For instance, an immense number of
villages are scattered through the vast forest regions of Central
and Western Russia, where birch trees grow by millions, while the
great wheat-growing plains of the west centre and south-west are
but sparsely inhabited. Then again, the infatuation of the military
oligarchy has been evidenced in the plan by which all the railways
except this new Siberian line have been designed for purely military
purposes. The Emperor Nicholas insisted on all the lines being
developed without the slightest regard to the wants of the towns
and the conveniences of commerce. Even the natural facilities for
engineering operations were not allowed by that autocrat to be
for a moment taken into consideration. His engineers were once
consulting him as to the expediency of taking the line from St.
Petersburg to Moscow by a slight detour, to avoid some very troublesome
obstacles. The Tsar took up a ruler, and with his pencil drew a
straight line from the old metropolis. Handing back the chart,
he peremptorily said: "There, gentlemen, that is to be the route
for the line!" And certainly there is not a straighter reach of
600 miles on any railroad in the world, as every tourist knows who
has journeyed between the two chief cities of the Russian Empire.
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