Russia | Page 8

use a favourite expression of the Russian peasants--dai Bog!
God grant it may be so!
It is but fair to state that in one celebrated instance neither engineers
nor railway contractors were directly to blame. From St. Petersburg to
Moscow the locomotive runs for a distance of 400 miles almost as "the
crow" is supposed to fly, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left.
For twelve weary hours the passenger in the express train looks out on
forest and morass, and rarely catches sight of human habitation. Only
once he perceives in the distance what may be called a town; it is Tver
which has been thus favoured, not because it is a place of importance,
but simply because it happened to be near the bee-line. And why was
the railway constructed in this extraordinary fashion? For the best of all

reasons--because the Tsar so ordered it. When the preliminary survey
was being made, Nicholas I. learned that the officers entrusted with the
task--and the Minister of Ways and Roads in the number--were being
influenced more by personal than technical considerations, and he
determined to cut the Gordian knot in true Imperial style. When the
Minister laid before him the map with the intention of explaining the
proposed route, he took a ruler, drew a straight line from the one
terminus to the other, and remarked in a tone that precluded all
discussion, "You will construct the line so!" And the line was so
constructed--remaining to all future ages, like St. Petersburg and the
Pyramids, a magnificent monument of autocratic power.
Formerly this well-known incident was often cited in whispered
philippics to illustrate the evils of the autocratic form of government.
Imperial whims, it was said, over-ride grave economic considerations.
In recent years, however, a change seems to have taken place in public
opinion, and some people now assert that this so-called Imperial whim
was an act of far-seeing policy. As by far the greater part of the goods
and passengers are carried the whole length of the line, it is well that
the line should be as short as possible, and that branch lines should be
constructed to the towns lying to the right and left. Evidently there is a
good deal to be said in favour of this view.
In the development of the railway system there has been another
disturbing cause, which is not likely to occur to the English mind. In
England, individuals and companies habitually act according to their
private interests, and the State interferes as little as possible; private
initiative does as it pleases, unless the authorities can prove that
important bad consequences will necessarily result. In Russia, the onus
probandi lies on the other side; private initiative is allowed to do
nothing until it gives guarantees against all possible bad consequences.
When any great enterprise is projected, the first question is--"How will
this new scheme affect the interests of the State?" Thus, when the
course of a new railway has to be determined, the military authorities
are among the first to be consulted, and their opinion has a great
influence on the ultimate decision. The natural consequence is that the
railway-map of Russia presents to the eye of the strategist much that is

quite unintelligible to the ordinary observer--a fact that will become
apparent even to the uninitiated as soon as a war breaks out in Eastern
Europe. Russia is no longer what she was in the days of the Crimean
War, when troops and stores had to be conveyed hundreds of miles by
the most primitive means of transport. At that time she had only 750
miles of railway; now she has over 36,000 miles, and every year new
lines are constructed.
The water-communication has likewise in recent years been greatly
improved. On the principal rivers there are now good steamers.
Unfortunately, the climate puts serious obstructions in the way of
navigation. For nearly half of the year the rivers are covered with ice,
and during a great part of the open season navigation is difficult. When
the ice and snow melt the rivers overflow their banks and lay a great
part of the low-lying country under water, so that many villages can
only be approached in boats; but very soon the flood subsides, and the
water falls so rapidly that by midsummer the larger steamers have great
difficulty in picking their way among the sandbanks. The Neva
alone--that queen of northern rivers--has at all times a plentiful supply
of water.
Besides the Neva, the rivers commonly visited by the tourist are the
Volga and the Don, which form part of what may be called the Russian
grand tour. Englishmen who wish to see something more than St.
Petersburg and Moscow generally go by rail to Nizhni-Novgorod,
where they visit the