ABSTRACT
From the beginning of the formation of the Russian Empire the Muscovite government made no distinction between Europe and Asia. There was simultaneous expansion in all directions towards the open sea. Up to the middle of the nineteenth century, Russian expansion was not, strictly speaking, colonial, but was rather the natural, automatic development of a unitary, political empire. Russian foreign policy had to adapt itself to the rules of the new game of world politics. The colonial expansion of Russia was to follow the old policy of the growth of the Russian Empire, no jumps, but simply the addition of contiguous territories. The political foundations required only railways to knit together the empire, and to bring into touch, with and under the effective administrative control of Petrograd and Moscow, an easily defended empire of boundless wealth.
