In the river region of the Vorskla, on the northeastern boundary of the plain, lies Oposhnia, widely known for its pottery. Farther downstream lies the city of Poltava (83,000 pop.), the chief city of the southern part of the left half of the plain, notable for the unfortunate battle (1709) in which Peter the Great, with Polish help, destroyed the plan of the dashing hetman, Mazeppa, to free the Ukraine from Russian dominion, with the aid of Charles XII. of Sweden. Today Poltava is a rising industrial city, with an important railroad junction and great annual fairs, chiefly for wool and horses. Kobeliaki (12,000 pop.), situated downstream on the Vorskla, has a cloth industry of some dimensions, as has also the district of Konstantinohrad, in the river region of the Orel. On the southeastern border of the plain, where it joins the Pontian plain in the region of the Samara, lie the old Zaporog settlements of Samarchik (Novonoskovsk, 13,000 pop.) and Pavlohrad (41,000 pop.), with a considerable grain trade and a large mill, leather and wax industry. The spurs of the Central Russian Plateau, which lie within the borders of the Ukrainian national territory offer an almost complete anthropogeographical analogy to the above discussed district. In the north the Polissian character is still apparent. In the south agriculture and home industry are well developed. Traffic is more difficult, [330]because of the greater distance to the navigable Dnieper, but is rather active with the Muscovite country. The left plateau district embraces the northwest frontiers of the Governments of Chernihiv and Poltava, all of the Government of Kharkiv and the adjacent districts of Kursk, Voroniz and Don.