雙語+MP3|美國學生世界地理43 熊

     WHEN-I-WAS-A-BOY the story I liked best was one about wolves in Russia. Some Russians in a sleigh were driving across the snow, when they were attacked by a pack of hungry wolves. The men whipped up their horses, but the wolves drew nearer and nearer. When the wolves were just about to spring upon the sleigh the men threw out food, which the wolves stopped a moment to devour, allowing the sleigh to get ahead. But the wolves caught up and again food was thrown out and again and again, till there was no food left. See if you can guess the end of the story, or make up an ending of your own.
     Naturally, I used to think of Russia as a land of wolves, though for some reason people call Russia "The Bear."
     Russia is a huge country-it is the largest country in Europe-it is as large as all the other countries of Europe put together, and in the far north there are wolves, snow, and sleighs. But there is also a middle Russia which is not so cold and a southern Russia which is quite warm.
     In the north of Russia it is so cold that even in summer when the snow has gone and the ground has thawed out on top, the ground underneath remains frozen stiff, and, though grass and even flowers grow above, the ground below remains hard and icy. These frozen lands are called "tundras," and there are thousands of miles of such tundras across the north of Russia.
     At the top of Russia is a sea called "White" and at the bottom of Russia a sea called "Black." The White Sea, I suppose, is called "White" because it is frozen over most of the year and covered with snow-and yet, during a few months of the summer when the ice in it has melted, great ships sail into the White Sea, bringing in loads of all sorts of goods to the one great port on this sea-a city called Archangel-a name that makes one think of heaven.
     You may wonder why people live in such faroff places, why they don't move to other places that are more comfortable. But people live where they can make a living, and cities usually start with a few houses and more and more houses are built until there is a city. But there is a great city farther south than Archangel which was built all at once-to order. It was built by a man named Peter, who was one of the rulers of Russia. They were called "czars." Peter wanted to live by the water so that he could sail ships, just as you might like to go to the seashore to sail boats, so he built a city by the sea, with streets, shops, houses, and palaces, and then, as he was a czar who could make people do what he wanted, he made people come and live in this city. Peter had been named for St. Peter, so he called his city St. Petersburg, which meant St. Peter's City. That was two hundred years ago.
     When Russia was fighting in World War I the people of St. Petersburg said that they wanted a real Russian name for their city, for "burg" was the German name for city, and they were fighting the Germans, so they called it Petrograd, which was the Russian name for Peter's City. But the people got tired of the war and all of a sudden they said they would not fight any more; they had a revolution, killed the czar and set up a government of their own. They wanted the city of Petrograd called for the leader of the revolution, a man named Lenin, so they changed the name of the city again to Leningrad, which meant Lenin's City.

     Russia, but it was so cold there they moved the capital to a city still farther south near the center of Russia that had been the capital before. This city is called Moscow.
     The revolutionists took the palaces and homes of the wealthy and turned them into hospitals and public buildings. They took the land of the rich and lent it out to farmers and workers. These revolutionists were known as Communists. The provinces and districts of Russia combined as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which is governed from the capital at Moscow.
     In Moscow there is a big walled-in place with houses and palaces and churches called the Kremlin. It is from the Kremlin that Russia is ruled, so the Kremlin is really the capitol, though it is not just one building like our Capitol in Washington. The churches in the Kremlin are not used as churches now for after the Revolution the Communists turned them into museums and government buildings just as they did the palaces of the wealthy.
     Near the walls of the Kremlin is a great open paved space called Red Square. On one side of Red Square is a flat-topped building which is the tomb of Lenin. The Russians have the largest army i. t. w. W. and they often have parades of soldiers which pass through Red Square past the chief Russian rulers who stand on top of Lenin's tomb to see the soldiers march by.
     The square is called Red Square because red is the color of revolution and the people who govern Russia adopted it as their color. Russia's flag is red and the Communists themselves are often called Reds. The Communists are not Christians. They don't believe in any religion.
     There are still some Christians in Russia, but the Communists have done many things to make it hard to be a Christian there.
     One thing the Communists believe is that all countries must sooner or later be made Communist countries. Communists have seized many of the small countries that are next to Russia. Communists even try to overthrow the governments of countries that do not like Communism and want nothing to do with it. There are a few Communists in England, in France, in the United States-in fact in almost all countries, and these Communists plot and scheme against these countries all the time. A person doesn't have to be a Russian to be a Communist, but the chief Communists are Russians.
     In a Communist country the people must do whatever the Communist rulers tell them. People can be put in prison, or sent to work as slaves in the mines, or even killed by the Communist police without a trial. When they are taken away by the police their families may never hear from them again. Almost no people from other countries are allowed to visit Communist countries, especially the chief Communist country of Russia. "VISITORS NOT WANTED. KEEP OUT" would be a good sign to paste on the map of Russia.
     Russia is more than twice as big as any other country i. t. w. W. It's hard for us to understand why Russia wants to take over more and more countries when it is already so big. But it does. The Russian Communists would like Moscow to be the capital of the whole World, not just the capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
     The Russian people love music and they love their land of Russia. Some of the best music in the whole World has been written by Russians. Whenever a group of Russians are working together they are apt to sing. Russian soldiers sing on the march, workers in the fields sing together as they work, sailors sing on their ships. Even those poor people who are kept like slaves in prison camps sing, though their songs are not gay but sad.