As the Moscovites fixed these free warriors Kasakki) on theii' frontiers, as a defence against the Tartars and the Poles, so did the latter people on their frontier against the Tartars and the Turks, and as in their language also, " on the frontier," is " u krdina^'' the name Ukraine came among them also into use for the southern portion of what is now the government of Kieff, and this country, in distinction from the Russian, was called the Polish Ukraine. The lands lying between the governments of Poltava, Tshernigoff, and northern Kieff were never reckoned in either Ukraine, and were properly called Little Russia i^Mulorossiya). The geographers of western Europe made one country of the whole, to which they gave the name of Ukraine, probably because they knew it only from one of Voltaire's most interesting works, — interesting, among other reasons, for its numerous blunders and gross misrepresentations, — " The Life of Charles the Twelfth." Even on the greater part of our maps of Russia, the name of Ukraine stands in great letters over the whole of Lesser Russia, on both sides of the Dnieper, in which country the name is entirely unknown. The people call themselves simply " Malorossiani," or Little Russians. As, in fact, the two designations had their origin with the rulers of the lands, the Poles and Great Russians, the official name of Polish Ukraine has almost vanished with the Polish state, and that of Russian Ukraine is only used by the people, and applied to the former ^^ Cossack Slobodt/," distinguishing them from the governments of Poltava, Tshernigoff', and Kieff", Little Russia properly so-called. In official documents, this territory is now called the government of Kharkoff', or the Ukraine Slobody.
The capital of the Ukraine, Kharkoft", is decidedly one of the most interesting and important places in the empire, and occupies one of the first places in the first rank of provincial cities. Its population, 25,000, ranges with those of Kieff", Kursk, Tula, and Novgorod. The commerce is much more active than that of Kieff". Its university rivals those of Vilua and Casan ; its fairs and markets may challenge those of Nishney Novgorod.
Like most Russian cities, Kharkoff" has a very promising exterior. The principal buildings, the university, government offices, the convent, the seminary, the convent of noble young ladies, the principal church, the great Gostinnoi Dvor, &c., stand on the high promontory between the two rivers, the Kharkovka and the Lo)au, wliich forms a wide platform on the summit, gently declining towards the point. On one side of the promontory the Moscow-street winds away over a bridge across the Lopau, on the other, that of Poltava over another bridge across the Kharkovka. These are the main streets, and both are adorned with a number of new, and, for the greater part, very elegant houses. The majority of the other streets run into these, and several large public squares. The houses are of stone, with iron roofs painted green ; these form the core of the city,
but they are surrounded by a strange, ill-looking suburb, consisting of a multitude of little Cossack huts of clay and wicker-work. The streets are unpaved, with one exception, the Moscow-street, and for that they have made use of so soft a stone that it would have been better to let it alone altogether. When the stone is a little worn, this street will, beyond a doubt, be the worst of all. In several there are trottoirs, mostly of wood. After a long-continued rain, when the close black earth of the steppes dissolves to a deep, thick, excessively tough, slimy pudding, it is difficult to imagine the extraordinary spectacle presented by the traffic of foot-passengers, and of the many vehicles in the streets of the city. The only means the people have of forming any thing like a firm footing is by filling up the holes with dung. Wood is too dear to be apphed to such a use. Disagreeable as this material for repairing may appear to be, the use of it is quite unavoidable in this woodless and stoneless land, and a man need only attempt to walk across the streets of Kharkoff in dirty weather, to know how to value this discovery at its real worth. There are parts of the town where you can only get along by jumping from one dunghill to another. "You will be able to come to tea with me very easily this evening," said a Kharkoff friend to me, " for I have had the road up to my house door fresh laid with dung this morning."