ABSTRACT
The Russian province presents one variant, one combination of factors, in a general and diverse European pattern. As such, the provincial economy builds from the ground up, with nature and community. Every action of the Nizhnii Novgorod's zemstvo had become inscribed in larger, national Russian efforts. Whilst the oldest and best-known civic institutions remained the Free Economic Society and the Russian Technical Society, a plethora of ad hoc associations or regular meetings appeared 'middle-up-down-across' in every profession and organization. Nizhnii Novgorod province straddled three types of economic space, roughly coinciding with the ecological regions. Firstly, from the southwest it bordered on the central industrial region that surrounded Moscow. The thick forests beyond the Volga created a second space, where timber and fishing industries predominated. The south-east, thirdly, was mainly agricultural, a final extension of the rich black-soil belt stretching up from southern Russia.
