The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

SEABOARD AND BOUNDARIES.where could a deadly blow be struck in this vast eastern world ? The Slav domainis defended by its very immensity.Notwithstanding her power and extent, Russia has fewer advantages for easycommunication with the seaboard than many small states, such as Holland orDenmark. Mistress of boundless regions, and even with a coast-line at least eqml tohalf the circumference of the globe, ^he has no free outlets to the ocean. Peter theGreat, who wished at any cost to make her a maritime power, might transfer hiscapital to the shores of the Gulf of Finland, and found Taganrog on the Sea of Azov;he had still nothing but land-locked basins. The port of Archangel is blockedby ice for a great part of the year, and the vessels frequenting it are obliged tocoast all the Scandinavian peninsula before reaching the busy highways of commerce.St. Petersburg and the other Russian ports on the Baltic are also closedduring the winter, and the outlets of that inland sea are guarded by the strongholdsof the stranger. If the Sea of Azov and the Euxine have the advantage ofbeing nearly always navigable, their narrow approach is equally guarded by adouble portal, the key to which is held by Constantinople. In Asia the shores ofthe Frozen Ocean are of such difficult access that they have not yet beenthoroughly surveyed. The ports of Kamchatka and Xikolayevsk on the Amur areavailable only in the fine season, and are otherwise encompassed by vast wildernesses.Not till quite recently has the port of Vladivostok been secured in theJapanese waters, but even this, although opening a free highway to the Pacific,is iee-bound in the heart of winter, and long years must pass before it can beconnected by easy routes with the populous lands of the empire. Between thetwo bulwarks of Kronstadt and Vladivostok there intervenes a distance of not lessthan 4,300 miles as the crow flies.It would matter little to the nation itself if the commerce of the neighbouringseas could always remain free. But in time of war people suffer for theirGovernments, and if the straits be closed to the Czar's navies, they may also beclosed to the Russian mercantile fleets. Hence, so long as Europe is dividedinto military states, it is natural for Russia to seek free communications withthe sea, and for her armies to renew from century to century the expedition ofIgor, to seize the " City of the Cassars " (Tzaregrad), Constantinople; seated at theportal of the Black Sea.To this endless source of rivalries and future wars is added another of a noless serious character. If Russia has long overstepped her ethnological limitsin the east, she believes she has not yet reached them in the west. Beyond herwestern borders there dwell many millions of Slavs, amongst them the Ruthenians,or Rusini, whose very name is etyniologically identical with that of the Russiansand who belong to the family of the Little Russians already living under the sceptreof the Czar of all the Russias. However close the friendship of rulers, howeversolemn the treaties of alliance, it is natural for social sympathies to spring upand develop on either side of the official frontiers, sympathies which an interestedpolicy may utilise to guide and blind public opinion, to stir up rivalries andwars. How much blood has already been shed, and how much must still be