An adjustment of relations between the Cossack proprietors and the non-Cossack emigrants now tilling the vast tracts of fertile territorj^ owned in common by the "armies" is one of the most important problems that the future has in store. Whether the land-hungrj" peasants, who are the lessees of so much of the best Cossack agricultural land, will, with the spread of modern ideas, consent to remain in the relation of tenants towards the community appears highly doubtful.
In the past the rich "black earth" region of the Don and the great coalfields which underlie the old "free steppes" of the Donetz were a greater menace to Cossack institutions than all the attempts of the Russian Tsars to curtail their liberties. The general distaste for trade and industry characterizing the Cossack of the classical days is shared by his descendants. Nearly all mercantile enterprises in the larger towns are in the hands of "strangers." Already a foreign merchant class is growing up among the stanitJ imder the present policy of toleration. Armenians and Jews are obtaining control of nearly all the retail business in the neighbourhood of Rostov, and even in the last stronghold of Cossack conservatism — Novotcherkask. Yet, in spite of these signs of the changing times the Cossack still remains to a surprising degree the master in his own house.
The old Cossack communal system, while frequently modified by alien changes, has, in point of fact, prospered exceedingly through this peaceful invasion. A definite share in the increment earned falls to nearly every member of the stanitza. Thanks to the conservative workings of Russian law the proprietor is as hard to expropriate as the traditional limpet. This many a promoter of modem, if dubious, prosperity discovered to his cost. With respect to every new project proposed the Cossack officials and elders must have their say, and a spirit of healthy conservatism prevails in their councils.
Even the first glimpse of Novotcherkask, the Cossack capital, will show that here, at least, the old ways are still followed. The streets, though wide and tree-bordered, are often so steep that only a horseman may safely negotiate the grade. On the crest of the highest hill rises the cathedral, a warlike little shrine set about with cannon and other trophies captured from the Turks and English during the Crimean war. In a narrow space of flat ground in front of the sbor stands a fine statue of the famous hetman Yermak, the embodiment of Cossack genius, who first conquered Siberia for the Russian empire in the days of Ivan the Terrible. All about the Cathedral are built the great barracks and other military dependencies, while even the private houses clearly indicate the military rank rather than the wealth of their owners.
The little museum, which stands near by, is a veritable Acropolis for the whole Donskoi race and the treasures it contains are proudly exhibited to the rare visitor: crudely carved Sc\i;hian idols r are reminders of the primitive Lords of the Steppes, beautifully chiselled Greek coffins tell of the early commercial colonies established on the Black Sea littoral; marble slabs bearing long inscriptions in Latin record a succeeding influence — that of the Genoese merchant-lords who formerly occupied strategic points on the great "Highway of the Nations."