TIIE 



NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Vol. XI MAY, 1900 No. 



THE GROWTH OF RUSSIA 



By Edavin a. Grosvenok, 



Professor of Modern Gorernments and their Adinhilstrulion in Aniherxl Co 



Russia ill liistory and character is the product of geograpliic en- 

 vironment. Nowhere, not even in Greece or Spain, have physical 

 causes been more powerful in determining tlie i)olitical and religious 

 ideas of a people and in shaping that people's destiny. Slow work- 

 ing through the space of over a thousand years, those causes have 

 evolved the Russian as he is and created the Russian Empire as we 

 behold it today. 



Of all European countries Russia is the farthest away. It is sep- 

 arate from us not only by leagues of territorial distance, but b}^ the 

 more repellent distance of language and race. The theory of govern- 

 ment which it has developed is the direct opposite of our OAvn. The 

 Christianity to which it clings with unsurpassed devotion is neither 

 Protestant nor Catholic. Its Eastern ortliodoxy is a wall of se}»ara- 

 tion from rather than a bond of union to the West. Russia stands 

 in immense isolation apart from all the rest of the European continent, 

 and 3'et its most (commanding and stateliest figure. 



I'HYSK'AL OHAKACTIiKISTICS 



Physical geogi'ai)hy by an irregular north anil south line divides 

 Europe into two nearly equal but most dissimilar portions. In tlie 

 western portion is seen every jjossible diversity of outline and surface. 

 Enormous jxiuinsulas thrust out from it into the sea and enormous 

 gulfs and bays [)r()ject themselves into the land. The limitless variety 

 of the mountains, rivers, islands, and plains is mirrored in the limit- 

 less variety of tlie human groups which dwell upon theni. 

 I?, 



