In 1859 Russia secured the country between the Ussuri and the sea and in 1860 Vladivostok was founded. In 1872 this was made the chief naval station of Russia on the Pacific, in place of Nikolayevsk, at the mouth of the Amur. The earliest means of communication in Siberia were by the rivers. Russian progress across the con tinent was closely followed by the great Siberian post road, connecting the chain of towns which formed the administrative centres of the prov inces. Along this road there was a regular postal service, increasing in frequency with the develop mont of the country. The work of Sluravieff, the colonization of the rich country beyond the Ussuri, and the acquisition of an available Pa cific seaboard, brought out the idea of a great transcontinental railway. In 1878 the Govern ment took up the matter and by 1S84 had built a road from Perm to 'Mllen. Other local projects followed and in 1891 the construction of a Trans-Siberian railway was authorized and begun. To keep its hand upon China and hold in check the ambitions of the new Japan. Russia obtained a foothold in the Liao-tung Peninsula through intervention after the war be tween China and Japan in 1895, and there estab lished the strong naval station of Port Arthur and the free port of Dalny. This is connected by the Manchurian Railway, built under treaty be tween Russia and China, with the Siberian Rail way in Trans-Baikalia and with Vladivostok.
Until 1900 convicts were exiled to Siberia in great numbers and many barbarities and abuses arose from the system. which was largely miti
gated by a ukase of the Czar which substituted imprisonment for exile except in the case of po litical offenders, for whom transportation was retained, though not necessarily to Siberia. Be tween 1807 and 1S99 it was estimated that 865, 000 persons had been transported to Siberia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. Reedus, Geographic aniverselle, Bibliography. Reedus, Geographic aniverselle, vol. v. (Paris, 1880) Seebohm, Siberia in Asia (London. 1882): Lansdell, Through Siberia (ib.. 1882) : Iadrintzef, Geographische, elhnograpRische and historische Studien, from the Russian (Jena, 1886) ; Kennan, Siberia and the Exile System (New York, 1891) ; id., Tent Life in Siberia (lb., 1S93) ; De Windt, Si beria as It Is (London, 1892) ; id., The Nen, Siberia (ib., 1896) ; Price, Prom the Arctic Ocean to the Yellow Sea (ib., 1892) ; Keane, Northern and Eastern Asia (ib., 1896) lledin, Through. Asia (ib., 1898) ; Simpson, Side Lights on Sibe ria (Edinburgh, 1898); Legras, En Silu'rie (Par is, 1899); KFAUsse, Russia in Asia (London, 1899 ) ; Col quhoun, 01.er/unit to China York, 1900) ; Leroy-Beaulieu, La renovation de l'Asie-Siberie-Chine-Japon (Paris, 19110) ; Fra ser, 7'hc Real Siberia ( New' York. 19021 ; Zabel. Durch die Mumdschurei and Sibirien (Leipzig, 1902) ; Norman, All the fussing (New York• 1902) ; Wright, Asiatic Russia (i1)., 1902) ; Gerrare, Greater Russia, the Continental Empire of the Old (ib., 1903).