ABSTRACT
Russia east of the rural mountains is the second largest political unit in Asia, 60 per cent the size of China and twice that of lndia.1 Russian fur trappers reached the Pacific as early as the mid-seventeenth century but for a long time the expansionary tendencies of St Petersburg were directed into and across the North Pacific rather than southward. Petrovavlovsk Kamchatkii remained a small and miserable backwater. A dramatic shift in policy and direction only came in the 1850s and culminated, for the time being, in the capture of the Amur valley and the Maritime Province (1858--60). With the foundation in 1860 of Vladivostok (the 'Sovereign of the East'), 9,877 versts East of St Petersburg at the southernmost tip of the newly conquered territory the foundation was laid for the growth of a unique port city and Russia's powerplay in the Far East. (Ironically, Russia, at the same time, abandoned its Pacific interests - negative policy which culminated in the sale of Alaska to the United States.)
Vladivostok is a classical example of a port city whose location was chosen as the result of a unique coincidence of site and situation conditions, but its development has been influenced by many human and man-made - 'historical' - as well as geographical factors. It is these historical factors which have shaped the many maritime functions of the city. Amongst these have always stood central: first, the mission
ofthearmedservices,especiallyofthe(inchronologicalorder)Russian, Soviet,andRussiannavies,andtheirplaceintheoverallcontextof centralstrategicthinkingandbothdomesticandinternationalpower politics;second,itseconomicfunctionsasacommercialport(and railwayterminus)andhomebaseofamerchantmarineoffluctuating sizeandafishingfleet;and,third,asthecenterforeducationalservices tosupplyqualifiedpersonnelrequiredtofulfilthefirsttwo,military andcommercial,functions.
