Steppe

   From the Russian step’, the word means a “flat and arid land.” While the steppe is unique to Eurasia, it shares many characteristics with the North American prairie. Russia’s steppe is divided between transitional forest-steppe and the classic variant, that is, grassland plains nearly bereft of trees (except near water sources). The latter is known as the Great Steppe, and stretches from Hungary’s Pannonian Plain to the deserts of western China; in Russia, this includes the lower Don River basin, the Transvolga, and Stavropol. The climate of the steppe is continental, allowing for large fluctuations in temperature between the summer and winter months. Much of Russia’s forest-steppe has been converted to agricultural usage in the past centuries. Under the direction of Nikita Khrushchev, an attempt to turn Kazakhstan’s northern steppe into farmland failed miserably, creating environmental degradation and soil erosion. Historically, the steppes have served the nomadic conquerors well, including the proto-Indo-Europeans, Huns, Mongols, and Turkic peoples.