ABSTRACT
The history of the Russian Far East (RFE) is intimately bound up with geography. The natural environment, and the challenges it posed for settlers and administrators, shaped the directions of economic, social, and political development in the region. In the northern regions consisting of subarctic tundra and permafrost, builders and settlers were confronted with almost insurmountable construction problems, which have been overcome only at great expense and with the aid of modern technology. The great taiga forests, thick stands of evergreens, represent a great potential resource. However, these same forests have made it costly and time consuming to clear land for agriculture and settlement. The sheer size of the RFE has also confronted Russian authorities with enormous transportation problems. In addition, inhospitable terrain confounds transportation and limits possible sites for settlements, towns, and military outposts, especially in the mountains that run along the coast of the Primorye, and that dominate Kamchatka and Sakhalin Island, limiting population centers on the periphery of the Far East.1
