After the Ukrainian territory had again reached the Black Sea, as a result of colonial expansion, the Black Sea regained its ancient significance to the Ukrainians. Of course, there is no longer any such cultural center on the Pontus as Byzantium once was, and Turkish domination has deprived the formerly highly cultured districts on the shores of the Black Sea of all their ancient civilization. But the sea has retained its capacity for promoting culture, and, after many centuries, once more gave the Ukrainians direct connection with the wide world. To be sure, the Black Sea is closed by nature and by international treaties, and the Russian Government, intentionally or unintentionally, has never particularly encouraged the development of Pontian navigation; and, to be sure, the Black Sea lies far distant from the main commercial thorofares of the world. But all these disadvantages of the Black Sea may lose much of their weight in a short time. The materialization of the splendid project to connect the Baltic and the Black Sea by means of a canal, including the Dvina and the Dnieper, navigable by large vessels, can not be far off. After the carrying out of this project the isolation of the Black Sea will be lessened, and an important channel of sea-navigation will run across the entire Ukraine. Pontian navigation must sooner or later experience a great advance, for it is a natural necessity for the productive hinterland and for the entire Ukrainian shore people, who have always exhibited considerable skill as seamen. The Ukrainians already constitute more than two-thirds of the crews of all Russian trade and warships on the Black Sea. With the strengthening of the constitutional regime in Russia, the obstacles which have been placed in the way of Pontian navigation by the Russian government in favor of Baltic navigation must disappear of themselves.
Finally, the great commercial thorofares of the world are beginning to move nearer to Ukrainian territory as the cultural development of the Orient advances. As the European influences in the Iran, in Syria and Mesopotamia begin to grow, new projects for an overland connection of Europe with India continually arise. At present the Bagdad Railroad is the center of interest, and soon the Persian railroad projects will claim attention. But the shortest and easiest overland route from Europe to India must cross the length of the Ukraine, touching Kiev and Kharkiv, going past the deltas of the Volga and Ural and the Aral Sea, along the Amu, and thru Afghanistan and the ' Punjab. When this route is once established the Ukraine will attain a great commercial significance as the right of way of one of the world's most important commercial highways. Then, only, will the importance of the Dnieper and Don, the Black Sea, the Sea of Azof and the Caspian Sea, as bearers of the main commercial road, be indeed realized.
Everyone can readily understand that in this case the political significance of the Ukraine would also be very great. Even now this land is an invaluable possession to Russia. Only the possession of the Ukraine makes possible for Russia access to the Black Sea and permits her to gravitate toward the straits, to win influence on the Balkan peninsula, to threaten Turkey and the Mediterranean, to dominate the Caucasus country, to oppress Persia and seek the nearest way to the Indian Ocean. And when once the overland route to India goes thru Ukrainian territory, the Ukraine will command over a thousand kilometers of this important road and begin to be a prime factor in world politics. The possession of the Ukraine will then be the costliest treasure and a life-problem to the state which will dominate this territory. Or, if the Ukraine, in all its ethnographic extent, should win its political independence, it may in time become one of the largest and most powerful states of Europe.