Buba
A total creep
@TheRomanSlayer
Neither coast has good connections with the core hinterland, but some coasts are made worse than others
Up to the Time of Troubles Muscovy - through Novgorod, was on the Baltic. This coast was lost c.1610 to Swedish imperialists.
In ancient times there was a portage between the Volkhov and Volga River Basis. After Peter I reign a canal was built. Run a search for Vyshniy Volochok (High Little Portage - ain't Russian placenames cute?)
The Black Sea is useless. The entire region is practically unpopulated and will be until the Crimean slavers are subjugated. And the steppes settled - which will take 2-3 generations. The link to the Volga basin is not possible without 19th century tech (railways! dynamite for canal!). And the Turks can close the Straits at a whim.
If your aim is "more monies for the tsars" - the Baltic it is.
Forget about the Pacific. Look at OTL. Again, no RR = no real Russian presence there.
Neither coast has good connections with the core hinterland, but some coasts are made worse than others
Up to the Time of Troubles Muscovy - through Novgorod, was on the Baltic. This coast was lost c.1610 to Swedish imperialists.
In ancient times there was a portage between the Volkhov and Volga River Basis. After Peter I reign a canal was built. Run a search for Vyshniy Volochok (High Little Portage - ain't Russian placenames cute?)
The Black Sea is useless. The entire region is practically unpopulated and will be until the Crimean slavers are subjugated. And the steppes settled - which will take 2-3 generations. The link to the Volga basin is not possible without 19th century tech (railways! dynamite for canal!). And the Turks can close the Straits at a whim.
If your aim is "more monies for the tsars" - the Baltic it is.
Forget about the Pacific. Look at OTL. Again, no RR = no real Russian presence there.
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