Although its shores touch two oceans and twelve seas, the Soviet Union is practically a landlocked nation. It has too few ports, and those are too far from major population centers and too often on icebound waters. Peter the Great began building a network of canals to link the country's broad rivers, but so much of the network became obsolete that 80% of all the Soviet Union's freight is now carried by rail. The absence of suitable waterways has for centuries hampered Russia's struggle to increase its world trade.
This week Soviet shipping and trade enter what the Russians hope...
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