Western Galicia, including the important cities of Cracow and Tarnow, as well as the Tatra massif, is peopled almost exclusively by about 2,750,000 Poles of whom 7 per cent are Polish-speaking Jews.[121] Eastern Galicia on the other hand is the home of only 1,400,000 Poles, but here the Ruthenians make up a solid mass of 3,200,000. In the cities, however, the Poles form overwhelming majorities, although their number dwindles to insignificance as the Russian frontier is approached. Lemberg, notably, contains a high proportion of Polish inhabitants. But the fact of paramount importance in the condition of Austrian Poles is that in spite of their minority in the largest part of Galicia, they represent the dominating element in the Galician population. Vast estates and great industries are almost exclusively in their hands. They are also intellectual leaders and the liberal professions are practically entirely held by them. The Ruthenian’s lot throughout Galicia is that of the toiler, either in the field or in the factory. Descendants of Ruthenian noblemen have been absorbed by the Polish nobility, which has become the ruling class. This economic superiority, coupled to political advantages secured from the Austrian government by the Galician statutes of 1868, makes the lot of the Austrian Poles truly enviable in comparison with that of their German or even their Russian kinsmen. The province is ruled by a Diet composed of Poles and Ruthenians, each speaking his own tongue. The authority of this body, however, is strictly restricted to provincial affairs. Extra-provincial matters are under the direct control of Vienna. The Ruthenian is therefore the Pole’s great rival in Galicia. Although the outward manifestation of this rivalry assumes the form of nationalistic outbursts, the conflict is, in the main, social and economic. The Ruthenian proletariat is at odds with its Polish rulers. It has begun to dream of redemption from the vassalage borne for centuries. Fortunately its endeavors are a source of improvement in the lot of both Ruthenian and Polish peasants. A glimpse of the power vested in the Ruthenian mass is thus afforded. As a people these Ruthenes constitute the westernmost group of the Little Russian division of the Slavic people. They inhabit the territory of the ancient kingdom of Ukraine and number some 30,000,000 souls. Southwestern Russia is peopled by them almost exclusively. They form from 76 to 99 per cent of the population of the following districts:[122] 1. The Ukraine of the right bank of the Dnieper, Podolia, Volhynia, Kiev and Kholm. 2. The Ukraine of the left bank of the Dnieper, Tchernihov, Poltava, Kharkov, southwestern Khursk and Voronezh, and the region of the Don Cosacks to the Sea of Azov. 3. The steppe of Ukraine lying on both sides of the Dnieper and comprising Katerynoslav, Kherson and the eastern parts of Bessarabia and Tauris.