Figure 5.20: Principal industrial areas and land transport routes of Russia and the post-Soviet states. The industrial, mining, and transportation infrastructure is concentrated in European Russia and adjacent areas. The main trunk of the Trans-Siberian Railroad and its spurs link industrial and mining centers all the way to the Pacific, but the frequency of these centers decreases with distance from the borders of European Russia.

[Sources consulted: Robin Milner-Gulland with Nikolai Dejevsky, Cultural Atlas of Russia and the Former Soviet Union, rev. ed. (New York: Checkmark Books, 1998), pp. 186–187, 198–199, 204–205, 216–217; http://www.travelcenter.com.au/russia/images/trans-sib-map-v3.jpg]