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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Soviet Union
Index
The Soviet Union has the world's most extensive coastline--
along two oceans and twelve seas--which has served as a
transportation link to the rest of the world. The Arctic Ocean and
its seas provided international as well as domestic lines of
communication to the economically emerging northern areas and
constituted a water bridge between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
The Pacific Ocean opened the Soviet Far East areas to trade with
Japan and the Pacific rim countries. Although access to oceans was
more restricted, the Baltic and Black seas provided the Soviet
Union with outlets to the North Atlantic and South Atlantic and to
the Mediterranean Sea, respectively. A fleet of modern coastal
vessels provided an essential, and frequently the sole,
transportation link between the extreme northern and the Far East
parts of the country and the industrialized base. For foreign
trade, the Soviet Union relied on a well-equipped and specialized
fleet of vessels calling at the ports of practically every maritime
nation in the world. Besides carrying over half of the country's
export-import freight, the Merchant Fleet (Morskoi flot--Morflot)
was an effective adjunct to the Soviet Naval Forces and served the
country's political and military needs.
Data as of May 1989
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