Against the tightening hold of the Germans on their land, the Poles can offer only limited resistance. But their counteracting efforts are not devoid of value. They have taken advantage of the high prices, consequent upon the sales of the land which the government has forced on them, to buy new estates. Thanks to the high rate of birth among Poles, the proportion of Poles living in German Poland to the rest of the population remains stationary, in spite of German immigration or Polish emigration. Coöperative associations of farmers, of traders or industrial operators, present a united front in all dealings of their members with Germans. In the field of education, children are taught Polish in spite of German opposition.[120] The patriotism and courage of the Polish press are maintained in face of German persecution. The return of Polish emigrants with a little capital, accumulated by toil in foreign lands, is likewise one of the factors which contribute to the preservation of the people in their homeland. Both from the western industrial districts of Germany and from overseas, many patriotic Poles return to the land of their fathers and settle upon small farms purchased with their savings. From the east pressure corresponding to Teutonic battering, although exerted with less intensity, is applied by Russian endeavor to create national homogeneity. Of all the different members of the wide-spread Slavic race Poles and Russians are the most closely related by speech. But the affinity ends here, for the formidable barrier of religious differences hampers fusion of the two nationalities. Caught between the hammer of Teutonic reformation and the Slavic anvil of Russian orthodoxy, the Poles have remained stanch Catholics. Creed, in this case, has played a considerable part in the preservation of national spirit. In Austria alone have the Poles been relatively free from persecution. Even there, in recent times, the Austrian policy of setting her subject peoples against each other had led to a display of favoritism towards the Ruthenian neighbors of the Poles. Both of these Slavic peoples inhabit Galicia principally. The province is the relic of the old duchy of Halitch, which had Lemberg for its capital. The name Galicia originated in Austria, at the time of the partition of Poland in 1772, and was applied to that part of the dismembered country which Austria annexed. The province is peopled at present by over three million Ruthenes.