Jurassic clays, sandstones, and sands cover nearly the whole of Yarostavl, but they are concealed almost everywhere by thick deposits of Glacial boulder clay, which is regarded by Russian geologists as the bottom moraine of the great ice-cap of the Glacial period. Triassic “variegated marls,” widely diffused throughout the whole of the middle Volga region, undoubtedly underlie nearly all the Jurassic deposits of the government, but only a few patches come to the surface; many salt springs exist in these deposits. The Upper Carboniferous limestones come to the surface only in the north-west and towards the east. The chief mineral products are bog-iron ores, sulphate of copper, and pottery clay. Peat occurs in thick beds. There are also several mineral springs. The soil is mostly a kind of loess of moderate fertility; sandy tracts are not uncommon; and wide areas are covered with marshes—relics of the great lakes of the Lacustrine period.

The chief river of the government is the Volga, which traverses it for 180 miles, making a great bend to the north. The chief towns—Rybinsk, Yarosłavl, Motoga, Romanoff-Borisoglyebsk, Uglitch, and Myshkin—are situated on its banks, and a brisk traffic is carried on, both by the river itself and by two canals, Mariinsk and Tikhvinsk, which connect it with the Neva through its tributaries the Sheksna and the Mołoga. Another tributary received by the Volga within the government is the Kotorost, which has many manufactories on its banks and is navigated, especially in spring. The Kostroma flows along the eastern border and is a channel for the export of timber and fuel. Small lakes are numerous, the chief being Lake Nero or Rostoff. The forests, which consist chiefly of fir and Scotch pine, cover one-third of the aggregate area; but they are rapidly being destroyed. The flora of Yarosłavl, although similar to that of Moscow, bears a northern stamp owing to the presence of the dwarf birch, Rubus arcticus, and Linnaea borealis.

The climate is as continental as that of middle Russia generally. The average temperature at Yarosłavl is 36°∙7 Fahr. (January 6°∙5, July 61°∙5); the prevailing south-western and western winds render it moister than in central Russia; and the average number of days with rain or snow is 114. The rivers remain frozen from 118 to 183 days every year.

The population is thoroughly Great Russian. The aboriginal Meryas have been completely Russified; and traces of the Karelians, who immigrated in the 17th century, can only be discovered in the names and features of some inhabitants on the Siti river. There are moreover some 1000 Tartars, 2100 Jews, and about 500 Gipsies. Leaving out of account some 2700 Catholics and Protestants, the population belongs to the Greek Orthodox Church or is Raskolnik.

Although Yarosłavl is one of the chief manufacturing governments of the empire, its inhabitants have by no means abandoned agriculture, 27 per cent. of the total area being under crops (36 per cent. under forests and 8 per cent. untillable); on the lands of the peasantry the percentage is still greater (from 46 to 58 per cent.). Rye, oats, and barley, with some wheat and pease, are the chief crops, and in good seasons Yarosłavl has even a surplus of corn, which is either sent to the distilleries or exported. The average crops of 1883-85 were 960,100 quarters of rye, 36,000 of wheat, 97,400 of barley, 1,097,100 of oats, 19,600 of other grain, and 6,992,800 bushels of potatoes. Nearly 40,000 cwts. of flax are cropped every year. Market-gardening is largely engaged in and the Yarosłavl gardeners have a wide repute throughout Russia. Chicory, sweet pease, cucumbers, apples, and berries are exported. Although there is no want of meadows, cattle-breeding is not greatly developed. In 1882-84 there were 178,370 horses, 260,000 cattle, 188,700 sheep, and 4700 pigs. One-third of the peasant households had no horses. Cheese-making on the co-operative principle has spread extensively of late, owing to the efforts of the zemstvo ; 93 associations have a yearly production to the value of £12,700. Domestic trades are carried on in great variety in the villages, including the making of linen cloth, boots, gloves, sheepskins, knitted wares, clothes, felts, all kinds of wooden wares, pottery, and a variety of metallic goods. The total production is very considerable, although no details are available. The manufactures are growing rapidly, the yearly production of 1708 establishments being estimated at £2,210,000 in 1884. Cotton and linen are the chief items (nearly £1,000,000); flour-mills, distilleries, and tobacco works come next; and these are followed by chemical works and workshops for machinery, metallic wares, and so on, which are rapidly developing. The trade of the government is very active both on the Volga and on the two railway lines, one of which connects Rybinsk with the St Petersburg and Moscow line and the other connects Yarosłavl with Moscow and Vologda. Rybinsk and Yarosłavl are the chief commercial centres, but Rostoff, Motoga, Romanoff, and Poshekhonie also carry on an active trade in corn, timber, and manufactured wares. The total merchandise shipped or discharged to and from the towns and villages of Yarosłavl is estimated at 1,600,000 tons annually, one-half by rail.

One of the most distinctive features of Yarosłavl is the large numbers of its male population who annually leave their homes in order to work all over Russia as locksmiths, masons, plasterers, waiters in restaurants, greengrocers, tailors, gardeners, carpenters, joiners, pilots, or boatmen. Many of these employments have been specialties of the population of Yarosłavl from a remote antiquity, and the native of this government can easily be distinguished by his enterprising spirit, keen air, and energetic and nervous temperament In Moscow and St Petersburg together there are about 76,400 employed in the above capacities, and it may be estimated that as many as 100,000 persons annually leave their homes in this way.

The educational institutions were represented in 1884 by a lyceum (197 students), six gymnasia (569 boys and 1219 girls), a military school (492 boys), a seminary for teachers (81 students), and 745 elementary schools (25,780 boys, 10,140 girls).

Yarosłavl is divided into ten districts, the chief towns of which, with their population in 1884, are— Yakoslavl (see below), Daniloff (5780), Lubim (3180), Mołoga (6360), Myshkin (2390), Poshekhonie (5990), Romanoff-Borisoglyebsk (5300), Rostoff (12,450), Rybinsk (19,900), and Uglitch (11,930). Petrovsk (1760) has municipal institutions.

History.— As early as the 9th century the Slavonians had become masters of the Yarosłavl territory, which was formerly occupied by the Finnish stems Vess and Merya, as also by Mordvinians, Muroms, and Tcheremisses in the south. Rostoff was already in existence; but Yaroslavl, Rybinsk, and Uglitch begin to be mentioned in the annals only in the 11th and 12th centuries. The independent principality of Rostoff was divided in the 13th century into three parts, but these were soon afterwards successively annexed to Moscow.

See the Trudy of the Yaroslavl Statistical Committee, 8 vols., and the Vyestnik of the Yaroslavl zemstvo, published since 1872.

YAROSLAVL, capital of the above government, stands on the right bank of the Volga, at its junction with the Kotorost, 173 miles by rail to the north-east of Moscow, and had a population of 48,310 inhabitants in 1884; but this number is temporarily much increased during the period of navigation. The suburbs of the town occupy the left bank and are inundated at high water. A fine quay borders the Volga for nearly two miles. The cathedrals and several churches are very old. The Uspenskiy cathedral was begun in 1215 and rebuilt in 1648; the churches of the Preobrazhenskiy monastery, St John’s, and Voskre-seniye date from the 15th and 17th centuries, the second being a fine specimen of the architectural style exemplified in the Vasiliy Blazhennyi church of Moscow. Yaroslavl has a lyceum, founded by Demidoff, with a juridical faculty, three gymnasia (409 boys, 669 girls), and various primary schools. The manufactories, whose total production in 1862 barely reached the value of £200,000, now employ 5100 hands and yield an output valued at about <£1,000,000 (one-half from one cotton-mill). The trade, especially that in corn, is very active and accounts for one-quarter of the whole traffic of the government. The Yaroslavl merchants also carry on a large import trade in manufactured goods and groceries.

The town of Yaroslavl was founded in 1026-1036 by Yaroslav Vladimirovitch, who caused a wooden fort to be erected at the confluence of the Kotorost with the Volga. It became the chief town of a principality in 1218 and remained so until 1471, when it fell under the dominion of Moscow. Even in the 13th century Yaroslavl was an important town, and, although it suffered during subsequent wars, it maintained its importance until the 19th century, when the trade on the Volga and its rising manufactures again gave it a position of predominance in the upper basin of the Volga.