VLADIVOSTOK

No Pacific navaL base has been 1II0re in the 7U!WS recently than theport of Vlcul'ivostok. With the Baltic and BLack Seas closed. the ra;ihvuyto Murm(m~k cut, and the Arctic COMt frozen for a la'rgc part of the ycar,Vladivostok i8 tAe only mil'way-linked port left to the huge Sowt empirefor m.a·ritimfJ c(nmlllmicat·ions with th6 outside worl<l. Compare4 to thetrelllendol!S Ifize of th6 USSR, Vladivostok is no lal"ger than a keyhole in.a boa.rded-u'P house. What i8 the 8'ignilicance 0/ th-is keyhole likeLIi to bein the immediate /Ithtre'l The answer depends 011 the facilities offeredby the port alld is not eas'll to givo in view 0/ the 1tBtlal Sovwt secrecy. Thefollowing pages (lI1'e comp-iled /,r01l'1 in/oT'Ynation by various pel'S01ts with-inti/nate alut recent knowledge Q/ Vladivostok.

p.s. As ,oe I/O to PT68S the U.S. Ma.ritime Commission un;noILnce:r the(Llumdonmcnt 0/ t.he Vlad'i'lJOstok route /O'r 81.LppUC8 to the USSR afterOct. 28. The technicnL "Msons f01' th-is may be /on lid in OUT a·rticle.-K.M.

"RULE THE EAST!"For a true impression of Vladivostok

one should arrive there by boat.Vladivostok is located on a peninsula,about twenty miles in length, in thewide Bay of Peter the Great. Comingfrom the east, the steamer enters the"Eastern Bosporus" between the penin­sula and the so-called Russian Island.Passing between huge rocks and wood­ed hills the steamer turns north andthen east into the deep and shelteredbay of the "Golden Horn," whereVladivostok, built in terraces on hills,offers a beautiful panorama.

Among the great na....al ba::sea of theworld, Vladivostok has one of thebriefest histories. The Bay of Peterthe Great and the surrounding land,though claimed by the Manchu dynastyof China, Wf.l.a practically no man'sland until it was acquireli bY' RUS8iain 1858 during her eastward driveunder N. N. Muraviov, the colorfulGovernor General of Eastern Siberia.In the following year the clipper Gridencarried out a survey and brought backthe first description of the bay, and in1860 the town was founded under thesignificant name of Vladi Vostok.<Vlad'i means " rule! " and Vostokmeans "the east." ) The Russians likedto think that Vladivostok would com­pensate them for their failure to wintbeir age-old goal, Constantinople and

the Straits. This hope they expressedsymbolically by transferring geograph­ical names - such as the Bosporusand the Golden Horn - from Constan­tinople to Vladivostok. Siberian troopswere landed. Within two years thetown was declared a military post, andin 1885 it became a naval port andthe base of a squadron cOQ8isting oftwelve ships.

THE TSARS BUILD ARAILWAYTo link this faraway outpost of the

Russian empire to European Russia,T:sar Alexander III on Ifebruary 21,1891 decreed the building of the1'l'anR'-Siberian RRilway from the UralMountains to the Pacific Ocean, adistance of about 4,500 miles. ToemphasIze the significance of this greattechnical and political undertaking,Crown Prince Nicholas, later to be thelast of the Russian Tsars, on May 19,1891 personally laid the foundationstone of the new railroad in the cityof Vladivostok, where he had arrivedfrom the Baltic Sea aboard the cruiserPamyat Azova. With his own handshe filled a wheelbarrow with earth totake back to Europe and unload at theother end of the line. Behind himfollowed in long rows the wheelbarrowsof the workers, and the huge under­taking quickly moved into the endless

132 THE XXtb CENTURY

spaces of Siberia. At the same mo­ment work began on the building ofthe railroad from the Urals towardsthe east. To shorten the distance,China gave her permission to run theline through northern Manchuria. Thefirst through-train that was not ferriedacross Lake Baikal arrived in Vladi­vostok from Europe after the completionof the difficult section around LakeBaikal in 1905; a second line, runningall the way on Russian territory northof the Amur reached the city duringthe Great War. With these railwayconnections Vladivostok rapidly grew inimportance. The Great War in partic­ular led to considerable enlargement:of tho port fncilitip.!'l for the passa~e oflaril'e freiJ:!hts arriving from abroad.

PRE-REVOLUTIONARYVLAD/VOSTOKUp to the revolution Vladivostok was

a blossoming and growing city. Thelarge business houses of Tchurin andof Kunst & Albers carried on a livelytrade \yith the Russian Fa.,. EaRt andwith other countries. Especially famouswere the canneries with their exc~ll\:H1L

sea food. A steamship company, the··Voluntary Fleet CUOllJiiny," ran "hipslinking Vladivostok with China, Japan,and northeastern SIberia, amI had B

regular line to the Black Sea port ofOdessa, whlle the ShIppIng cumvany ufCount Keyserling served the Pacificcoast of Russia. Sbtps or many fureig1lnations also called with goods for Siberiaand northern Mauchurla. lu LlJe l"13ingcity the road to success lay open toevery energetic person, whether Russianur foreigner. Goods wore surprisinglycheap in this free port and availablein abundance.

All this was changed by the revolu­tion. In the Far East the civil warlasted several years longer than inEuropean Russia, and Vladivostok, thedisembarkation port of American, J ap­anese, English, and other interventiontroops, saw much fighting and miserybefore Bolshevist rule was finallyestablished. For a long time theeconomic life of Russia was disrupted.With the growing development of

Siberia and the Soviet Far East duringthe first, and even more during thesecond Five Year Plan, the port slowlycame back to life. Yet even todayVladivostok is only a shadow of itsformer sell.

V LADlVOSTOK 1941Since the outbreak of the present

war and the establishment of blockadeand counter-blockade in the Atlantic,Vladivostok had become, at least up toJune 1941, an important port of transitfor travelers between Europe and theAmericas. We have asked an observerfrom a neutral country, which has nointerests in the Far East or the NorthPacific, to describe his impressions ofVladivostok as he saw it shortly beforethe German-SuyieL war broke out.Here is his description:

"A sad contrast to the beautifullandscape with its many bays andislands is formed by the poverty­stricken appearance of the city and itsinhabitants. There is a completeabsence of any attempt to beautify thetown - no gardens, no parks, and onlyvery few trees. I flaw no n9W hOWll?8 inthe city, though some wooden barrackswere being erected on the ontskirts.

"The streets, even in the harbor,look a::l II they had not been pavedsince the days of the Tsars. Full of1iOIes and willi loo;,e cobble3tonea, the,.are hard to traverse, particularly atnight, as very ft:w :ltrectlamp:s arc litand these only in the main street. ThesLreelA:ar:l, 1,00, D.l-e an inheritance fromTsarist days, and negotiate the turnswith great caution and creakings. Therewero only two taxis in the whole city.When a train arrived they worked ashuttle-service until all passengers hadbeen transported to their destinations.The only hotel, the "Versailles," withits faded and shabby rooms also datesfrom Tsarist times. Its chief attractionis its great dining-hall, where manyofficials and "big shots" eat every day.The appearance of the room and thefood was much poorer than in Moscow.However, even in the hottest weathermen are not allowed to enter the dining­room without their coats, evidently in

VLADIVOSTOK 133

order to prove that a proletarian statealso has manners. Outside of the hotelit was difficult to obtain food. Turnipswere the only vegetable available, andthere was no fruit. For amusement Ifound two ill-kept cinemas and a rathergood traveling circus.SOVIET YOUTH IN THE WATER

"Vladivostok has, however, one thingto reconcile the visitor and whichremains one of my few pleasantmemories of the city: the tremendouslypopular water-sports. All along theshore of the AInur Bay there arebathing-houses with landing-stages;sailboats cruise over the waves or aremoored to buoys. On the city beachthere are plenty of facilities forswimmers, with dressing-rooms, anddiving boards of every height. Thepopulation of Vladivostok seem to begreat water-sport enthusiasts. Where~

ever one looks one can see people swim­ming, rowing, and sailing.

VLADIVOSTOKAND

SURROUNDINGS

"Once they are in the water allpeople look alike. One forgets theneglected and dirty city and enjoysthe frolicking of Soviet youth. One isreminded of other young people, swim­ming and sailing elsewhere on thecoasts of the Pacific, in Japan andCalifornia, in Hawaii, Manila, or Batavia,and it gives one pleasure to find evenin Vladivostok something of the commonjoys of sun and ocean on the Pacific."

PACIFIC NAVAL BASEThe strained relations between the

USSR and Japan led to the growingmilitary importance of Vladivostok.Today it is a great naval, air, andcommercial port with a civil populationof some 180,000, guarded by powerful,strongly manned fortifications and gunswith a firing radius of fifteen miles.To the nearest ports of Japan it isonly 480 to 535 miles, a very shortdistance for modern ships, not tomention modern planes. And Seishin

134 THE XXth CENTURY

and Rashin, the two north Koreanports which Japan is developing withmuch energy, are only 110 and 150miles away.

Although on the same latitude asMarseilles, Vladivostok has an averageannual temperature of only 40° F. Thenorthern storms, frequent betweenNovember and March, bring ice andcold currents of air and water fromthe huge cold storage of northeasternSiberia. Hence the port usually freezesover by the end of December andstays frozen for an average of eighty­six days a yeat. The thickness of theice at the Golden Horn rarely exceedsthirty-two inches, although in excep­tionally cold winters it reaches sixty­four inches. Navigation is possible allthe year round with the help oficebreakers, of which the Lazar Ka~

ganovitch is the most powerful. Apipe line carries oil right to the waterfront. Vladivostok can be consideredone of the best ports in the Far East,with enough space for a huge navyand an unlimited number of freighters.

Reports on the present conditions ofthe formerly important docks andshipyards in the Golden Horn arecontradictory. The appearance atShanghai in June 1941 of five Sovietships including the Maxim Gorky andPishtchevaya IndWltriya for the purposeof repairs might indicate that the docksof Vladivostok are not what they usedto be, or that they are fully occupiedwith work for the navy. However, inthe Bay of Dlisaa (not far fromVladivostok) there still seem to befacilities, dating from pre-Revolutiondays, for the building of destroyersand submarines from parts sent outfrom European Russia.

The naval base, which was formerlysituated in the innermost part of thebay towards the northeast, seems tohave been transferred to the long,fjord-like Novik Bay of Russian Island.The entire region is surrounded byheavily fortified districts which includethe Bay of Possiet to the south, theBay of St. Olga to the northeast, theport of Soviet Harbor (formerly called

Imperial Harbor), the Bay of DeCastries - both opposite the island ofSakhalin - and the entire coast to themouth of the Amur.

HARBOR FACILITIESThe most vital question today is how

much war material can get through theport of Vladivostok to aid the embattl;dRed Armies in European RUSSia.According to available informationVladivostok has, apart from the wharfat the Golden Horn, eight piers inEgersheld (built especially for theChinese Eastern Railway), four atPortovaya Spit, and two reserve pierson the Amur Bay. The port is believedto have eight cranes, the larger of whichare floating CI'anes, with a lifting powerof from ten to a hundred and fifty toDS.It has, however, been reported at timesthat some of them were not in usebecause of their poor condition and thelack of experienced operators. The samecan be said about other modern equip­ment, including highly up-to-date loadingc.Qnveyors. It is strange to see suchmodern machinery in the midst of dirtand careless primitiveness. Comparedwith modern ports of other nations,loading and unloading proceeds veryslowly, as has time and a~ain beennoticed by members of foreIgn crewscalling at Vladivostok in recent years.

Up to the present war commercialactivities in the port have not beengreat. Apart from Soviet fre~gh~rs

on their way to or from eastern SIberianand Arctic ports, the steamers of aJapanese line serving the run betweenVladivostok and Tsuruga (Japan) werethe only ships calling regularly. Onlya few months prior to the outbreakof the German-Soviet war did the visitsof American and Swedish freighters (thelatter under American charter) becomemore frequent. Probably in anticipa­tion of this. the USA last winteropened a consulate general in Vladi­vostok.

THE TRANS-SIBERIANBOTTLENECKThe problem of supplying the Soviet

Union through Vladivostok depends less

VLADIVOSTOK 135

on the facilities of the port than on theability of the railway to transportacross Siberia the goods unloaded inVladivostok. During the Great War the,experience was that considerably morewas landed in Vladivostok than couldbe handled by the Trans-Siberian Rail­way. Towards the end of the war,enormous stores of untransported warmaterial were piled up on the wharvesof Vladivostok, in spite of the fact thatrailway cars, sent in parts from America,were assembled in Vladivostok plants.

During the l'irst two years of theGreat War, roughly 7570 of Russia'simports arrived through Vladivostok,the rest through the port of Archangelin the White Sea (an inlet of the Arctic).With the construction of the railroadSt. Petersburg - Murmansk (on theArctic coast) an increasing amount ofwar material began to come throughMurmansk, and towards the end of thewar the share of Murmansk andArchangel on the one hand and that ofVladivostok on the other tended tobalance. Goods arriving through Vladi­\'ostok were transported to Russiaalmost exclusively by way of theChinese Eastern Railway through north­ern Manchuria. Only a small fractionof the freight destined for local<consumption was shipped over the Amurrailway. The theoretical maximum ofthe Trans-Siberian Railway, probablynever reached, was the movement oftwenty-five freight trains in eachdirection every twenty-four hours, butthe average attained was only ten.Somewhere along the line there wassure to be a congestion creating a bottle­neck. The lack of locomotives and ofskiUed personnel, combined with theconstant demand for greater speed, ledto breakdowns and in the end sloweddown rather than speeded up the traffic.Freight trains which had normallycovered Siberia in twenty days tookthirty or sixty or even ninety days.

AND TODAY?Today the situation is different from

that of the Great War in severalrespects. Now Vladivostok will haveto handle practically the entire Soviet

imports, first because the White Seawill be frozen during the winter;secondly because there is no railwaylinking the Persian Gulf with theRussian railway system; and thirdlybecause practically all the war materialfor the Soviet Union would have tocome from America. Hence the de­mands on Vladivostok will be evengreater than they were in the GreatWar. On the other hand, the ChineseEastern Railway is no longer availableowing to the Japanese position inManchukuo, so that all goods willhave to make the detour aroundthe Amur. The Amur railway hasno doubt been greatly improvedduring the last few years and has nowa double track most of the way wherein 1914 it had only one. But it isstill very inefficient. It is poorly builtand has countless curves. as the roadfollows every little valley and turn ofa river. The roadbed is unsatisfactoryand the trains rock badly, even whenmoving at a slow speed. The bridgesare built in pairs and for militaryreasons some two or three hundredyards apart. The efficiency of thenewly constructed BAM (Baikal-Amur­Railway), which runs parallel to theAmur Railway farther north, is not yetknown. Nevertheless, taking into ac­count the well-known difficulties in theentire Soviet transportation system.it is not likely that the total amountof goods transported from Vladivostokto European Russia will be largerthan it was during the last war. Itis true, some goods for Russia couldgo by way of Dairen and Manchukuo,but they too would run into thebottleneck of the Trans-Siberian.

In a short German-Soviet war,Vladivostok would be useless to theRussian armies on account of its dis­tance and its limited communicationswith European Russia. In a lengthywar it doubtless has possibilities. Henceone might say that the role of Vladi­vostok, as that of most other politicaland economic factors in the presentsituation, depends on the course andduration of the German-Soviet warand the attitude of Japan.