Carleton Sttevens Coon's view on the Russian people.

[KLange]

Here is a execerpt from Dr. Coon's book "The Races of Europe" (1939). Although somewhat dated, it no doubt still rings true in many aspects. I copied it from the site "The Society for Nordish Physical Anthropology" The address is http://www.nordish.com, go to the section "Essays & Exerpts".

"The Great Russians, the most numerous of the Slavic ethnic groups, are also the easternmost Slays, and the most recent to spread into their present homes. It was they who pushed northward up the streams of central and eastern Russia, thrusting aside and absorbing the Finnish tribes, until they reached the White Sea; it was they who, with the Ukrainians, served as a bulwark against the invasions of Mongols and Tatars, and who later pushed eastward over Mongol and Tatar territory into Asia. The history of central Asia has been a curious one in the relationship of white and mongoloid peoples; the Turkestans, once wholly white, became partially Mongolized by Turkish and Mongol advances from the days of the Huns through to Kublai Khan. Southern Siberia, however, once sparsely inhabited by mongoloids, received the eastward thrust, first of the Ugrian Ostiaks and Voguls, then of the Great Russians of the sixteenth century, who pushed steadily onward along arable land until they reached the Pacific. Thus in central Asia the current has flowed westward in the southern level, and eastward in the northern. Farther north still, the westward advance of the Samoyeds has added another contrary stream.

Whereas the primary racial influence which acted upon the White Russians was derived from the Balts, and upon the Ukrainians from the Iranians, those which have affected the Great Russians the most have been Finnic in the north, and Iranian in the south. One must not suppose, however, that the northern Great Russians are nothing but Slavicized Volga Finns; there is considerable evidence to indicate that the Slavic colonists advanced in great numbers and reproduced with immoderate fecundity; the Great Russians have been as capable of rapid genetic expansion as of absorption. Their deviation from an ancestral Slavic type is due as much to selection within their own ranks as to the accretion of Finns.

The mean stature of the Great Russians today is about 166 cm.,100 approximately the same as that of Poles, White Russians, and some Ukrainians. It varies regionally from 169 cm. in the Kuban and Don Cossack country, to about 165 cm. in the Finnish territory between the Volga and the Urals.101 That selective forces are strongly at play in the determination of the stature level is evidenced by the fact that the Russians who have emigrated to Siberia have attained the mean of 168 cm., while those measured at Ellis Island on their way into America as immigrants reached 170 cm.102

Between the twelfth century and 1880 or thereabouts, the stature of the Great Russians, as exemplified by the inhabitants of the Moscow government, had not perceptibly changed, remaining at the level of 165.5 cm.103 The same cannot, however, be said for the cranial index. A mean of 73.5 typified crania from eleventh and twelfth century Slavic kurgans; Kremlin skulls from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries had reached 79.6; from then on there has been a steady rise to a mean of 81 for the recent cranial material. This change in head form parallels but does not equal that which has already been observed among Slavs in Bohemia. The brachycephalizing agent was not, however, the same; in Moscow it entered only in the fifteenth century, when fully brachycephalic crania appeared among examples of the older type; the former were much lower and broader faced, and broader nosed. This heterogeneity gradually decreased with the increase of the mean cranial index. There can be no question that the brachycephalizing agent was in its general character not Alpine, in the western European sense, but a separately evolved and incipiently or partially mongoloid Upper Palaeolithic derivative, whether transmitted through a Finnish or a Tatar medium, or both.

The modern Great Russians vary in head form from a mean cephalic index of 78 to 79 in parts of the old Scythian country of South-central Russia to 83 and 84 farther north and east. The mesocephalic and low brachycephalic index levels represent the usual Danubian reëmergence with the absorption of the old forest types; in the west from an entirely Slavic and in the east from a partially Finnish source. Head dimensions among these Great Russians are medium to small, and comparable to those found among the Volhynians, White Russians, and Finns. The faces of these people are likewise similar to those of the other Slavs mentioned; although they often appear to be wide, the male bizygomatic means rarely exceed 140 mm. The nasal indices usually approach or attain mesorrhiny.104 There is a great variability in nasal profile, with at least 25 per cent of concavity in most of the country. In pigmentation the Great Russians, like all Slavs previously studied, are predominantly light-mixed, with a tendency to brown and ash-blond hair, and light-mixed eyes. The lightest pigmentation is found in the western part of the Great Russian territory, and blondism decreases gradually to the south and east. The peasants who have migrated to Siberia, however, have taken with them a greater blondism than is typical of most of Russia; over 70 per cent of hair colors lighter than dark brown, and under 30 per cent of brown eyes, characterize the subjects measured in various Siberian districts.105

The Great Russians of a special area lying partly in the Tambov, Penza, and Saratov Governments, who form a mesocephalic nucleus in the country half way between Moscow and the mouth of the Volga, have been subjected to a detailed study,106 which shows them to be essentially Nordic. A mean stature of 169 cm., a cephalic index just under 79, and a head length of 192 mm., indicate an initial resemblance to Nordics or brunet Mediterraneans. The auricular height mean of about 130 mm. is greater than that of Scandinavian Nordics, however, as are the bizygomatic of 140 mm. and the bigonial of 109 mm., while the minimum frontal of 105 mm. is more nearly Nordic than the other lateral dimensions. The face height, 125 mm., yields a facial index on the borderline of mesoprosopy and leptoprosopy; the nasal index, about 65, is derived from a mean nose length of 55 mm. and a breadth of nearly 36 mm.

Half of these Great Russians have wavy hair, the other half straight; the head hair is dark brown (Fischer #4-5) in 30 per cent of the series studied, and almost never black; it is medium brown (Fischer #6-10) in about 50 per cent, and light brown in most of the rest. Rufosity is rare, but at the same time most of the blondism falls on the golden side. About 8 per cent have brown eyes, nearly 30 per cent light, and the rest mixed. Thus these tall, mesocephalic Great Russians are brown to dark brown-haired, and essentially mixed to light eyed. Their facial features conform in most cases to a Nordic standard; the nasal profile is straight or wavy in over 65 per cent of the group, convex in 25 per cent, and concave in the 10 per cent that is left.

Individually as well as collectively, most of these men look Nordic in either a complete or a partial sense; others, in the minority, with concave, up-tilted noses and wide faces, approximate the forest type of incipiently mongoloid trend. The facial dimensions, with their accent on the heaviness of the mandible, diverge from a western European Nordic standard, but conform to that of the eastern Nordic type found skeletally among Scythians and in the Minussinsk kurgans; they also conform to a brunet Mediterranean type which we shall see in other regions bordering the Black Sea. The high vault, and the prevalence of brown hair in combination with light eyes, suggests a major survival of the Corded element so lacking elsewhere in most of eastern Europe; since the Slavs elsewhere have to a large extent lost this element, it seems likely that the people in question are the descendants of earlier Iranian inhabitants as much as of Slavic immigrants.

North of the grasslands, in the old forested country, the Great Russians resume their expected racial character, and their resemblance to White Russians, western Ukrainians, and Poles. The difference between eastern Great Russians, living in Finnic territory, and the indigenous Finns, may be seen by a comparison between Cheremisses and Mordvins, on the one hand, and their Russian neighbors.107 The Russians are taller than Cheremisses but shorter than Mordvins; hence no distinction may be made on the basis of stature. The relative sitting height is the same, as are the head length, head breadth, head height, and the total face height. The bizygomatic of the Russians, however, is 138 mm., as compared to 140 mm. for Cheremisses and 141 mm. for Mordvins; the nasal index of the Russians is 64, that of the Mordvins 65, of the Cheremisses 71. Thus the only differences that can be seen anthropometrically are those which concern the breadths of the face and nose, and these only to a slight degree.

There is a real difference, however, which appears in observational characters; only 34 per cent of Russians have weak beard growth, as compared to 64 per cent of Mordvins and 77 per cent of Cheremisses; 22 per cent of Russians have a median eyefold, which is found among 34 per cent of Mordvins, and 46 per cent of Cheremisses; only 12 per cent of the Russians have concave nasal profiles, as compared to 18 per cent of Mordvins, and 39 per cent of Cheremisses. Furthermore, only 36 per cent of Russians are brunet in total complexion type, while 50 per cent of Mordvins, and 69 per cent of Cheremisses, are so identified. The conclusion to this is that the Great Russians living in Finnish territory in eastern Russia, although they have absorbed much Finnish blood, have not wholly lost their Slavic character, and have acquired fewer mongoloid or incipiently mongoloid soft part features than have the Finns.

The traveller in Moscow, or in any other important Russian city, is struck by the diversity of racial types met not only on the Street but also in any other place or circumstance. The broad-faced, snub-nosed Russian peasant, with his shoulder-length head hair and beard, has, since the revolution, lost much of his hirsute adornment; deprived of these distinctive properties, he ceases to look as strange or as distinctive as before. His hairiness, famous in caricature, is for the most part due to custom rather than to pilosity, since beard growth among Great Russians is no more abundant than among most other Europeans.

Beside the snub-nosed peasant type, one sees on the streets of Moscow Nordics who would be at home in Sweden or in England; Dinarics, Norics, and every variety of near and distant mongoloid. There are also occasionally tall, large-headed, and large-faced men who are East Baltic in our present sense, and some rare Mediterraneans other than Jews. Although many of these individuals of varied type come from far corners of the Russian Empire, there is a considerable mobility, and a juxtaposition of varied types in the same place. Russia is a new country from the standpoint of migrations and settlement, when compared to the rest of Europe: she resembles in her population phenomena rather the United States or Canada. There are still many unabsorbed or only partially absorbed peoples within her European, not to mention her Asiatic, borders."

Comments are appreciated.

[Ragnvald]

Originally posted by KLange
Here is a execerpt from Dr. Coon's book "The Races of Europe" (1939). Although somewhat dated, it no doubt still rings true in many aspects. I copied it from the site "The Society for Nordish Physical Anthropology" The address is http://www.nordish.com, go to the section "Essays & Exerpts".
Furthermore, only 36 per cent of Russians are brunet in total complexion type, while 50 per cent of Mordvins, and 69 per cent of Cheremisses, are so identified. The conclusion to this is that the Great Russians living in Finnish territory in eastern Russia, although they have absorbed much Finnish blood, have not wholly lost their Slavic character, and have acquired fewer mongoloid or incipiently mongoloid soft part features than have the Finns.

The traveller in Moscow, or in any other important Russian city, is struck by the diversity of racial types met not only on the Street but also in any other place or circumstance. The broad-faced, snub-nosed Russian peasant, with his shoulder-length head hair and beard, has, since the revolution, lost much of his hirsute adornment; deprived of these distinctive properties, he ceases to look as strange or as distinctive as before. His hairiness, famous in caricature, is for the most part due to custom rather than to pilosity, since beard growth among Great Russians is no more abundant than among most other Europeans.

Beside the snub-nosed peasant type, one sees on the streets of Moscow Nordics who would be at home in Sweden or in England; Dinarics, Norics, and every variety of near and distant mongoloid. There are also occasionally tall, large-headed, and large-faced men who are East Baltic in our present sense, and some rare Mediterraneans other than Jews. Although many of these individuals of varied type come from far corners of the Russian Empire, there is a considerable mobility, and a juxtaposition of varied types in the same place. Russia is a new country from the standpoint of migrations and settlement, when compared to the rest of Europe: she resembles in her population phenomena rather the United States or Canada. There are still many unabsorbed or only partially absorbed peoples within her European, not to mention her Asiatic, borders."

Comments are appreciated.

Very interesting.
I don't want to comment on anthropology part, cauze I am not too much into it.
But the author proves the two important observations which I made for myself a while ago:

- 36% of Russians are brunet, the rest have fair complexion.
Germans and English might have even higher percentage of brunets. I wonder what percentage of brunets does Sweden have. It might not be lower, too.

- "Russia is a new country from the standpoint of migrations and settlement, when compared to the rest of Europe: she resembles in her population phenomena rather the United States or Canada."
In other words, you can find any racial type in today's Russia.

[KLange]

[/b][/quote]
Very interesting.
I don't want to comment on anthropology part, cauze I am not too much into it.
But the author proves the two important observations which I made for myself a while ago:

- 36% of Russians are brunet, the rest have fair complexion.
Germans and English might have even higher percentage of brunets. I wonder what percentage of brunets does Sweden have. It might not be lower, too.

- "Russia is a new country from the standpoint of migrations and settlement, when compared to the rest of Europe: she resembles in her population phenomena rather the United States or Canada."
In other words, you can find any racial type in today's Russia. [/b][/quote]

True enough, especially with the assimilation of various people into the Russian ethnos, or the intermarriage between Russians and various ethnic groups. Sweden has it's share of brunets, too , no doubt. For example, take Kirsten Dunst, the chick from Spider Man, her mother is Swedish-American, and a brunette. I've decided to post some infor about Swedes and Scandinavians, since you seem interested in it.

Sweden, which occupies the more southerly, less mountainous, and larger side of the Scandinavian Peninsula, is in area the fifth largest country in Europe. Most of its land is of high economic utility, since the low, well-watered slope of southern and central Sweden, dotted with lakes, is well suited for agriculture, while in the north, large forests and plentiful mineral deposits furnish materials for industry. Since 1775 Sweden's population has grown from two to six millions, not including the million and a half who have emigrated to the United States. Much of this increase has been fostered by the growth of industrial life, especially in the mining areas and in the cities. Central Sweden, in a belt reaching southwestward from Stockholm, and the peninsula of Skåne, are the regions of thickest settlement. Most of the Swedes who have gone to the United States originated in Götaland, the southwestern part of the kingdom.

In prehistoric times, Sweden, although less populous than Denmark, was far more important than Norway. From Ancylus times until the beginning of the Iron Age, the southwestern portion opposite the Danish Islands was a center of cultural activity, while the central and northern parts of the country were conservative and rustic cultural outposts. The brachycephalic Mesolithic population so typical of the Danish islands was less firmly rooted in Sweden, and the successive invasions of Megalithic and Corded people passed over into Sweden relatively unaltered, and produced a greater proportionate effect upon the racial composition of this country than upon that of Denmark. The Corded people, especially, moved northward into the central portions of the kingdom, and probably entered Trøndelagen, where their racial type is still important, by the Swedish route.

The Iron Age invaders, the linguistic ancestors of the modern Scandinavians, again chose Sweden as their especial sphere of colonization, and settled here in greater numbers than in Denmark or in Norway. Sweden became a great breeding ground for Nordic peoples, chief worshippers of Odin and of Frey, and after less than a thousand years, the country became so crowded with them that overpopulation, coupled with the onset of an adverse climate, forced a huge mass exodus southward.

This movement was, in effect, the great series of Germanic migrations, the Völkerwanderung, which spread from Schleswig-Holstein and the Low Countries, on the west, and from the mouth of the Vistula on the east. The Goths, the Burgundians, and the Vandals, except for the Franks and Saxons, the most numerous and most important tribes of Germans, all had their origins in Sweden. As a womb of peoples Sweden was more important than Norway, and at an earlier date. Sweden was, in fact, to the continental world what Norway was to Britain, Iceland, and Normandy.

Although, since the Iron Age, Sweden's historical role has been that of a feeder of peoples, she has at various times, and to a lesser extent, acted in the opposite capacity. During the Völkerwanderung the remnants of the Herulians and various bands of disappointed Goths returned to the Nordic homelands, tired of wandering, and it is not unlikely that they brought with them new racial elements picked up in Hungary and in the lands north of the Black Sea. Later on, during the Viking period of the ninth to eleventh centuries, Swedes, as well as Danes and Norwegians, raided many countries and brought back with them thralls from the British Isles, France, and the lands across the Baltic. According to Nordenstreng55 these prisoners were settled most commonly in the present county of Uppland, immediately north of the city of Stockholm.

The development of cities in Sweden drew to that country large numben of traders and merchants, from Viking times onward, and these commercial people were largely of Germanic origin. Frisian and Saxon chapmen were the first, and these were followed by others, in later times, from various parts of Germany, including the southern principalities. During the period of Sweden's great military expansion (1611-1718 A.D) when the kingdom extended over large parts of Germany, many Germans were made noblemen, and went to live in Sweden. Thus the German blood in Sweden is a factor to be reckoned with, and has influenced, chiefly, the city population and the nobility. The latter class has also received strong infusions from Scotland, for Scotsmen, who served under Gustavus Adolphus in large numbers, were in many instances rewarded for their bravery by elevation to the Swedish peerage. Furthermore, Walloons, who represented a much darker and rounder-headed racial element than these other immigrants, were brought to Sweden during the seventeenth century to work in the iron foundries. Some thirty or forty thousand of their descendants can still be identified.

More important than any of these absorptions, in all likelihood, has been the influence of the Finns upon the Swedish people. In the Middle Ages, Kvaens wandered into the northern counties, but not in great numbers. The same Kvaenish migration which affected the northern provinces of Norway from 1700 A.D. onward, also reënforced this element in northern Sweden. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, other Finns settled in Värmland and Dalarne, counties bordering on the Norwegian provinces of Østfold and Hedmark,, and the Finns of Grue56 in Norway came as part of this same migration. Other Finns remained in scattered settlements between the Värmland and Dalarne nucleus and the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, while still others penetrated as far south as Stockholm.

Although this migration ceased about 1700, over 13,000 Finns had come to Sweden and to a small district in Norway. Although these Finns were not numerous, the population of Sweden at that time was no more than one and a half millions, and the Finns were particularly prolific. Today only two villages in Värmland retain Finnish speech from the time of this migration. In Norrbotten, in the valleys of Tome and Muonio, more recent colonies of Finns, from southwestern Finland, still speak their own language, and form a distinct alien bloc. In all there are, at present, about 30,000 Finnish speakers in Sweden, in addition to whom it is estimated that well over 100,000 Swedes are at least partially of Finnish descent.

In comparison with most European countries, Sweden has, in post-Iron Age times, been subjected to remarkably few foreign influences which would affect her racial composition. Despite the absorptions and immigrations noted above, Sweden remains one of the most homogeneous nations in Europe both in race and in pedigree. This homogeneity is largely the result of geography, for in contrast to the rugged Norwegian landscape, with its mountains and fjords and distinct centers of racial concentration, the flat surface of Sweden, with its modern industrial development and fluidity of population, has brought about a striking racial unity. In Sweden social and occupational differences in physical type are almost as great as regional ones. In no racial character are Swedish sub-groups, whether geographical or social, strongly differentiated.

The same basic Hallstatt Nordic type which found such a favorable breeding ground in Sweden during the Iron Age is still the predominant race in that kingdom. It has absorbed into its ethnic body both older and newer peoples, and has spread the resultant blend with remarkable evenness over the surface of the nation. On the whole, Sweden is the most Nordic nation in Europe in the Iron Age sense, and it is much more Nordic than Norway. At the same time, owing to geographical factors again, the valleys of southeastern Norway contain as unaltered an Iron Age Nordic population as any in Sweden. The metrical characters of the recruit material for the entire Swedish nation are very similar, in fact, to those of the southeastern Norwegians. 57 The stature mean of the Swedes is 172.2 cm., and their characteristic bodily proportions are equally close to the Norwegian standard. Regional variation in stature stretches only from 169.9 cm. in the northeastern manufacturing districts to 172.5 cm. in the central provinces conuguous with Trøndelag. In the far north, where Finnish influence is common, and in the south, where the order, more brachycephalic populations of the Neolithic and Bronze Ages were seated, the length of the trunk is relatively greater, and of the legs smaller, than in the central parts of the kingdom, but these regional differences are less pronounced than those between social and occupational groups in the nation as a whole. As in Norway, the population drawn to the cities is notably shorter-armed than that which remains upon the land.

The mean head length of Swedish recruits is 193.8 mm., and the breadth 152.3 mm., yielding a cephalic index of 77.7. The longest heads, with regional means running up to 195 mm., are found in the west, over against Norway, and the shortest in the north. The lowest cephalic index mean is 76.7, and the highest, concentrated in the north, are all below 80. The three principal breadth diameters of the face, minimum frontal, bizygomatic, and bigonial, have national means of 104.6 mm., 136.0 mm., and 103.4 mm., respectively, all of which are typically Nordic and comparable to those of the eastern valley Norwegians. Slight regional differences place the narrowest foreheads and faces in the western counties, and the broadest in the north and south. The total face height of 126.6 mm. is again a typically Nordic mean, comparable to that obtained by Bryn in his later work on the Eastern Valley people.58 While the narrowest faces are found in western Sweden, as is to be expected, the longest are typical of farmers in the north, where the Corded element may be slightly more prevalent. The Swedes are typically leptorrhine,59 and the commonest nasal profile form is straight. Concave noses, which reach the rather high figure of 28 per cent in the kingdom, are commonest in the north and least frequent in the south.

According to the Anthropologia Suecica, 52 per cent of Swedes had ash-blond hair, and 23 per cent golden. Thus the proportions of these two classes of blondism are reversed in comparison to Norway. The two countries are about equal in amount of dark hair shades, but, by and large, Norway would seem to be lighter haired than Sweden,60 if we may rely upon a comparison based on a correlation of two scales. In any case, the most numerous category is a medium to light brown, with extreme blonds in the minority. Regional differences, though slight, are suggestive. Götaland, the Goth country, as southern and southwestern Sweden was anciently designated, is lighter than Svealand, or central Sweden; Norrland, the north country, is in turn the darkest. The most red hair is found in the west and south, and the least in the east, toward Finland.

Retzius and Fürst found 67 per cent of light eyes, 29 per cent of mixed, and 4 per cent of dark. In the first category were presumably included light eyes wit a slight spotting, as in the Martin numbers 13 and 14. The Lundborg and Linders study, made with a different observational scheme,61 raised the first category to 87 per cent, and the third to 5 per cent. In any case, there can be no doubt that the eye colors of the Swedish people are predominantly light mixed and light, as in Norway; and that the lightest eyes in the kingdom are found in western Sweden, and the darkest in the north.

Correlations within the Lundborg and Linders series of 47,000 men show certain slight linkages, which could be dismissed as insignificant if found on smaller samples. The cephalic index decreases slightly, and the facial index rises, with an increase in stature; similarly, the tallest statures have a tendency to go with brown hair and light eyes. It is not unreasonable to suppose that this combination may be a faint reflection of the absorption of a Corded racial element into the population of Sweden. In the same way an association of flaxen hair, moderate stature, mesocephalic head form, and convexity of nasal profile, makes it unlikely that all high cephalic indices in Sweden are due to East Baltic influence, and suggests rather a survival of mesocephalic and brachycephalic elements in southern Sweden, comparable to those in western Norway. Truly short stature, linked with dark pigmentation and round head form, furnishes an infrequent combination, but one which may imply a Lappish strain in the far north, submerged Alpine elements, or both.

The Swedish material, and especially the correlations, confirms the opinion formed in Norway, that the Nordic race as such is not and was never wholly blond. The characteristic eye color is blue or gray, and the presence or absence of a small amount of superficial iris pigment seems racially irrelevant. At the same time, it is likely that all hair color shades from a light medium brown to the lightest, whether on the ashen or golden side, should be considered as "pure" lights, since, as the Swedish material shows, persons having these shades on the head have, as a rule, the same colored pubic hair. In Sweden, as in Norway, what linkages there are which point to the survival or resegregation of a Corded type indicate that this type was characterized by exceptionally light eyes, but a predominantly brown shade of hair.

Abundant anthropometric data from Sweden make it clear that the basic, and by far the most numerous element in the population is, as in eastern Norway, an Iron Age Nordic one, transferred from its central and eastern European home; earlier elements have survived less here than in Norway. There is, however, a strong concentration of unreduced Brünn and Borreby types, as illustrated in plates 4 and 5, in the fishing and seafaring population of the southwestern coast, across from Denmark; the presence of these types, although not clearly indicated by existing surveys, cannot, nevertheless, be denied.

At the same time, Corded elements within the Nordic racial body are most evident in the north, and especially near the Norwegian provinces of Trøndelagen. Lappish influences are also to be felt in the far north, while modern Finnish invasions and infiltrations have introduced the East Baltic type into central Sweden in some numbers. The nature of this type need not be discussed here, but will be studied in later sections of the present chapter.

[Ragnvald]

Thanks for the article. I read it with interest.
It's a bit hard to read though, for a person without historical or anthropological background.
People are referenced in relevance to some time,
like Mesolithic, Megolithic, Iron Age, etc.
It's confusing. Better to have just time in years.
Obviously there is some background under it..

I do like Swedish people. I found them the easiest to get along.
As well as Germans and Russians.

The toughest going are Kiwies and Poles.
Well, Poles crack eventually, but Kiwies are real freaks.