Steppe - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

STEPPE (from the Russ. stepi, a waste), the name given to the level treeless plains in certain parts of the Russian Empire, and thence sometimes, though not commonly, extended, in physical geography, to signify similar plains elsewhere. The name is most commonly applied specifically to the plains in the south and south-east of European Russia and in the southwest of Asiatic Russia, and in this connexion the term sometimes connotes semi-desert conditions. Otherwise the Russian steppes may be considered as kindred to and connected with the Heiden (heaths) of northern Germany.