hard-working or as beautiful and elegant as traditional Orlov trotters. Since Standardbreds were, in general, faster than Orlov trotters, these breeds were intensively crossed. The resulting breed was called Russian trotters and they lacked many distinctive features of Orlov trotters. They were smaller and lighter and were not capable of doing as much work as Orlov trotters. In order to prevent Orlov trotters from disappearing through mixing with Standardbreds, the government introduced separate races for Orlov trotters and Standardbreds. Finally Russian stud-farmers managed to improve the racing performance of Orlov trotters. Stallion Krepysh born in 1904 won 55 races and covered 1 mile for 2 minutes 8.5 seconds. He was the fastest trotter in pre-revolutionary Russia. Krepysh and most of his issue died during the Russian civil war. In the Soviet Union The Civil war was a major disaster for horse breeding in Russia. Many horses died in battle, yet more were eaten for food, and there was a general collapse of the economy, making horse breeding a luxury few could afford. However, after 1920, the raising of Orlov Trotters resumed and crossbreeding was forbidden. At that time, Orlov trotters were used primarily for farming and transport due to their physical strength and outstanding working abilities. By the 1930s, race breeding had also been reestablished and pre-revolutionary racing records were being broken. Arguably, the Orlovs reached their second heyday in the 1930s. During World War II, also known as the Soviet-German war, the number of Orlov Trotters again decreased. After the war, the state acutely needed horses in order to restore agricultural production. Due to their working ability and high productivity, Orlov trotters were again widely used to improve local horses. However, by 1953, the Soviet authorities decided that, in part due to increased use of the tractor, horse-raising was not important for the economy. This resulted in reduction of the number of stud farms and less governmental support of those that remained. Today After the fall of the Soviet Union, the future of the breed seemed unclear since rich Russians interested in harness racing preferred the faster Russian and American trotters. Therefore, in 1997, the International Committee for the Protection of the Orlov Trotter was established. Purebred Orlov trotters are now raised on twelve stud farms in Russia and three in Ukraine. The studs in Russia have a total of about 800 mares, which raises some concern; it is