Throw yourself with confidence upon its flowing tide, for upon
this generous river shall float navies, richer and more powerful
than those of Tarshish…and at its mouth…shall congregate the
merchant princes of the earth.  FOR a couple of decades around
the middle of the 19th century an extravagant delusion overcame
a Russia that was all too ripe for some escapism. Russians
rediscovered a river that for centuries had hung forgotten off
the eastern edge of their realm, flowing through empty Chinese
lands. Onto the river they first projected dreams of mineral and
agricultural wealth, and then of national renewal. It was to be
their country's route to greatness, a golden chance to replace
an oppressive European identity with a vibrant one facing the
hopeful Pacific. Looking across that ocean, some were nourished
by New World dreams. The river would be “Russia's Mississippi”.
The apparently lush region it drained was to be a new America.
The natives were crying out for a civilising hand. Russians just
had to have t