twenty-five versts
(sixteen miles), a sum which, if they see that they have to deal either
with somebody who is in a great hurry, or with a wealthy traveller,
they persistently increase in the most barefaced manner. In winter
the transport of tea also enables them to make considerable sums of
money.
Thus it is that the country folk in these latitudes neglect
agriculture, considering it merely as an accessory. In the
neighbourhood of the villages you will find a few fields and pastures,
where the cows, horses, and sometimes a few black sheep, are sent
out to graze under the care of two or three boys or old men, or
sometimes without any shepherd at all. A wooden barrier prevents
their escaping into the neighbouring forest.
The number of horses in Siberia is very great. In the government of
Tomsk in 1894 there were 1,360,000 horses to a population of only
1,700,000, that is to say, 80 horses per 100 inhabitants. In the
government of the Yenissei the proportion is over 90 per 100
inhabitants, and the same proportion prevails in the government of
Irkutsk. Almost the only other country where there are almost as
many horses as men is, besides Russian Central Asia, the Argentine
Republic, where there are 112 per 100 inhabitants. In the United
States there are but 22, and in France only 7. The proportion of
horned cattle is also very considerable, being about 60 per 100
inhabitants, rising in Eastern Siberia, in Tobolsk and Tomsk, to 80,
whereas in the Yenissei and Irkutsk districts there are about 3 beasts
per family. The greater part of these are cows. Bullocks are very
scarce, not being employed either for food or burden. It is only along
the Kirghiz Steppes, in the country traversed by the Trans-Siberian
railway between the Urals and Omsk, and the region immediately
below this line, that milk is used. The rain falls in this region very
slightly, and the land is not cultivable, but purely arable, and as the
Kirghiz are extremely capable herdsmen, the results are very
satisfactory, and they export their cattle largely into Russian Europe,
and even beyond. I remember coming across a train full of bullocks
which were being conveyed to St. Petersburg, and I know of at least
one large house in Moscow which receives weekly from the little
town of Kurgan, situated on the railway line, many thousands of
pounds of butter, a great part of which is exported thence to
Hamburg.
 If one wishes to become acquainted with the real Siberian farmers,
one must leave aside the highroads and plunge into the country.
True, the villages become much less numerous, but then they are
surrounded by more extensive fields. In those districts which were
first colonized in the Government of Tobolsk some rather thickly-
peopled places are occasionally to be found, especially in the
northern steppe between 55° and 58° latitude. In the Government of
Tomsk a more inhabited region will likewise be met with to the south
of the zone of the immense but well-wooded marshlands; but in this
province, as in that of the Yenissei, the southern portion, instead of
being covered by sterile steppes, contains the magnificently wooded
valleys of the upper Obi, the Yenissei, and their affluents, which very
naturally attract the greater number of Russian emigrants.
The agricultural resources in the districts of Barnaul, Biisk,
Minusinck and Kansk, are extremely rich, and, besides excellent
land, splendid water, and a relatively mild and agreeable climate,
there are a variety of minerals. More to the east, if we wish to avoid
the ever-silent desert, or the taiga, we must, on leaving the highroad,
enter some of the valleys at the foot of the mountains on the Chinese
frontier, on the borders of which the whole population is at present
concentrated. The aspect of this region, however, differs very little
from that crossed by the post-road between Irkutsk to the great
prison of Alexandrof, where we behold fine wheat-fields and herds of
cattle wherever there is an opening in the thick but marshy
woodlands. Excepting for the extent of the cultivated lands which
surround them, the appearance of the villages, however, does not
change in the least. There is never a vestige of a garden or of any sort
of verdure near the houses, unless, indeed, it be a few flowers
growing in pots, which are never arranged on the ledge outside the
window, but in the interior, and form, together with a few icons and
the portraits of their Imperial Majesties, the only attempt at
ornamentation indulged in by the inhabitants of these essentially
comfortless and inartistic dwellings.
The only crops of the least value in Siberia are those of the various
cereals, of which about 150,000,000 bushels are harvested, mostly in
the western part of the country, which is not only the most thickly
populated, but also the freest of forests.
 The rest of Siberia, that is to say, the provinces watered by the
Amur and the territory of the Irkutsk, which are very thinly peopled,
does not produce a total of more than 5,500,000 bushels. Wheat,
generally sown in spring, and oats form each about 30 per cent. of
the total cereal product of Siberia. The balance is made up of rye,
barley and buckwheat. The arable land has to undergo, especially
when first reclaimed from the steppe, the usual process of
preparation, manuring, etc. The Siberian peasants have not acquired
even the most rudimentary knowledge of agricultural science, and,
consequently, often have to abandon their farms. On the other hand,
in certain favourable regions, in the Governments of Tobolsk and
Tomsk, where the earth is exceptionally rich, the pastures have gone
on fairly well for over a hundred years without any sensible
diminution in the excellence of their grazing properties. However,
land is so abundant in Siberia that often the peasants, when they find
after they have reclaimed it that its productive qualities decrease,
rather than be bothered with a repetition of the processes of
manuring, etc., pack up their traps and migrate elsewhere, literally,
to ‘fresh woods and pastures new,’ where probably the foot of man
has never trod.
In Siberia, as stated already, great land-owners are non-existent.
The soil is, therefore, exclusively in the hands of the peasants, but up
to the present the mir collective communal property-ship, as is found
throughout Russia, is quite exceptional, and then only in the more
sparsely peopled parts of the west. Since 1896, however, the
Government has decided to introduce, if not practically, at least
theoretically, the mir principle as it exists in European Russia.
Nevertheless, in Siberia the commune is not supposed to possess
property, but simply to hold it on the principle of usufruct, the whole
land belonging to the Crown. In those parts of the country which are
nearly uninhabited the zaïmka system still holds good, whereby a
peasant, although he may be a resident in a village, is allowed to
build himself a hut on the steppe or in the forest where he passes the
summer, and where he can cultivate and even enclose one or two
large fields which are supposed to belong to him, and which he can
sell or give away as he pleases, and which, in point of fact, he owns by
right of being the first occupant; but this system is only provisional.
With the increase of population it gives place to another, whereby the
peasant is not considered an absolute proprietor, but only for so long
as he chooses to cultivate his land properly. From the moment he
ceases to comply with this condition another man can take his land.
Everybody is allowed to cut hay in the prairies where he likes, and
the pastures and woods are common property. On the other hand, it
is forbidden to enclose any forest or pasture-land.
The climate of Siberia is naturally opposed to the cultivation of
cereals, which have to struggle against droughts, autumnal fogs, and
late and early frosts. During the last ten years some very interesting
meteorological observations have been made at Irkutsk, whereby it
has been discovered that July is the only month in which it never
freezes. Then, again, in the government of Tobolsk, and to the west of
that of Tomsk, in addition to these climatic drawbacks, the crops are
often devastated by myriads of kobylkas, a sort of locust or
grasshopper which comes from the Kirghiz Steppes. Under these
circumstances, agriculture in Siberia may well be said to be an even
more arduous way of earning a livelihood than it is in Russia proper.
It not unfrequently happens that the crops fail utterly, and during
the last ten years it has been noticed that these disasters are mainly
due to increasing impoverishment of the soil. The irregular condition
of the crops is all the more disastrous in Siberia because of the lack of
means of communication which impedes the easy transport of corn
from one district to another, and results in enormous fluctuations in
prices, that often spell ruin to the unfortunate peasants. The
introduction of the railway to Irkutsk occasioned a notable reduction
in the price of bread in Eastern Siberia, but, on the other hand, the
principal line, unfortunately, transports agricultural products from
Siberia to the region of the Volga.
But a matter which is even of greater importance than that of
intercommunication are the extremely antiquated methods of
cultivation which the peasants insist upon retaining. In the first
place, their notions of preparing the reclaimed soil for culture are
absolutely barbarous. All they do is to scratch up the immediate
surface of the earth with a sort of plough which dates from the Iron
Age, and then sow their crop. When the field is exhausted, which, not
having been properly manured, it very soon is, it is abandoned for a
period of years until it recovers some of its reproductive qualities.
With improved agricultural implements the earth could be more
deeply ploughed, and at a very little distance beneath the surface it is
almost invariably extremely rich. The question is how to induce the
peasants to change methods which have been handed down to them
from their ancestors through the ages. It is of course much to be
regretted that in Siberia there exists no great land-owners wealthy
enough to introduce modern improvements, and thus teach their
humbler neighbours the value of progress by practical illustration;
but until means of communication are facilitated and improved it
will be difficult to induce men of wealth and education to settle in a
country which, however naturally rich it may be, is, to say the best of
it, exceptionally unattractive. Even in Russia, where so many
noblemen, owing to the great losses which they sustained at the time
of the emancipation of the serfs, have abandoned their lands to the
peasants, and have retired to the larger towns, there are yet to be
found men who have had the courage to face reverses, and who have
taken their estates in hand on scientific principles, introducing the
latest improvements in agricultural implements, and thereby have
influenced for the better the peasantry by even inducing some of
them to abandon their primeval methods of agriculture. This
desirable state of affairs, however, cannot exist in Siberia, at least for
the present. Then, again, there is another advantage which would
accrue from the presence of rich land-owners in Siberia, namely,
contact with persons of superior education and culture, which in the
end would doubtless affect the peasantry for the better. In Russia the
peasantry form a compact body which, by reason of its singular
position in the social sphere, is absolutely unable to receive or absorb
any influences from the more educated classes. This is a state of
affairs which it is highly desirable should cease in the Asiatic
colonies, where at present it is even more strongly marked than in
Russia itself. The problem of the future of Siberia is the possibility
and feasibility of inducing important land-owners to settle in the
country.
 CHAPTER IV
MINERAL RESOURCES AND INDUSTRIES
Importance of the Siberian mines—The gold-mines—Insufficiency
of organization principally due to unfavourable climatic
influences—Railway extension would bring about an increase
in the value of the mining industries—Silver, copper, and iron
mines.

However productive Siberia may eventually become, it can never

solely depend for its prosperity upon its agricultural resources.
Happily, the subsoil is richer than the upper crust, on account of the
great abundance of ore of various kinds which it conceals. The gold
and silver mines, however, alone, up to the present, have been
worked to any extent, although a few of the iron mines have been
slightly exploited. Even in the case of gold, however, only the alluvial
mines have been touched in those valleys where gold exists, and
nowhere have the rock veins been opened. More can hardly be
expected in a country which is nearly destitute of the proper means
of transport; hence the extreme difficulty of conveying the
necessarily heavy and elaborate machinery required for the
extraction of the gold from the rock. Then, again, the rock ore is only
to be found at great distances from inhabited centres in unexplored
forests and mountainous regions. The diggings, on the other hand,
are much easier, demanding no other implements than a sieve and a
spade. The siftings have been exploited in great numbers from end to
end of Siberia, their takings proving, since 1895, equal to two-thirds
of the gold product of the whole of the Russian Empire, the fourth
largest gold-centre in the world, coming immediately after the
United States, Australia, and the Transvaal. The amount of gold
abstracted from the Siberian mines since 1895 amounts to not less
than £5,000,000, and this figure, high as it is, is, in all probability,
much under the mark, the miners very often retaining a good deal of
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