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THE FATHERLAND
THE EXPANSION OF RUSSIA
By DAVID S. LEVY.
H SPECTRE is haunting Europe!” Once again the
A nations shrink back and are appalled at the apparition.
But this time,the spectre presents, not the attenuated visage
of Communism, nor the more florid one of Socialism, nor
the fleshless form of Anarchy. It presents something far
different: the terrible figure of an awakened Colossus, black,
shaggy menacing, blood-boltered; the revivifled form of a
regenerated spirit; the spectre revisiting the haunts of the
body: the Russian Bear looming mountain-high on the
horrific horizon.
At the bottom of the slaughter is one cause, THE EX-
PANSION OF RUSSIA. This is fundamental and immu-
table. Fear of the Pan-Slavic movement, of Russian ex-
pansion, caused Kaiser Wilhelm to distrust all sides-
revengeful France, mindful of 1870, on the south; com-
mercially iealous England on the north and west-and on
the east, he was compelled to deal with the greatest peril
of all, half-civilized Russia, brooding over Pan-Slavic sen-
timent and dreaming of Peter the Great’s ambition: a place
for Russia in the lap of Europe.
Russia is little understood by the average American citi-
zen. The dark veil which centuries of arrogant autocracy
have thrown over the country has effectually discouraged the
penetration of the curious. And yet Russia is potentially
the mightiest nation of the future. its brute strength
staggers the thinker. it has a population of 165,000,000
which increases yearly at,the rate of 3,000,000 despite
famine, wars and the hardships of fierce winters. This
population, enormous as it is, fairly loses itself in a domain
of 8,650,000 square miles, an area two and one half times
the size of the United States and proportionately rich in
natural resources.
Ages of exploitation will be unable to exhaust Russia's
possibilities of commercial and industrial expansion. Russia
has more than 900,000,000 acres of timber-land, whereas the
United States has but 88,000,000. 250,000,000 acres of land
are under the plow in Russia, while twice that amount is
being cultivated in the United States. But Russia can ex-
pand her cultivated area over two-fold and still have virgin
soil for coming generations; oils naphta, minerals of all
descriptions, fuels and what not abound everywhere in al-
most illimitable profusion. in the last ten years Russia has
doubled her foreign trade! in 1902 it amounted to $700,000,-
000; in I912 it amounted to Sl,400,000,000. Of this, 56
per cent were exports, and the balance, imports. Such is
one phase of Russia's expansion.
The Russia of the Darker Ages, the Russia around which
were agglomerated the subsequent conquests which today
compose the Russian Empire, was founded in the ninth cen-
tury by the Norse adventurer Ruric. Olga, his fanatical
daughter-in-law, immediately introduced the orthodox form
of Greek Catholicism. Russia was for a long time over-
run by the Mongol hosts, and for two centuries she paid
them'tribu.te. in 1593 one of the most powerful figures in
Russian history came to the throne in the person of Ivan,
iUSflY called the Terrible. He it was that first assumed the
absolute ‘title of Czar. He instituted a number of reforms
among his people, but he spent most of his time in chopping
off their heads and in adding to his original dominions,
Kazan, Siberia, and Astrakhan.
in I613 Michael Romanoff, whose descendant, Nicholas
the present despot, recently celebrated the tercentennial an-
I.
iiiversary of the dynasty of the Romanoffs, took possession
of the crown. Russia at this time was a vast but exceed-
ingly primitive empire, having only one seaport, Archangel-
Manufactures and a navy she had none. From the Black
Sea she was cut off by the Turks, and from the Baltic b)’
the Swedes. She was essentially an Asiatic barbarian. Her
intercourse with Europe was nil.
Hitherto Russia, with her wholly Asiatic military, polit-
ical and social organization, had been able to win over
Asiatic enemies; but against Occidental civilization she was
intrinsically powerless. in order for Russia to enjoy 3 P0‘
sition of power and prosperity in Europe it was necessary’
for her to begin association with European nations. The
latter, however, jealous and contemptuous of this parvenu
arisen in the East, did not relish her company, and PH‘
sisted in blockading her within what was aptly named a
“vicious circle.” it was left for the genius of Peter the
Great to break this circle.
Taking the crown at an early age, he sailed down the D0“
and captured Azof, the key of the Euxine and Russia:s
first southern seaport. Before he was turned in to h15
fathers, he gained lnguia, Livonia’ and a part of Finland,
thus giving Russia a broad front on the Baltic.
Catharine the Great, his wife, continued the work of
Russian expansion. With the aid of Prussia and Austria
she dismembered and partitioned Poland. Carrying '0"
ward the attempts of Peter, she strove to secure access to
the Black Sea and thus opened the famous Eastern Question
in all its ramifications down to the second Alexander's W31’ 0‘
1877-78. Catherine first tried to secure access to the lndian
Ocean, but in the multitude of wars, treaties and embrog-
lios with Persia, Afghanistan and England that followed. She
was unsuccessful, and the question is one that Russia win
some day have to settle with England, her “friend."
Under the Czarina Elizabeth and Alexander l, the Fin‘
land questions were raised with the subjugation of Finnish
territory. Simultaneously, Russia attempted to gain access
to the Oshgotsk Sea, the Sea of Japan, and the Pacific
Ocean; and ‘with these attempts began the dismal work 0'
Siberian colonization and all the phases of the Far Easter“
Question. in all these onward moves the matter of secuf‘
ing new territories concerned Russia much less than the
supreme end of all her efforts; to reach a sea-a sea free
from ice, a sea opening into the ocean; “a window,” in
Peter the Great’s phrases, whence Russians might look uP0“
the civilization and the commerce of the world. ‘
The freshest and the best known of these desperate efi0l"-5
were the ones resulting in the disastrous Crimean W81’ 0
1854 and the Japanese War of 1904-5. in 1854 the Em‘
peror Nicholas 1 of Russia, anxious to seize the sP0“ 0’ ‘he
“Sick Man of Europe,” occupied some provinces on fhe
Danube, under the specious pretext of protecting Christla“
pilgrims against the outrages of barbarian Moslems. 5“?
land, alarmed at this Russian encroachment toward the com‘
mercial advantages of the Mediterranean, persuaded me
gullible Louis Napoleon lll, Emperor of France, to ioin if”
in an attack upon the intruder. After a desperate camPi“3"
in the Crimean peninsular the Russians were defeated and
by the Treaty of Paris agreed to abandon the protectofaie
over the Danubian provinces.
But Russia, smarting under her humiliation, straighmay
began pushing herself forward once more. After di5’e'