Voronezh lies on the border between the forest and meadow region of middle Russia and the southern steppes; the forests disappear rapidly towards the south, and those which in the time of Peter the Great stood on the upper tributaries of the Don, and were used for shipbuilding, have now been almost entirely destroyed. Less than one-tenth of the entire area is under wood.
The Don traverses Voronezh from N. to S.E., draining it for more than 400 m.; it is an important channel for the export of corn, tallow and other raw produce, as well as for the import of wood, floated down from the north. Its tributary the Voronezh is also navigated, and the Bityug and Khoper, both left-hand affluents of the Don, flow in part through the government. Many other small streams flowing into the Don intersect the territory, but the influence of the dry steppes begins to make itself felt; there are no lakes, and marshes persist only in the valleys. The climate is continental, and although the mean temperature at the town of Voronezh is 42.7° F., that of January is as low as 8.3°, and that of July as high as 74.2°.
The estimated pop. in 1906 was 3,097,700. The inhabitants consist in nearly equal parts of Great Russians in the north and Little Russians in the south, but there are a few Poles, Germans and Jews, both Orthodox and Karaites. The government is divided into twelve districts, the chief towns of which are Voronezh, Biryuch, Bobrov, Boguchar, Korotoyak, Nizhne-Dyevitsk, Novo-Khopersk, Ostrogozhsk, Pavlovsk, Valuiki, Zadonsk and Zemlyansk. Agriculture is the chief occupation, and grain is exported to a considerable amount. The peasants own 67% of the land, the crown and the imperial domains 3% and private owners 30%.
The principal crops are rye, wheat, oats, barley and potatoes. Aniseed, sunflowers, tobacco and beetroot are extensively cultivated, and much attention is paid to the growth of the pineapple. There are large tracts of excellent pasture land, on which cattle are bred; good breeds of cart-horses and trotting-horses are obtained. There are nearly two hundred breeding establishments, those at Hrenovoye and Chesmenka being the most important. In many villages the inhabitants are engaged in the making of wooden wares. There are flour-mills, distilleries, oil, sugar and woollen mills, iron works and tobacco factories.
VORONEZH, a town of Russia, capital of the government of the same name, on the river Voronezh, 5 m. above its confluence with the Don and 367 m. by rail S.S.E. of Moscow. Pop. (1901) 84,146. It is one of the best-built and most picturesque provincial towns of Russia, and is situated on the steep bank of the river, surrounded by three large suburbs—Troltskaya, Yamskaya and Chizhovka. It has a military school of cadets, two museums, a monument (1860) to Peter the Great, a railway college, a pilgrimage church, and a theatre which figures in the history of the Russian stage. It was the birthplace of two peasant poets, who wrote some of the finest examples of Russian poetry—A. V. Koltsov (1809–1842) and I. S. Nikitin (1824–1861). A memorial to the former was erected in 1868. There are factories for cleansing wool and for the preparation of linens, woollens, bells, tallow and oil, as well as some distilleries. Voronezh is an important entrepôt for corn, flax, tallow, hides, sugar, wood and coal from the Don.
The city was founded in 1586, as a fort against Tatar raids, on a site which had been occupied from the 11th century by a Khazar town, but had been deserted during the 14th and 15th centuries. Four years afterwards it was burned by the Tatars, but again rebuilt, and soon became an important trading place. Peter the Great recognized its importance, and in 1695 built here a flotilla of boats for the conquest of Azov. The town was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1703, 1748 and 1773, but was always rebuilt.
VORONTSOV (or Woronzoff), the name of a Russian family, various members of which are distinguished in Russian history.
Mikhail Illarionovich Vorontsov (1714-1767), Russian imperial chancellor, was the first to become prominent. At the age of fourteen he was appointed a Kammer junker at the court of the cesarevna Elizabeth Petrovna, whom he materially assisted during the famous coup d'état of the 6th of December 1741, when she mounted the Russian throne on the shoulders of the Preobrazhensky Grenadiers. On the 3rd of January 1742 he married Anna Skavronskaya, the empress's cousin; and in 1744 was created a count and vice-chancellor. His jealousy of Alexis Bestuzhev induced him to participate in Lestocq's conspiracy against that statesman. The empress's affection for him (she owed much to his skilful pen and still more to the liberality of his rich kinsfolk) saved him from the fate of his accomplices, but he lived in a state of semi-eclipse during the domination of Bestuzhev (1744-1758). On the disgrace of Bestuzhev, Vorontsov was made imperial chancellor in his stead. Though well-meaning and perfectly honest, Vorontsov as a politician was singularly timorous and irresolute, and always took his cue from the court. Thus, under Elizabeth he was an avowed enemy of Prussia and a warm friend of Austria and France; yet he made no effort to prevent Peter III. from reversing the policy of his predecessor. Yet he did not lack personal courage, and endured torture after the Revolution of the 9th of July 1762 rather than betray his late master. He greatly disliked Catherine II., and at first refused to serve under her, though she reinstated him in the dignity of chancellor. When he found that the real control of foreign affairs was in the hands of Nikita Panin, he resigned his office (1763). Vorontsov was a generous protector of the nascent Russian literature, and, to judge from his letters, was a highly cultivated man.
Alexander Romanovich Vorontsov (1741-1805), Russian imperial chancellor, nephew of the preceding and son of Count Roman Vorontsov, began his career at the age of fifteen in the Izmailovsky regiment of the Guards. In 1759, his kinsman, the grand chancellor Mikhail Illarionovich, sent him to Strassburg, Paris and Madrid to train him in diplomacy. Under Peter III. he represented Russia for a short time at the court of St James's. Catherine II. created him a senator and president of the Board of Trade; but she never liked him, and ultimately (1791) compelled him to retire from public life. In 1802 Alexander I. summoned him back to office and appointed him imperial chancellor. This was the period of the triumph of the Vorontsovs, who had always insisted on the necessity of a close union with Austria and Great Britain, in opposition to Panin and his followers, who had leaned on France or Prussia till the outbreak of the Revolution made friendship with France impossible. Vorontsov was also an implacable opponent of Napoleon, whose “topsy-turvyness” he was never weary of denouncing. The rupture with Napoleon in 1803 is mainly attributable to him. He also took a leading part in the internal administration and was in favour of a thorough reform of the senate and the ministries. He retired in 1804. He possessed an extraordinary memory and a firm and wide grasp of history.
His “Memoirs of my Own times” (Rus.) is printed in vol. vii. of the Vorontsov Archives.
Semen Romanovich Vorontsov (1744-1832), Russian diplomatist, brother of Alexander Romanovich, distinguished himself during the first Turkish War of Catherine II. at Larga and Kagula in 1770. In 1783 he was appointed Russian minister at Vienna, but in 1785 was transferred to London, where he lived for the rest of his life. Vorontsov enjoyed great influence and authority in Great Britain. Quickly acquainting himself with the genius of English institutions, their ways and methods, he was able to render important services to his country. Thus during Catherine's second Turkish War he contributed to bring about the disarmament of the auxiliary British fleet which had been fitted out to assist the Turks, and in 1793 obtained a renewal of the commercial treaty between Great Britain and Russia. Subsequently, his extreme advocacy of the exiled Bourbons, his sharp criticism of the Armed Neutrality of the North, which he considered disadvantageous to Russia, and his denunciation of the partitions of Poland as contrary to the first principles of equity and a shock to the conscience of western Europe, profoundly irritated
