This article from The Children’s Picture Atlas in Colour (published in 1965) contains much of interest for postal historians and especially airmail enthusiasts. The Air Routes charts and Railways maps should prove to be particularly useful.

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Above: The fortress of St Peter and St Paul, Leningrad. Photo: Homer L. Dodge – FPG

It has already been pointed out that one of the cardinal facts of Soviet industry is that it is spread over such an enormous area. The huge distances involved demand a highly organised system of transport, which thus becomes one of the nation’s major problems.

The magnitude of these problems is illustrated by the fact that a train takes about nine days to travel the whole length of the Trans-Siberian Railway, a distance not far short of 6,000 miles. Siberia has many great rivers, which would provide excellent transport were it not that, firstly, they nearly all flow northwards into the Arctic Ocean, whereas east-west transport is desired, and secondly that they freeze in winter. Even the Lower Volga, one of the most southerly stretches of river, is frozen over for three months in the year. The more northerly rivers are ice-bound for much longer. In the more western areas canals have been construced between rivers. There is one between the Dnieper and the Bug, and the Volga is linked to the Sea of Azov on the one hand, and to the Neva on the other, which in turn is linked to the White Sea. The cost of building these canals is enormous and frost greatly reduces their use since canal water, being almost stationary, freezes more rapidly than running water. In Russia inland water transport carries little more than 5 per cent of the goods traffic, while the railways carry 81 per cent of this traffic.

Road transport is more hampered by spring than by winter. When the thaw comes the roads become muddy, and transport is apt to be bogged down.

There remains the railways. The construction of railways in Russia only began seriously in 1880. The highest point in pre-Revolution days was the construction of the Trans-Siberian railway, begun 1892. This railway, which took ten years to build, is 8,750 miles long – the longest railway in the world. Its construction marked a vital stage in the development and colonisation of Siberia.

However, in 1917, the Soviet government inherited one of the poorest railway systems in the world, and the progress of railway construction across the U.S.S.R.’s great distances remained slow until 1930, when the Turksib railway, running between Turkestan and Siberia, was constructed. The railway allows the exchange of the coal, cereals, and wood of the north against the cotton and oil of the south.

Joining up with the Turksib, transverse lines were constructed to connect further industrial areas. The Karaganda railway linked the coalfield of that name with the industrial concentration of the Urals, with branches to connect the copper mines of Lake Balkhash.

Today a southern branch of the Trans-Siberian Railway links Magnitogorsk and other Ural industrial centres with the Kuzbas, passing through the northern part of the Kazakh Republic. A line linking the Russian and Chinese systems, the Trans-Mongolian, branches off from the Trans-Siberian at Ulan Ude, south of Lake Baikal, and runs to Peking, thus providing an outlet for the Angara industrial area. A second line, from the Turksib, will eventually join the Chinese railway now being constructed through the Sinkiang-Uighur Autonomous Region.

Principal Towns
In 1917 only 16 per cent of the population lived in towns. The proportion now risen to over 50 per cent. There are 150 towns with more than 100,000 inhabitants, and 25 of them with more than half a million. This sudden advance is largely due to the development of Russian industry.

Three types of towns are distinguishable. Firstly, the small country towns that provide market facilities for the agricultural population. Secondly, the commercial and industrial towns, situated beside rivers. Lastly, there are the administrative towns: the capitals of the various republics, and the headquarters of regional authorities.

In some cases industrial towns are old towns that have become industrialised. These include Perm (formerly Molotov), Volgograd (formerly Tsaritsyn and Stalingrad), Sverdlovsk (formerly Ekaterimburg). In other cases new towns have sprung up in open country, their sites being determined by the presence of coal or other minerals. Such are Magnitogorsk in the Urals, Chelyabinsk and Makeyevka in the Donbas, and Novokuznetsk in the Kuzbas.

Above: The University of Moscow dominates this view of the city. Photo: J.D. Winbray – Shostal

Minsk, the capital of White Russia, stands in an area of half-drained marshland, between the Niemen and the Upper Dnieper. At the beginning of this century, it looked like a vast, untidy, over-grown village. During the Second World War, four-fifths of it were destroyed, but today it is a city of broad streets in the centre, flanked by modem houses and flats. Immense new factories are making heavy machinery, tractors, lorries, trailers, and a wide range of miscellaneous products, including chemical products.

Above: A group of women asphalt a road in Volgograd. Women can do this work just as well as men. Photo: John Strohm.

Below: An Uzbek man, squatting on the ground in Oriental style, enjoys a melon in the market of Samarkand. Photo: Julien Bryan – Photo Researchers

Gorki, formerly Zizhni Novgorod, lies on the Volga at the confluence with the Oka. It is typical of the Russian river towns that mark the various stages of Muscovite expansion, when markets were set up on the rivers at a time when they were the only highways. Once important as a meeting place for the trade of Europe and Asia, its importance as a market declined after the opening of the Suez Canal. However, more recently the town has become an active manufacturing centre, in particular for tractors and motor cars.

Above: Lenigrad is Russia’s most important port. It was first built in 1703 by Peter the Great, who wanted Russia to have an outlet to the Baltic. Photo: Richard Stockwell – Triangle

Kiev has now been entirely rebuilt, after the damage of the last war. There are 800 completely new streets. Extending to the north-west are the industrial quarter, in which mechanical engineering takes a prominent place. Kiev, with its university and several scientific research organisations, has considerable status as a cultural centre.

Above: A power-driven barge on the Volga. The Volga is the largest river in European Russia. Photo: Harrison Salisbury – Photo Library

Leningrad (formerly Petrograd and St Petersburg) is a historic town. Though it has ceased to be the capital of the country, it has become a great commercial and industrial centre. It has excellent communications. Nine railways start from it. Its port, Kronstadt, is the largest of the Soviet Union. Canals link it both to the White Sea, in the extreme north, and inland to the Volga. Its many industries include the manufacture of all equipment needed in the building of power-stations.

Most of the Siberian towns are new. Krasnoyarsk is built on the river Yenisei at the point where it is crossed by the Trans-Siberian railway. It lies in a huge clearing of the forest, and is a picturesque town, backed by rocky hills which supply the setting for a school of mountain climbing.

Though dating from the eighteenth century Omsk has only expanded in recent years, with the agricultural development of the northern part of the Kazakh Republic. Its industries are mostly concerned with foodstuffs.

Above: The atmosphere in the market of Tashkent is decidedly Oriental. Though integral parts of the U.S.S.R., the various Republics all retain their own individual character. Photo: J. Sauger

Novosibirsk is the giant amongst the Siberian towns, with a population of 887,000. It is built at the point where the Trans-Siberian railway crosses the river Ob and is the natural centre of communications for the coalfields of the Kuzbas. A large hydro-electric powerstation, recently constructed, has added to its importance. The town is also a great cultural centre, a witness to the extent Siberia has developed as a civilised area.

Above: St Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square was built by Ivan the Terrible. The story goes that he had the architect blinded so he could never design anything more beautiful. Photo: Julien Bryan – Photo Researchers

Vladivostok is Russia’s most important Pacific port. It stands on a gulf in the extreme south, almost on the border of Manchuria. It lies in roughly the same latitude as Marseilles, but its climate is very different. The average temperature throughout the year is only a few degrees above freezing point, the Gulf itself freezes, but thin ice forms along the shore and remains for four months in winter. With the constant growth of Siberia, importance of Vladivostok is bound increase.

Moscow, the Soviet capital is both a historic and modern city. The historic buildings of old Moscow date from the fourteenth century. Many of the most famous lie within the Kremlin, including the great palace of the Czars, built of white stone with great gold cupolas, and outside the Kremlin walls, in present-day Red Square, is the Cathedral of St Basil’s built by Ivan the Terrible. Moscow ceased to be the capital of Russia in the seventeenth century, but since the Revolution has once again become the centre of the Russian State.

Above: The beautiful city of Leningrad was built by Peter the Great to be his capital. At that time it was called St Petersburg. Photo: Agence Rapho

The rest of the city is of recent construction: big blocks of flats, and govemment offices, theatres, museums, hotels, big stores, and the huge University.

Special residential suburbs have been built round the old town. An impressive underground railway was opened in 1935, and every quarter is served by buses or trolleybuses.

Practically every branch of industry is represented in Moscow. Prominent amongst them are mechanical engineering and light industry, such as textiles, printing, etc. Two thirds of the products of light industry consumed in Russia are manufactured in or round Moscow.

Eleven railways radiate from Moscow, and with canals in every direction, Moscow is truly the heart of European Russia.

The Oriental appearance of the old towns is generally matched by that of their Moslem inhabitants.

Bukhara, with a population of 60,000, is one of the oldest towns of the Uzbek Republic. It was already a very prosperous place in the ninth century, being one of the halts on the caravan route which led to India and China. On a hill in the centre of the town is the old palace of the Khan. For ages the religious centre of Central Asia, Bukhara innumerable mosques.

Above: Lake Ritsa, in one of the upper valleys of the Caucasus, in Georgia, is very popular with Russian holidaymakers. Photo: U.S.S.R. Magazine – Sovfoto

Baku which stands on a promontory on the western shore of the Caspian is a town of nearly a million inhabitants. Once a Moslem town, it is now the great oil centre of the Caucasus. So rich is the land in oil, that it used to spout out spontaneously and sometimes these fountains used to burst into flames. Became of this, Baku was once regarded as a Holy City by the Parsees or fire-worshippers.

Above: A mosque in Samarkand in the Uzbek Republic. Photo: U.S.S.R. Magazine – Sovfoto

Samarkand is another of the oases once used by caravans. It was taken by Alexander the Great in 329 B.C. In the Middle Ages it was a great Moslem centre. Genghiz Khan sacked the town in 1220. It became Tamerlane’s capital in 1370, and he made it into a fine town with mosques, palaces, and gardens. Today it has some factories producing textiles and machinery.

Above: Fishing boats on the Caspian Sea. It is from the roes of sturgeon caught here that caviar is made. Photo: U.S.S.R. Magazine – Sovfoto

Below: Russia’s new housing programme is being pushed forward as fast as possible. All houses and flats are built by the local authorities; there is no private housing. Photo: Jerry Cooke – Photo Researchers

Tashkent, the capital of the Uzbek Republic, is the biggest Soviet town of the east. It stands in a wide oasis, watered by the Syr Darya and by numerous canals. It is a double town. On the one hand is the old town, with narrow, dusty streets; beside it, a new town that sprang up when the railway was built in 1898. The new town is well-planned with imposing buildings and monuments. Tashkent is an important educational centre, particularly in technology, and it has become a great industrial town, producing farming machinery, mining equipment and electrical goods for Central Asia. Tashkent is the seat of the Central Asian University. The Soviet Union’s cotton research institute is situated there.