Kharkoff

Kharkoff, capital of the Russian government of Kharkoff, and one of the chief towns of the Ukraine, is by rail 312 miles NW. of Taganrog and 465 S. by W. of Moscow. It is the seat of a Greek bishop and of a university, with four faculties and about 900 students. Attached to the university (founded in 1805) are an observatory, a library of 56,000 volumes, a botanical garden, anatomical museum, &c. This university was a centre of the Nihilist movement. The chief industrial products are sugar, soap, candles, felt, brandy, tobacco, and iron; but the place is principally celebrated for its four great fairs, at two of which (in horses and wool) the united turnover amounts annually to the sum of nearly £3,000,000. Pop. (1873) 87,000; (1895) 196,500.—The government, situated in Little Russia, has an area of 21,035 sq. m.; pop. (1893) 2,537,900, principally Little Russians and Cossacks. It forms a plateau of moderate elevation, seamed by the deep-cut river-courses of the affluents of the Don. Nearly one-half of the area is arable land.