The Russian Steppe 3

David Moon concludes the first part of his work on the Russian steppe with the following important statement: 

while there were common features across the steppe region as a whole, the steppes were neither uniform nor unchanging. There were significant variations inside the region, especially towards the south and east, where the climate was drier and the vegetation and soil different. … The components of the steppe environment that were most important from the perspective of the agricultural settlers, and for the purposes of this book, were the vegetation, the climate, especially precipitation, the relief and drainage, and, perhaps above all, the soil. (Moon 2013, 88)

As we explore various aspects and attributes of the steppe, we must always remember that there were variations within the region, just as there are differences between the subregions within Nebraska. As much as possible, therefore, we should seek to explore the specific area in which our family lived and supplement that evidence as needed with information from the broader steppe region.

In order to do that, we need first to identify a little more precisely the subregion of the steppe in which Molotschna was located. We begin with the most basic division of the Eurasian steppe into three clear sections, known respectively as the Western Steppe (aka the Pontic–Caspian Steppe), the Central Steppe, and the Eastern Steppe.  As we have seen, the Molotschna Mennonites settled toward the west end of the steppe, that is, in the Pontic–Caspian Steppe, which is shown below.

Map by Dbachmann—Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=789955.

Just left and below the center of the map one sees the small Sea of Azov, with the larger Black Sea farther south. Molotschna was the north of the Sea of Azov roughly where the red dot is located on the map.

Not surprisingly, the Pontic–Caspian Steppe was divided into a number of subregions. According to Volodymyr Kubijovyč, the subregion in which Molotschna was located is is known as the Azov Upland (indicated by the light red area in the map to the right).

Kubijovyč identifies the Azov Upland as a plateau, then delineates its extent: “In the north the Azov Upland borders on the Dnieper Lowland; in the northeast, on the Donets Ridge; in the southwest, on the Black Sea Lowland; in the south, on the Azov Lowland (an extension of the Black Sea Lowland).”

After noting that the Azov Upland’s crystalline (e.g., granite) foundation is “covered primarily with loess and loesslike loam” (black earth, in Moon’s terminology), Kubijovyč describes the terrain as follows:

This is a gently undulating, monotonous plain with an elevation of between 200 and 250 m. Rising above the plain are mounds or mohyly, denudated remnants, composed of crystalline formations, that resisted erosion. They are oval-shaped, with gently sloping sides. The highest of these is Belmak-Mohyla or Horyla (327 m); others are Korsak-Mohyla, Tovmak-Mohyla (307 m), Mohyla Hancharykha, and Kamiani Mohyly, which rise 100 m or more over the surrounding plain. The slopes of the Azov Upland, and in particular the southern slopes, are dissected by rivers that cut deeply into the crystalline formations and create rapids and waterfalls. The river banks, gouged by ravines and gullies, make a picturesque granite landscape.

John R. Staples fills in additional details:

The transition from lowlands to uplands is not obvious to the naked eye, for the increase in elevation is small and gradual. The slightly undulating ground is occasionally dissected by shallow ravines and gullies. It rises to a maximum elevation of 307 metres above sea level eighty kilometres inland near the headwaters of the Tokmak River at the peak of the optimistically named Siniaia Gora (Blue Mountain). Beneath the surface there are, however, critical differences between the two areas. The uplands have chernozem topsoils approximately thirty centimetres in depth, with 4 to 6 per cent humus. While they are not as rich as the soils of the central Ukrainian steppe, they are very fertile. The lowlands have much less fertile chestnut topsoils, twenty centimetres in depth, with humus ranging from 3 per cent in the north to 0.5 per cent in the highly alkaline areas immediately bordering the Sea of Azov. (Staples 2003, 6)

Kubijovyč also describes the climate and vegetation:

The climate of the Azov Upland is temperate-continental, similar to that of the neighboring Donets Ridge. Temperature and atmospheric precipitation (400–500 mm annually) depend also on the elevation of the locality. The soils are ordinary medium-humus and poor-humus chernozems. The natural vegetation is that of a mixed herbaceous, fescue-feather-grass steppe. The area is now almost entirely under cultivation.

Everything that Moon touched upon above—“the vegetation, the climate, especially precipitation, the relief and drainage, and, perhaps above all, the soil”—are covered in this account. We will focus on several of them briefly in the posts that follow, beginning with the vegetation that covered the steppe land of Russia.

Works Cited

Kubijovyč, Volodymyr. 2001. Azov Upland. Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Available online here.

Moon, David. 2013. The Plough That Broke the Steppes: Agriculture and Environment on Russia’s Grasslands, 1700–1914. Oxford Studies in Modern European History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Staples, John R. 2003. Cross-Cultural Encounters on the Ukrainian Steppe: Settling the Molochna Basin, 1783–1861. Tsarist and Soviet Mennonite Studies. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.