East To West

A different perspective to consider.
This map shows road networks.
Either there are no roads in Belarus or it takes too much effort to locate them.

In any case, I believe this map to be of great interest.
Why?
Because it offers a series of views of a part of the world that is often overlooked.
Or in some cases, completely unknown. Oh, and it’s a reminder that the earth is round, not flat.

The symmetry of the landmasses and the bodies of water is a bit uncanny to me.
The Mediterranean and the Baltic Sea for example. Even the turn into the Gulf of Finland echoes the Black Sea.

This forces me to pause for a moment to speak about those territories that border directly onto large bodies of water.

The shores are hotly contested pieces of real estate. They afford trade benefits and strategic political opportunities.
For example, charging a toll to cross from the Baltic Sea to the North Atlantic through the Denmark Strait, didn’t sit well with the Germans.
Leading to the Second Schleswig-Holstein War which Prussia won. Making the Kiel Canal possible.
Much more on the Kiel Canal - and other canals around the world - later.
Look at the bodies of water and consider that there are very strict borders along waterways.
It’s almost as if every inch of waterfront is fought over.

Now, consider the map from the perspective of an American.
What’s missing?
Well, first there are no large bodies of water separating Russia from any other country. Russia has direct borders with Finland, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia and Turkey, among others.
Russia’s natural borders are made up of people, not land features. In the U.S. and Canada (except for the bit from Wisconsin to British Columbia) it’s the other way round.
I think you can also make a case that Anglophone - linguistic compatibility blurs the social and economic borders

I guess what I’m saying is sometimes turning the compass around can reveal different versions of the same stories.