The development of Russia is severely handicapped by poor transport conditions internally and by the lack of ice-free ports. Batum on the Black Sea is open all the year round but is far removed from the main centres of activity, and the Black Sea is limited commercially by its semi-inland character. Murmansk on the Arctic is open all the year round and efforts have been made to develop it since 1917, when a railway was constructed linking it with Leningrad, but the increase of cost due to the long rail way journey from Leningrad or the Central Productive Area is serious. When the railway line, now under construction, linking Kotlas with Murmansk via Soroka on the Gulf of Onega, is corn pleted, trade from the Urals may go through Murmansk, though freightage costs for the long railway journey will raise the price of goods. Leningrad, Russia's chief outlet to Western Europe, is frozen from late November or early December to April. Vladivostok, at the extreme south of Russia's Pacific coast can be kept open by the use of ice-breakers, but it is, of course, far too remote to serve as an outlet for European Russia, which must thus depend to a great extent on trading agreements with the countries to the west for her export and import trade.
Recently an attempt has been made to revive trade with North ern Asiatic Russia via the mouths of the Ob and Yenisei and in 1928 a Kara Sea trading expedition, consisting of 3 British and 5 Norwegian vessels left Hamburg carrying agricultural machinery, metals, drugs and coal to exchange for timber, flax, cow-wool, hides and horsehair brought along the Oh and Yenisei. (See URALSK AREA for future plans.) Inland communications in Russia are very poorly developed. Professor Semenov-Tian-Shansky points out that through a third of its territory transport is still effected by means of dogs and reindeer, through about a sixth by camels, through about a half by horses and oxen and in some southern areas by mules, asses and buffaloes.
Railways.—West of long. 5o° E. and south of lat. 6o° N. a network of railways has developed, but to the east and north of this region railways are mere trunk lines with no radiating net work. Even in the region mentioned the railway net leaves vast areas untouched, the best served areas being those in the im mediate vicinity of Moscow and Leningrad. Moreover the ser vices on these lines are inadequate for the growing needs of popu lation, industry and agriculture and vast sums must be expended before adequate provision of rolling stock is made. The markedly seasonal climatic regime in an agricultural country results in con gestion and choking of the railway net after the harvest, and much forethought is needed to prevent wastage. Ice wagons
and cold storage facilities are very little developed and so the fishing and dairy industries suffer. Grain may be held up in Siberia by lack of transport at a time when famine in other dis tricts makes it urgently needed. Road and railway construction in the past was mainly dominated by strategic considerations in an empire slowly pushing its way among hostile tribes. This period of eastern and southern expansion has ceased and the present government finds itself free to devote its resources to consolidating and developing communications from an economic and social standpoint, but is hampered by the general poverty of the country. Energetic measures have, however, been taken and many miles of new railway have been opened and are under con struction.
The most important development contemplated is the linking of the grain producing area of western Siberia with the cotton grow ing Central Asiatic Republics by a branch of the trans-Siberian railway going southwards from Semipalatinsk, and a great part of this line is now under construction. Its effect will be to increase the area under cotton by reducing grain sowing for local needs. In view of this link, textile factories are being built in Uzbekistan so that cotton goods may be supplied to Siberia by this shorter route instead of the more expensive Moscow route, which involves transit costs for raw cotton to Moscow and for cotton goods back to Siberia. Pressure on railway freightage in European Russia will thus be relieved.
River Transport.—Though the network of rivers is great, river transport in Russia suffers from the long seasonal pause due to winter frost and also from the shallowness of many streams and rivers during late summer. The great rivers of Asiatic Russia, with the exception of the Amur, either flow into the Arctic or the Sea of Aral. The Volga, the most important channel of river traffic in European Russia flows into the closed Caspian Sea, though this disadvantage is somewhat compensated by its useful ness for export of naphtha from Baku. The canal now under construction to link the Volga and the Don is the first stage in a projected scheme for linking western European waterways with Asiatic Russia and Vladivostok. Increase of the canal links and deepening and improvement of the rivers is specially important economically in view of the heavy freightage costs of rail car riage in a country of such vast dimensions, but this development is in an initial stage only and it must be many years before it becomes effective.