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 562 General History of Europe the Russian textile industries, and the sound of a thousand looms and forges announced the creation of a new industrial world. 1020. The Trans-Siberian Railroad. Along with this indus- trial development went the construction of great railway lines, built largely by the government with money borrowed from capitalists in western Europe (see map, p. 554). The greatest of all Russian railway undertakings was the Trans-Siberian road, which was rendered necessary for the transportation of soldiers and military supplies to the eastern boundary of the empire. Communication was established between St. Petersburg and the Pacific in 1900, and a branch line southward to Port Arthur was soon finished. 1 One could, before the World War, travel with few changes of cars from Havre to Vladivostok, via Paris, Cologne, Berlin, Warsaw, Moscow, Irkutsk, on Lake Baikal, and Harbin, a distance of seventy-three hundred miles. V. THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION UNDER NICHOLAS II 1021. Nicholas II dispels the Hopes of the Liberals. When Nicholas II succeeded his father, Alexander III, in i894, 2 he was but twenty-six years old, and there was some reason to hope that he would favor reform. Nicholas, however, quickly dispelled any illusions which his more liberal subjects entertained. !See map, p. 572. 2 Genealogical table of the Tsars : Catherine II (the Great) (1762-1796) I Paul I (1796-1801) Alexander 1 Nicholas I (1801-1825) (1825-1855) Alexander II (1855-1881) I Alexander III (1881-1894) I Nicholas II (1894-1917)