Moscow’s Outward Thrust

Stunned by the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, President Carter frankly told us that “Nothing in the past three years of my term of office has so changed my view of Soviet intentions.” Since it is therefore evident that Mr. Carter’s advisors have not served him well, we offer a suggestive series of quotes and vignettes from Russian history in Central Asia. Since the day of Peter the Great, Russian leaders— czars and commissars—have relentlessly pushed their frontiers and spheres of influence south, west, and east. The quotes below are illustrated more graphically by the map on the following pages.

1725—Czar Peter the Great: “To approach as near as possible to Constantinople and India. Whoever governs there will be the true sovereign of the world. Consequently, excite continual wars, not only in Turkey, but in Persia . . . Establish dockyards on the Black Sea, seize little pieces near this sea . . . And in the decadence of Persia, penetrate as far as the Persian Gulf.”

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Norman B. Hannah

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Stunned by the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, President Carter frankly told us that “Nothing in the past three years of my term of office has so changed my view of Soviet intentions.” Since it is therefore evident that Mr. Carter’s advisors have not served him well, we offer a suggestive series of quotes and vignettes from Russian history in Central Asia. Since the day of Peter the Great, Russian leaders— czars and commissars—have relentlessly pushed their frontiers and spheres of influence south, west, and east. The quotes below are illustrated more graphically by the map on the following pages.

1725—Czar Peter the Great: “To approach as near as possible to Constantinople and India. Whoever governs there will be the true sovereign of the world. Consequently, excite continual wars, not only in Turkey, but in Persia . . . Establish dockyards on the Black Sea, seize little pieces near this sea . . . And in the decadence of Persia, penetrate as far as the Persian Gulf.”