322 The National Geographic Magazine 



patch between the distant termini, the 

 incalculable consequences of the vast 

 enterprise will be only in their begin- 

 ning. Kvery time the whistle of the 

 locomotive blows, in its blast is the call 

 not to resurrection^for in that northern 

 Asiatic vastitude there is no dead past — 

 but to the new, first birth of Siberia. 



TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILWAY 



In 1 89 1 the first coupons were issued 

 for the building of this railway. In 

 December, 1892, the work was begun. 

 A highway was to be pushed from St. 

 Petersburg to the Pacific, a band of steel 

 5,852 miles long, binding the extremities 

 of the empire and over its polished track 

 affording an unrivalled route for the com- 

 mingling of East and West and of their 

 measureless products. From Paris to 

 Vladivostok the journey by passenger 

 and traffic was to be made in twelve 

 days, and later on in ten. From Paris 

 to Pekin in thirteen days, to Hongkong 

 in seventeen days, diminishing the ex- 

 pense in money and in time by a third 

 or a half. 



This railroad was to be financiered, 

 constructed, and administered not by 

 private enterprise but by the state. 

 Hence its object was not by financial 

 returns to swell the revenues of giant 

 corporations or individual capitalists. 

 The profit and loss account on its pecu- 

 niary side was a minor consideration. 

 Its single design and aim was to 

 strengthen and develop the Russian 

 Empire, and as an ultimate result to 

 insure that empire the dominion of the 

 East, the mastery of Asia. 



THE RAILWAY A DETERMINING 

 POLITICAL FACTOR 



As the strategic position of Russia over 

 against Asia is unique, so is this railroad 

 unique in its possibilities. Whatever 

 acquisitions Great Britain or Germany 

 now holds, or may hereafter obtain on 



the Asiatic continent, those possessions 

 are remote by thousands of miles from 

 their base, and their efiiciency depends 

 upon a difficult and precarious connec- 

 tion through those thousand miles of 

 sea and land. Nor can those posses- 

 sions be brought into much more inti- 

 mate relation with each other and with 

 the home empire than they alreadj^ are. 

 That is, for Great Britain or Germany 

 or any other power to devise a political 

 or strategic rival to the Trans-Siberian 

 Railway is an utter impossibility. It 

 remains, and must remain, the most 

 stupendous agent in determining the 

 destiny of the globe that has yet been 

 conceived by man. It is to be main- 

 tained, as it was first originated, under 

 the most favorable geographic circum- 

 stances which a state has ever enjoyed 

 for the accomplishment of a gigantic un- 

 dertaking. There is no assertion here 

 that as an achievement of engineering 

 skill this railway surpasses or even 

 equals a trans- American railroad from 

 New York to San Francisco, or a trans- 

 African railroad from Alexandria to the 

 Cape. Viewed merely as a railroad, it 

 may in every respect be inferior tO' 

 either ; its trains may be less commo- 

 dious or less luxurious, its locomotives 

 less powerful or less swiftt, its technical 

 management less efficient or less saga- 

 cious ; but, regarding simply geographic 

 position, having in mind only where it 

 runs, what it connects, and what it must 

 inevitably effect, nowhere can expe- 

 rience or imagination suggest a rival. 

 The nearest approach to rivalry would 

 be afforded by some line crossing China 

 from west to east. But the westeri; 

 terminus of such a line would of riecesr 

 sity be close upon Russian Siberia or 

 Russian Turkestan ; it would traverse 

 only a moribund or disintegrating Asi- 

 atic state ; and whatever might be the 

 governing board of its construction and 

 administration, it would indirectly, if 

 not directly, be subject to Russian infiu- 



