RUSSIA is the wrong shape. Too big, far too long, flat for much
of the way and accursedly mountainous in between; but above all,
as Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy show in this fascinating study,
the wrong shape economically.  Its problem, in a word, is
Siberia. All Russia's rulers have been obsessed with territory,
and Siberia, with its vast expanses, unearthly cold and untold
reserves of oil, wood, diamonds and metals, is an obsession-
forming place. Both the tsars and the Bolsheviks moved people
there, both to exploit the wealth and stake Russia's claims to
the land—the Bolsheviks most effectively, with planned cities
and labour camps in Siberia's remotest reaches.  As a result,
millions of people ended up in Siberia who would never have gone
there in a market economy. Canadian cities, for instance,
cluster near the southern border; people who go north do so only
seasonally. Alaska's only biggish city is Anchorage. Russia,
though, is dotted with such mining towns as Norilsk (metals,
population 235,000) and Mi