Forging a Russian Hajj Route 91expansion, including the building of the trans-Siberian railroad. It also gave
generous subsidies to develop and expand steamship transport. In 1894 Witte
had launched efforts to increase passenger traffic on Russian railroads and
steamships, most of which were state owned or heavily subsidized by the state.
Witte believed that the empire’s economic wealth depended upon mobility, and
stressed the urgent need for more of it, in order to enhance “the economic and
moral bonds among the various geographical regions of the country.” Russia’s
railroads had far less passenger travel than other European countries. To de-
velop industry, Witte argued, it was important that workers take rails instead of
pedestrian land routes, and bring revenues to the railroads. Russia’s railroads
under Witte began to offer special discounts for workers and peasant-settlers
migrating to Siberia and Central Asia, and for Orthodox pilgrims going to
Jerusalem.^18
Scholars have so far explored Witte’s efforts to expand Russian transport
within the borders of the empire, paying less attention to their considerable
external dimensions. In the early 1900s, for example, when Britain’s preoccupa-
tion with the Boer Wars in South Africa detracted its attention from the Per-
sian Gulf, Witte was emboldened to persuade the State Council to fund the
creation of new steamship service between Odessa and Basra on ROPiT ships.
In 1901 ROPiT introduced its “Persian Line,” which provided direct service be-
tween Odessa and the Persian Gulf. At the same time, the Foreign Ministry
opened new Russian consulates in the Persian Gulf, in Basra and Bushehr, to
help expand trade in the region and explore opportunities to build Russian
railroads linking Russian Central Asia with southern Persia.^19
Russia never built railroads across Persia, but this plan is nevertheless signif-
icant for what it reveals about the Russian imperial vision and agendas in the
early 1900s. We tend to hold a picture in our minds of Russia circa 1900 as a
massive and fixed entity. This was the peak of the empire in territorial terms,
and Russia would not, in the end, expand its borders any farther. But in the
minds of many Russian officials at this time, the empire’s borders were more
fuzzy and temporary than fixed. Russia was competing with Britain for influ-
ence and territories in weakened Ottoman and Persian states, and many tsarist
officials envisioned further Russian expansion into Persia as well as Arabia,
which had also emerged as a focus of imperial interest and colonial commercial
ac t iv it y.^20
As the creation of the “Persian Line” reveals, Witte’s plans to use railroad to
develop Russian industry and strategic interests were not confined within the
empire’s borders. It is unclear if Witte had a direct hand in developing the plan