THB 



POPULAR SOIENOB 



MONTHLY. 



JANUARY, 1915 



GEOGEAPHY IN RUSSIAN HISTORY 



By WILLIAM E. LINGELBACH 



THE history of Russia affords a striking example, not only of the 

 influence of geography on history, but of the fact that man's 

 place in the scale of civilization is in large measure determined by his 

 environment. In speaking of the contrasts in the development of Russia 

 as compared with England, a recent writer says : 



The fundamental diflferenee between Eussian and English history is the 

 difference between the great plain and the island. English history tells of the 

 upbuilding by an island people of the greatest maritime empire in the world. 

 Eussian history tells how a people . . . gradually, with toil, pain and effort 

 secured possession of the greatest plain in the world and so created the broadest 

 of land empires. 



The empire of the plain ! The very phrase suggests what Professor 

 Kluchevsky calls the most characteristic feature of Russian history, 

 namely, a spreading out or expansion over contiguous territory, a coloni- 

 zation. 



It is not, however, only when comparison is made with England that 

 geography appears so conspicuously as a factor in shaping the funda- 

 mental character of Russian development. Thus eastern Europe is or- 

 ganized into one single political unit, while western Europe, that is the 

 smaller half of the continent, is divided into nineteen separate and inde- 

 pendent states. The causes are manifest if we glance at the map. The 

 surface of western Europe is broken and diversified, there are plains 

 surrounded by mountains and uplands, there are transverse ranges mak- 

 ing climatic divisions, and the sea penetrating deeply into the heart 

 of the continent serves further to create physical or geographic units 

 which invite the growth of separate states in response to boundaries set 

 by mountain and sea^ In eastern Europe, on the other hand, a great 

 level plain spreads itself over an immense area. There are no divisions 



