The Great Siberian Railway Author(S): P
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The Great Siberian Railway Author(s): P. Kropotkin Source: The Geographical Journal, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Feb., 1895), pp. 146-154 Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1773570 . Accessed: 06/01/2015 08:41 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Geographical Journal. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue, 6 Jan 2015 08:41:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 146 THE GPtEATSIBERIAN PtAIL\VAY. very simpleand systematic. On the northernslope, the Stour own; the holdsits Medwayhastaken off the headof the Darent;the lWolehas be- headeda stream that used to go throughthe Mersthamnotch to Groyden; and either the Moleor the Darenthas beheadeda streamthat madethe notchat Catelham Valley; the Wey has recentlytaken oS the head of the Blackwater, nearAldershot. On the southernslope, the C:uckmare, Ouse,Adur, and Arun maintairtopen paths to the sea. Chalk Inside of the escarpment,the drainage is often by subsequentside whose streams? developmenthas been describedby various authors. Outsideof the escarpment, there are many small streamsthat may be regarded shorterLed as consequents,whose beheading was accomplishedearly in the denudationof the region. The most peculiarfeature of the AVealdis that the Stour and the Cuckmareshould not have ere rLowbeen more shortenedby the inwardgrowth of subsequentstreams from the coast of the Channel between Folkstone and Eastlzourne;as it is, the Rother,in the middle of this district, has llardly accomplishedany notabledepredations. 17. Now, while any one of these many examplesftotn the Tees to theCuckmare, if takenalone, might perhapsbe eLplainedin someother mannerthan the one bere suggested,it does not seem to be witllin the reachof reasonable prob;lbilitythat so manystreams and rivers should repeatourer and over again the sialple arariationsof a single theme, unlessthey had been developedin a uniformand systematicmanner. l£urther,the great nunlberof subsequentstreams, well veaker adjustedto the structuresof the ret,ion,cannot be possiblyexplained as posed super- froma marinecover; they cannot,indeed, be reasonably asthe explained productof a single cycle of subaerialdenudation; and if couldbe, they there would then be no explanationfor the " uppeir andthei " plains" tablelands" of the Ooliteand the C:halk. Takenaltogeither, seemsthat the it most pr()bableie2zplanation is thei one announcedat thei beginningof thei essay: that the riversof easternEngland arei now in thelsature stage of the second c) cle of subaerialdenudation of a great luassof gently dipping sedimentaryrocks, and that they have irl this secondcycle e2rtendedthe adjustmentsof streamsto structuresthat were alreadybegun in the first eycle. THE GREATSIBERIAN RAILWAY. By P. KROPOTKIN. teIS great line, which is to aonnectEuropean Russia with the Ocean,is Pacific steadilJrprogressing eastwards. It has already reached Irtyshopposite the Omsk,and will soon reach Tomslr,in the very heart ofSiberia; while on the otherend of the line, the Usuri river is already connectedby a railroadwith the shoresof the Pacific. Of a total length This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue, 6 Jan 2015 08:41:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE GREATSIBERIAN RAILWAY. 147 of nearly4700 miles, rails are alreadylaid over 1006 miles that is, 68 miles morethan one-fifthpart of the whole distance. Therewas at the beginninga great deal of hesitation as to orhether CentralSiberia had to be reachedfiom the north or from the south. The northernline oSers many substantialadvantages. It followsthe great high-roadalong which the immensecaravans of tea fromSiberia, and of all sorts of goods sent from Russia to Siberia,are now trans- ported; and, after having crossed the Urals in the east of Perm, it enters, on the Siberian slope, the regions of rich ironworks,which can supply the railway with rails, engines, and waggons. Theinit passes through Ekateirinburg,the centre of all the mining of the MiddleUrals, and, turning sharp eastwards,reaches Tyumen,on the Tura. This northern railway, which was completedseveral -ears since, is alreadyof great importance. It connectsthe Kamawith the Siberianrivers of the Ob-and-Irtyshsystem-that is, two immense channels of inner navigation. The liama, with its large tributaries -Vyatka, Byelaya, Chusovaya and a basin covering no less than 202,600 square miles, waters in its upper parts a most important region containing a greiatnumber of ironvorks, and for the last two centuriesit has been the chief arteryfor communicationwith Siberia. As to the West Siberianrivers, they undoubtedlywill maintaintheir importancefor shipping, even after the Siberian railway i3 com- pleted. Though standing on a ssnall tributary of the Tobo] (the Tura), which itself flows into the Irtysh, the present terminus of that railway, Tyumen, must remain a centre of importancefor all the trafficin heavsrgoods coming from Siberia, or shipped from the Urals to Siberia. It must be remembered,moreover, that Tyumen stands in easy communicationwith the Arctic Ocean,and that long before a more or less regular traffic had been establishedbetween Earopeand the Yenisei,a little schooner,built at Tyumenand floated down the Tura, the Tobol, and the Irtysh, went to Londonwith a cargo of Siberian wheat. Now, Tyumen stands in regular steamer eommunicationwith Tomsk and with Biisk, in the Altai, as well as (via the Irtysh) with Omsk and Semipalatinsk,on the borderregion of the GentralAsian steppes. True that the Tllra, on the banks of which Tyumen stands, is a shallow river which often becomes still more shallow in the summer; but this inconveniencecan easily be remediedby continuing the main line for a short distance along the Tura, to its junction with the Tobol. In short, even when the Siberian railway will be completed,the northernPerm-TJumen line will remain the chief channel of traffic for a wide, populous, and in parts densely peopled and most fertile region, which owing to its thoroughly Russian population,is consideredas the granaryof West Siberia. Moreover,it bring3 the chief ironworks of the liddle Ulals in direct rail communicationwith the«Kama, which L 2 This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Tue, 6 Jan 2015 08:41:19 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 148 THE GREAT SIBERIAN RAILWAY. means,in fact, with the Volga, or with all CentralRussia. Therefore, the main line, Perm-Tyumen,511 miles long, has been sery wisely providedwith several branches. One of them runs north-west from the Chusovayastation to Bereznyaki,also on the liama, but higher up, near Solikamslr(130 miles); and a second branch(25 miles) joins the Ostrovskayastation, on the Iset river, with the main line; while this last passes, besidesEkaterinburg, through such importantcentres of iron industry as Rushva, or liushvinsk, and Nizhne-Taghil,a miningtown of nearly 30,000inhabitants. :EIowever,this northernline could not satisfy the need of a railway to Siberia. Perm is not yet connectedby rail, and will not be con- nected in a near future,with the railways of GentralRussia, becauee the very thinly inhabitedforest tracts which cover the lower Rama between Perm and Razan belong to the least productisreparts of Russia. Altogether,it is a fact, which cannot be too much insisted upon, that the centre of Russian life has been moving southwards during tlle last thirtJ, years. It is no more in Moscowand the sur- toundiny provinces,but in the belt of fertile black earthwhich runs south-westto north-east,from Bessarabia to the Urals,that the ' density centre" of the populationof Russiais now situated. In this belt are those towns of Russiawhich, apart from the capitals,have populsUtions of over 100,000 inhabitants(Kharkoff, RieS, Kishineff, Saratoff,and Samara),and becomecentres of industrialand intellectuallife. It was, therefore,of first importanceto connectthe fertile and more denselypeopled parts of South Siberiadirectly with SouthRussia, and Samarawas readily indicatedas the head of the Trans-Siberianrail- way. This young city on the Volga has a populationof 100,020 inhabitants,and is rapidlydeveloping; and since the Volga has been spannedby a great iron bridge at Batraki,76 miles to the west of Samara,this last standsin railway communicationwith all the railways of CentralRussia, its distance from Moscowby rail being 611 miles. FromSamara the maillline shoots straight east-north-easttowards Ufa (224 miles), which i# built on the right bank of the Bye]aya, at its junctionwit.h the Ufa river. Ufa itself has but latel) begunto grow, andhas only 30,000inhabitants; but it is situatedamidst a very fertile region,rapidly peopled by settlers from the middle provinces, and becomesan importantcentre of extensive agriculture. Another 200 luilesin the same directionbring the railway to Zlatoust (20,500 in- habitants),the rival of El3aterinoburg,and