Name: Russia's Geography Problem
Uploaded: 2021-06-11T09:18:16.000Z
Duration: 11 min 54 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

This is a Wendover Productions video made possible by Backblaze and in

collaboration with Alternate History Hub and Real Life Lore.

Russia is immense--it spans 5,000 miles across, 2,000 miles vertically12, crosses 11 time

zones3, borders everywhere from Norway to North Korea4, and is as close to Anchorage

A problem that can explain part of why the average Russian, living at the same latitude

as Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Canada, makes only $7,500 American dollars per year.

A problem that can explain at least a portion of

almost every political decision the country has ever made.

What you have to remember about Russia is that the majority of Russians live in Europe.

3/4 of Russia's population lives in the western quarter of the country6.

Therefore, as a country with a fairly centralized power system, many

of its decisions go to protect the country core in

You see, a lot of the success of certain countries over others depends on how well its

The US, for example, benefited hugely from being an ocean away from

The only real armed forces that could threaten the US in its infancy

were in Europe and Asia and therefore any invasion would require trans-oceanic supply

lines which are hugely expensive and logistically

difficult therefore weakening an invading army.

On the European continent, France has a similar

situation—their northwestern border is protected by

the English channel, their western border by the Atlantic Ocean, their southern border

by the Pyrenees mountains and Mediterranean ocean,

their southeastern by the Alps mountains, and

The eastern half of their northern border is, however,

largely unprotected geographically—a flaw Germany exploited in both World War One and

World War Two by invading through Belgium and Luxembourg—but the protection still

did concentrate attacks into a choke point and

kept the country significantly more protected than

Here's Cody from Alternate History Hub to explain Russia's territorial expansion.

Russia's first territorial expansion since it first became a unified East Slavic State

But over time this growth for glory transformed into an effort to

This early Russia was at very unprotected and vunerable.

There was no geographic protection to keep foreigners from migrating into their lands.

The only natural resource Russia had their disposal

In the coming centuries, what was then known as the Grand

By the time Ivan the Terrible was crowned ruler of the

Tsardom of Russia, the country had spread it's borders

east to the Urals, south to the Caucasus mountains, and west to the Carpathians.

Soon even Siberia was conquered which before then, was

an independent Khanate—a territory ruled by a

That was Cody from Alternate History Hub.

I collaborated with him to make a great video on his channel about what the world

would be like if Russia had never become its own country which I'll link in the description

Now, with all this territory, Russia, or at least Moscow, had some serious protection9.

Siberia is large enough that no army could invade through it and make it to Moscow.

The supply lines would have to be thousands of miles

Not only that, but that army with a one or two thousand mile

long supply line would then have to make it over

Attacking from the south or west would also take an

army either across water or through mountains.

By the time the 19th century rolled in, Russia had truly become an unconquerable power.

Countries could and can take over portions of Russia,

but there is no conceivable way that a single country could fully occupy and conquer Russia.

To occupy a territory of that size, a country

would need an estimated 13 million trained ground

troops--more than the 17 largest militaries combined11.

However, despite its defenses, Russia has never developed economically to the same level

Its GDP per capita is right around that of Mauritius, Grenada, and

And this, once again, can be at least partially attributed to Geography.

There was no better way for countries to project their power and

grow their economy than to have a powerful navy

Many of the most powerful countries today--the United Kingdom, Japan, and

China for example--were ones that once had the most powerful navies in the world.

There's a reason that none of the 18 largest economies

Up until the last century, maritime shipping was the fastest

way to get goods and people across the world and

its still cheapest way to ship goods long distance.

Having good water access allows countries to

trade with the world but Russia, despite its 23 thousand miles of coastline14, has no significant

warm-water, ice-free ports with direct access to an ocean.

Alaska does, Canada does, Iceland does, Norway does, and Sweden too, but Russia

is fundamentally limited in its maritime power because it has no easy way to access the world's

The port of Novorossiysk is ice-free, but its throughput is limited both

St Petersburg also has an important port, but it freezes for

On the Pacific side, ports like Vladivostok also occasionally freeze during

字幕リスト動画再生

Russia's Geography Problem

enormous

access

circumstance

territory