RESOURCES OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE 



(By permission of the American Geographic Soci- 

 ety, I quote the following, written by E. K. Rey- 

 nolds.) 



One of the far-reaching results of the war in this 

 country has been the stimulation of an interest in 

 Russia. This is not exactly a new thing. Americans 

 have for a long time been interested in the great writ- 

 ers, composers, and artists, as well as the politics of 

 Russia. There was a time even, not long since, when 

 Americans were more occupied with conditions in Rus- 

 sian prisons than in their own. But all that has little 

 in common with this new interest, which is pointed 

 toward the discovery of a new Russia, hitherto un- 

 sought and unknown economic Russia. Politics 

 and fiction are brushed aside, and Russia is being 

 evaluated in terms of her economic possibilities. 

 Americans are beginning to study the growth of the 

 Russian Empire and its wealth in natural resources. 



The story of the expansion of a country which has 

 resulted in the largest compact political organization 

 the world has ever seen is necessarily an interesting one. 

 The beginnings of Russian history, like that of every 

 country, are but vaguely known. The foundation 

 stone of the Russian state was laid in Novgorod in 



