THE STUPENDOUS SIZE Or RUSSIA.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17316, 30 November 1921, Page 11

THE STUPENDOUS SIZE Or RUSSIA.

Pew people in England ever realise the stupendous size of the Russian Empire, proudly styled by its people "Polovnia Mir," or "Half the "World," which is, of course, an exaggeration, although Russian Asia alone covers an area of nearly 6,000,000 square miles (writes Harry de Windt, in "Russia as I Know It"). Mr George Kennan, the American traveller, perhaps afforded th© most graphic illustration off its enormous extent when he wrote as follows: — "If it were possible to move entire countries from one part of the globe to another, you could take the whole of the United States of America,' from Maine to California, and front Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico, and set it down in the middle of Siberia without touching anywhere the boundaries of the latter territory. You could then take Alaska and all the States of Europe and fit them into the remaining margin like pieces of a dissected map, and after having thus accommodated all of the United States, including Alaska, and all of Europe, (except Russia), you would still have more than 300,000 square miles of Siberian territory to spare—in other words, you would still leave unoccupied in Siberia an area- half as large again as the Empire of Germany!" And all this is exclusive of European Russia, which has an additional 'area of I over 200,000 square miles! |